Creative Ways to Improve Your Finances and Enhance Your Lifestyle

This article is an excerpt from the new audio book entitled The Warrior Spirit, by author and consultant Mary Rivas.

What does wealth mean to you? 

Is it having a certain amount of money in the bank or is it having a certain lifestyle that makes you feel rich?  Do you fantasize about having the freedom to spend your days doing what you love and getting paid for it?  Does wealth mean exotic traveling and living in a beautiful home?   

Whatever wealth means to you, know that there is usually more than one way to get what you want!  Yes, once you open your mind and heart to infinite possibilities, you’ll discover that you can greatly improve your financial situation and enhance your lifestyle in multiple ways.  When it comes to financial goals, most people think of only creating more money.  Yes, you can make more money, and you can do much more than that too! 

Three Money Stories -Getting What You Desire Without Spending Money

How a Friend Got His Bentley by Bartering

A friend of mine once offered a business owner his ideas on how to resolve a serious issue the company owner was having. My friend offered his business advice as a personal favor. He didn't realize that he was engaging in a barter.  The company owner was so impressed with my friend's astute business insights that he asked my friend what he would like to receive in return.  My friend told him that he wanted his Bentley. 

Yes, he got the Bentley.  My friend enjoyed telling me this story as we drove around in his shiny new car.  (The average price of a Bentley is around $150,000.)

How a Free and Fully-Furnished Apartment Materialized  

Years ago, when I lived on an island near Long Beach, California, I really wanted to have a second home in Los Angeles so I could spend time with my daughter in Los Angeles.  Long story short, I got a fully furnished, very elegant home that exceeded what I had imagined was possible.

It was a unique situation.  I offered part-time consulting services in exchange for high consulting fees and a beautiful home.  My daughter lived with me in this second home for the time that we needed to take care of important matters.  For about two years, I divided my time between Catalina Island and Los Angeles.  It was great for a while.  But once we took care of what we needed to do together, we moved on to new paths. 

One Month No Laptop In Sight, Next Month Brand New Laptop

My sister confided to a friend one day over lunch that she deeply wanted to learn how to use a computer.  The problem was that she couldn't afford a computer.  My sister had dedicated her life to bringing up her children, and now she wanted to start doing things for herself.  Being able to use a computer was on the top of her dream list. 

Weeks later, the surprise came.  Her friend delivered her a shiny new laptop.  My sister was shocked and beyond grateful.  She never thought that she could get a computer.  This amazing gift came her way because she opened up her heart, confiding to a trusted friend about her dream (which she didn't normally do), and had faith her prayers would be answered.  You never know how a friend can help you out.

Build a Business With No Capital

If you have a leaning towards business, refer to the Resources section in The Warrior Spirit for a free e-book  on how to shift your business thinking forever.  Learn  how to expand your sense of limitless possibilities in the  area of business.  In this e-book, you'll learn about making tidy sums of money using creative, unorthodox thinking. It's a great read to open your mind to financial possibilities. 

Click here to listen to a chapter sample from The Warrior Spirit.

Click on this video link to discover how you can use hidden mind powers and ancient wisdom to get what you deeply desire. 

New Audio Helps You Relieve Stress and Achieve Goals Faster

Los Angeles, CA – October 18, 2011 – WarriorSpiritAudio.com (“WSA”) has released a self help audio that does far more than help people relieve stress and achieve deeply desired goals.  Its ultimate purpose is to help people connect with their inner power and strengthen the faith in the power of themselves.  Entitled ‘The Warrior Spirit—How To Use Hidden Mind Powers and Ancient Wisdom To Create Wealth and More’ it helps people feel more optimistic and relaxed.

“The Warrior Spirit audio gives step-by-step help to achieve personal goals with greater ease using higher mind states and shamanic wisdom.  If the mind is filled to capacity with non-stop mind chatter, you make it difficult to create the results you want in your life.  Stress prevents you from having insights, creative ideas and confidence that can help you achieve your goals; it weakens your ability to solve issues that trigger anxiety and stress,” says Mary Rivas, founder of WSA.

The audio and companion e-book are ideal for today’s environment where people experience a lot of anxiety over stressful events such as losing their jobs and homes.  Latest statistics indicate that 75% of people experience stress regularly; more than half say they find stress debilitating and want to relieve stress.  Stress is a key contributor to high blood pressure and heart disease.

The Warrior Spirit is different from common self-help books; it empowers people at a deeper level.  It teaches people how to connect with a higher force and increase their personal power to relieve stress and overcome challenges in daily life.

Visit http://warriorspiritaudio.com to watch a video that shares wisdom and reveals how people can tap into their mind powers to change their life for the better.  Also, visitors  can sign up to receive a deep relaxation download to relieve stress and more.

October 2011 – The Point of No Return

The image is that of facing a well-known view, in fact a view you have become so accustomed to you hardly notice it anymore. And now you have just realized that you are turning away from this view 90 degrees to the right and leaving it completely behind in order to face a new view. Suddenly it dawns on you that the old view will be gone forever, never to be seen again in the same way. There is nostalgia around the permanence of the loss of this old view. It is familiar to you and it has served to inspire, entertain, give you feedback and be a placeholder in your life. You realize that once you turn towards the new view the old one is gone forever. And despite the inadequacies of the old view in matching a new time, there is a resistance to giving it up and turning towards the unknown. What if the new view isn’t as good as the old one? What if you won’t be able to see the new view? What if it is not a clear view, or an inspiring one? What if there is no new view?

The Turning Point can also be called the Point of No Return. When one season ends and another begins, as in moving from Summer to Fall, there is no going back. You have passed the point of no return. And as you move clockwise around the medicine wheel from one direction to the next, you are at a point of no return as you arrive at the new position or direction. The natural progression in moving forward is always clockwise or to your right. That is the way the clock works, the seasons roll, and wheels move forward. So we are at the point of turning clockwise into a new landscape providing us with a new view.

We have been creating this new view for a while now. We just have not turned our sights on it as yet. The new view has been waiting for our much-needed focus on it to come into being and we are just now at that point but some of us still unwilling to make the final turn. What we do not realize in our resistance is that the new view is fabulous, inspiring, supportive and perfect for where we need to go. However in order to see the new view we must turn away from the old one and turn towards the new one. This is happening whether you are choosing to or not. We are truly at the Turning Point right now.

Another image to work with is the idea of the Turning Point as the point at which there is enough energy moving in a certain direction to insure a result. If you have been ill and are recovering, there is turning point in your illness where you are insured a recovery. The same thing applies to an ending or a death. There is a certain turning point at which there is a certainty about the outcome. When a lot of energy is being put into building a business or starting a project, or cultivating a relationship, there is always a turning point at which it either takes off or you see that it won’t work. This month you have the opportunity to experience turning points in many aspects of your life. Perhaps you have set certain intentions, and worked with them over time. This month you may get to experience a turning point in manifesting those intentions.

Other themes of the month are Transition/Transformation and Death/Rebirth.

Transition/Transformation and Death/Rebirth are similar in that they both use the turning point to move from one point to another. The main characteristic of this change as a turning point is that there is finality to the ending of one experience that automatically turns you towards another one. What is the experience of the Turning Point trying to teach us this month?

What we need to learn is to be more present so we can fully embrace what is in front of us and then let it go with gratitude for the experience it provided. We need to learn to be less attached so that we can turn away from the old view and toward the new one with less resistance. We also need to learn to be more trusting and confident that the view we are creating that we are turning toward is exactly what we want and need. We need to face this view with confidence, enthusiasm and excitement instead of with fear.

Many of you know that there is a marker at the end of this month that marks the official end of the Mayan Calendar, namely the date of October 28, 2011. There are many predictions about what may happen at this time. Some predict 3 days of darkness, some predict major earth changes, some predict that nothing significant will happen, and other predict that the changes will be mostly personal, emotional and psychological

October 28, 2011 is simply a marker as it is impossible to predict what the Turning Point will manifest. What we can predict is change and transition that brings us all beyond the point of no return.


Click here to access the full monthly commentary packed with tips to help you strengthen your relationships, health and more.   Print out the full forecast and reference it throughout the month. (The above is an excerpt from the commentary).

The author of the monthly forecast, Lena Stevens, is an author and co-founder of an international school and consulting firm dedicated to the study and application of shamanism and wisdom.  Lena Stevens has co-authored books with Jose Stevens, Ph.D., such as Secrets of Shamanism:Tapping the Spirit Power Within You and The Power Path: The Shaman’s Way To Success in Business and Life.

A Special Webinar Invitation and Announcement

For most of this year, I've been on a mission to finish a special project that I started over a year ago. As many of you know, I left California in early 2011 to live in Central America.  While I lived in Panama, (I returned to U.S. this week) I put all of my energy and dedication into finishing this special mission.  

Though I have worked non-stop on this creation and have loved the process, I am thrilled that at last it is completed and that I can now tell you about it!  This week I will be launching The Warrior Spirit:  How To Use Hidden Mind Powers and Ancient Wisdom To Create Wealth & Much More.

To celebrate the launch of The Warrior Spirit, I am doing a special webinar where I will share awesome knowledge about
mind powers and self-empowerment.   

To sign up for the Warrior Spirit Webinar (no charge), please see my fan page I Love Law of Attraction

My intention is that it will find its way to everyone who can be helped by it and for it to be wildly succeed in creating transformational results for people.

To a path filled with personal power and wisdom,

Mary Rivas

September Forecast – Tips for Staying Positive and Overcoming Worry

This is a tremendous and unpredictable time of change, opportunity and resetting patterns and we have no idea how it’s all going to manifest or show up. So what is called for right now is to be generously allowing of whatever is occurring to occur without resistance, fear, judgment, over processing, over identifying, over thinking or denial. “Allowing,” means opening yourself up to the unknown, stretching your flexibility muscle and being neutral about whatever is happening. Allowing is not about surrender or giving up, nor is it passive. It is an active choice to let things be the way they are.

The biggest challenge this month is worry. Worry keeps you in a micromanaging position of constantly needing to track and obsess about what is going on. Worry creates a hyper vigilance that is not useful at this time and will only keep you from being able to move forward. Worry and fear are never justified and any choice or decision that is made from a place of worry or fear will set you back instead of supporting you in your greater intentions and desires.

We could say that the subtheme for the month is Trust. A great deal of trust is needed at this time in order to allow for what has been seeded and planted and nurtured to actually be able to come into full bloom. If you have seeded your intentions and tended the garden, you can trust that the plants will bloom. It does not require you to stand in vigilance worrying that they won’t. We are quickly moving towards the harvest of what we have set up for ourselves as a species and global community. What comes before the harvest is seeing the full bloom of our efforts, lessons, personal and collective patterns, and the colors of what we have accomplished and what has yet to be done.

So if you have been in denial, fear, worry, resistance, negativity, complacency, ambivalence, anxiety, judgment or any other negative expression, you will see this in its fullest bloom so you can do something about it. If you have been manifesting unexpressed emotions, old patterns or suppressed anger through your body in physical conditions and symptoms, these may show up as well. If this is the case, the worst thing you can do is go into more anger, resentment, martyrdom, self-loathing, resistance or judgment. Let it be. Allow whatever it is to show up fully however it is showing up, without any resistance and from a place of deep neutrality. From there you will be able to make practical and proactive choices about the changes you need and about what should come next. Don’t be afraid to ask for help.

However if you have been working on yourself and weeding out what does not serve you, setting good intentions, staying present, paying attention, taking responsibility for yourself, your health, your reactions and your patterns, then you will see the fruits of your labors and the blossoms will be big and beautiful. Continue the good work, as this time frame requires a continued focus, responsibility and showing up. Allow yourself to be flexible and resilient. Have compassion for those less fortunate without feeling the need to fix.

The times are unstable, unpredictable, chaotic and full of trends and patterns that are very new to our collective experience. We have pushed through the birth canal and now it is time to trust the current environment to fully support a new life. Allow the environment to serve you in its own way and allow yourself to be in service to whatever your essence has in store for you. This is no longer about what the personality wants but rather what the essence goals are. So get out of your own way and allow the transformation. Just as the caterpillar resists the destruction of its form, that destruction is necessary if it ever intends to be a butterfly.

This is more of a “being” month than a “doing” month. Certainly you may have energy to put into tasks and projects but the motivation and support for their accomplishment comes from a place of being rather than a place of doing and effort. Because of the unpredictability of the times, things may manifest in very unusual ways if you allow them to. This requires putting your fixed ideas about how it should be done aside so that something new can emerge. It is a good month to revisit all of your intentions and determine whether you have enough flexibility to allow a new way of manifesting.

The other challenge this month is to stay positive in the face of so much fear, negativity, martyrdom and discouragement. Staying positive takes discipline. Not effort, just discipline.

How to stay positive:

Always acknowledge a higher order, a bigger picture and a greater plan to anything that feels like a setback, unfair, limiting or contrary to your highest intentions.

Remind yourself daily that you and only you create everything you experience, and usually for a good reason that you may not be able to see just yet.

Allow for the positive things to come into your life as well as the challenges. Just because others may be challenged does not mean you have to join them.

Be inspired by, rather than fearful of, the possibilities and the opportunities that change provides.

Be willing, be allowing, be trusting, be flexible, be in humor, and be delighted.

When you take responsibility for your own blossoms and harvest you come from a place of power. If you are in the drivers seat you can determine where you go next. So if you don’t like what you see, know that you have the power to change it. If you like what you see, don’t get arrogant. Just be grateful.

Click here to access the full monthly commentary packed with tips to help you strengthen your relationships, health, finances and more.   Print out the full forecast and reference it throughout the month. (The above is an excerpt from the commentary).

The author of the monthly forecast, Lena Stevens, is an author and co-founder of an international school and consulting firm dedicated to the study and application of shamanism and wisdom.  Lena Stevens has co-authored books with Jose Stevens, Ph.D., such as Secrets of Shamanism:Tapping the Spirit Power Within You and The Power Path: The Shaman’s Way To Success in Business and Life.

August 2011–A Time To Do More Than You Think Is Possible

The main theme for August is Wake Up and Pay Attention.

This does not mean becoming more hyper-vigilant or controlling but rather becoming more present and taking notice from a place of expanded awareness. Most of us have narrowed our experience of life and ability to respond down to a very narrow band, being asleep or unconscious about the greater part of it. If we didn’t, we would be overwhelmed at what we have put up with and continue putting up with.

In the development of the mind and the mental ability to problem solve, we have traded in the awareness of our instinctual and emotional responses for the illusion of security in trusting that the mind can solve everything. We are quickly seeing that in these accelerated times not only can the mind not keep up, but that it limits our ability to respond in other ways so crucial to our survival at this time. The mind is almost never present. It is almost always either in the past; reviewing, judging, trying to understand, categorizing, filing and organizing; or in the future; planning, worrying, tracking, organizing and trying to get a handle on linear time. Notice that when you are doing a task that requires complete presence, the mind becomes quiet and inactive, taking a back seat.

Animals in the wild and other aspects of nature react to their environment with efficiency in their knowing, timing and action. This does not come from a place of mental planning but rather from being aware and responding to the present circumstances. Nature is very flexible. Because of our attachments, expectations and constant mental micromanaging, we have lost both the ability to be flexible and the ability to be instantly responsive. We have diminished our experience of life, we have fallen asleep, and we forgotten how to trust and be present.

We are still in an emotionally centered year. The emotional center is there to teach us a different way of reacting. The emotional center is not about emoting or being emotional. It is about relying on a different level of intuition that takes in way more information than the intellectual realm of the mind can ever process. We need to remember how to use this center more effectively so that we can trust our non-mental process and begin to give it more credit. The mind is a very useful tool and it is important to use it to set intentions, goals and direction, but we cannot expect the mind to get us there. The mind on its own is not capable of driving enough energy to accomplish anything. It is too limited and yet we have given it this impossible task. No wonder we feel helpless, powerless, fatigued and confused.

It will take time to turn this pattern around and you can start by waking up your senses and paying attention to your surroundings by being more present and aware. If you spend a little bit of time every day in non-mental awareness practicing being present, you will exercise this part of yourself and eventually it will become automatic. This is what is required in order to move into a higher state of consciousness at this time. Anything you can do this month that raises your consciousness is an excellent use of the influences. Any practices that help connect you to spirit and get you out of your mind will also be very helpful.

There will be many lessons and opportunities to see just how effective you can be without your mind trying to control everything. The discipline will be to keep yourself present and out of the past and the future. This is the time to step up to the plate, show up fully and take responsibility for yourself, your actions and your truth. It is time to get out of denial, to open your eyes and all your senses, to truly look at what you have been putting up with and to do something about it. This requires courage and action and you may not always get positive responses from others, as misery loves company. When you decide to take the high road you may need to set some boundaries against certain energies that are no longer compatible. Remember that negative reactions from others are usually projections and it is important not to take things personally especially when you know you are on the right track.

By the same token, if you are having a strong negative reaction to someone or their actions, you may need to look at how you may be projecting on them or how their actions may have threatened your own complacency and denial. See each of them, as a teacher and a mirror, stay neutral, present and awake.

This is an incredibly accelerated time where incredible things are possible. You need to watch for the aggression mode of the year showing up in negative ways both in yourself and in others. Since the mind is being quickly surpassed by the speed of things these days, you also may experience anything from feeling like you are losing your mind, panic attacks, anxiety and amnesia. This is much about the dissolving of linear time and thus the tracking method of the mind. Watch also for bleed-through from the astral plane at inconvenient times, throwing you momentarily off the course of linear thought. You are being called upon to trust all the other senses, to trust your intuition and to learn to process information in a different way. The acceleration of the times makes it possible to accomplish way more than your mind would “think” possible. At the same time, if something is destructing, it will take much less time than “usual” for it to completely destruct. Any process is aggressively accelerated in these times so if something seems stagnant or not moving, all it needs is a spark of intention to set it on course.

Click here to access the full monthly commentary packed with tips to help you strengthen your relationships, health, finances and more.   Print out the full forecast and reference it throughout the month. (The above is an excerpt from the commentary).

The author of the monthly forecast, Lena Stevens, is an author and co-founder of an international school and consulting firm dedicated to the study and application of shamanism and wisdom.  Lena Stevens has co-authored books with Jose Stevens, Ph.D., such as Secrets of Shamanism:Tapping the Spirit Power Within You and The Power Path: The Shaman’s Way To Success in Business and Life.

July 2011 Forecast–Personal Growth and Big Breakthroughs

The main theme for July is Birth.

It is OK to feel like a different person, to not know who you are, to sense that something has changed in a big way even though you can’t really say what it is, and to feel somewhat unsettled, ungrounded and anxious. It means you have found yourself in a new landscape and are uncertain as to how to navigate and move forward. Learn to let spirit guide you and give up trying to control everything. There is great opportunity this month for personal growth and truly stretching your container of what is possible. You can adopt a whole new belief system and expand your awareness to the degree you never thought possible.

The “birth” theme of the month can also be seen as a re-birth. Re-birth always follows the death of something. It is not too late to give up and let go of attachments that may have been holding you back. What in you still has to die for you to be able to have a re-birth into a new life?

We have been in labor and in the birth canal for a while now. Labor is uncomfortable and being in the birth canal is intense. We leave the safety of the known environment that has gotten too small for our growth. We are launched into a new world that we have no idea yet how to navigate. It is a scary place of stimulus, danger and our focus is instantly on the basic need for survival. We are vulnerable yet strong with a powerful intent to survive and live life. If you have ever watched newborn animals at this critical phase, their ability to propel themselves fully into life in order to survive is amazing.

At this juncture we have been launched into something new. We are all in some process of birth whether we like it or not. Some of us are still in labor as some labors are longer than others. The shorter labors provide more intensity and the longer labors provide for more preparation even though they may leave you somewhat weakened. Some of us are already in the birth canal with the realization that there is no going back. And some of us are actually crowning and ready to explode into a new life.

Just as it is important to have good physical caretakers that await you as you are born, and helpful teachers as you learn to navigate physical life, it is also important at this time to have strong guidance and support from your spiritual practice, your relationship to spirit and nature, your guides and allies, and those who can help you at this time. The support of community is also being called upon to provide a strong container for this new experience.

An infant at birth has no idea how their intentions and life goals will manifest as they mature. An infant at birth is pure potential landing in an environment of vast opportunity, pure innocence, and not yet imprinted with the limited belief systems of others. The imprinting and circumstances of a physical infants birth and first experience of life is usually dictated by karma, agreements and a chosen blueprint. Your birth now into something new carries a freedom with it of choice with regards to intention, imprinting and limitations. Use this time well and decide how you wish to live, how you intend to be supported and what you choose as your new imprinting. You can either limit yourself or go for an expanded sense of freedom and creativity.

An infant spends a great deal of time on the astral plane bringing across the information needed for developing the lifetime. You may find yourself drawn into dreamtime for short catnaps during the day. Do not resist this. It is important time on the astral plane. An infant is curious and trusting and has no way yet of defining the present based on past experiences. Practice living your life like an infant whenever possible. This will keep all your options open and allow you to truly see things in a new way.

We can’t stress enough how truly amazing this time is for breaking through into something new. See every challenge as an opportunity and trust in the big picture when events around you are being defined as negative, destructive or unnecessary. It is a raw and edgy time. Emotions will run high and aggression could be at its worst. Just as a woman in the process of giving birth is not always the nicest to be around, everyone going through their own process will have times of being cranky, overwhelmed, out of sorts, very uncomfortable, and even in major meltdown mode. Have compassion for yourself and for others around you. You have grown beyond the size of the old container and it is time to push through into a new landscape. It is scary leaving the known environment even though you are cramped and squeezed but there is no other option at this time. We are at the point of no return and there is no going back. An infant that refuses to come out of the womb when it is time will become toxic with its own waste. Do not let that happen to you. Let go, let go, let go. Your future security will depend on how well you navigate the birth canal, not whether or not you can hold on to any of your old structures.

An infant needs care. You need care. It is a time to put yourself and your needs first. We are not talking about high maintenance needs of the physical body personality here. We are addressing care in terms of health, spiritual life, time, rest, creativity, love, and allowing yourselves to do the things that you love to do and have wanted to do for a long time. Personal care is nurturing and protecting the new landscape, not taking things personally that others may project onto you, and making sure that you put yourself and your true desires of spirit first. It is a good time to revisit your definitions of responsibility and to differentiate between your true responsibilities and the dependent expectations of others. Being of service is not carrying another’s burden but rather showing them the way through your own example.

This month is crucial for taking some time for self and for setting good boundaries against energy leaks from others, bad habits or behaviors. It is an excellent time to be surrounded by nature whenever possible. Focus on the power of the sun as the representative of fire, one of the elements of the year and a masculine energy. Bless the service of this element and spirit in your life. Focus on the power of water and the other element of the year and a feminine energy. Bless the service of water, its life-giving as well as destructive force. Pay attention to your own water element in your body. Feed it with the spirit of water. Focus on the masculine sky realm as the patriarchal father archetype witnessing and supporting your birth, protecting the infant, imprinting it with the unconditional love of the generous and protective masculine.

Click here to access the full monthly commentary packed with tips to help you strengthen your relationships, health, finances and more.   Print out the full forecast and reference it throughout the month. (The above is an excerpt from the commentary).

The author of the monthly forecast, Lena Stevens, is an author and co-founder of an international school and consulting firm dedicated to the study and application of shamanism and wisdom.  Lena Stevens has co-authored books with Jose Stevens, Ph.D., such as Secrets of Shamanism:Tapping the Spirit Power Within You and The Power Path: The Shaman’s Way To Success in Business and Life.