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How to Build a Successful Business and Keep Your Sanity

Entrepreneurs are fast-moving hustlers who are prone to burning the candle at both ends. Left unchecked, this approach can lead to stress, burnout, and even physical health problems, all of which are bad for you, and bad for business. That’s why dedicated self-care is so critical to your overall business success. If you’re interested in mystic spiritual guidance, Grace Allison Blair can use her skills to help you solve everyday challenges.

Who made the rule life is hard? Learn how to create #courage #confidence and #creativity “Do You Have a Dream Workbook 5 Keys to Realize Your Dream”.  

Get Your Exercise

Sometimes it can feel like you’re running 100 miles an hour, but burning the midnight oil as an entrepreneur is not the same thing as dedicated exercise that gets your heart rateup. Make time for physical activity, even if you’re just getting back into the habit. Pick what works best, whether it’s a gym membership, a home workout station, or some adrenaline-pumping activity like mountain biking, hiking, or white water rafting. Not only can exercise help you stay healthy, but it can also help reduce stress and give you energy. According to Sleep.org. you’ll also sleep better, which will give you both stamina and focus in the office.

Learn to Relax

Much like exercise, relaxation is a good way to help you rest, recharge, and ultimately be a better business owner. According to the National Institutes of Health, try relaxation techniques like tai chi, yoga, meditation, or relaxation breathing. Listen to calming music, start a gratitude journal, or commune with nature. Making intentional steps to center yourself will sharpen your mental acuity and help you be better focused on your work. It will also help you manage work stressors. In fact, learning healthy relaxation practices and using them daily will make it easier to call these soothing techniques into action when you need them the most.

Use Time Management Skills

Entrepreneurs juggle a lot of different tasks, and you’re wise to hire out key services that will help you save time and energy. For example, utilize freelancers or independent contractors for heavy lift projects like web design or graphics work. Have a housekeeperat home, and hire someone to walk your dog, detail your car, and deliver your groceries.Freeing yourself from these tasks will give you more time to focus on self-care and building your business. Also, utilize apps and software applicable to your business – project management tools can be a time-saver, as well as help you collaborate and stay organized.

Maintain a Work-Life Balance

While easier said than done, it’s smart to maintain healthy boundaries between home and work life right off the bat. This is especially important if you have a family. Whenever possible, set firm start and stop times to your day, schedule yourself as strictly as possible, and clearly define what’s an “emergency” and what can wait. Delegate tasks where prudent and employ the adage of working smarter, not harder. If you have a home office, maintain reasonable work hours, and when you’re done for the day, shut the door and leave it closed.

Get Your Business in Order

A well-organized business structure can help ensure that all of your business functions run smoothly. Make sure you have all appropriate business licenses, permits, and insurance in place. You should also develop a detailed operating budget, a comprehensive business plan, and marketing strategy, and make sure to structure yourself as an LLC, or limited liability company. This will protect you from some types of liability, provide you with flexibility and tax advantages, and result in less paperwork. You can avoid pricey lawyer fees by filing yourself, or your best bet, use a formation service. States have different rules around LLC formation, so learn about yours in advance.

Make Time for Fun

Hopefully, you enjoy the work you do, but you also need to take time to do things that are fun for the sake of relaxation. Maybe you’re a video game pro, or you like to garden,paint, run marathons, or enjoy a leisurely brunch on the weekend. Whatever you like, whether it’s spending time alone or with family or friends, schedule time to do it. Put your “fun” on the calendar just like a work appointment and don’t let it get kicked off by work matters. This downtime is critically important to your overall mental health, and as such, you should consider it a vital “business appointment.”Launching a business is exhilarating, but it also has the potential to be mentally and physically taxing. Utilize all of the resources available to you to help ensure you’re taking good care of your growing venture while also caring for yourself. Grace Allison Blair is a modern Christian Mystic and award-winning self-help and motivational author. She helps her clients tap their courage, confidence, and creativity inboth meaningful and productive ways. Visit the website to learn more and reach out for a consultation. Photo By Pixaba

Article written by constributing freelance writer

Cheryl Conklin

Atlantis and the Supernatural Compass

 

Young Einstein learned through thought experiments he was able to go beyond his mind into joyful wonder. I had to go into my inner world of creativity to write the story of how an innocent young Jewish boy rose in his imagination to change the world. My novel began in 2014, published in 2019 and has won ten book awards. Now I begin a new chapter in my creative imagination with a novella based on the lost continent of Atlantis. Twenty thousand words of where our protagonist Arka and his evil brother Raka will embark on an adventure to initate the first supernatural Shamir Stone into the pryamids of Egypt. A new character Kyre, the high priest in charge of the light and energy crystals and Shamir will show us how the supernatural compass is created and used for the energy source for the pryamids and the world. Raka will do his best to interfere with the light workers. Are you ready to take an adventure to the original place of thought experiments, inspired creativity and spiritual light?

Spring 1895
Thought Experiment

Six male students in their mid-teens dressed in wool suits, starched white shirts, and blue-and-yellow neckties sat two by two in a single row, anxiously awaiting the start of class. Albert had enrolled in Aarau High School after his unsuccessful attempt to enter the Polytechnic. Of course, he had passed the math and science section of the exam with flying colors. Yet the test showed Albert needed more study in languages, biology, literature, political science, and botany. While somewhat disappointed with the test results, he saw it would only take a year at Aarau before he could get to the Polytechnic, and he was okay with that.

The smell of fresh white chalk stimulated Albert’s mind. He focused on the three Hs the headmaster, Professor Winteler, wrote on the blackboard; the principles of teaching the school followed.

Heart – to explore what students want to learn. To develop their moral qualities, such as helping others.

Head – to understand objects, concepts, and experiences.

Hand – to learn the craft of doing good work and develop their physical skills.

Completing his writing with a flourish, the teacher turned to face his class. His brown eyes twinkled, and there was genuine warmth and enthusiasm in his voice as he said, “I have found that people learn more easily accessing their intuition, their inner powers than they do through their minds.”

In the front row, Albert relaxed. For the first time in his school life, the reject from the Gymnasium in Germany felt connected.

The wise professor put down the chalk and rubbed his hands together. He adjusted his spectacles and said, “Our first exercise will be a thought experiment. It will assist us when we want to consider a hypothesis or theory when the purpose is to think through by steps to its consequences. This practice will increase your personal power of thought and imagination. What’s more,” he said with a smile, “by going inward, you begin to trust yourself.”

A sandy-haired student raised his hand, and the professor acknowledged him. “Yes, Gregory, you have a question?”

“I do, sir,” the boy said as he stood.

The professor smiled. “Good. Questions are encouraged. What do you have?”

“In this mind experiment, do we have our eyes open or closed?”

“For the purposes of our first experiment, you will have your eyes closed. Though I am sure sometimes during the day, you find yourself in a daydream where your mind is drifting in space even with your eyes open.” Gregory nodded as the professor continued. “We are going to use a what-if, dreamy kind of imagination to allow you to let go and create possibilities.”

As Gregory sat down, the professor instructed, “Now I want you to remove your jackets, loosen your ties, and sit up straight with your arms and legs uncrossed. Place your hands on your thighs, palms up.”

The students did so and waited for the next direction.

“Close your eyes and take a slow, deep breath,” Winteler said. “Inhale, then slowly let go of all the air in your lungs.” He paused for a few seconds. “Again, this time breathe in more slowly.” As the students did this, he paused, then said, “Hold the air inside.” He paused again. “Let go of all the air, slowly. Allow your body to relax. Keep your eyes closed and focus on your breath going in and out. If your mind starts to chatter, just acknowledge that then bring your focus back to your breathing.”

Albert sat with his back straight though he was relaxed, surrendering his mind. Lost in the experience, the dreamer did not even hear what the teacher said next because he found himself enveloped in a warm glow, and he felt like he was rising above the Earth. A motion caught his awareness, and he glanced to the side. Next to him flew a graceful, towering, luminous being with flowing, golden hair. Somehow, Albert sensed it was an angel. The angel’s violet eyes gave the dreamer a loving smile, and Albert surrendered more fully to his experience. Archangel Michael offered Albert his hand, and Albert gently grasped it. The sound of angels singing “Glory to God in the highest” rang out over the universe.

Einstein’s Compass a YA Time Traveler Adventure

Award-winning Middle Grade/YA Author Grace Blair Asks, “What if Einstein Had a Magic Compass?”

Grace will be signing her new title Einstein’s Compass at BookCon in New York City

May 28, 2019—Meet multi-award-winning author Grace Blair at BookCon and Book Expo America (BEA). Grace will be available to speak with book buyers, librarians, the press, and readers during BookCon on Saturday, June 1 as well as during BEA, which takes place beginning tomorrow, Wednesday, May 29 through Friday, May 31 at the Javitz Center in New York City.

 

In Grace’s latest book, Einstein’s Compass: A YA Time Traveler Adventure, we meet a young Albert Einstein who has been given a supernatural compass that allows him to travel through time and space. Through the compass, Albert finds wisdom in other dimensions, including the lost city of Atlantis. But evil forces seek the power of the compass, including a monstrous, shape-shifting dragon from a different age. Can the compass protect Albert from such villainy?

 

A finalist in the 13th Annual National Indie Excellence Awards and Winner of the 2019 eLit Silver Award for Juvenile YA Fiction, Einstein’s Compass has been called “a riveting fantasy about soul-searching and growth [that] will keep young adult readers engrossed to the end.” ~ Midwest Review of Books. Grace will be signing copies of Einstein’s Compass at Booth 1003 (Ingram Pavillion) from 11:00 a.m to 12:00 p.m. on Saturday, June 1, 2019. Book supplies are limited.

~

About Grace Blair: Grace is an award-winning self-help and motivational author as well as a podcast host. She has helped thousands find spiritual wisdom to solve everyday challenges. As a serious student of all things spiritual and mystical, she has found that often psychological principles are enriched by a spiritual component. She frequently uncovers practical applications for her discoveries in the mystical world. Her studies, experience, and discoveries inspired her to write Einstein’s Compass. She lives in Lubbock, Texas, with her husband, Dr. John Blair. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/30995754-einstein-s-compass

Is Ophelia Hamlet’s ‘Holy Grail’?

By: Paul Hunting, Author Shakespeare’s Revelation

The drowning of Ophelia: its mystical symbolism revealed

“Nymph, in thy orisons, be all my sins remembered.” – Hamlet

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hidden in the symbolism and word-play of Shakespeare’s plays is the most important (forbidden) truth about who we really are and why we’re here on earth. In order to marvel at this subtext story, you may need to make the fundamental paradigm shift.

The key paradigm shift is to see the characters not as people in the real, historical, or fictional external world, but as characterizations of three pairs of archetypes of our primary internal states of consciousness. Having been a spiritual psychologist, theologian, and executive coach for over 30 years, I thought I was dreaming when I first realized that Shakespeare, to drive the plots of his plays, was using the exact same model of consciousness I have found invaluable to navigate my clients through the labyrinth of the ego into a more soul aware state.

The most confusing element of the subtext – and thus most intriguing – is the plethora of different symbols that refer to what Shakespeare ultimately calls ‘The Tempest’. The Tempest shows up like Alfred Hitchcock, in some guise, in all the plays. Often it’s so subtle it’s almost invisible (as in Measure for Measure).

At the anagogical level, the symbolic story Shakespeare always tells us is ‘How Adam and Eve lost the ‘Holy Grail’ and how Jesus Christ got it back’! ‘The Tempest’ turns out to be Shakespeare’s term for what has become mythologized as none other than ‘The Holy Grail’.

Hamlet is one of the most masterful disguises-and-thus-revelations of this never-before-realized analogy. As I said, if you suspend all disbelief and open your mind you may see this for yourself as I simply point out what the symbols say to me.

As you can see from the pictures, all these biblical and Shakespearean symbols seem to represent the one same thing, for convenience let’s just call it: ‘The Holy Grail’.

 

Ophelia’s role in Hamlet seems in part to represent the journey of Hamlet’s soul – independent of Hamlet as a mortal being.  The key symbol used for Ophelia’s mystical travels is a variation of the term ‘the waters’.

The waters are first seen in Genesis 1: 2 (And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.) In multiple forms of water (seas, rivers, brooks, streams, rain, etc) the waters is a ubiquitous symbolic reference throughout the Bible and Shakespeare. (For a fuller explanation please read my book, Shakespeare’s Revelation.)

Using a ‘brook’ to represent ‘the waters’ goes back to the biblical story of David and Goliath. Symbolizing the power of ‘the Name of God’ to vanquish ‘evil’, it’s interesting that the boy-king David, holding a staff (another symbol for the name of God), took five smooth stones (again, more symbolic names of God) from a brook before defeating Goliath.

No coincidence that Ophelia appeared to drown falling from a willow growing ‘aslant a brook’. (Bear with me!)

Combining these symbols with the images conjured by the poetry is all-important here. We have the image of a wronged-innocent being borne aloft and transported by a stream of water, adorned by (in particular) ‘coronet weeds’…and ‘long purples’.  While she is ‘chanting old lauds’ (praises).

 This, to me, evokes the images of the crown of thorns and the purple robe worn by Jesus at his trial and execution. Before you call the men in white coats, if you look, you’ll see elements of this motif also evident in many of the other plays, too. (Macbeth, for example, laments that: ‘upon my head they placed a fruitless crown and a barren scepter in my gripe’.)

In some of the ancient spiritual mystery schools, initiates chant ‘sacred tones’ to attune them to what’s sometimes called the Sound Current, the lifestream, that, it is said, draws the soul home to the Godhead – in the same way, it is the haunting music that draws Ferdinand to Miranda in The Tempest.

 After all, in Twelfth Night (Epiphany), music is ‘the food of love’ and the principal character, Viola, is named after a musical instrument, and disguised as a boy called Cesario (King).

Before she meets her watery death Ophelia is heard raving ‘madly’ chanting:

How should I, your true love know

From another one?

By his cockle hat and staff

And his sandal shoon.

A cockle hat is worn by a pilgrim (one on the journey to God) and sandals are often associated with Jesus

 

Then up he rose, and donned his clothes,

Again, alluding to the resurrection of Jesus.

And here’s the wonder of Shakespeare’s layer upon layer of symbolism: while Ophelia is ‘drowning’ in the glassy stream Hamlet is simultaneously traveling upon the waters to England.

It is on this watery voyage that Hamlet foils the plan of Claudius (Satan archetype?) to have the two ‘Jews’, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern murder him. And what is a ‘rosen Crantz’?

A crown of roses/crown of thorns

And there’s yet another layer of symbolism inherent here – if you can bear it:

One of the most persistent mythological motifs in the deepest drama is ‘symbolic resurrection’.  Shakespeare uses is his through, say, Desdemona, Juliet, and Cordelia who momentarily revive (or seem to) before their final death. Banquo ‘resurrects’ as a ghost. And here it is again with Hamlet. In surviving his attempted murder, he effectively ‘resurrects’ and when we see his new, upbeat mood in the final act this is corroborated.

 

Staying with this theme, things get even more delicious. When Hamlet arrives home in Denmark, just before he gets to Elsinore, he comes upon a cemetery outside the city walls. A grave is being prepared for none other than his beloved Ophelia. She is being buried outside the city walls because it is presumed she committed suicide. Why? (Gertrude’s description of her reported death says she fell from an overhanging bough.)

 

Why indeed? Surely, this is Shakespeare’s device for introducing his clincher symbol. Ophelia has to be buried outside the city walls. What does Hamlet find in the grave being dug for her?                                                         

             

                                                                                                       A  skull

The most iconic scene in all of Shakespeare is no less than an allusion to where Jesus was crucified and buried, outside the city walls at Golgotha, ‘The Place of a Skull’!

And when they came unto a place called Golgotha, that is to say, a place of a skull…they crucified him.. Matthew 27:33

 

 

For a free eBook Contact: paul@shakespearesrevelation.com

http://www.shakespearesrevelation.com

Paperback from Amazon: http://a.co/d/jgXcBWT

 

 

 

Authors Reading Book Review Einstein’s Compass

EINSTEIN’ S COMPASS by Grace Blair and Laren Bright is an exciting YA novel that weaves the life and discoveries of Albert Einstein with the eternal battle of good and evil.  Blair and Bright introduce an evil entity into their novel that is destined to become Einstein’s nemesis.  This dark power is named Raka and among his evil doings is the destruction of Atlantis.  He is very powerful and can take on the form of other beings, but his natural form is that of a fire-breathing dragon. He is replete with many powers and some ghastly antisocial behavior such as eating humans raw.  The cryptic statement “Give me what I want, and I’ll go away,” uttered by Stephen King’s evil entity Andre Linoge is equally apropos for this evil being because he wants something that Einstein has and Raka swears he isn’t going to rest until he gets it.

The novel starts with the story behind the evil force that becomes Einstein’s adversary. The source of the precious Shamir stone is revealed as an artifact created by God. When it is used by the righteous and the virtuous, its supernatural power can be harnessed for the good of mankind. The power of this stone is so potent that even Jesus, Moses and the angels are forced to have ad hoc meetings to prevent this stone from landing into the wrong hands of those who plan to wreak havoc on earth and all the other realms. Apparently, a dormant fragment of the Shamirstone was hidden in the compass device that Albert Einstein received as a child, and this fragment would only come alive if it came in contact with a being who was destined to have it and Einstein was a chosen one.

At age five the famous 20th-century scientist Albert Einstein fell ill.  Albert’s father presents his convalescing son with a compass to cheer him up. This simple device captivates the young scientist’s imagination because no matter where he went, the needle on the compass would only point in one direction. This experience apparently left a lasting impression on Einstein’s psyche and made him believe that something deeper is hidden behind the ordinary things around him. This incident from Einstein’s childhood has now become an anecdote used by teachers and parents to inspire young minds to explore the full potential of their mental faculties.

Grace Blair and Laren Bright, mashup tale of Einstein’s possession of the compass add intrigue, thrill, suspense, and biblical meanings to the anecdotal story.  The historical and religious references throughout the book are eye-opening and will probably send you on your own quest on Google to see what is real and what is fictional.

The authors of this book create a biblical twist behind Einstein’s genius and his landmark contributions to mankind. They also enhance his genius with the magical power of the stone which was first revealed to Einstein at age 12, when a three-dimensional number “33” floated above the compass. The number “33” is Einstein’s birth number, and the story suggests that double numeral birth numbers signify a “master path” and those with such a birth path “lift the loving energy of mankind”. Einstein mastered science and math way ahead of his peers and could envision potential scientific theories that were unthinkable to his peers. As per the book, the Shamir stone provided him with a steady guiding light and helped him reach these eureka moments.

The evil forces, Raka and his allies, however, are on a murderous path to kill the scientist and acquire the stone to attain ultimate power across all the realms. Luckily for young Einstein, the compass also serves as a warning device when certain evil is present. To this biographical narrative of Einstein’s life, the authors added an action-packed, thrilling battle of good versus evil and how a divine intervention, eventually led to Einstein understanding of “How time works.”   The ending provides a huge surprise that neatly brings to a close the plot’s twists and turns.   EINSTEIN’ S COMPASS is suspenseful, thought-provoking, and above all extremely entertaining.

https://www.authorsreading.com/book-reviews/grace-blair/einsteins-compass/
Reviewed by: sakshi

What is a Mystic?

During the 15th Century, the Spanish Inquisition punished people who had otherworldly experiences with God. Anyone who was a healer or had intuitive knowledge of God was burned at the stake. According to the church, the only way a person could hear the word of God was through a priest or minister. Today the term “mystic” is associated with the occult, magic, astrology and tarot readings. I want to educate people to know that the mystical is not dark magic nor should you be ostracized.

According to the dictionary, a mystic is a person who seeks by contemplation and self-surrender to obtain unity with or absorption into the Deity or the absolute, or who believes in the spiritual apprehension of truths that are beyond the intellect.

Being a mystic is a spiritual, religious, and transcendental experience. St. Theresa of Avila, a former Jewess was a Catholic nun and a mystic in the 16th century. The Catholic Church venerates more than 10,000 saints with many being mystics. Patron saints are often chosen today because an interest, talent, or event in their lives overlaps with the special area. For example, St. Francis of Assisi was a mystic who loved nature and so he is the patron of ecologists. St. Francis de Sales was a mystical writer and so he is the patron of journalists and writers. St. Clare of Assisi, a mystic and the patron of television because one Christmas when she was too ill to leave her bed she saw and heard Christmas Mass — even though it was taking place miles away. Angels are also named as patron saints.

I do not claim to be a saint. However, there are saints among us who do the work of loving service. In 1973, I discovered a spiritual phenomenon called the Mystical Traveler Consciousness. The Mystical Traveler is in everyone and is the living love of the spiritual heart of Jesus Christ. Imagine having an intuitive flashlight to look into the darkness of your soul. With the Light of God and the Mystical Traveler exercising the living spirit within, you can step into an awareness that will lift and assist you in your life’s lessons.

In the “AHA” book, “Do You Have a Dream?” 140 Insights into Building Confidence, Overcoming Stress & Loving Yourself”, you will have 140 of my best insights to assist you in focusing on and discovering more of the wisdom, truth, and beauty within you.

Let go of the world around you, go inside, find your dream and follow the adventure of making it come true.

In your day-to-day learning, if you find a unique way of dreaming, pass it on. We on planet earth are students of life. Maybe you can share and become a thought leader too.

Grace Allison, http://www.gracethemystic.com Modern Mystic: I am a creative, enthusiastic, visionary who enjoys making a difference through service.

GracetheMystic, Modern Mystic Media
806-790-4845 | graceallisonauthor@gmail.com | www.gracethemystic.com |
4408 14 Street Lubbock, Texas 79416

Americans are more anxious than before

File 20180509 34018 5fzs8z.jpg?ixlib=rb 1.1
39 percent of Americans report feeling more anxious than this time last year.
by Pathdoc/Shutterstock.com

Jacek Debiec, University of Michigan

Americans are becoming more anxious about their safety, health, finances, politics and relationships, a new online poll from the American Psychiatric Association finds. Compared to the results of a similar poll a year earlier, 39 percent of adults in the U.S. are more anxious today than they were a year ago.

As a psychiatrist and neuroscientist, I believe studies and polls like these help to identify individual and group vulnerabilities. They may provide clues for providing better clinical practice, implementing more effective public policies, and designing research projects that yield a better understanding of the causes of anxiety and better treatments.

Although anxiety is rising across all age groups and demographic categories, there are notable distinctions between certain groups.

For example, millennials are more anxious (especially about finances) than Gen-Xers or baby boomers – though boomers’ overall anxiety increased more than the other age groups. Women reported a greater increase in overall anxiety in all dimensions than men, and non-Caucasians’ overall anxiety rose faster in the preceding year than did Caucasians. Sometimes, anxiety occurs without clearly defined worries or awareness, suggesting the poll may have only captured part of a rise in adult Americans’ anxiety levels – and those adults’ anxiety may be affecting children and teenagers too.

While this poll was not designed to detect or diagnose anxiety disorders or pathological anxiety, it does indicate that people are perceiving greater potential danger to many elements of their well-being.

Anxiety is a lower-grade version of a fear response. Severe instances of fear – such as actual direct threats of pain, injury or death – can cause very real physical reactions, including a release of stress hormones into the bloodstream and changes in heart rate and blood pressure, as the body prepares to react rapidly.

Anxiety-triggered physiological responses are slower to develop, but can last longer. Rather than being caused by an immediate threat, it can happen as people adapt to changing situations, such as visiting new countries, starting a different job or experiencing major life transitions such as marriage, parenthood and aging. Often, anxiety dissipates as a person becomes more familiar with the new situation. Short-term and mild-to-moderate anxiety states are adaptive as they increase our alertness and prepare us for new challenges.

Although our genetic makeup controls much of our fear and anxiety responses, recent studies also implicate our social environment. Children are especially sensitive to their caretakers’ emotional states, which means that if more adults are more anxious, the same is true for kids.

But if it lasts, anxiety, like fear, can bring long-lasting physiological changes such as prolonged muscle tension, chronic high blood pressure and sleep disorders. Some groups may be particularly vulnerable to long-term anxiety, such as people with physical or cognitive limitations that make it hard to adapt to new situations.

For others, worrying can become so overwhelming that a person does not focus on other important areas of life issues such as work, school or relationships. An especially anxious person may become excessively sensitive to minor concerns, which may be manifested by overreacting or avoiding people or situations that are not dangerous.

The ConversationAlthough regular exercise, relaxation, healthy eating and time with friends and family are all known to reduce anxiety, these fixes may not be sufficient. To quote Martin Luther King Jr., given the social nature of anxiety, “We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.” This suggests that addressing actual threats and communicating carefully about perceived ones can have a beneficial impact on anxious Americans.

Jacek Debiec, Assistant Professor / Department of Psychiatry; Assistant Research Professor / Molecular & Behavioral Neuroscience Institute, University of Michigan

This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.

What is the biggest misconception about being a successful author?

The biggest misconception about being a successful published author is that when you finish your precious manuscript an agent will magically appear, sign you to a large publishing house and the money will roll in. All you have to do is write something.

The truth is writing is hard work. I spent more than forty years in various business industries in marketing and business development creating public images. I won the Dallas Business Journal Award in 2000 Retail for a shopping center in Dallas, Texas The Centre at Preston Ridge.

Writing a book can’t be that hard or so I thought.

I began my author journey after 9/11. I had just won the Dallas Business Journal Award when I was laid off. It took me two years to write eighty-eight pages, “A Dream is a Wish the Heart Makes”. I wrote and tore up many times before I felt ready to publish.

Excited with my new baby no agent came forward, no big publishing house came knocking on my door. I was told you have to have an established audience of thousands before an agent or publishing house will even talk to you.

Instead, I self-published. In 2004, the concept of being an indie author was unthinkable. When an agent heard you were an indie author they said you were a heretic and should be banned from the publishing world. Self-publishing was a new concept on Amazon. The self-publishing company I spent my hard earned dollars with did not follow through on their promises. Over the time of my contract, I lost a great deal of money and would years later assist a list of indie authors like me to sue them. Under several different publishing names, the company still exists making promises they cannot deliver.

The writing was still calling me to express myself. I wrote a series of self-help books that are based on forty years of my life where I explained how to use spiritual practices to change a life from fear to fun. In 2014, I rewrote my Dream book now called, “Do You Have a Dream 5 Keys to Realize Your Dream” which is available as an audiobook in my voice, an eBook and a workbook all available in bookstores and online. I won the 2016 bronze Spiritual and Inspirational Global Ebook Award, 2017 Texas Non-Fiction in Spiritual and Inspirational Award, 2017 Best Books Finalist Award. Still, no publishing house or agent has come calling.

While writing my non-fiction books I began the journey of writing fiction. If I thought writing a self-help book was hard, making up stories to entertain was three times as hard. Storytelling has a lot of rules that I am continually learning.

In 2014 after a trip to Jerusalem, Israel I chose to write an alternate history of Albert Einstein, “Einstein’s Compass a YA Time Traveler Novel”. Again, using my many years of exploring mystical teachings I wondered what if Einstein met spiritual beings who assisted him with his miracle theory? After four years of research and empty white pages on my computer, my novel has a completed first draft. God willing the book will be out by the end of 2018.

Now that my novel is in the hands of an editor, I spend my days on social media marketing my books. It is a full-time job. I spend as much time on my books as I would have to work for a company. Now the company is me, Modern Mystic Media.

There are millions of books on Amazon. Finding the right audience in the sea of good books and famous authors so people will find me and my baby is a hard work. Yet I am determined to have my work read. I love writing and connecting people with ideas that entertain, that make them think and maybe learn something.

When I write a press release of my new books or awards and send it to local and national media, most ignore me because I am self-published. You have to be with a well-known publisher for newspapers and media to pay attention.

The hallowed halls into a publishing contract are so slim there are many so-called experts that want to sell you software, textbooks, THE shortcut to publishing success. I have taken many seminars over the years in writing and publishing to where I think I can spot a scheme. Still, I have to monitor the impulse to buy that one thing that promises to sell more books.

In the future, you will see a lot of me everywhere. And, no agent or publishing company is helping with a big check or has opened doors. I show up every day and do what it takes to make my work visible.

Check out my books go to www.ModernMysticMedia.com. And, you can find me on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Kobo in bookstores and online.

Sign-up to read a pre-launch copy of “Einstein’s Compass a YA Time Traveler Novel”, go to www.GraceBlairAuthor.com if you signup and read it, please review the book. The only way indie authors like me sell books is if readers will write reviews then Amazon and its algorithms will push my ratings to rise to the top of the charts. Finding one reader and one fan at a time may someday accumulate into thousands.

If you want to write books do it because you love it. However, you may spend more money than you make. Know its hard work and no one is going to chase you down to make you famous. You will be alone in your journey. You have to put the seat of the pants and the seat of the chair, staring at a blank page and find the story inside your creativity that will make the reader turn the page to find out what happens next. Then be responsible for publishing and marketing.

“The #writer must let his fingers run out the story of his #characters, who, being only human and full of strange dreams and obsessions, are only too glad to run.”

Ray Bradbury, The Zen of #Writing