The Joy of Flow

Want more "flow" in your life? Want to have marvelous opportunities automatically present themselves to you? Want to see your dreams become reality without so much as a request or a prayer for help? Want to be led to benevolent outcomes more often? Want to have more joy in your life as you allow your life purpose to unfold?

A friend of mine did not like her job. It required long hours away from home, work during the weekends, standing on her feet and provided only a modest living, which was quickly diminishing in a recession industry.

Her husband was inspired to suggest as a remedy she seek work for a local city government. "Great," she thought, "I know no one in the government. How can I find a job like that? My experience is primarily sales. I don't type or have any office skills." However, she mentioned her idea to a friend. Coincidentally her friend just happened to know for 40 years the Vice Mayer of a local town nearby. He asked for my friend's resume.

My friend quickly went about the task of preparing it with a cover letter. She asked another dear friend for help. This friend coincidentally happened to have researched everything about this particular town for an unrelated project. It turned out this town was building a huge entertainment complex including an upscale Hard Rock Caf, a Seminole Indian Casino and many other commercial projects. This was a well-funded project planned to continue for at least 10 years.

It became evident that working for a local government made more sense than originally thought possible.

This is an example of "flow." Flow is the process of allowing your good to come to you after you have asked for help. It is not a passive state of waiting for something to happen, but rather an active state of co-creation with the heavenly powers that be. It is the give and take between wanting something and allowing something to happen.

When things seem to fall into place in this intuitive way your life is in "flow." Flow is associated your life purpose. In order to discover your life purpose you have to allow yourself to be led. You have to allow life to flow through you, and allow the doors to open that will. You have to "go with the flow."

Opening intuitively is an ongoing exercise, not easily learned by some, completely natural to others. For those that would like more intuition in their lives try this.

1. Relax. Take time to relax every day and give into a little daydreaming. Perhaps you can get to sit or walk in nature. Being soothed and calmed is integral to the intuitive process. The key to relaxing is that you make it feel as good as possible. Try to do it without the TV, a book or the media. As much fun as these activities are, they tend to fill you up. Intuitive development relaxing allows nature and spirit to flow through you in moments of reflection and just being.

2. Create. Creativity and intuition are integrally linked. The more you allow yourself to creatively flow in a task the more your window to the divine opens and the greater your ability to channel the mystical energies of life through yourself. If you have not tried taking up a creative hobby start now. All forms of creativity including, but not limited to, art, dance, music, crafts, marketing and even sports offer benefits far more than simply the product of the act itself.

3. Love your moments and love yourself in those moments. Learning how to accept each moment in your life as meant to be, as laden with overt and hidden gifts, provides for you the launching pad to expansion. Simply put, going with the flow, allows the flow to come to you. When you are battling everything in every moment, the river of your life and your purpose gets jammed with huge logs and boulders. Love your life and yourself. This one step alone will bring miracles before you.

Creating a life you love is easy so long as you learn how to let go and flow. Remember to ask for what you want and then take inspired action. Be alert and wait for signals. Soon you will be on your way to a new life paradigm. One in which you create with the partner called "Universal Flow."

Laura Bartolini Mendelsohn is The "Intuitive Magic" Coach, a five star rated psychic with inherited talent and over 40 years metaphysic experience. She coaches people to create their own "luck" by developing the magic of their intuition. Move from wanting to winning today! Order your FREE copy of "Intuitive Magic: The Secret To Luck!" at http://www.intuitivemagiccoach.com/.

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We Cheer For Wii Cheerleading Games

A few companies are combining the new balance detection of the Wii Fit Balance Board and motion detection of the Wii remotes to create the first Cheerleading games for the Wii.

Below are two of the first Cheerleading games ever created on the Wii, We Cheer and All Star Cheer Squad. These two games are primarily targeted at younger girls which isn't that common in the video game world. The new cheer leading games will also make extensive use of the Wii Fit Balance Board to detect steps and moves and also heavily rely on the motion detection controls of the Wii Remotes to detect hand movements, spins, kicks and poses.

We Cheer
One of the first cheerleading games coming out will be Wii Cheer release date unknown right now, created by Namco. We Cheer takes a fun customizable approach to this new genre, the game looks like it will offer a lot of different options so each person playing can have a unique experience.

The game uses real songs from some of the hottest music stars from teen sensations like Hilary Duff and Aly and AJ to the 70s disco bands. We Cheer also allows you to customize your cheerleaders outfit which some people can spend hours doing. The game contains multiple modes depending on how you're feeling. You can chose to burn calories in Exercise Mode or compete for the Captian position with a friend in 2 player Campaign Mode. You can even battle it out with up to 4 players in Party Mode to find out who is the best cheerleader.

We Cheer Features:

* Hit Songs - Dance and cheer to the hottest music from artists of the past, present and future.

* Endless Character Customization - Create the perfect competition outfit.

* Engaging Modes - Exercise Mode, Campaign Mode, Party Mode.

* Really Addictive Gameplay - Spin, kick, jump and dance to various choreographed routines.

All Star Cheer Squad
Another Cheerleading game coming out is All Star Cheer Squad release date October 20, 2008, created by THQ. All Star Cheer Squad pulls out all the stops and takes more of a "cheerleading experience" simulation approach. In this game you actually follow a year in the life of a cheerleader. You'll learn new cheers, participate in the practices and even create your own routines to make the squad and eventually become captain.

This game also seems to take a serious direction with the dancing, the choreography is done by Tony G. who also choreographed the movie Bring It On! So you can definitely expect your child to get a workout.

All Star Cheer Squad Features:

* Use the Wii Fit Board to balance and perform stunts

* Use the Wii remote and nunchuck to perform dozens of real-world cheer/dance moves

* Compete in squad and one-on-one cheer-offs

* Customize the look of your team including body, facial features, hair and outfits

* Learn new moves and choreograph your own cheer routines to music

This adds to a new wave of exercise games for the Wii Fit. While these games are not completely targeted towards exercise, you can see how they would give you a good workout.

There also aren't that many "girl games" on the market but with these two Cheerleading games coming out expect people to really start to take a look into the genre, especially if these cheerleading games do well which I think they will.

For more Wii News on upcoming Games for Wii, visit wiiark.com

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American Idol Is Draining the Life Out of Popular Culture

In the 1920s when radio was first catching on, the idea of a popular culture was somewhat different than what we have today. For there to be a pop-culture, there needs to be a way for media to reach the masses. Up until then, the extent of popular media was done in print, and was limited to those who could read and had the time to do so. But, with the invention of moving pictures and the breakthroughs in mass producing personal radios, the concept of bringing a single product to an entire nation was born and with it the concept of pop-culture.

At first it was simple, big bands and radio shows in the afternoons. The country fell in love with Bogart, Bergman, and Garland and people all over the world were watching and worshipping the same cultural scions. The voices of popular music and the face of the movies were everywhere and along with the collective feeling of involvement, of a mass consumption that the world had never seen before.

Television soon followed suit and multiplied it all ten fold, along with affordable record players, the invention of cassettes, VHS tapes, and the computer. These days the availability of mass media is such that pop-culture is the only culture we have anymore. If you ask anyone on the street what cultural icon they most respect, theyll most likely offer up Eminem, Tom Cruise, or if theyre a little older the Beatles. But even the Beatles are a product of that pop-culture machine thats been churning since the dawn of the last century, diluting what we consume each and every day to the point of watching grown men and women fight in pits of mud and scorpions for $10,000 in prize money.

The idea that anyone would consciously compare the likes of Survivor and Desperate Housewives with Hemingway and Rembrandt is partially if not wholly disturbing when you think about it. The cultural output of todays society is strictly commercial. Thats not that there isnt decent music being produced, films made, and art created the world over every day, but less and less it is possible to dig through the slough of viral videos and 24 novelizations to find them.

Which brings me to the greatest cultural lesion of them all, born not quite five years ago. Yup, thats right. It hasnt even been five years yet. The summer after the quintessential defining event of this generation, there came another defining event, something which I hope every year (and find myself less willing to believe) will not be remembered as vividly as 9/11, the series premier of American Idol. I was fresh out of High School and had just moved out of my parents home.

I was staying with friends in a suburb of Seattle and on that fateful June evening in 2002 I watched as a few thousand poor souls made fools of themselves in the highly produced, quality free rehearsal space in front of three withered remnants of the music industry; the man who brought us the Spice Girls, a long since washed up drunk dance queen, and the guy who played bass on tracks for Madonna. These three at the same time tore apart, offered support and flung superfluous slang at awful and amazing singers alike in what Ive never been convinced is not a fully scripted three minute sequence.

The first season or two of the show were cultural phenomena. By the third season, the American Idol voting got almost as many votes in a single season as a presidential election, and ten times the viewership. Every teenager, washed up singer, and creepy old guy watched with intense interest as these poor kids sang their hearts out (granted, they have talent) for cheap poppy fluff that will sell.

God forbid you win the whole thing, as the promise of record contract also means youre eternally tied at the hip to Cowells production company and the overwhelming percentage they suck dry from your earnings. And these singers make money lots of it. The 20 million or more viewers watching for 10 plus weeks, are more than a little willing to pay for the album they watched the development of. Its marketing genius, and its destroying popular culture in the same way popular culture destroyed actual culture.
Theres no denying the popularity of the program, or the talent of the eventual finalists. But, this year especially, theres a certain feeling of production in every scene thats always been there. It pervades every audition. If you have a friend whos auditioned, and the odds are after six seasons of auditions you probably do, youll know that they only take a very small percentage of the 30,000 people that show to an audition to see the Big 3. And what do we see on tv? About 80% godawful singers. They purposefully pull these people from line, give them a disclosure agreement to sign and send them in to be knowingly torn apart by a smarmy Briton.

Better yet, since William Hung made his horrific appearance into a career, these lost souls go with the sole intention of being mocked mercilessly in hopes of finding fame in their poor performance. This year though, it went a little too far as a young man was berated for his weight and poor singing by the entire crew of judges only to later find out that he was mildly autistic. And they aired it.

These kids are throwing away their pride and dignity for the hopes that they can find fame in the sole fact that they were yelled at on American Idol. Its not only sad, its the most popular television program of the decade, and every year it gets more viewers. For shows like Arrested Development to go off the air and on the same network, millions tune in to watch an overweight autistic teen try his best to sing God Bless America and get degraded by the meanest (and Im banking that hes on script 90% of the time) man on television for the viewing pleasure of the increasingly brain dead masses around the world is sickening.
There was a time in the 80s when the music industry started ramping up its production in a box theory of output, not new to the industry but increasingly prevalent. There was a time when musicians used to get offended at being called mass produced and created. Now, its a part of the game. If you arent pushed through the blender of studio primping and preening, paraded across the national spotlight for approval, youre not ready to be the next it girl or guy.

For anyone who actually listens to music for intelligent lyrics or watches films or television for good writing, and social importance, shows like American Idol are only one more nail in the coffin of intellectual thought and culture. Pop culture can be intelligent. Thats been shown in the past few decades more than once, and it can become cultural with age (I point to The Beatles again), but American Idol will never be either of these and only serves to lubricate the downward spiral into cultural emptiness.

I'm a self avowed unemployed writer, working on semi-constant basis to try and overcome the need to go and work a real job. I've written more than 200 articles and reviews and am constantly scouring the internet for any and all excuses and methods to make myself less dependent on corporate pay days. Visit my website at TheChatfield.com

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