In a recent blog post, Abundant Living mentor Eric Plantenberg suggests a great way to rise and shine! By awaking to an IPOD or MP3 alarm dock playing an at-once pacifying and empowering song you can gracefully transition from sleep state to awake state. Scientists and personal development leaders claim this brief period in concsiousness change is a critical time to set your state and expectations for the day ahead.

Here is one song by the incomparable Joe Fred Paprocki that we highly recommend to realize bliss, gratitude, and positive energy at the start your day…

“Life will give you whatever experience is most helpful for the evolution of your consciousness. How do you know this is the experience you need? Because this is the experience you are having at the moment.”–Eckhart Tolle

My friend, Kelley Kalafatich, embodies being courageous in order to live a meaningful life. In this TEDx speech Kelley inspires us to act bravely now to realize a life of dreams coming true.

An important note about this video. Kelley is actually embracing her fears during this presentation. She had never before spoke in front of a large audience, even though she wanted to convey her message through the story of her life. Here she speaks to over 700 people. A lesson is this: we all can take a step in courage in order to make our lives and those around us better.

A brilliant new blog, SpiritualHottie.com asks the question “When should you stop pursuing your dreams?” In spiritual hottie’s answer is a key to happiness…

Michael Norton shares his ideas on money and happiness. The connection he has found that studies reveal works best may surprise you…

Self Improvement tip #1: Hug loved ones. Often.

Personal development expert and trainer David Shoup shares his story about watching what he ate and the amazing weight loss he experienced in a thirty-day period just by changing one main aspect of his eating habits.

Author and blogger Lauren Ruef shares her thoughts on what matters to women on her powerful personal discovery blog

“The only difference between people who live in this way, who live in the magic of life, and those who don’t, is that the people who live in the magic of life have habituated ways of being. They have habituated this process, and magic happens with them wherever they go. Because they remember and they do it all the time. Not just as a one time event.”–Marci Shimoff

“The most important thing you can do to achieve your goals is to make sure that as soon as you set them, you immediately begin to create momentum. The most important rules that I ever adopted to help me in achieving my goals were those I learned from a very successful man who taught me to first write down the goal, and then to never leave the site of setting a goal without first taking some form of positive action toward its attainment.”–Tony Robbins