Glossary

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26. Intuitions

Pre-packed messages from the unconscious that lack logical explanation such as ideas, dreams, insights, inspiration, hunches, gut-feelings and emotions. See also Intuitive thinking.

27. Intuitive thinking

The ability to predict events in the absence of conscious facts. It is part of spatial thinking. See also Intuitions and Rational thinking.

28. Law of Attraction

Popularised by the 2006 DVD, "The Secret", The Universal Law of Attraction states that we attract whatever we choose to give our attention to--whether wanted or unwanted. This Law is Universal because it does not matter who you are, where you live, what your religious beliefs are, what year you were born...the Law is true for everyone equally. It is as true as the Law of Gravity. What was not covered in The Secret are the equally important laws of Gestation and Action. Without these laws, the Law of Attraction is pretty much useless.

29. Life Change

The key to a life change is to let go of fear. 'Sometimes it's the smallest decisions that can change your life forever.' - Keri Russell 'Life can either be accepted or changed. If it is not accepted, it must be changed. If it cannot be changed, then it must be accepted.' Unknown

30. Life choices

Life can be about difficult and challenging choices. We are likely to face problems merely as a result of the human condition, problems we encounter even as normal, healthy human beings. These problems might be associated with making a difficult decision. This can be a decision about career, relationships, family, friends, sexuality, choices concerning ethical issues and moral dilemmas and Major life choices in general. For instance, whether or not to have children.

31. Life Purpose

A fulfilled life is about finding your purpose. It's about finding what you love to do the most, living with passion, searching for what gives your life meaning. It's about being in tune with who you really are and living a life of purpose. Having a purpose in your life is almost like a spiritual experience. How Life Really Works helps you find the The Meaning of Life, and answer to the one question we all need an answer for: what should we do with our lives?

32. Life purpose statement

How can we discover the purpose for our lives? By preparing a Written Life Purpose Statement. Every person should prepare a Written Life Purpose Statement that reflects his understanding of 'what his life is all about.' The idea of a Written Life Purpose Statement answers life's larger questions such as Why do I exist? What are my functions in life? It reflects our examination of life's larger meaning. A Life Purpose Statement is the thread of continuity that you can weave into the long-term view of life. It describes how you perceive the theory of your life.

33. Linear thinking

A way of thinking induced by the linear dimension of time. It is a rigid one directional step by step way of thinking. Linear thinking is part of temporal thinking. See also Holistic thinking.

34. Linear-rational thinking

This way of thinking helps us to understand the temporal dimension of our environment. See also Temporal thinking and Holistic-intuitive thinking.

35. Meaning of Life

The meaning of life is the philosophical concept about the purpose and significance of human existence. It is the subject of much philosophical and scientific study, and much theological speculation. It can include a range of questions such as: Why are we here? What is the nature of reality? and What is the value of life? How Life Really Works suggests that there is a very definite meaning of life, but that we are never taught this information. How Life Really Works provides answers to the meaning of life.

36. Metaphysics

Metaphysics is the branch of philosophy investigating principles of reality transcending those of any particular science. Cosmology and ontology are traditional branches of metaphysics. It is concerned with explaining the ultimate nature of being and the world. The word derives from the Greek words meta meaning "beyond" or "after" and physika (meaning "physical"), "physical" referring to those works on matter by Aristotle in antiquity. The prefix meta- ("beyond") was attached to the chapters in Aristotle's work that physically followed after the chapters on "physics", in posthumously edited collections. Aristotle called some of the subjects treated there "first philosophy."

37. Mindware

The entire collection of cognitive strategies and tactics that we have adopted. It is the accumulation of skills, experience, and knowledge. It is the nurture component of thinking. See also Brainware.

38. Pearls of Wisdom

A phrase that originated from ideas in the Biblical Book of Proverbs - that to waste wisdom on fools is like casting pearls before swine - in other words, that a fool's appreciation of wisdom is as great as a pig's appreciation of pearls.

39. Purpose of human life

Albert Schweitzer: "The purpose of human life is to serve and to show compassion and the will to help others." Mitch Albom: "The way you get meaning into your life is to devote yourself to loving others, devote yourself to your community around you, and devote yourself to creating something that gives you purpose and meaning." Charles H. Perkhurst: "Purpose is what gives life a meaning."

40. Rational thinking

The ability to form logical arguments by linking together premises in order to draw a 'true' conclusion. Tools of rational thinking are reason, logic, facts, evidence, and critical analysis. Rational thinkers can only claim to understand a phenomenon if they know all its details. This leads to a search for increasingly smaller details, which might conceal the entirety of the phenomenon under investigation. Hence, it might create knowledge at the cost of wisdom. Rational thinking is part of temporal thinking. See also Intuitive thinking.

41. Reality check

This allows us to evaluate our conscious mental processes objectively. Temporal thinking provides us with reason, logic, and critical analysis. This prevents that we are carried away with unreliable information. Spatial thinking lacks a reality check.

42. Soul Purpose

The purpose of the soul is to reconnect with the essence of who we really are and why we are here, to overcome the barriers that separate us as people, to fulfil our purpose as individuals and to live together the collective vision of a united humanity.

43. Spatial thinking

Tells us what goes where. It is holistic-intuitive and helps us to organise things into the three dimensions of space - length, width, and height. See also Temporal thinking.

44. Spiritual development

Spiritual development as a way of life concerns itself with aligning the human will and mind with that dimension of life and the universe that is harmonious and ordered. As such spiritual disciplines (which are often part of an established religious tradition) enjoin practitioners (trainees or disciples) to cultivate those higher potentialities of the human being that are more noble and refined (wisdom and virtue). Accordingly, many spiritual traditions across diverse cultures share similar vocabulary. Terms such as the "path", the "work", the "practice" are universally applied to the ongoing discipline involved in transforming the coarser energies present in the human soul into more subtle and pleasing ones.

45. Spiritual growth

Spiritual growth is a deeply personal quest for self discovery and what our true selves really are. "I maintain that Truth is a pathless land, and you cannot approach it by any path whatsoever, by any religion, by any sect... Truth, being limitless... cannot be organized; nor should any organization be formed to lead or to coerce people along any particular path. If you first understand that, then you will see how impossible it is to organize a belief. A core belief is purely an individual matter, and you cannot and must not organize it. If you do, it becomes dead, crystalized; it becomes a creed, a sect, a religion, to be imposed on others." - J. Krishnamurti

46. Spiritual journey

A spiritual journey is the awareness that you go through life with increasing acceptance that you are part of something bigger. As you mature in your awareness of your relationship with the Universe, you begin to behave in a more spiritual manner in love and compassion. Your actions take you away from negative energy and toward positive energy.

47. Subconscious

Middle layer of the mind that is the communication link between the conscious and unconscious. See also conscious and unconscious.

48. Unconscious

This is the deepest layer of the mind. We are unaware of the mental processes that go on in that part of the mind. See also Conscious and Subconscious.

49. Wisdom literature

Fables, proverbs, essays and prophecies teaching morality and behaviour. Wisdom literature is typically written as a result of life's experiences. The authors, or teachers of wisdom literature, studied the complexities of life & sought out ways to cope with it, i.e. deal with the adversity, inequities, and contradictions of life. This explains contradictions found within the corpus of wisdom literature. Life is contradictory, and often coping with it is paradoxical, and our own lives are often contradictions. Wisdom literature is the genre of literature common in the Ancient Near East. This genre is characterized by sayings of wisdom intended to teach about divinity and about virtue. The key principle of wisdom literature is that whilst techniques of traditional story-telling are used, books also presume to offer insight and wisdom about nature and reality. The most famous examples of wisdom literature are found in the Bible.

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