Okay, I admit it… my life seems like a roller coaster sometimes.

It goes up, up, up, and everything seems so perfect…

And then it plummets down, and I wonder what the heck went wrong.

Then it’s up again… up and down, up and down.

Know what I mean?

Well, our friends Jafree Ozwald and Margot Zaher noticed that too. But they say it’s how life is meant to be. And I think they’re right.

Barry and I just posted an article over at the LWL Worldwide blog that discusses the concept, and invites readers to post their thoughts in our forum.

Up for discussing the roller coaster of life while you ride it (and don’t get off)?

Join us over at the LWL Worldwide blog.

Keep Unwrapping the Mysteries of Life,

As I sit here in my office, snow is falling outside my window.

Yeah, snow… but for the first time since I’ve been in Oregon.

Oh, there’s snow in other towns around here… apparently the ones that are at a higher altitude, even if they’re further south. But here in Grants Pass, nestled safely in a valley surrounded by fairly low mountains, there has been nothing.

Back in Toronto, apparently they had several feet of snow weeks ago.

And it’s kind of nice to be in a warmer climate. I’ve never been a lover of the cold (just ask anyone who has seen my fingers turn white and ice cold, just when the indoor temperature drops a few degrees).

I’m just used to a white Christmas. I think I’ve maybe had one green Christmas my whole life… until now.

And all the Christmas movies we see, all the decorations and holiday-inspired scenery, feature snow as a continuous theme.

Then again, all around the world, people have Christmas without snow.

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Barry and I have finished unwrapping our gifts… and loving every one of them.

(Here we are wearing our Santa hats and Christmas colors, very casual for the occasion.)

This is such a great time of year to be grateful, and we made sure to be grateful for each and every gift that we received, as well as for the opportunity to give them to each other.

Last night his family came by for a Christmas Eve party and gift-giving session, and it went great. I spent all day making hors d’oeuvres and dinner, but it was worth every minute, and I’m grateful to be accepted into his family.

Life is great when you’re surrounded with family, friends and loved ones, and have reasons to appreciate what you have.

We all have things to appreciate… it’s just a matter of finding them and feeling the gratitude so we can attract more of it.

Keep Unwrapping the Mysteries of Life,

I couple of years ago, I first talked to Mark Joyner by email. He was “The Godfather of Internet Marketing” and was credited with inventing ebooks, and I wanted his input for a project I was doing on publishing.

I ended up interviewing him by phone several times as well, and during that period I would get emails from his assistant every now and then saying, “Mark thanks you for your comment here” and she would put a link to one of my blogs where I had mentioned Mark or one of his products.

It really impressed me, because every time it happened, it was within hours of me posting the article in question. One time I even wrote, “I know Mark will read this, so…” and sure enough, he did.

When I first talked to him on the phone, it was to interview him for Success Unwrapped, and I took the opportunity when the interview was over to ask him how he was seeing my blog posts about him almost as soon as they were published.

He told me that he had been looking his name up in Technorati, and that was how he found new partners for Simpleology.

Simpleology, by the way, is “The Simple Science of Getting What You Want”… a very effective time management and goal-setting system you can get for free, with software that rivals certain aspects of expensive PIM programs and makes keeping track of your life — and keeping your life on track — much easier.

Mark makes it a point in public to NOT endorse manifestation techniques, preferring real-world hands-on tactics instead… but in fact, the visualization and emotional aspects of Simpleology are based on the same things that law of attraction experts teach.

Anyhow, when Mark was seemingly instantaneously tapping into my blog posts through Technorati, I figured he was living up to his reputation as the Godfather of Internet Marketing, showing how he still (even after people said he “retired” from the industry) was on the cutting edge of online technology.

But, things aren’t always as they seem…

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Last night I went to my meditation circle, and we did a special gift-giving session. Everybody meditated on the others’ essences of their higher selves, and the “gift” was telling each person what sense we had about them, and what we appreciated about them.

Even if not done in conjunction with meditation, and looking for spiritual answers from a higher plane when we don’t necessarily know those people well on a social level, this can be a very powerful exercise.

All you need to do is go around a circle or group, focusing on one person at a time. Each of the others in the group take turns telling that one person why he or she is important to them, what qualities he or she has that they admire, and what exactly they appreciate about him or her.

It’s great to do at Thanksgiving, or at Christmas, or at a Birthday… but it’s perhaps even more special on just any old day.

There are two things that this exercise accomplishes for the person receiving the gift:

1. It makes them feel good to be appreciated and have people point out in public what makes them special.

2. It puts into perspective the qualities that others see in them, and allows them to take stock of themselves and understand better how they come across.

But, giving is just as valuable as receiving. There are also two things that this exercise accomplishes for us, the gift-giver:

1. It makes us focus deeply on another person, their essence and the spiritual and mental gifts and talents, which gets us into the habit of recognizing the good in others.

2. It puts the focus on gratitude, and we know that gratitude is one of the most powerful manifesting emotions available.

There were only a few of us at the meditation circle, because of the holiday season, so it was really special to be able to connect with them on a deep level. Then we went out to celebrate ourselves at a local sushi bar, where I discovered more to be grateful for…

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We are all part of one Universe.

But at the same time, we are all centers of our own Universe.

Yes, that’s right… the Universe truly does revolve around you (at least, your Universe does).

But while it’s so easy to get caught up in the hustle, the bustle, and the separateness of life… Barry and I have gotten into a habit of starting the day with what we now dub “The One Universe Pose”.

You can do it standing up, but it seems to work better for us lying down. And the aim is to get so close, and hug so tightly, that you physically feel completely connected, not just on the outside, but deep down to the soul.

The embrace should be one that allows you to actually feel like you’re one, like your spirits are entwined into one mass as your arms encircle each other.

At this point, imagine that your two Universes have come together and joined into one, as your bodies, hearts and souls have joined together too.

You don’t have to squeeze too hard… you just need to feel the strength of the bond.

Visualizing your two beings as one will also help, and it’s a great way to get grounded and start the day from a place of love, gratitude, and appreciation for yourself and your partner.

Go ahead, be the center of somebody else’s Universe for a few moments, as well as your own.

Keep Unwrapping the Mysteries of Life,

Five months ago, I awoke in the same bed I just up from, feeling like I was a visitor staying in a hotel room.

I hadn’t moved in with Barry, I was just stopping by. We didn’t know what the future held, so in essence, I was just visiting my friend and business partner.

And his condo seemed to me to be very hotel-like. At the time I blamed it on the design; the twin sinks, the tub with the flip-up plug and the frosted glass shower doors. I had a lot of experience staying in hotel rooms at the time, and I swear, this felt like it.

After I officially moved in with Barry, I still had random thoughts of “just visiting”. Since it had been his place before, it felt like I was staying at “his place”, and not “our home”.

But since then I have realized that it’s not about the place.

What we’ve always heard is true: Home is where the heart is.

Home is what you make it.

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Barry and I just finished decorating our Christmas tree.

Yes, we got it last week… and it was sitting there naked for a few days.

But we wanted to take the time to enjoy decorating it together, as a family, because time spent together is a lot more important than getting a task done.

In a bit of a fun spirit, we decided to put his parrot puppet on the top of the tree. I had mentioned that it would fit, but I was only half serious…

But sometimes being different, just for the fun of it, is important… because it’s much better to have fun than to try to do things because others say we “should”.

So as a result… rather than a partridge in a pear tree, we have a parrot in a pine tree.

Here’s a video we shot of Pasquel on top, and me in front of the tree (with Mercury and Jupiter) — including an explanation of this blog, for the people that have been asking what its purpose is:

This afternoon, Barry and I took a trip to Ashland to see Zeb Lancaster, our Rolfer who wanted to try a new relationship coaching technique on us.

He apparently did that for 15 years before becoming a Rolfer, and has a new office with bigger treatment rooms, so he needed some “guinea pigs” to try out some exercises.

The main thing we did was to see how close to each other was “comfortable” while still maintaining our own space. But we actually preferred to be close together, touching each other in a sort of embrace, which can apparently potentially cause problems, just like being too distanced can.

If you’re “too close” to each other, then when one person gets upset or emotional, both end up getting rocked because they’re in the same boat.

When you can have some distance from each other — still remain connected, but be centered in your own space — then one can rock his or her own boat while the other remains steady and supportive.

It was a very interesting experience, because I never would have thought that.

So we used colored strings to map out on the floor where our own space was, as well as a part where the strings wound together… showing togetherness and individuality at the same time.

When you’re dealing with relationships, which are mirrors… especially when the mirror is as reflective as ours is sometimes… you can lose that individuality if you’re not careful.

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Three times today, Barry and I were so psychically connected it was uncanny.

These little episodes happen quite often with us… but three times is a good scoring trick. In hockey, that’s a hat trick!

Earlier today I went to get one of my special massages from Donna Schmid. In my opinion, her massages are the best deal I’ve ever found, because it’s not JUST a Swedish or therapeutic massage; it actually affects me more on the spiritual level than on the physical.

The special ingredient that makes her massages so unique, and so valuable, is that she asks the client to come up with an intention before the massage begins.

Not just a physical intention (like, “I’d like to have my upper back worked on because I’m holding some tension there”) but a whole-body intention, that works on the body, mind and spirit too.

Donna taught me to always have an intention when meditating (rather than just letting the thoughts wander where they like), and now she has taught me to always have an intention when getting a massage.

This takes the experience to the next level no matter what you do… even if it’s getting a manicure or pedicure done.

No matter what you’re doing, always have an intention (especially if you’re able to relax and be in your own little mental world while you’re doing it).

The hat trick that Barry and I shared started with my massage-session intention…

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