The Official Website of Michael Corthell

by Michael Corthell Spirited, good spirits, evil spirits, free spirit, kindred spirit etc. We talk a lot about 'spirit'. We know what 'spirit' is don't we? The primary definition of 'spirit' is: the principle of conscious life; the vital principle in life forms, animating the body or mediating between body and soul. The word 'spirit', from Latin spiritus meaning 'breath', has many different meanings and connotations, most of them relating to a non-corporeal substance contrasted with the material body. We will both leave it there and start from here. Your spirit is you with all it's power or lack of. Let's look at making your spirit stronger 'Grow' courage. If we always stick with the comfortable, we’ll never push past our current limits and never get stronger in spirit. Our spirit will never grow strong being trapped by fear. We cannot do just what is easy, we have to put ourselves out in t...

“Inside every old person is a young person wondering what happened.” ― Terry Pratchett I look in the mirror and see a worn reflection, some wrinkles and some gray hair, but they are nothing. I am the same boy my mother used to kiss. “Age is a hell of a price to pay for wisdom” ― George Carlin

“Many people think excitement is happiness....  But when you are excited you are not peaceful.  True happiness is based on peace.” ― Thich Nhat Hanh, The Art of Power Joy is the feeling of being happy! “There is no beauty in sadness. No honor in suffering. No growth in fear. No relief in hate. It’s just a waste of perfectly good happiness.” ― Katerina Stoykova Klemer

“The three great essentials to achieve anything worthwhile are, first, hard work;  second, stick-to-itiveness; third, common sense.” ― Thomas A. Edison Waiting can be a kind of persistence...good things come to those who wait and all that, but more often(than not), steady, consistent action is the way to succeed. “He believed in himself, believed in his quixotic ambition, letting the failures of the previous day disappear as each new day dawned. Yesterday was not today. The past did not predict the future if he could learn from his mistakes.” ― Daniel Wallace, The Kings and Queens of Roam

by Michael Corthell ''Think and Grow Rich'' by Napoleon Hill is one of the best books on success ever written. If you haven't read it yet, get started on it today. It is the 'gold standard' in personal development books. It is endorsed by the world’s top leaders personal development and motivational leaders like Bob Proctor, Tony Robbins, because, like me, it is their 'bible' and their first exposure to the law of attraction, a positive mindset, and positive personal development. ''Patience, persistence and perspiration make an unbeatable combination for success.'' —Napoleon Hill  I first read '' Think and Grow Rich'' about 40 years ago and since then have read it multiple times. It is my reference book along with other books written by Peale, Emerson, Thoreau and others. One of my favorite chapters in '' Think and Grow Rich''  is on Persistence. If you haven’t read the book  yet, this...

  ''I know of nothing else in medicine that can come close to what a plant-based diet can do. In theory, if everyone were to adopt this, I really believe we can cut health care costs by seventy to eighty percent. That's amazing. And it all comes from understanding nutrition, applying nutrition, and just watching the results.'' —  T. Colin Campbell The single most important thing you can do today for yourself and your world is to adopt a plant-based diet. ''The world's strongest animals are plant eaters. Gorillas, Buffaloes, Elephants and me.'' — Patrick Baboumian

“It's not a silly question if you can't answer it.” ― Jostein Gaarder Adult life can be complex and the multi-tasking to manage those complexities can get in the way of the truth. History's philosophers have always been able to clear away those complexities, and see simple distinctions. (Thoreau and Emerson were masters) If we are to follow them, then we too must be childishly simple in our questions and maturely wise in our answers. “The love of knowledge is a kind of madness.” ― C.S. Lewis

“Intuition is seeing with the soul.” ― Dean Koontz Thinking about Robert Frost's 'The Road Not Taken' ― we always know what is the best road to follow through our intuitive sense, but many of us only follow the road that we have become used to...and it's often the smooth one.  “Our bodies have five senses: touch, smell, taste, sight, hearing. But not to be overlooked are the senses of our souls: intuition, peace, foresight, trust, empathy. The differences between people lie in their use of these senses; most people don't know anything about the inner senses while a few people rely on them just as they rely on their physical senses, and in fact probably even more.” ― C. JoyBell C.

by Michael Corthell Your intuition is the ability to understand something immediately, without the need for conscious reasoning. Many people believe it is God talking to them. They could be right. It is a thing that one knows or considers likely from instinctive feeling rather than conscious reasoning. Intuition is a moment when you instinctively know if something is okay or a situation that you know will turn out all right, Or, on the other hand, won't turn out alright. It’s your inner voice, the voice in your head that that just knows . It is also just a little more than mere Faith. Albert Einstein said that intuition is one of our most valuable assets we have as human beings, and one of our most unused senses. He called it “a feeling for the order lying behind the appearance of something.” Intuition is described as an instinct, gut feeling, sixth sense, innate wisdom, inner sense, inner voice, spiritual guide or...

  “And if you would know God, be not therefore a solver of riddles. Rather look about you and you shall see Him playing with your children. And look into space; you shall see Him walking in the cloud, outstretching His arms in the lightning and descending in rain. You shall see Him smiling in flowers, then rising and waving His hands in trees.” ― Kahlil Gibran, The Prophet The saddest part of life was, and is, that science gathered knowledge faster than society gathered wisdom. That is about to change, shift. And when that shift takes hold humanity will experience the paradigm shift I have been writing about . “Electricity was a reality in the universe when Moses led the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt. This is true of all natural laws; they have always existed but only when understood may they be used.” ― Ernest Holmes, The Science of Mind

Courage doesn’t have to roar like a lion. Courage can be that small voice at the end of a difficult and trying day that simply says, ''I’ll try again tomorrow.'' Dorothy: Your Majesty, if you were king, you wouldn't be afraid of anything? Cowardly Lion: Not nobody! Not nohow! Tin Man: Not even a rhinoceros? Cowardly Lion: Imposerous! Dorothy: How about a hippopotamus? Cowardly Lion: Why, I'd thrash him from top to bottomus! Dorothy: Supposing you met an elephant? Cowardly Lion: I'd wrap him up in cellophane! Scarecrow: What if it were a brontosaurus? Cowardly Lion: I'd show him who was king of the forest!

“Don’t you dare get discouraged. Don’t you dare believe that failure is permanent or insurmountable.”― Richelle E. Goodrich When we are loved by another that gives us strength, and loving another deeply gives us courage. “Encouragers turn mountains into molehills. Discouragers turn molehills into mountains.” ― Cathy Burnham Martin

Support, confidence...hope. by Michael Corthell Discouragement is part of life or we wouldn't have a word for it. So the question is, how do we tame discouragement and ultimately eliminate that feeling altogether? ''In spite of everything I shall rise again: I will take up my pencil, which I have forsaken in my great discouragement, and I will go on with my drawing.''  — Vincent Van Gogh Rejection, criticism, frustration, tough obstacles and 'learning failures' are all part of the deal. There are some fortunate souls who are immune to discouragement, this writer certainly is not and I suspect that you probably aren’t either. We must always push back the negatives in life. Push them back to the fulcrum or balance point. We do this through focused determination. Then what we need to do is recharge our motivation. It's just like resting for a day can help relieve sore muscles. R...

  True reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn’t go away.

“Few of us ever live in the present. We are forever anticipating what is to come or remembering what has gone.” ― Louis L'Amour There are two types of seeds in our minds: those thoughts that create anger, fear, frustration, jealousy, hatred and those that create love, compassion, equality and joy. Spiritual mindfulness causes the germination and sprouting of the latter and the transformation of the former. “Mindfulness is simply being aware of what is happening right now without wishing it were different; enjoying the pleasant without holding on when it changes (which it will); being with the unpleasant without fearing it will always be this way (which it won’t).” – James Baraz

A man of quality is never threatened by a woman of equality. ― Jill Briscoe Do you like chess? I like chess, although I have never played chess. I like it for this reason― sort of a reminder: when the game is over, the King and the pawn go back in the same box. “The Pledge of Allegiance says 'liberty and justice for all'. Which part of 'all' don't you understand?” ― Pat Schroeder

 People spend a lot of time and energy fighting the devil. If they spent the same amount of effort loving their fellow men by being kind, evil would die of neglect. 

“What I want is so simple I almost can't say it: elementary kindness.” ― Barbara Kingsolver Do you know what people really want? They want just one person they can talk to, a person who can really understand them and the person they are―who would be kind to them. That's what people really want, (if they honestly look deeply inside themselves). “When we treat people merely as they are, they will remain as they are. When we treat them as if they were what they should be, they will become what they should be.” ― Thomas S. Monson

The information meme above is describing a 'nudge'. A nudge makes it more likely that an individual will make a particular choice, or behave in a particular way, by altering the environment so that automatic cognitive processes are triggered to favor the desired outcome. An individual's behavior is not always in alignment with their intentions (termed a value-action gap ). It is common knowledge that humans are not fully rational beings; that is, people will often do something that is not in their own self-interest, even when they are aware that their actions are not in their best interest.  For example, when hungry, people who diet often underestimate their ability to lose weight, and their intentions to eat healthy can be temporarily weakened until they are satiated.

  What are Social Nudges ? Nudge is a concept in behavioral economics, political theory, and behavioral sciences which proposes positive reinforcement and indirect suggestions as ways to influence the behavior and decision making of groups or individuals. Nudging contrasts with other ways to achieve compliance, such as education, legislation or enforcement.... In other words we tend to mirror the general behavior of our family, group or tribe, so therefore our lifestyles can be contagious. 

  All animals (human and nonhuman) can feel pain, and can suffer, and ought to be treated the same - with love, kindness and respect.

“I made the choice to be vegan because I will not eat (or wear, or use) anything that could have an emotional response to its death or captivity. I can well imagine what that must feel like for our non-human friends - the fear, the terror, the pain - and I will not cause such suffering to a fellow living being.” ― Rai Aren Just one question for you to 'chew on' concerning carnism. Would it upset you if restaurants started serving puppy and kitten meat instead of cows? Robin's eggs instead of hen's eggs? Squirrels instead of pigs? Gorilla milk instead of cow meat?? ' “Being vegan is easy. Are there social pressures that encourage you to continue to eat, wear, and use animal products? Of course there are. But in a patriarchal, racist, homophobic, and ableist society, there are social pressures to participate and engage in sexism, racism, homophobia, and ableism. At some point, you have to decide who you are and what matters morally to you. And once you decide that you...

And further, it is true that God is manifest in everything. There is both the unity and a dynamic interplay between the one(the whole) and its parts. "All is one" doesn't mean a homogeneous sameness, but instead it refers to a dynamic interconnection and co-evolution between parts that are not different on a fundamental level(that is the unity at the quantum level). More on all of this later. :) 

  Life has a way of balancing( compensating for ) things. For example, those who have things in abundance will tend to worry endlessly about petty things like what to wear, how big a house to buy or what kind of car to drive.

Abundance to me is the inspired life I live, plus the highest quality of life I inspire in others. Having stated that. There's a lie that has infected humanity's thinking. It's an untruth that acts like a virus within our collective mind. And that lie is, 'There’s not enough to go around'. Gratitude (and sustainability) are the means of abundance. Just be thankful you have the ability to reduce suffering.... ''This is what you should do: love the earth and sun and the animals, despise riches, give alms to everyone that asks, stand up for the stupid and crazy, devote your income and labor to others, hate tyrants, argue not concerning God, have patience and indulgence toward the people, take off your hat to nothing known or unknown or to any man or number of men ... re-examine all you have been told at school or church or in any book, dismiss what insults your own soul, and your very flesh shall be a great poem''. ― Walt Whitman