Daily Power For Joyful Living

This is the beginning of a series of spiritual readings designed to help you achieve your best self. These are different than the fiction stories I've read before. This is meant to take you on an inner journey to discover, within yourself, the power to achieve what you want in life... to make a path mentally and then see that path through in your waking life.

Transcript

Good evening.

My name is Bill Larson.

Tonight,

I want to take you on a little bit of a journey.

A journey of self-discovery.

A journey to find the power within yourself.

So,

With that in mind,

I'm going to begin reading Daily Power for Joyful Living by Donald Curtis.

Preface This book is your personal do-it-yourself construction kit.

You are to use it to build for yourself a richer,

Fuller life.

This is the greatest construction job which you will ever have the opportunity to undertake,

Building your own life.

Your life is what you make it.

I am the master of my fate.

I am the captain of my soul.

From Invictus by William Ernest Henley For most of us,

The task of life construction involves considerable reconstruction.

Before we can build a solid structure,

We must first clear away the debris of old ideas and habits.

That is where this book comes in.

It contains the tools by which you change your consciousness and therefore your life from negative to positive.

When this is done,

There is no limit to the power and the joy of your constructive living.

How to use this book This book contains 31 vital chapters,

One for each day of the month,

Each one covering an important area of your life,

And contains constructive techniques for strengthening each one.

Here is the way to use these valuable tools.

1.

Read this book completely through to get an overall grasp of its subject matter.

For this first reading,

Don't study it,

Just enjoy it.

2.

Now you are ready to use the tools in this book for constructive life-building purposes.

The first step,

Read a chapter a day each day of the month,

Each month for one year.

When you finish the first month,

Start back at the beginning and go through it again,

Studying the references and practicing the techniques given for each day.

There is ample material given for an entire year's program of constructive life-building activity.

Have fun doing it.

Living is fun.

Don't resist it,

Enjoy it.

3.

This book will be your constant companion for the next year,

So make friends with it.

Be good to it by using it.

It will be good to you by helping you become the person that you want to be.

Let your mind absorb the constructive ideas in each chapter.

This book is really a collection of affirmative ideas.

In your tools for each day,

You will find quotations from the world's great idealists and optimists,

Including many affirmative statements from the Bible,

As well as excerpts from inspiring poems which will lift your spirit to new heights.

In addition,

You will find many references to the author's two previous books,

Both indispensable guidebooks to joyful living.

They each contain numerous techniques for developing the affirmative approach.

Refer to these books.

Along with this one,

They will change your life.

4.

At the end of each chapter,

You will find a golden bridge to span each day.

The first part,

To project your constructive consciousness ahead each morning,

And the second,

To help you review your day before retiring each night.

The use of the golden bridge for each day is an integral part of the joyful living plan for which this book provides the blueprint.

This technique is fully described in Chapter 1.

One word of reminder,

These techniques will help you to the exact degree that you use them.

To make them work,

You must work them.

Just follow these instructions.

5.

At the back of the book,

You will find 366 constructive daily thoughts,

One for each day of the year,

Including leap year.

Memorize the appropriate thought each morning and repeat it frequently throughout the day.

It will keep you on the upward path.

6.

Share your thoughts of this book with at least one person each month.

In this way,

You will be sharing your good with others.

It will come back to you many times,

Because when you give to them and they give to others,

The accumulated good is totally active in the life of each individual who is using this approach to the more joyful life.

7.

Follow these instructions for one month and you will be an entirely different person.

Live by these suggestions faithfully for one year and you will become the person you want to be.

You are the builder.

Let's go.

Donald Curtis Chapter 1.

Living Your Golden Bridge to Life Have you lived here all your life?

The traveler inquired of the hearty old Vermonter.

Nope,

Not yet,

Was the reply as the man continued serenely about his business.

Life is never over,

Even though many people seem to have very little interest in living.

Millions now living will never die,

But the tragedy is that millions now living are already dead and don't know it,

Someone observed.

George Bernard Shaw once suggested that an appropriate epitaph for many people might be,

Died at thirty,

Buried at sixty.

In contrast,

However,

Are those in whom hope and life ever spring eternal and who give every evidence of planning to live forever.

Dear Father,

Prayed one old man,

Help me to live while I am alive.

Life is inevitable.

Relax and enjoy it.

This is our first step in becoming a wise and mature person and acting like one.

Your life is to do with as you will.

No one can live it for you.

No one can learn for you,

Grow for you,

Or express your life for you.

Each individual's life is a personal matter.

It is up to us what we do with this most precious of all gifts.

How are you spending your life?

History and reason indicate that the best approach is to live every moment to the fullest and let the results take care of themselves.

Life needs no excuse or explanation.

It needs only to be lived.

The Golden Bridge method used here has evolved out of my classes and personal counseling work with students over a period of several years.

As a result,

Many thousands are finding it effective in building richer,

Fuller lives.

The Golden Bridge,

What it is and How to use it The Golden Bridge is the actual completion of our inner identification with the creative process.

As we build the bridge in our minds,

We are constructing a path upon which we travel to completion and accomplishment.

The Golden Bridge is a rehearsal for life.

By this process,

We form the invisible structure upon which is built the formation of our lives.

It defines where we are going and provides a means for getting there.

The Golden Bridge utilizes all of our creative faculties.

It takes chance and effort out of our activities.

It dissolves the barriers of time and space by building within us an awareness of purpose and completion.

The use of the Golden Bridge will enable us to transcend our human failings and weaknesses and will lift us into a consciousness of our true place in the great scheme of things.

The Golden Bridge will release the power of your magnificent potential and give you the necessary direction for complete fulfillment.

The Golden Bridge has become for me life's most valuable tool.

It is a device for bringing divine power into tangible expression.

It is tremendous.

Let's learn to use it.

Become completely relaxed.

Detach your mind from all concerns and random thoughts.

Remove all personal effort as you become still and identify yourself with the indwelling reality.

Visualize light and inner peace and beauty and let the feeling of power and strength generate within you.

Let yourself become filled with the spiritual fuel which provides the thrust to project you into new and vital experience.

Take time to get completely quiet inside.

Form the picture of yourself as a whole person,

Spirit,

Mind,

And body.

As you achieve this feeling of completeness,

You will be ready to build and travel the magic span of the Golden Bridge.

Picture yourself as a magnificent and powerful rocket which is being projected along a beautifully arching trajectory into new spheres of understanding and experience.

We span the infinite realms of experience as we traverse the Golden Bridge.

We start from where we are.

What we are doing in inner visualization sounds something like this.

The Golden Bridge is the upper path of spirit,

Mind,

And imagination.

It enables us to reach our destination by rising above the obstacles of ignorance,

Mistakes,

And trial and error experience which block our way when we fail to use the power within us.

Visualization,

Imagination,

And realization are its natural capacities.

Send it ahead of you and let it prepare the place for you.

Identify yourself with it completely in the inner stillness,

And you will go with it into the glorious realms to which it will lead you.

Trust it completely.

It is intuition inspired by spiritual realization.

It is your real self.

Through it,

You build the Golden Bridge of your life.

This technique may be applied to any section of your experience,

No matter how small it may be,

From a single moment to eternity.

The Golden Bridge enables us to know where we are going because after we have once spent it in our inner consciousness,

We then return and travel it in the action of experience without any peril of losing our way.

Do you see how it works?

When the inner consciousness once reaches the destination,

Even though the outer self may still need to go through plans,

Problems,

And worldly actions,

The inner self has already reached its destination and achieved its goal.

It is a matter of reaching absolute conviction.

There is no better way to convince ourselves that we can do a thing than actually to do it.

When we travel the Golden Bridge,

We arrive at our destination first as preparation for starting to go.

Suppose you were to take a trip to a distant country where you had never been.

You would arrange the trip with your travel agent,

Who would help you make plans and would tell you what you could expect along the way and after you got there.

You would study travel folders and learn the language and customs of the place you are to visit.

You would provide yourself with tickets and the necessary items to take on the trip.

You would make all arrangements.

You would prepare yourself completely for a pleasant journey.

In essence,

You would take the trip many times vicariously before you actually started on the physical journey.

You would be there in consciousness long before you ever left home.

So it is with the Golden Bridge.

But it is more than just an imaginary journey.

It is complete preparation for what is to follow.

We both misunderstand and underestimate the true function and power of the imagination.

We are what and where we are because we have first imagined it,

Consciously or subconsciously.

The Golden Bridge speeds up the process and makes it easier.

The Golden Bridge is the direct path.

It avoids the detours,

The twistings and turnings,

The pain and suffering,

The misdirections,

The discouragements,

And the lost ways.

The Golden Bridge looks something like this.

Visualize the Golden Bridge as leading straight up to the summit of a high mountain,

Which is also traversed by a winding,

Twisting road.

The mountain represents the achievement and enlightenment attained through growth and experience.

It represents the distance we travel as we keep moving upward.

It may,

And undoubtedly does,

Take many lifetimes to reach the top of the mountain.

But the important thing to remember is,

We all make it eventually.

The Golden Bridge enables us to progress more surely and more rapidly by developing our full inner resources.

None of us really knows how far he has progressed up the mountain.

We do know that we are on our way upward,

And our challenge is to go as far as we can.

The winding road up the mountain represents the long and slow trek upward through experience,

Trial and error,

Toil and suffering.

It reaches the summit too,

But the trip is a long and perilous one,

Filled with many turnings,

Backtrackings,

And detours.

This visual presentation of the Golden Bridge should be firmly fixed in your mind as a master symbol for meditation and inner work.

Even though we may get confused and lost in dealing with life's problems,

We can always get back on the right track by visualizing this straight path.

We can never get lost when we stay on the Golden Bridge.

The Golden Bridge is a means of cooperating with the creative law of life.

It enables us to use the power within us for the real business of life,

Growth and accomplishment on every level.

It enables us to flow with the tide,

The inner resurgence of energy and power,

Which is always seeking expression.

The Golden Bridge is one means of making our personal will one with the divine will.

Constant inner work will enable us to discover what this will is and will enable us to cooperate with it.

An awareness of the larger picture gives meaning and purpose to the adventure of living.

Let's learn to use the Golden Bridge as the path along which we walk hand in hand with our inner partner,

Our higher self.

The Golden Bridge technique may be used to prepare the way for any segment of activity or experience.

An hour,

A day,

A week,

A month,

A year or a lifetime.

Start by using it to span each day.

Mentally,

Cut through any doubts and anticipated difficulties until the path of the day is projected straight and true before you.

In this way,

You arrive mentally at your destination before you actually start the trip.

You have no idea of the freedom and ease with which you travel once you have learned to do this.

It will give you the direction and the certainty which will enable you to meet every situation with confidence and power.

Once you know everything is going to be alright,

The conviction which you build with your Golden Bridge,

You will not be concerned with minor difficulties which may arise.

The very fact that you have built your conviction in itself projects an authority and power which keeps difficulties from arising and causes everything to work out properly.

Golden Bridge for this day Construct your Golden Bridge for each day as soon as possible upon awakening.

Get perfectly still and travel step by step to the end of the day,

Progressively building the conviction that you are actually there doing the things which you are visualizing and stating,

And that they are completed.

Make your statements aloud if possible,

For this will keep your mind on a straight track and build a stronger inner feeling.

Here is a model for a Golden Bridge for one day.

Adapt it to your own situation as needs be.

I am now building the Golden Bridge of this day.

I give thanks for this day and the potential of great experience during every moment of it.

Throughout this day,

I am guided and directed by the inner intelligence which prepares the way for me and makes straight and true the pathway of my experience.

Everything I do has purpose and meaning.

I work efficiently and well.

I am in perfect control of myself and every situation at all times.

I am free from all doubt and uncertainty as I move serenely ahead.

I put my best foot forward at all times.

I know that what I plan to do is already an accomplished fact in my experience.

And every outer action is a projection of this inner pattern.

In this way,

I can make no mistakes because I have already traveled the road which I am on.

Being sure of myself,

I am able to adapt successfully to anything as it arises.

Being already sure of the outcome,

I live joyously,

Eagerly,

And expectantly all day long.

I love life,

I love life,

And I love to live.

Each second of time moves me that much closer to the completion of a happy and successful day.

I easily complete my preparations for this day of success.

Everything in my home and family is harmonious and orderly.

Love and goodwill bless my relations with my family and all other people throughout this day.

I am kind,

Understanding,

And courteous at all times.

Breakfast this morning is a leisurely and pleasurable experience.

Good conversation and sharing of viewpoints grace our table.

My family and I are nourished in soul as well as in body.

Everything is wonderful.

I gather energy and momentum as I go along.

I operate as a whole person.

I get the most out of life today and always.

There is no limit to my potential.

I am on the high road at all times.

I am a success in every way.

And so it is.

I am protected and guided as I journey to my work.

I enjoy the trip.

I eagerly anticipate the work which awaits me there.

I am on time for every appointment and everything is accomplished successfully and is arranged according to the best interests of everyone concerned.

What I do,

I do well.

My work is thorough and of high quality.

I constantly work to improve myself and what I do.

I am a top-rate person.

I do a good job of being my best self at all times.

I take joy in the doing.

And I let results and rewards take care of themselves.

I am free from concern,

Worry,

Or fatigue.

Continue in this way until you have covered your entire day.

Give special attention to important appointments,

Decisions,

And projects.

Take the affirmative approach and keep at it until the picture is clear and your conviction is strong.

Cover everything,

No matter how large or how small.

The results which you achieve depend upon the thoroughness of your inner mental work.

Refuse to let your mind dwell upon anything except what you want it to accept.

Spend approximately a half hour building your Golden Bridge at the beginning of each day.

Be thorough about it and give it full time.

Doing so will add immeasurably to your efficiency and accomplishment.

Once you form the habit of building the Golden Bridge,

You will never try to do anything without it.

The longer you work with this technique,

The more efficient you will become and the easier it will be to do.

As you do your inner job well,

You will be able to handle anything that comes up without it throwing you.

Then too,

There are times during the day when you will need to become quiet and do some repair work on the Golden Bridge or you may need to alter the original design.

Don't let this upset you.

Just do it.

Ride with life.

Be flexible and adaptable.

But always work from a solid inner structure.

Nothing is more important than this.

The Golden Bridge is of inestimable value in this respect.

Having completed your Golden Bridge for the day or any particular segment thereof,

Release it,

Forget about it,

And go ahead and do what you have to do.

The structure is there and will automatically provide the pattern for the action which follows.

You will be amazed by the results you achieve and how much more enjoyable life becomes.

The Need of Retracing Your Steps on the Golden Bridge A technique of retrospection goes hand in hand with the Golden Bridge.

Let us suppose that you have built your Golden Bridge and have traveled it,

Successfully or unsuccessfully,

Throughout the day.

You are now back in bed,

Where you awakened to start your day many hours before.

No matter what the day has been like,

Get quiet inside and deliberately go back over the Golden Bridge of your day in reverse order.

Start from where you are and retrace your steps through the evening,

At dinner,

The afternoon,

Lunch,

Morning,

And all the way back to when you awakened.

Fix everything so that it is right.

Forgive yourself and others.

If you were wrong,

Admit it.

If a situation was handled badly,

Correct it in your mind and rehearse it visually with thought,

Word,

Action,

And feeling until it is right.

Erase all unpleasant memories,

Impressions,

And confusions,

And replace them with the corrected ones.

Your subconscious mind will retain what you instruct it to retain.

Correct your mistakes and fix things that went wrong,

Giving particular attention to your thoughts and attitudes and what you said and felt.

As you do this,

You will cleanse your mind,

Your memory,

And your emotional state of everything except what you want to remain there as a permanent and constructive part of your consciousness.

You will balance the mental,

Emotional,

And spiritual budget.

You will sleep better than you ever slept in your life,

And you will awaken refreshed and strengthened.

Remember,

The feeling you go to sleep with is the one you wake up with.

When your mind is free as you go to sleep,

Powerful subconscious natural forces are free to work through you,

Refreshing and instructing your mind,

Developing your soul,

And rebuilding your body.

There are no more valuable life tools than the golden bridge and its counterpart,

The process of retrospection by which you go back over the events of your day in reverse order.

When you practice these disciplines faithfully,

You will rebuild your life completely.

You will experience health,

Happiness,

Success,

And fulfillment because you will be constantly projecting them mentally,

Emotionally,

And spiritually into your world.

Daily Thoughts About Life from this chapter Live each moment as if it were both your first and your last.

Life is inevitable.

Relax and enjoy it.

The business of living is to attune ourselves to the free,

Full flow of life which runs through everything.

There is no thrill like the thrill of constructive living.

The will to live fills us with the energy of life.

Life is a personal matter.

It is up to each one of us to live fully.

And your outer life is the expression of your inner life.

Golden Bridge to Life Morning Projection My life lies stretched before me in smiling repose.

This day I move one step forward toward my demonstration of complete and perfect good.

I am guided and directed each step of the way throughout my long and beautiful life.

I enjoy every moment of it.

I am piled with the joy of constructive living.

I thrill to the wonder and glory of life.

I live my life abundantly now.

As I go serenely and purposefully about the business of living,

I act from the center of order and purpose within me.

My thoughts,

Feelings,

And aspirations are consistent with all that is true and fine.

In working for my own good,

I am also working for the general good.

I construct my life on sound spiritual principles.

I am right inside.

Therefore,

I can do no wrong,

And so it is.

Evening Retrospection Quietly now,

I review today's activities with a calm and introspective eye.

I look at myself objectively so that I may interpret my thoughts,

Feelings,

And actions intelligently and honestly.

I cleanse myself of all unworthiness.

I dissolve all negativity.

I free myself from all bondage and limitation.

I cut through all confusion and congestion.

I get my life in order.

As I review this day's activities,

I give thanks for this opportunity to grow and learn.

I now see all things in their proper perspective.

I clean house this evening.

As I relax and reflect,

I set my house in order so that I am not burdened by any unworthy or unfinished business.

As I wind up today's business,

I close the office of my mind,

Leaving everything in perfect order.

As I reflect upon the beauty of life,

I quietly and peacefully drift off into deep and refreshing sleep.

My mind is piled with pleasant dreams.

My house is in perfect order now.

And so it is.

Reviews

Bill has a soft, grounding voice as if to tuck you in for a relaxing slumber amongst fluffy clouds of care & compassion.
It is very easy to transport to the destination he reiterates to you. I have thoroughly enjoyed most of the stories told by Bill but do wish for more from him.
Five*****

I enjoyed this Bill, thank you! I hope you read more of these!

Magnificent. Thanks💕

Thank you again, Bill, for adding another great meditation to your library! I am a longtime fan; I started listening to your meditations and following you when you started the Wizard of Oz readings. I have been with you through the Jungle Book and this self-improvement reading is a wonderful addition. Thank you for all of your work and efforts!! 👍🏼🙏🏻👍🏼🙏🏻

Perfect voice and cadence for falling asleep!

I wish I could say more about the content, but I was snoozing peacefully before the introduction was over! Your voice and reading was lovely as always.