Ben Godwin from the awesome website: JustLive.us joins us for a chat. Ben talks about the sites origin, design and goals. We discuss agorism, mutual aid, self-sufficiency, Direct Action, diverse groups moving into agoric activity, the building of alternate systems to replace the Failed States and the Snake Oil they have been peddling, people looking for and building systems to solve their real world problems – now.

Check it out, and listen to the other episodes while you’re there — it’s a great show. Topics covered so far have ranged from Bitcoin, to Loom, to Hawala, just to name a few.

In it, she discusses the trials experienced by a group of people attempting to keep their focus in the midst of economic and natural upheaval; and the ways in which their positive outlook was integral to the continued survival of their community.

Our community’s land near the Hood Canal in Washington State is called Sahale. Out at Sahale, when it rains, it pours. The metal roofs are pounded by rain that comes straight down from the low clouds. When the sun comes out, it is brighter and hotter than in Seattle. The sky is crystal clear or perhaps dotted with white puffy clouds. When the trees grow here, they grow really tall, and wherever blackberry vines get started, there is no end to them. We can grow fruit about which city-dwellers say, “Really? You can’t grow that here.”

We found this abundant land in 2001 and created our learning and retreat center, a budding ecovillage on 70 acres. Sahale is the Chinook word for “heaven on earth” and it has felt like that for us.

Yet we have also found ourselves tempted by perceptions of scarcity. At the same time that we acquired this land, we also began developing an urban housing cooperative for 19 individuals, families, and couples. This project included a community center and café for us and for the broader neighborhood and community of Seattle. Sahale has succeeded, while the in-town development failed.

We paid all accounts to outside vendors, leaving a loss of about $500,000 to members in loans and deposits on their shares in the cooperative. Even more than the loss of money, we grieved the loss of the dream of our community in service through this center. Some members left, and we lost our way for awhile. At the same time, many of us were working to develop the buildings and rejuvenate the land out at Sahale. We fell in love with her wonderful energy. Sahale sustained us through the difficult times of healing from our loss of an in-town center for our community-building work. Now, when we talk together we realize we still hold our dream dear to us, and plans are beginning for another way to create an “in-town” living and community center.

This is a picture of an experience of abundance and scarcity, woven together—loss and gain. In Richard’s words, “Our community believes in the power of learning together. In fact, as we engaged the development of these two properties, we stated that our first goal was learning about facilities development. In retrospect during our evaluation we realized that we had actually lost learning as our first priority and had been caught up in an “edifice complex”—caring more about building external facilities than about developing our inner facilities and abilities. Thus, one aspect of our learning is that our experience of scarcity and abundance starts inside of us.”

Read the rest at Communities magazine »

Means also talks about the high numbers of American Indian children in foster care, and the plight of the poor in America.

Via the Republic of Lakotah blog.

Celine Kuklowsky of Dr. Pop Blog posted this inspiring article about the growth of community in the face of hardship and urban collapse in Detroit.

This article is a sample of a topic JustLive will be focusing on some in the near future — stories of individual and community resilience in times of economic and natural disaster. We’re going to be looking at Detroit, specifically, but will branch out to other areas around the world as well. If you have any stories like this, please share them with us.

When thinking about urban environmental repair, there is perhaps no better place to start than in what may seem to be the most unlikely of places: Detroit, MI. Yes, the ex-capital of the auto-industry is rewriting the rules of urban regeneration as we know them and Detroit residents are creating a whole new way of thinking city-life.

As Rebecca Solnit says, Detroit’s best-known recent history is one of urban apocalypse characterized by “deindustrialization, depopulation, and resource depletion” [...]

But out of this land, another story is emerging, in which the people of Detroit are re-inventing their city as the urban agriculture center of the country.

I recently met Asenath Andrews, the principal of the Catherine Ferguson Academy, a high school for young mothers and pregnant teens who raise animals and organic fruits and vegetables. The school also offers classes on beekeeping and more to the community..

The conversation opened a window for me upon Detroit Green.

In 2009 alone, the Detroit Garden Resource Program Collaborative provided support to 236 community gardens, 55 schools, and 557 families who are growing food. [...]

Read the article at Dr. Pop Blog »

(post photo by jessicareeder on flickr)

This great post for wikiHow is crucial for people who seek to step outside the box and accomplish goals that seem to be unreachable for whatever reason.

The state and corporations, use propaganda and fear in order to trick the public that they are surrounded by scarcity instead of abundance.

The result leads to a false belief of limited opportunities, stifling regulations and laws that hinder creativity, inflated prices due to false perceptions, and enables monopolies of goods and services to emerge in the marketplace, just to name a few.

This also keeps us dependent on the state for solutions, instead of seeking off-the-grid self-sufficient solutions from the renewable abundance of our environment.

For someone practicing Agorism, this is a particularly helpful mental exercise to help manifest your intention into direct action.

From wikiHow – The How to Manual That You Can Edit

Much of society seems to be built on a scarcity mentality. It’s a mentality that tells people that there is a lack in life, that opportunities are few and far between. This is, of course, useful for society because if people feel that there is a lack, then you can get them to buy stuff; thus, the economy and society can continue to live and prosper by reinforcing a scarcity mentality in people.

The scarcity mentality can be quite painful for the individual and create a lot of unnecessary fear, anxiety and desperation. An abundance mentality, on the other hand, tells you that there are always new chances and opportunities. This relieves much of the pressure you may feel if you have a scarcity mentality that makes you think that you’ve only got one shot right now. Or it makes you feel like an utter failure just because you stumbled and things didn’t work out. An abundance mentality can help you improve your performance since with it, you’re creating a lot less pressure and anxieties within your own mind.

Here are a few tips to create and reinforce your own abundance mentality.

Steps

1. Look for the symptoms of a scarcity mentality. If you have a scarcity mentality then you will probably take things too seriously. You may think to yourself: “If I fail, the sky will fall”. It won’t, though, and you know that and need to remind yourself. But you think it will, you become overly nervous and POOF! you have invited that failure because your negativity becomes an obstacle on your path to success. If it’s a game, then you may fumble with the ball. If it’s an exam, then you may not have been able to sleep and will perform poorly on the test. If it’s a date, you may come over as too needy and nervous and not as your usual, more relaxed self. Regain your empowerment by remembering all the opportunities you have been afforded and know that it is all a flow that will always continue.




2. Focus on the abundance, not on the lack. What you focus on, you will see in your world. Since you can’t take in everything around you, your reticular activation system – your focus system in the mind – will bring into focus what you focus your thoughts on.This will allow you to see the abundance in your world that you may be missing right now. If you, for instance, have a lack of money, then don’t focus on your lack. Focus and think about the abundance of possibilities in the world to make money. Soon ideas and opportunities to make that happen will start to “pop up” in your world. It’s almost a bit freaky how things that hold solutions for you – perhaps books or acquaintances – that have been there in the background for quite a while just one day suddenly jump out at you.




3. Appreciate. One quick way to revert from the pretty normal habit of thinking about what you don’t have is simply to appreciate. Appreciate your food, life, your roof, your friends and family and so on. This can not only turn a sour mood into a more positive one within minutes, but it can also help you notice opportunities you have missed or forgotten about. And it’ll create a more open vibe within you, a vibe that makes it easier to focus on the abundance. So, make a habit of appreciating something in your life for a few minutes each day.




4. Get an abundance vibe from other people. Since you get a scarcity mentality from, say, advertising and media, then you can change your input to change your mentality. Cut down on watching the news. Record your favourite shows and skip the commercials. Or just cut down on your TV and media consumption, period. Replace the scarcity vibe you get from that input. How do you do that? “Hang out” with people that have an abundance mentality. Read, listen to and watch personal development material. Besides reading your favourite personal development blogs, read success stories in books and magazines. Have a positive attitude to the abundance and success of your friends, family and co-workers. Hang out with people in real life who have more of an abundance mentality and less of a scarcity mentality. Be selective with what you put into your mind. Create your own environment of abundance.




5. Share the wealth. One very good way to acknowledge how much you have is to share it. Do you feel like you’re not making enough money? Give some away. Not enough love? Give some away. Not enough validation, appreciation, recognition? Give it all away. It’s hard for something to feel scarce when you’re giving it away.




6. Create win-win situations. People with a scarcity mentality tend to see every relationship is win-lose, as in: “It’s either you or me, buddy, and I want it to be me.” People with an abundance mentality, on the other hand, try to create mutually beneficial relationships in which both parties can win.[1] Instead of winning an argument, for example, try to reach a consensus that you both can be happy with. Instead of competing, collaborate.




7. Remind yourself. It’s very easy to slip back into your old thought patterns. You just forget about what you should be thinking about. A useful tool to keep yourself from slipping is to use external reminders. You can, for example, use written notes posted at places you can’t avoid seeing several times each day – your workspace, fridge and mirrors – or put a bracelet on your wrist. Seeing words or quotes that remind you of your new abundance mentality can help your mind snap back into the right headspace once again.

Tips

• When the feeling of scarcity is strong, remember previous times when you had an abundance. Realize that you can recreate similar circumstances once again.




• A real-world example of the abundance mentality is the “copyleft” movement, which focuses on loosening the restrictions of traditional copyrights.[2] More and more people are licensing their work with GFDL, Creative Commons, or even releasing it into the public domain. For example, Leo Babauta, founder of the popular Zen Habits blog, decided to release all of his content into the public domain.[3] Many programmers share software and programs freely in the spirit of open source.[4]




• Learn to face the reality of living within your means. Many people have the habit of copying and envying others with greater means. Doing so can ruin your day or your life. It is therefore important to live within your resources while hoping that something better will come along your way. You will be free from stress and undue competition without any satisfaction.




• Look for personal products in cabinets you have forgotten about…hotel toiletries can last for several showers, old sunscreen can be used for shaving in the shower, baby oil to remove makeup..invert bottles to get the most product from them!

Warnings

• Don’t get so carried away with an abundance mentality that you become a people pleaser who lets people take advantage of your generosity. Remember to surround yourself with people who also have an abundance mentality, who give as much as they take, or else “parasites” will drain you and eventually leave you with a scarcity mentality.




• Be sure also to not reach a point where you find youself coasting through life with no goal or purpose for yourself. Remember to “seize the day”.

Related wikiHows

• How to Be Optimistic
• How to Stop Feeling Like Your Life Isn’t Good Enough
• How to Be Thankful
• How to Live in the Moment

Sources and Citations

• http://www.positivityblog.com/index.php/2008/01/30/how-to-create-an-abundance-mentality/ – Original source, shared with permission.
• http://www.flickr.com/photos/vshioshvili/388221237/ – Photo from Flickr

1. ↑ http://thinkexist.com/quotation/people_with_a_scarcity_mentality_tend_to_see/346862.html
2. ↑ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyleft
3. ↑ http://zenhabits.net/2008/01/open-source-blogging-feel-free-to-steal-my-content/
4. ↑ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_source

Article provided by wikiHow, a wiki how-to manual. Please edit this article and find author credits at the original wikiHow article on How to Create an Abundance Mentality. All content on wikiHow can be shared under a Creative Commons license.

Synchronicity can be defined as a non-causal but meaningful relationship between events or states of mind within the human psyche and events in the outside world. More simply, we could call it the experiences of “meaningful coincidence”. We have all had experiences that we intuitively recognize as meaningful, though we would be hard pressed to explain them in rational terms. In fact, these “meaningful coincidences” are not coincidences at all but spontaneous realizations of the underlying interconnectedness of all things within the Universe.

Laurence Boldt ~ Tao of Abundance

A great article from Paul Levy on Reality Sandwich, had me thinking about the importance of living life through synchronistic events. By acknowledging and embracing synchronicities, I acquired what I was seeking without effort. Focusing on what you want with positive intention, will attract others on your wavelength to your cause through synchronistic events.

One of the key concepts of synchronicity is your active participation, in turn, you receive a response that proves you are right where you are suppose to be.

Paul Levy further explains:

Subjectively, synchronistic phenomena evoke in us the feeling that we are not alone, that there is a silent partner that we share our lives with who is dreaming with us. It is as if there is an autonomous factor deep within us arranging our experiences so as to help us to wake up. Part and parcel of a synchronistic event’s numinosity is its sense of meeting the “wholly other,” whether it be within ourselves or through the medium of the outside world. Paradoxically, through synchronicities we connect with ourselves by becoming introduced to the part of ourselves which is other than who we imagine ourselves to be.

Recognizing the synchronistic matrix which patterns our experience empowers us to be creative, co-operative and active partners in our own awakening process. The more we are open for synchronicities to happen, the more they happen, for synchronicities, just like symbols in a dream, are not separate from the dreamer, which in this case is us. To the extent we recognize the dreamlike nature of our waking universe is the degree to which our life is experienced as synchronistic. Once we become lucid in our waking dream and recognize that we live in a synchronistic universe by our very nature, the universe has no choice but to shape-shift and reflect back our realization by materializing itself synchronistically.

Each of us has an unique expression that we can share with the agora. Unconnected to corporate or state systems, your gift can help you lead a self-sufficient life, reaping the fruits of your manifestation.

The video below ,Seeing the Field, has a short segment of Carl Jung speaking about the metaphysical aspect of man, and the ability to shape our reality. There is also a clip from The Legend of Bagger Vance, illustrating the journey to find the authentic self. This is done in golf terms by finding our ideal swing. The key focus is about finding the right relationship with the ball, which opens up access to a new dimension of existence.

“The creation of something new is not accomplished by the intellect
but by the play instinct acting from inner necessity.
The creative mind plays with the objects it loves.”
~Carl Jung

Being playful while creating, helps us to express our ideas without limitation, allowing us to be open to unique situations when and where we need it. The synchronistic way of life, is a natural way for the individual to operate and thrive within the agora.

This is a mindset we should all have as we wake up to start each day in life. Mind over matter and the power of intention are concepts that we believe work. Therefore, we are focusing our energy towards this positive message during our launch day.

Lynne McTaggart, author of The Intention Experiment suggests:

The reason intention and mind-over-matter processes work relates to the subatomic underpinnings of our being, and all matter– on this level we’re all connected, and can access the farthest reaches of the cosmos.

You can hear more about her work on the subject in a Coast to Coast AM radio interview here.

Click here to hear Smashing Pumpkins frontman Billy Corgan discuss everything from the Illuminati, HAARP and weather weapons to GMO foods, the elite depopulation agenda and the possibility for a genuine freedom movement in the United States.