Sometimes when someone has been practicing self-development and spiritual principles for a long time, it can come as a shock when great challenges arise.  You are not alone in this experience!

It’s taken your whole life up until now to get to where you are now – you’ve learned habits and established beliefs, some of which serve you and some which you’re now ready to move beyond.  And because you have been experiencing great challenge, take it as a signal that you are working through some “stuff” that has likely been with you a very long time, up until now.  This means that you’re on the right path and the light at the end of the tunnel is in sight!

It’s like cleaning out a closet or a garage that hasn’t been touched in months or years – the stuff has piled up, and it’s time to give it a good scrub.  What happens?  You might fling everything into messy heap in the center of the room as you’re organizing, and often it appears to get worse before it gets better.  And soon, as you work to put everything in its right place, keeping what is of value and discarding what you no longer have use for – you begin to create order from chaos.

When you make a commitment to your personal evolution, and as you clean out your inner space, it’s common to have “stuff” come up and appear to create chaos.  The key is to recognize that this, too, is part of the transformational process.  Rather than reacting – by running away from the “stuff”, trying to suppress it, sedate it, or hide it – acknowledge it.  You have the power to transform it.

In the past you may have reacting instinctively as this “stuff” came up – with anger, fear, sadness, guilt, etc.  Now when the challenge arises, you can recognize the familiar old pattern; you have choice in how to respond.  Even if you choose to react in the old way – the awareness is a crucial step to releasing and transforming the old pattern.

Sometimes when life presents challenges despite your best conscious efforts to the contrary, it might mean that your Highest Self has a grander plan.  Though you couldn’t possibly conceive of consciously choosing to attract certain situations, these challenges create opportunities that can actually serve as initiations into a higher level of awareness, a deeper experience of truth, a more authentic relationship with the world around you.

Search for the gift in this experience.  What else could this mean?  What’s the treasure?  What positive life lesson are you gaining from this experience?  What empowering attribute is being called forth from you now?

Have you ever had a time in the past when something happened that at the time appeared to be the worst thing in the world?  And looking back now, you say, “I would never be who I am today, and I would never be where I am today, were it not for that one thing.”

Breakthroughs are often preceded by “breakdowns.”  So don’t be hard on yourself.  Continue practicing the disciplines and rituals that sustain you – mantra, meditation, empowering questions, affirmations, exercise, self-appreciation – whatever works for you.  And if you have a momentary lapse, just pick yourself right back up and start again.

There are two primary approaches to creating successful and powerful results: one is to commit with total conviction to your goal, and the other is to surrender completely.

Often, we grow up with the belief that to be successful we must create a clear goal, commit to it, and take massive action toward it.  This is an active, masculine approach to getting results.  It works a lot of the time.  But if we commit to this approach and find ourselves thwarted, it may mean that a better option awaits us.

Sometimes, the Universe has something bigger and better for us – grander than we could even imagine with our present awareness.  In these moments, the most powerful choice is just… to surrender completely.

The Universe fills a receptive vessel.  Just look at nature for evidence of this everywhere.  This is the feminine principle – it’s open, expansive, and allowing of the Universal flow.

As you surrender and open yourself up, the Universe will bring you the people, places and things that will support you.  Maintain a sincere and open heart.  The opportunities will present themselves.

Love yourself through this transitional time.  You’ll look back in awe at the quantum leaps in development you’ve made.

Remember…

One person’s awakening elevates the consciousness of the planet – You are the one!

Namaste.

Saturday, July 30

Success Mastery With Niurka, Bill Walsh & John Assaraf

Come and learn specifically how to have more fun and create even more success in today’s business world! I’ll be teaching “I Succeed as I Speak” – how to be so purposeful and authentic through your language and communication that you naturally attract the people and experiences that support your success.

You will learn:

· Why ever word that leaves your mouth matters – and leads to your ultimate success or downfall

· How to instantly shift negative self-talk to congruent, affirmative power-talk

· Speak from your authentic voice – while getting results

· How to adapt your communication to speak into another’s listening

Saturday, July 30, 2011, 9am – 3pm

Crowne Plaza Hotel Irvine

17941 Von Karman Avenue, Irvine, California

Single Tickets: $30.00

Table for 6, only $120

Call 866-238-5920 to reserve your seat!

Or register here!

A student asks:

Niurka, if you could name the first five steps to transforming yourself and behavior patterns, what would they be?

In my courses and trainings I teach hundreds of processes for transforming yourself and your behavior patterns.  Some of these processes are very specific and detailed, and others are more general, designed to improve your overall well-being.

Here are the top 5 most essential steps you can begin right away to create profound and immediate transformation:

1) The first step to transforming yourself and your behavior patterns is to make the conscious decision to do so.  Recognize that you are in the eternal moment of choice and you have the power to choose.  You are fully responsible for how you respond to everything and everyone in your life.  Before you can make a change, it’s essential to acknowledge and own your power to make that choice.  When you make a commitment to yourself and honor your commitment, you have power.  You harness your energy and the path reveals itself.

The challenge for many people is that they may consciously want to make a change, but subconsciously there’s a part of them that’s holding on to an old behavior.  Perhaps they’ll take a few steps toward their goal, but because they haven’t yet become completely congruent in their desire to change, or in their belief that they can change, it’s possible they may revert to those old patterns.  It’s like a roller-coaster experience of life – two steps forward, three steps back.  This is a pattern of self-sabotage.  (I’m very familiar with this pattern; I experienced this for many years early in my life!)  By the way… I actually teach a detailed process to release patterns of self-sabotage in my seven-day training, Supreme Influence into Action.

If you’re truly resolved to make a change and believe you can – you will; it’s essential to be committed.

Next, one of the most important factors contributing to your success will be your environment.  The answer to these two questions will illuminate the likelihood your success:

• Who do you hang out with?
• What do you feed your mind?

It’s been said that most people live up to the expectations of their peer group.  I first heard this when I was 19 years old, and back then I thought to myself, “I need a few new friends!”

2) So, the second step to transformation is to surround yourself with environments that demand more of you and call out the best in you.  Create or join a community that supports your transformation.  Find people who have already created the transformations in their lives that you have committed to create.  These people will lift you up, encourage you, and inspire you to evolve.

3) Thirdly, create a loving, supportive environment not just with the people around you, but also within your own mind.  What do you feed your mind? When I first entered the personal development business, for eight years of my life I turned off the radio, television and other programming, and I only listened to personal development audio programs in my car.  I would listen to them constantly and repetitively.  I read every personal development book I could find and attended every course or training relevant to my new way of thinking.  This one single decision transformed my whole life: I am where I am, and I am who I am today because of it.

4) Fourth, train your mind to notice only what’s in harmony with what you want.  Only speak things that support you in realizing your goals.  In simpler terms: don’t gossip, criticize or complain; instead, actively condition yourself to focus on the positive potential inherent in any situation.  This is a conscious decision you make, and it takes practice!

I’m not talking about positive thinking.  It’s essential to be real about “what is” and acknowledge challenges that may arise.  This isn’t about brushing those challenges under the rug – it’s about finding the gift, the positive learning and the opportunity beyond any seeming difficulty.  In every challenge lies a seed of opportunity.  As you train yourself to purposefully seek these opportunities, you will discover great power, peace and possibility in any situation.

On my multi-media set, Faith & Gratitude, I offer several practices to condition your mind to discover these opportunities.  One process I teach is called “Empowering Questions,” and it will completely shift the way you experience challenges.  It will give you great insights into how you focus even more clearer on your goal!

5)  And lastly, forgive the past.  Forgive others, forgive yourself.  Let go of old hurts, wounds, fears, disappointments, resentments, or anything that has been holding you back from living in your purpose and power.  Just let it go.  You will never be truly free until you release it.

Meditation is one of the simplest and most powerful practices I’ve found to create this clearing.  It absolutely frees my mind of any negative mental chatter and brings me into a space of peace and presence so I’m fully in my power.  Even if you just sit quietly for five minutes each day and focus your attention on something as simple as a beautiful flower, this simple practice will elevate your whole being.  In those moments you’ve let go and you are free.

I have an incredibly powerful audio series specifically about the power of forgiveness and letting go.  It’s called How to Let Go & Be Free. It includes a two-disc teaching about why letting go is so essential, and how you can let go.  It also includes a guided meditation to release those old ties.  Also included is a profound interview with forgiveness advocate, Aqeela Sherrills, best known for negotiating the truce between the two rival LA gangs, the Bloods and the Crips.  Aqeela’s life story illuminates the power of forgiveness in action.

So, these are the five most essential steps to transformation.  These are the steps that I’ve personally used to elevate my own life, and I continue to practice them all!

I trust that as you integrate these practices in your own life, you will quickly release old patterns and align with your highest, most authentic self to create the life of your dreams!

Remember…

When you change, the world around you changes – YOU have that much power!

Peace & Blessings,
Niurka

May 27, 2010
9am-1pm
Atlanta, Georgia

“Transform Your Belief Systems”

Join Niurka as she introduces Supreme Influence, her teaching and practice which illuminates how you can consciously transform and direct your beliefs, attitudes and language to create inner congruency while authentically living on purpose and materializing your highest vision. Learn how to be even more aware of the unlimited abundance and opportunities in your life!

Niurka will be joined by Doug Grady, President of High Achiever Network, and Chris Widener.

Call 888-360-EVENTS to purchase tickets.

Crowne Plaza Hotel, Atlanta
Perimeter, NW
6345 Powers Ferry Rd,
Sandy Springs, GA 30328

Have you ever scheduled an appointment or made a commitment, and then an unexpected challenge arose that required your immediate attention? What did you do?

Did you improvise, adapt and overcome?

I’m a big believer that you can have your cake and eat it, too – when you have just a little creativity, flexibility and resolve.

My life has taught me that beyond every challenge is a seed of great opportunity, and the greater the challenge, the greater the opportunity. Haven’t you ever said to yourself, “I would never be where I am or who I am if it wasn’t for __(blank)__?” (The “blank” being a past experience that you perceived at the time as incredibly traumatic or negative, and with hindsight 20/20, now you have the wisdom to recognize the gift beyond that challenge.)

When you look for the gift even in the midst of the challenge, you can give yourself the gift of hindsight now. What would happen to your life if you consistently sought the treasure beyond challenge?

Remember…

When you change, the world around you changes – You have that much power!

Love & Light,

Niurka

Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Talk about powerful values that launched an entire nation and created a paradigm in the hearts and minds of generations!  And every year, we celebrate these founding values with spectacular fireworks and picnics and barbecues.

So, are your values something to celebrate?  What values have been driving your life?

I can always tell what someone’s values are by looking at their results.  If you love the results in your life, you can be sure your values are on the same page with your beliefs, identity and vision.  And if there’s an area of your life where you’ve struggled, it’s probably time to examine and re-align your values.  Why?

Because one person’s evolution can elevate the consciousness of the planet.  Are you the one?

What if I told you that you have the power to transform any area of your life by shifting your values?

See, values drive behavior, and behavior produces results.  So shift your values, and everything else shifts, too.  That’s exactly what we’re seeing in the world today: a global shift in values.  A re-alignment based on what is essential.  And when I say “essential”, I don’t mean “necessary” or “required”.  I mean what is of your essence?

Right now, it’s time to get real about what’s most important to us.  Individually.  Collectively.  Who are we?  What’s our purpose?  How do we fulfill our destiny?

Isn’t that what the founding fathers were talking about 200+ years ago?  Those are the questions they were asking when they declared the values of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

Yep, the United States was formed on the basis of radical, revolutionary thinking, the belief in possibility and progress…so what can happen now, in our time, when each of us revisits our own values, discards those that no longer serve us and lives in alignment with our highest truth and purpose?

Can you picture it?  Now that’s something to get excited about!

Niurka is one of the youngest, most dynamic speakers in the mind-body-spirit community.  She has invested over 15 years researching and practicing the most powerful strategies in business, leadership and sales, as well as studying and integrating the great spiritual teachings, psychological frameworks and the most insightful philosophies from around the globe.  Now Niurka has synthesized her wisdom into one discipline – Supreme Influence. This work guides people beyond fear to create the life of their dreams through the awesome power of language and influence.  Visit Niurka at www.niurkainc.com

We’ve all heard the saying, “Perception is reality.” It’s true that reality is unique to each individual, but perception is not reality in actuality.  Rather, perception is projection. Many people have different experiences of the same event.  So what determines someone’s perception?

Attracting Happiness and Abundance through Our Powers of Perception

One of the Laws of Supreme Influence, Perception is Projection presupposes a tendency to observe current events as they unfold through mental filters and sensory lenses colored by previous experiences. When we are fully conscious, we can choose our experiences.
Most of us have been hurt by a business or personal relationship. When we enter a new relationship full of possibility, often we subconsciously project previous challenges onto the new relationship. We are more empowered when we recognize every opportunity as a fresh start, free of limiting beliefs and perceptions.

Our expectations for ourselves and others determine our results – life is a self-fulfilling prophecy.  For example, in controlled studies for new pharmaceutical drugs researchers determine the percentage of people who would heal without the actual drug by using a placebo, or sugar pill.  Amazingly, these placebos commonly “cure” participants at a rate of greater than 40%!  These participants enter the study with a clean slate, believing that they will be receiving a promising new drug that will heal them of past ailments.  Interestingly, no drug works 100% of the time; only a 60%-70% success rate is often enough for federal approval.

Imagine if we could harness the power of the placebo to heal in our everyday life.  What if we believed that certain things were going to work, and that we aren’t tied to past patterns?  We can project new empowering beliefs into happening!

Aren’t possibilities infinite?  Is it not possible for us to gain greater wealth than we currently have?  Is it not possible that the next person who walks into our life might somehow be able to help us increase our wealth?  By opening ourselves to the possibility that each person is capable of helping us, we are allowing those people to be of help, rather than limiting them to fulfill negative expectations. They might even help in unexpected ways.

Is it not possible to have healthier relationships? Is it not possible to move past any ailments or injuries from which we currently suffer and into a healthier mind, body and spirit?  Is it possible that the next person that we talk to might be able to help us move in these directions by facilitating the healing process emotionally, mentally, socially, physically or spiritually?

Believe that what you desire is attainable, and that every person has the possibility of helping you move closer to your goals and objectives. Most people go through life never awakening to the power of their own perceptions.

We have everything to gain and nothing to lose by believing that life is, despite temporary obstacles or intrusions, always improving and everyone we interact with can help.

If we want to manifest something in our reality- whether it’s our career, finances, health, relationships, or physical body – we must first transform how we think. It may be a challenging concept to wrap the mind around, but like it or not, we are all the authors and architects of the results we experience in our own life.

Take Full Responsibility for Everything In Your Life

It’s an uncanny phenomenon but it’s true: The Universe has a way of supporting those who get crystal clear on what they want and then wholeheartedly go after it.

Every thought we have, word we speak (whether to ourselves or out loud), and action we take is a seed planted – a seed that will germinate and grow when the appropriate conditions are present. Like farmers carefully planting the next harvest, we reap the effects of having sown the seeds of past thoughts and behaviors. There are no idle thoughts! Everything we see, everything we experience has its origin and cause in the realm of thought. Understanding this phenomenon is the beginning of true wisdom.

The challenge is that most people are unaware of how they create their reality from moment to moment, because they are not sufficiently aware of their thoughts. Do you know someone who no matter what happens in their life, it’s “not their fault,” and so blames external factors for the circumstances of their life? This disempowering perception often leads to victim mentality and over time, victim mentality becomes a self fulfilling prophecy.

If we want to transform something in our environment – whether it’s our career, finances, health, relationships, or physical body – we must first transform how we think. When we change our thoughts we automatically change our actions, thereby producing a shift in our environment. Why? Because the external world is a reflection of the internal world. When we understand this and take full responsibility for everything that happens in our lives then we are “at Cause.” Mahatma Gandhi recognized this Universal Truth which is why he encouraged people to “be the change you wish to see in the world.”

This cause and effect dynamic is the essence of the first Law of Supreme Influence. One important key to making this Law practical is the realization that, in any given moment, a person is either “at Cause” or “in Effect” – there is no middle area. Being “at Cause” means having the awareness to recognize how our moment-to-moment “causes” produce the conditions of our lives, even if the “effect” isn’t experienced right away. In other words, when we’re “at Cause” we get a result and we own it! Owning the result, desired or not, liberates the individual to make different choices. Conversely, anytime we blame or give an excuse, we’re “in Effect.” The more we take responsibility for the cause and effect in our lives, the better our results!

Remember, when you change your environment automatically changes!

“The people who get on in this world are the people who get up and look for the circumstances they want, and, if they can’t find them, make them.”
~ George Bernard Shaw

Imagine having this experience: you go to a program or a seminar and you learn something powerful, and you think to yourself, “That is awesome.  I am going to practice that in my life.”  You go home and use it for about a week or two, or maybe three, and then you go back to your old patterns and habits.  Has this ever happened to you on some level?  Why does this occur even when we acknowledge that what we have learned will lead us to greater success?  Your mind learned the information and incorporated it into your behavior intellectually but the behavior was not yet seamlessly aligned with a deeper part of your being: your values, beliefs and identity.  The behavior had not yet integrated at the  subconscious level.

A study performed by George Miller in 1956 revealed that we can only do about seven things at a time, plus or minus two, based on our capabilities. So consciously, you can only do somewhere between five and nine things at any given time.  Therefore, on a daily basis, most people operate on automatic pilot based on deeply ingrained programming.  The key to living powerfully and purposefully is to be fully aware and respond from present consciousness rather than react from conditioned programming.  If something external occurs and you automatically react, the reaction is coming from within you and is not necessarily a part of the world outside of you.

A great Zen proverb relates that when you squeeze an orange, you get orange juice. You do not get apple juice. You get what is inside.  Similarly, when you are squeezed by life’s pressures, what comes out of you?  Is it a sweet nectar or is it some kind of funky concoction?  When facing challenges in life, it is tempting to blame these challenges on our circumstances.  It is possible to blame the challenges that we face on what occurs outside of us, not realizing that everything in the external realm is the natural manifestation of what occurs within the internal realm.

When you find yourself operating on automatic pilot, focus on being aware of what you are doing.  Remind yourself that you can choose to focus on a few things and do each of them with full consciousness and love.  One example of operating at a subconscious level occurs when you leave your office at the end of work and you are on your way to meet someone for dinner, but since you are accustomed to driving home, you take the wrong exit as if you are driving home.  So who is driving your car?  It is your subconscious mind.

Our subconscious mind is available and receptive to support us in realizing our vision.  It is your job to make sure that your conscious mind is guiding your words and actions, especially when single-minded focus is mandatory for your success.  Practice being aware of when you are reacting based on programming or when you are fully conscious and present. Awareness is key to conscious transformation.  This can mean the difference between doing something at a mediocre level and doing something at the level of mastery in alignment with your Higher Self.