Creating Your Life From Within by Michael Carpenter.

As the masters have been teaching for centuries: Your "outer" life is a reflection of your "inner" life. Although many of us have heard this insight, often we still forget to associate it with our daily lives. Often we place our focus on trying to create a new car, house, more sales, and money without ever thinking about the fact that our "outer" life is a reflection of our "inner" life.

Focusing on creating these things in our outer life is usually not the most effective way to go about creating them. Focusing on "within" can create those "things" much more easily. If we want to create all of the material things that we desire, what we need to do is place our focus on the "inner" state of mind that will create the "outer." We need to focus more on "abundance."

How do we do that?

By recognizing and focusing on the abundance we already have! If you don't think you are living in abundance, think again. Look at your life through "abundance" colored glasses. Truly recognize all the areas of your life, and things in your life that are beyond what you need.

All you really need to live is air, food, water, and shelter. Everything beyond that is just gravy. Abundance! Make a list of all those people and things. Focus on that list everyday in a true state of appreciation and watch it expand and create all of your desires.

If you want more success, focus on all the ways that you are already successful.

If you want more love, focus on all the people that already care about you and the abundance of love you have to give to others.

If you want to create greater health, focus on all the ways that you are healthy, so on and so forth.

The universe responds to our general "states of mind." If our general state of mind is always in a state of "want", then that's what we will get. If our general state of mind is usually in a state of "gratitude", then we will get more to be grateful for. That doesn't mean you still can't have desires. It just means not fretting over them.

Whenever you have a desire, ask yourself what is the "real" reason for that desire. What is your motive? Focus on creating more of that motive by appreciating how much of that you already have in your life.

For years we've been told to focus our imagination and effort on the "things" we want, but it is much easier and productive to focus on creating the "state of mind" that will spontaneously create these "things" in our lives.

It is much easier to effect change internally because we are dealing with an aspect of the universe that we can have complete control over. We can't always control our outer universe but we can always, with effort, control our inner universe. Since our outer world is a reflection of our inner world, this is very fortunate indeed.