The monster has been called a lot of names: “the imposter syndrome,” “the lizard brain,” “the inner fraud.” It’s that voice inside your head undermining everything you do.

You’re not good enough…You just got really lucky…There are people far better and more qualified than you…

It’s been defined as, “a collection of feelings of inadequacy that persist even in face of information that indicates that the opposite is true. It is experienced internally as chronic self-doubt, and feelings of intellectual fraudulence.”

There are a number of reasons why the negative voice exists:

• Maintaining the comfort zone. Self-critical thinking steers you away from the unknown and frightening tasks (even though you know growth comes from being stretched and stepping outside your comfort zone). It’s a safety mechanism with good intentions, but unproductive outcomes.
• Inherited behavior. Those who grew up with highly critical parents unknowingly mirror and internalize the negative talk they received.

Steve Taylor Ph.D, Guest
Waking Times

A few years ago a friend of mine was knocked off his motorbike at a high speed. The impact catapulted him through the air, and when he hit the ground he lost consciousness. The next thing he knew he woke up in hospital eight hours later. But he can still vividly remember the few moments before he lost consciousness:

I saw the car’s windscreen shattering. The glass sprayed out so slowly, like a fan, and it looked beautiful. All the pieces were shining in the sun. I felt like I was floating through the air, almost as if I wasn’t going to come down. I looked into the sun and it was like being on a plane, when you’re above the clouds and it’s a brilliant white colour.

It’s extremely common for accidents and other moments of sudden shock to bring an extreme slowing down of time. Here a person who regularly goes riding told me how she experiences a radically slowing down of time when she falls off her horse:

By Lisa Young

Guest Writer for Wake Up World

Is meeting every person, experience and situation in your life from a place of Love really possible? Or is this amazing experience available only to enlightened masters, or those meditating many hours a day, living separate from the world?

When we truly realize and trust that we are created from the fabric of Love, and thus this frequency lives in us, activating it feels not only possible, but inevitable. Love is in our DNA; our Blueprint. Even if we are not feeling it coursing through us at the moment, it is still waiting to be realized. And the more we put our focus on awakening the Love within us, the more it shows up. Often in surprising ways.

Love can take our breath away. Move us to tears. Push us to do things we never could have imagined. It is the most powerful catalyst in the Universe. So, how do we activate this LOVE within us so profoundly that it becomes our dominant reality with all people and situations?

By Caroline Diana Bobart

Guest Writer for Wake Up World

In these times of deep, significant spiritual awakening and shifts, where you have a wealth of information and resources available at your fingertips, it has probably never been easier to identify, honour and support your inner journey towards wholeness, healing and becoming a more aligned version of yourself.

In my work as an Intuitive Life Coach, one of the fascinating features of this pilgrimage are the many different levels and flavours of self-awareness and opportunities for healing that begin to emerge once you’ve embarked on this path.

But for all your searching, trying, and trusting in the promise of the vastly improved life that beckons, it is imperative you realise the mysterious ingredient that calls your REAL self forward as the protagonist on your journey is Self-Love.

So many of you are reaching for a state of perfection to gain some sort of approval. But what you are not realizing is that you have had our unconditional love and approval all along! If you can settle into an acceptance of that truth, you will start to relax and BE, and express yourself from the place of your own divinity, which will make all the difference in how you treat yourself, and others. Get off the merry-go-round of looking for the approval you have always had, and start to live according to your own beautiful, loving, giving, accepting, tender soul, and you will find the sense of joy, satisfaction and peace you’ve been looking for. ~Archangel Gabriel

More and more you will be given the opportunity to reconnect with your soul families. There is no need to ask why. Your connection to each other is a blessed gift. ~ Creator

When you want to write to Me and hear from Me, orally or written, sit down with Me as if knee to knee. You do not have to have a question to ask. Sometimes having to ask Me a question before you hear from Me can be a stumbling block for you, for My dear children want to think of a great question, a question worthy of God, or, rather, of your impression of God.
 
Of course, no question is too big or too small for Me. You don’t have to have a question. At the same time, you do want to hear from Me directly from My heart to yours. You do, don’t you? If you could but dare. It is not daring. It only seems daring to you.
 
If you are writing, simply write down:
 
God to [and write your name.] This little beginning shows your openness to hearing Me. It also makes clear Whom you desire to hear from. You let Me in by your easy-going intention to hear Me.
 
Perhaps you want to close your eyes, put your right hand over your heart. Something will come. You are not looking for a spectacular Nobel Peace Prize message from Me. You simply want to come closer to Me. So, you write down the first thought that pops into your head, gently accept that it is for you from Me. Just write it down whatever it is. Let it be what it is. Do not judge it. It’s okay if what you seem to hear is ordinary-seeming to you.
 

Carolanne Wright, Guest
Waking Times

A group of centenarians in a Chinese village seem to have stumbled upon a veritable fountain of youth in the form of a well-known seed. Revered for their life expectancy of 100+ years, inhabitants of Bama Yao live in one of the few longevity hotspots of the world. Sharing similar characteristics with other long-lived people, residents of Bama Yao thrive on a nutrient-rich diet and enjoy a pristine environment. The secret to their exceptional life span, however, appears to be their high intake of hempseed.

Not surprisingly, hempseed is a nutritional powerhouse that is rich in many disease-fighting nutrients. Contained within this small seed are a range of vitamins, minerals, antioxidants and healthy fats...