8 Ways to Write a Winner Book Fast!

Have you given up on getting your book out of your heart into the hands of your readers? Don't give up. There's an easy way to do anything and a more difficult way. The easy way usually includes getting helpful advice from someone that's been there and done that. The author has written five of those ten books that were stuck in her heart a few years ago. Here's eight steps that will speed you on your way to getting your book out now:

1. Setup a regular writing schedule.
Think about your priorities right now. Can you fit 7-10 hours a week in? If you have to let something go that is not high on your priority list, do it. Now is your time. Later is not better. Set yourself up for a successfully written book this year by committing to a regular schedule. After it's done, remember to reward yourself.

2. Plan a short book first.
Many aspiring writers overwhelm themselves with goals of a 365 page book first. Shorten your book to 25-90 pages the first time or divide your large book into a smaller book one and two. Though you shorten it, still fill it with useful information by using the question and answer format for each chapter. Using the same format and length for each chapter and answering all your readers' questions will not only speed your writing process but it will result in a successful book.

3. Let your passion lead you to a topic.
Passion will not only stir your readers when your book is done but it will keep you motivated to do the work involved. Yes, I did say work. Passion will make your work easy. Passion will lead you to develop all the profit centers (seminars, articles, or consulting services) your message deserves.

4. Choose what's interesting to you.
If you are interested in what you are writing about you will happily write all you know and research to know more about your subject. You will easily spice your writing with interesting tid-bits that will delight your readers and keep them reading until the end of your book.

5. Get to know your reader before you write.
Target your audience and your copy will be focused, interesting and compelling. As a method of writing personable copy, write and post (somewhere in your work area) your reader profile including their sex, their top interest, what they spend money on, what books they want and read. Your subject must benefit your audience to capture their interest. After all who wants to pay for a book that doesn't help them in any way?

6. Develop a plan for each chapter before you write.
Using a format plan including headlines throughout will organize your chapters. Organized chapters become easy to write and fill in the blanks. Additionally, organized chapters are easy to read and your readers will love it and tell all their friends about it. Don't forget to weave the questions and answers that benefit your audience into your text.

7. Design your book to market well while you write.
Incorporate the top market spots designed to sell more your book is completed. The hot spots are the title, cover, thesis, audience, benefits & features, mini sales letter written as introduction and back cover copy of each book.

8. Select your non-fiction topic first.
You may be like the author wanting to write novels. But start with the profitable book first, so you can finance your dream efforts. Write a short book first and satisfy the busy people that want useful information fast and easy. Remember answering 5 questions about one chapter topic will create a 5 page chapter.

Get your book out of your heart to paper fast. If you wait you could be this time next year with the same desire to get your book out. Use the eight easy steps of committing to a regular writing schedule, planning a short book first, choosing a passion-led topic, picking an interesting to-you subject, getting to know your reader first, developing a plan for each chapter, designing your book's top market spots, and choosing your non-fiction topic first to become a successful author sooner. The world is waiting for your important message to answer their questions and help them become successful.

? Earma Brown, 10-year author, entrepreneur and book coach
eBk: Jumpstart Writing Your Best Book
Helps Writers and Entrepreneurs realize their book dreams
P.O. Box 612, Wylie, Texas 75098
Visit http://www.writetowin.org To receive free ezine iScribe
& mini-course "Jumpstart Writing Your Book" mailto:iscribe@writetowin.org
Ph: 877-846-9908

Privately-Owned Vacation Property Offers Outstanding Value to Renters

In November, 2004, my wife Terry and I visited Paris for seven days. We stayed in a postage stamp sized hotel room in the Latin Quarter about two blocks from Notre Dame Cathedral.

We toured the Eiffel Tower, Notre-Dame Cathedral, Versailles, Sainte-Chappelle, the Arc de Triomphe, the Musee d'Orsay, the Louvre (two days), and went to a show at Lido's.

We discovered, or rather stumbled upon another highlight of our trip ? an open air market half a block from our hotel. The market operated only three days a week and featured the freshest meats, poultry, seafood, cheeses, breads, and produce from the outlying farms and countryside. There was a black wild boar, or at least the hide, on display in the meat section. Pheasants and other game birds, feathers in tact, hung from the rafters of the butcher shop

While we had many great meals including a few gourmets dining experiences in Paris, we missed the opportunity to prepare some of our own dinners. Both Terry and I love to cook and we have never seen such quality, fresh ingredients. But, we had no facilities to cook for ourselves. Nor did we have much space in our hotel room.

This is one of those times when you hit yourself on the forehead with the palm of your hand. "Why didn't we rent a fully furnished apartment or condo rather than a hotel room?"

This revelation has prompted me to revisit some of my own writings. And here is some of my advice from years past:

Your vacation property provides value, fun, and excitement not just for you and your family, but for anyone who might rent your property.

Vacationers will find a "home away from home" with all the privacy and convenience they expect.

Consider the vacation options: a resort hotel room, a cramped cabin on a cruise, or a privately-owned vacation house or condo at the destination of your choice.

Count the following among the many advantages a privately-owned vacation property has over a resort hotel room:

1. Savings on Meals ? A furnished kitchen allows vacationers to prepare many of their own meals. During a week's vacation, dining in, rather than going to restaurants for every meal translates into several hundred dollars in savings on food alone.

2. More Room ? A vacation home, condo, or villa usually has more space than a resort hotel room. Often, the condo or villa has a living room, dining room, kitchen, and perhaps a porch, balcony, or deck. When you're on vacation, it's nice to have some space.

3. Beautiful Furnishings ? Many vacation properties reflect the good taste and pride of the owners with fine furnishings and decorator touches.

4. More Privacy ? Often the homes, villas, and condos are more secluded, more private than a room in a hotel. In a resort hotel, you may have revelers roaming the halls at all hours.

5. Fully Equipped ? In addition to a furnished kitchen with microwave and refrigerator, the vacation property may have a washer and dryer. Guests can wash their golf, tennis, ski, or beach wear each day. Hidden benefit: less luggage to haul on the trip.

6. Mini Bar vs. Refrigerator ? Take a single beer from the hotel mini-bar or take a six-pack from the refrigerator at the condo. Guess what? The cost is about the same. Mini-bars provide great profit centers for hotels. Refrigerators, microwaves, VCRs, washers and dryers provide excellent convenience and savings for vacationers.

7. Better Rates ? Despite these many advantages, privately-owned vacation property often costs less per week or per day than a hotel room at the same resort.

We had a wonderful trip to Paris. But, when we return ? and I hope it is soon ? we will take the extra step of finding an apartment or condo to rent.

Copyright? 2005, Christopher Communications, Inc. All rights reserved.

About the Author -- Chris Cain wrote "Maximize Your Resort Property Investment" (1984), "Road Map to Your Vacation Property Dream" (1998), and dozens of articles on vacation property. He is a nationally-known speaker on the topic and he sells vacation property in Orlando, FL. Chris bases his writings and counseling on his 16 year ownership experience of a seaside villa at Kiawah Island, SC. "Road Map to Your Vacation Property Dream," is available for $9.95 plus $4 S&H when ordered direct by calling toll-free 1-888-822-6657. Contact Chris Cain at vacvalue@aol.com.

The Healing Hand of God

"Praise the Lord, O my soul; all my inmost being, praise his holy name. Praise the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits - who forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the pit and crowns you with love and compassion, who satisfies your desires with good things so that your youth is renewed like the eagle's. " Psalm 103:1-5, NIV.

The past few weeks I've found out that a couple of my Christian sisters now have breast cancer. On top of that, I've met some online sisters in Christ who are battling ongoing illness and are recovering from recent setbacks with their illnesses.

Illness is just once facet of the adversity we face and suffer here on earth. It isn't because God doesn't love us either and desires to see us suffer. Rather, our God is a God of healing and love. Our fallen state (sin) is the reason we suffer. Let me clarify before you think I am suggesting that my sisters in Christ are ill due to their sin. No, that isn't what I'm saying because we all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.

I'm saying that due to the fall of man into our sin nature, this world will not be the beautiful, perfect, healthy, complete place God designed for us to have. He does allow different forms of hardship and adversity in our lives to grow us up in Him for His purpose and His glory. I find it interesting that He has all these different women in my life right now and my business is in the holistic care and healing of pets. I use the same approach with my own health which is why it transfers easily over to pet care. I chose pet care because I know it is the vocation God has gifted me with and desires for me for His purpose and glory.

You see, I'm not the healer. I bring the "ingredients" to heal, but the healing comes entirely from God. Not me. God even gives me my passion to share and my desire to learn more about natural healing. So, I'm going to connect the dots here so you'll see where I'm going with this.

God has given me a passion to share healing and wellness with others and their pets. I have a natural affinity with animals which God gifted me with. I ignored that gift for a long time and I always felt like I was lacking, incomplete and it showed in frustration. Through some trials and hardships I ended up back in the pet care industry and with a passion that has been ignited to a roaring fire!

Okay so I'm in the holistic pet care industry which almost always gives folks the idea that I'm into the new age movement and all that goes with that -until I let them know I'm a Christian of course. Prior to becoming a Christian I bought into some of the new age ways.

As God continued to give me a passion to seek out alternative, natural ways to bring healing and wellness to others, to show people how to be proactive in their own wellness and using the same principles to apply to their pet care, I've been surrounded by people and pets who are sick. On top of that, many of them are very much into the new age movement. I can kind of sit here and laugh at that because I believe I went through some of my spiritual and physical struggles just so that when I finally got around to obeying God and His purpose for my life, I'd be able to relate to those who are still into that form of "spirituality" not realizing they are in fact against God. So I could be salt and light. So that God could then use His healing Hands on these lost and hurting souls.

By obeying His will for my life and sharing my passion with others and their pets, God is bringing so many different people into my life to share His healing hands with. While they may think it is my compassion or kindness (that I attribute only to God because I was always a selfish and hard person prior to Jesus coming into my life) I'm just the conduit of His love and healing coming through to all He brings in contact with my life. That also means hurting and ill Christians. That He may touch them with His healing hands and take them deeper into the knowledge, joy and wonder of Him!!

So that when they are healed -we know that some will be healed and others will not and only God knows the reasoning behind that - they too will be able to bring comfort and share with others His healing hands.

Our entire life, when we surrender to God's will, becomes a vessel to serve others to God's everlasting glory!

Kim Bloomer is a preventative pet care consultant Aspenbloom Pet Care and publishes a RSS channel dedicated to helping pet owners care for their pets naturally Aspenbloom WellPet

Build & Protect Your Confidence

I can remember the first time that I had to get new customers from a cold start. I was a sales rep at IBM. I had only been selling for a short while since graduating from college, and I didn't really know what to do.

When I started working for IBM, I was given extensive sales training. My sales training period took me 9 months, which you may be surprised to learn was considered fast back in 1987! IBM wanted its salespeople to be well prepared to sell any of its products to any business that wanted them.

So you'd think that I would've been well prepared for sales prospecting with all that sales training.

I wasn't.

Our sales training did not give me any advice on sales prospecting or lead generation.

IBM's sales training was very good, but I started out being groomed for large account sales. After my first year of working on a large account, I was moved into IBM's new business group. Even though I was excited about this new challenge, it was not what I had been trained for.

Fortunately, I had a great sales manager who new how to create new business. One of the things he suggested was that I get my year off to a quick start by running a seminar for the medical groups and hospitals in my territory.

If he had not suggested this to me, I might have gotten intimidated or frustrated at the idea of making cold calls to generate all of my new business.

I ran the seminar, and it turned out to be a big success generating many sales leads. My year was off to a fast start, and I was feeling pretty confident about my sales abilities.

I tell you this story, because sales confidence is in many ways a fragile thing. Success builds on itself. Too many salespeople are thrown out there with a sink or swim attitude by their management. If I hadn't had the help of a great team of people around me at IBM, I probably would have been frustrated and hated cold calling and prospecting. And, I most likely wouldn't have had the stellar year that 1989 turned out to be for me.

Confidence is often created through positive experiences. However, what do you do when you have little experience in something like generating new business or making cold calls?

You find confidence, by looking for a way to do something that you personally believe you can actually do. The key is belief. You must believe that you personally can actually do it.

One of my clients who wants to grow his business recently felt unwilling or unable to make cold calls. Why? Because he hates being the target of cold calls himself. You know the kind. The telephone rings, and after a long pause, some telemarketer asks for you by mispronouncing your name. And then they try to keep you on the line forever at dinner time.

The thought of making such a call on a business was very demeaning to my client, as I am sure it is to many of us.

Bad selling by masses of poorly trained telemarketers makes it difficult for many of us to sell well. When we experience cold calls such as these we don't want to appear like this ourselves. It makes us ashamed to be in sales, even fearful of making cold calls.

As a result, many people hate the thought of making cold calls. It doesn't fit into their self-image as professionals. A loathing starts to creep in at the thought of making a cold call. It builds to the point where one can't, or won't, make the call.

So how do you get past the fear to a state of confidence without any experience?

Follow these steps:

Find a technique that you believe you can perform. One where you will feel respected, helpful, useful, valuable, whatever.

Find examples of people, preferably like yourself, who are using the new technique successfully. Recognize that you can succeed precisely because someone else is already doing this successfully.

In my client's case, I explained that true cold calls are the ones made to people who have never heard of you or been exposed to your message before in anyway. Not only are these kinds of calls difficult, they are not very productive precisely because they have never heard your message.

So I made the simple recommendation that he warm-up these calls by preparing a direct mail sales letter to send to his target market first. Now my client found something that he believed that he could do. The prospects would receive a letter in advance written by a professional copywriter. Not only will he get some hot leads calling him out of this effort, but he feels confident about making calls to the remaining warmed up prospects.

What's important here?

Make sure you plan for success. Choose a strategy that is proven to work by others. By doing this, you can have the confidence to persist in the strategy if at first it does not work as perfectly as you had hoped.

When you are stuck, get into action by finding a method that someone else is using successfully. Notice the challenges they overcame and how they did this.

Sometimes it's the small steps that matter most on the way to greater sales success.

? 1999-2004 Shamus Brown, All Rights Reserved.

Shamus Brown is a Professional Sales Coach and former high-tech sales pro who began his career selling for IBM. Shamus has written more than 50 articles on selling and is the creator of the popular Persuasive Selling Skills CD Audio Program. You can read more of Shamus Brown's sales tips at http://Sales-Tips.industrialEGO.com/ and you can learn more about his persuasive sales skills training at http://www.Persuasive-Sales-Skills.com/

Media Training: Three Reasons to (Almost) Always Stay On-The-Record

The words are pop culture heroes.

Movies such as "The Insider," books like "All The President's Men" and television series including "The West Wing" have immortalized them.

"On-the-record," "on background," "on deep background" and "off-the-record" are celebrity phrases, used regularly as shorthand to represent the mysteries of the journalism underworld.

In reality, these words aren't used all that frequently in newsrooms; moreover, they're not particularly helpful. Unless you're a whistleblower or working on sensitive issues at the highest levels of government, it is almost always better to remain "on-the-record," meaning that everything you say can be published and attributed to you.

As simple as this basic rule may seem, spokespeople regularly get coaxed into saying more than they intended. They may become comfortable with a reporter, decide to trust the wrong journalist, or develop the mistaken belief that a member of the press has agreed to their terms. It often backfires, with the interviewee facing an unwelcome dose of public scorn when the story hits.

Here are three reasons you should (almost) always stay on-the-record:

1) Definitions Vary ? Different news organizations ? and different reporters within those news organizations ? define terms such as, "on background" and "off-the-record" differently. A simple Internet search reveals the problem ? to some news organizations, off-the-record means the reporter can't mention your interview to even her mother, and to others, it means that your comments can be printed anonymously with the corroboration of just one other source. Without shared agreement on what the terms even mean, agreeing to an interview as anything other than on-the-record is a crapshoot.

2) Agreement Breeds Confusion ? In 2002, Washington Post reporter Sally Squires interviewed Gary Taubes, an author who had written a controversial article for The New York Times Magazine challenging the accepted wisdom about the role of dietary fat in weight gain. Before agreeing to the interview, Taubes insisted that he have final approval of his quotes before they were allowed to run ? in other words, that his comments were off-the-record until further notice. Ms. Squires agreed ? or so he thought ? so he was shocked and embarrassed when his overly candid remarks were printed. Far from being unusual, the ambiguity of agreements between reporter and source often leads to mismatched expectations.

3) "Official" Interviews Don't Exist ? Many interviewees think they are on-the-record during the "official" interview, but off-the-record before and after. In fact, anything said in the presence of a reporter is quotable, including the off-handed remarks made at last night's dinner party.

In August 1984, for example, President Ronald Reagan famously leaned into a microphone for a sound check just prior to his weekly radio address. Joking around with those gathered in the room, Reagan quipped "My fellow Americans, I am pleased to tell you I just signed legislation which outlaws Russia forever. We begin bombing in five minutes."

Even though the comments weren't broadcast live, the microphone was on and two news networks recorded them. They almost immediately broadcast the comments, which they clearly deemed newsworthy in the midst of the Cold War.

The incident sparked international outrage, with the West German government pouncing on Reagan's comments as a sign of his ill will.

White House Spokesman Larry Speakes claimed that the news organizations acted irresponsibly since any remark made before the official radio address was "off-the-record." However, since the journalists didn't agree to that condition in advance, they had every right to air it.

To be sure, there are occasionally good reasons to leave the safety of an on-the-record conversation. Instances of corruption or fraud, for example, can be leaked to a reporter in an attempt to hold public officials or executives accountable. But do yourself a favor. If you're unclear of the rules or unfamiliar with the reporter, get a professional opinion before proceeding. It might save your "off-the-record" comments from appearing on tomorrow's front page.

Brad Phillips is the founder and president of Phillips Media Relations (http://www.PhillipsMediaRelations.com). He was formerly a journalist for ABC News and CNN, and also headed the media relations department for the second largest environmental group in the world.

The POWER of Your Words

Words are truly powerful things. They are something that becomes a part of us, our history, and our legacy. From my own life experiences, I have understood how words, simple words said in passing to a child, can leave an impression and help manifest a future purpose.

As a writer, I was born with words and stories of hope. When I was four, my mother let me construct words on a typewriter, always encouraging me to create more. Through the years, she gave me the words of strength, hope, and love that pushed me to become the first person on both sides of my family to graduate from college. When I was in college, my English professor, Dr. Joanne Dempsey, told me one rainy day, "One day, you will be a writer." I've kept these women's powerful words in my heart and have, in turn, tried to give words of hope and encouragement to others.

Through the years, I have tried to pass on the legacy that Dr. Dempsey, perhaps unknowingly, left for me that one rainy day. She taught me, as did my mother, that words spoken to an impressionable mind can invoke a sense of purpose that fulfills a destiny. For, indeed, all of us have a purpose. Our purpose lies like a tiny ember in our heart, stoked into brilliant flame by the kind words of a stranger, a mentor, a parent, or a friend. A teacher can tell a struggling student, "You're smart," and those words help him find the confidence to become President of the United States. A stranger can say "You're pretty" to a young girl from Mississippi and those words help her become a beloved humanitarian. A parent can say, "You're special," and those words can help his children unleash the power of potential.

Each day I give my two daughters, Dempsey and Ceiley, the words to reach forward and fulfill their purpose. I believe that we are given the gift of a child and, like the wise elders of years past, we are meant to infuse them with all of our history and knowledge. The words of the past and the words of the future connect us all like links in a chain. All powerful words give hope. The mightiest words are those we share with our children. They must know the words of our ancestors for all families are linked together like a chain. Children must know the value of their particular link. They must strengthen their bond and pass on the words to their children so that future generations can grow in spirit.

But how do we do this? Children are really taking a back seat in our society. Many children are spoiled, lacking nothing, but lacking much. For what they lack are the words that would jump start their human spirit. The words that would make them tingle with an excitement to learn new things and explore their natural environment.

I have crafted many stories about human relationships, but one day I was really struck by this particular notion of purpose. My daughters and I were walking home from school when a simple brown leaf fell silently from an oak tree lining the sidewalk. No one really noticed. My kids kept walking but suddenly, for me, time stood still. It was sort of a "if a tree falls in the woods" moment. Why did the leaf fall, I wondered, and who really cared? I realized that even that leaf had a purpose, one that it may not have even realized.

We are all like the leaf. We all have a deep, profound purpose to our lives that we may not even understand until it becomes manifest. This purpose may be very simple on the surface, but may deeply affect the course of many lives. We are all instrumental in each other's greater purpose. You never know when you might be the one with the words to create the next Mother Theresa or the next loving mother who nurtures and creates a wonderful child.

This leaf struck me to my core and from my notions I crafted a story of simplicity and truth. It is called A Simple Brown Leaf. It tells the story of an autumn leaf that thinks its life is over when it falls from a tree, not realizing that it is being watched by a squirrel who plans to use it to line her nest for winter. Its main message is that every living creature has a purpose, no matter how we try to trivialize it.

I truly believe that this is one of the most important messages we can give children today. Many children grow up believing that they could disappear off of the face of the Earth and no one would notice. Kids today grow up in a world of despair and lack a sense of hope. It doesn't have to be like this.

Words are powerful things. Perhaps the solution is simple. Could I child pick up a book and begin thinking about his/her life's path? Can we instill a sense of importance from a young age - a sense of knowing that 'I have a place in the world?' I think all of our futures depend on finding the words within ourselves that say, 'I am powerful!'

Keep in mind: ? Your words are you legacy ? Never underestimate the power of your words ? Sharing a story is a great way to share your words ? Words spoken to an impressionable mind can invoke a sense of purpose that fulfills a destiny ? The mightiest words are those we share with our children

L.J. Davis is the author of A Simple Brown Leaf, a story for a new generation of children.

"Every child has a purpose. Every child asks the question, 'Who am I going to become.'"

Learn more at ljdavis.com

?2005 L.J. Davis

Muraqaba- The Sufi Meditation By Sufi-Master Khwaja Shamsuddin Azeemi

When we try to learn a new skill or try to gain knowledge about a specific subject, we follow a guideline or a system, which demands that we pay attention to the subject to fully understand it. Our mind becomes curious to know the where, how and what of it. When we pay attention to the minor details, that minor point itself gains value. However, when we ignore the most important part and do not pay any cognitive attention to it then even that major point loses its value and importance. Through contemplation we gain knowledge about any object and the deeper that knowledge, the more we learn about that object and its qualities.

Muraqaba is the name of that contemplation through which man is able to gain the knowledge which is the primordial knowledge of his Ego, Self, or Soul. After gaining that knowledge, any man can gain access to his Ego or Soul.

It appears that the person performing Muraqaba is simply sitting in a pose with his or her eyes closed. However, merely shutting the eyes and assuming a specific pose does not serve the purpose. Muraqaba is in fact an angle of perception through which the person doing the Muraqaba frees himself or herself from outward senses and begins their journey in the inward senses.

Now we are going to look into whether or not the Muraqaba-like conditions or states exist in us, without adopting the specific pose of Muraqaba.

Freedom from outward senses happens in our daily life, both involuntarily and voluntarily. For example, we go to sleep and while sleeping our brain disconnects from outward senses. It is true that this disconnection is temporary however; this condition could not be termed as anything but disconnection from outward senses. Hence, we can say that Muraqaba is in fact a way of imposing a state of sleeping without going to sleep.

Every human being, from the time of birth to death spends life in two states. In other words, in the human mind there are two types of conditions that prevail every moment of our life. One of these conditions or state is wakening and the other sleeping or dreaming. In the wakening state, they are trapped in Time and Space while during dreaming they are free from the confines of spatiotemporal limitations. This freedom of Time and Space is sought through Muraqaba by converting the state of sleeping or dreaming into an awakened state. Because during Muraqaba, a person goes through the same conditions that he or she goes through while sleeping or dreaming.

The notion that dreams are nothing but thoughts is not correct. In all scriptures including the Quran (Koran), dreams have been mentioned. The dreams that were mentioned in the Quran show that the realm of dream is free from the restrictions imposed by Time and Space. When a person tries to impose the state of dreaming through Muraqaba, they free themselves from that spatiotemporal boundaries and they journey through the realm of dream the way they travel while fully wake. All existing things need foundation; without it they could not survive. This is not something that is hard to comprehend. For example the foundation of a chair is its legs. A house remains erect only when inside the earth its foundation is laid. Similarly, we can only learn a subject or a branch of knowledge when we know its basics. These basics (or formulas) are considered as the foundation of any branch of knowledge. God has revealed it in the Quran,

Al-Lah is the Light of the heavens and earth.

In this Universe, there are several worlds and galaxies. The Essence and Reality of God is something only God knows or those with whom He has shared His Secrets. How much of this information God has shared with His chosen servants is not our concern. However, we do know that God created this entire universe for us humans. It is stated on several occasions in the Quran that the foundation of this universe is the Light (nur) of God. Based on this fact it is imperative that Man and all of his abilities be centered on one foundation.

It is our daily observation that not all of our actions, motions, whims, thoughts, imaginations, and feelings are dependent on the body of bones and flesh. Because when the Spirit disconnects its link with the physical body then this body of bones and flesh is unable to act on its own. As long as the Spirit is attached with the body, all the needs, and functions necessary for life are present. In other words, Spirit (ruh) is the foundation of the body.

According to the Quran, a limited knowledge of the Spirit is given. Nevertheless even this limited knowledge is still knowledge. What we are trying to emphasize is that what we consider Man is a body of bones and flesh, though that Man is nothing but fiction. The real Man is the one that protects that skeleton of flesh and keeps it in motion, whom the Quran calls ruh (Spirit). This ruh, in order to fulfill the needs of life uses a medium. We call this medium, chromosomes. In the Quran, God has said that, We poured Our ruh in him (Adam). In other words, ruh created a medium and after that gave him the senses. ruh is in fact a component of the Divine and in it all the knowledge of Divine Discretions and Attributes are present, which God so Willed. Just how this knowledge was acquired by the component, is a Divine Mystery, which could never be explained.

There are eleven thousand generators (latifa, plural lataif) at work inside the Man. According to Sufism, there are eleven thousand Divine Names as well. Every Divine Name is an Attribute and every Divine Attribute is knowledge (ilm). This knowledge further expands into more and more spheres to become a manifestation of the Divine Attributes.

In order to enter the unseen world (al-ghayb) or to behold anything beyond Time and Space, we have to first free ourselves from the clutches of spatiotemporal restrictions. This is only possible when the vision that sees Time and Space frees itself from its boundaries. To activate that vision, certain exercises have been created through which even if the human mind is not totally free at least it is able to come close to it.

Now the next question is to how and when the human senses could be freed from that restriction. One example is the state of dreaming. Sleeping actually is getting freedom from the diurnal senses, which are Time and Space. When we go to sleep then our senses are transferred to a realm where the state of Time and Space do exist but not in the chronological order in which we spend our life. The Second way is that while wake human mind could focus on any object with full concentration. For example when we read an interesting book, we often lost track of the time. When we finally look at our watch, we then realized that so much time had elapsed, though we were not aware of it.

In the Quran, the event of Moses receiving the Torah is mentioned in the following verse,

And We promised Moses thirty nights and fulfilled it in forty nights.

Day and night are mentioned in Quran in the following verses,

And We enter night into the day and let the day enter into the night.

We take the night out of the day and take the day out of the night.

We cover the day onto night and night into the day

When we contemplate these verses of Quran, we realized that day and night are in fact two senses. In other words, our life is divided into two senses. One of the senses is day the other one is night. During the day senses (diurnal senses) restricted with Time and Space while during night senses (nocturnal senses) we are free from these restrictions.

The Divine Statement that We promised Moses thirty nights and fulfilled it in forty nights is interesting. Because Moses did not simply spend forty nights there, his entire stay was forty days and forty nights. It was not that he was spending the nights at the place and coming back during the day. He did spend his entire stay at the Mount. Interestingly God did not mention days in the verse instead mentions only night. It clearly suggests that during those forty days and forty nights, Moses was under the influence of nocturnal senses. The same nocturnal senses, which free us from the restrictions of Time and Space.

Hence, anyone who would impose the nocturnal senses during the period of day and night on themselves would be free from the confinement of Time and Space. This freedom from spatiotemporal restriction is the way to exploring the unseen realm and getting intuitive information.

During a battle, an arrow injured Amirul Momineen Ali ibn abi Talib. It had entered his thigh and the pain was excruciating. The surgeons could not operate on it. Because of extreme pain he would not let them even touch it. One of his companions suggested to surgeons that they wait until Imam Ali began his prayer. When Imam Ali began his prayer, the surgeons were able to operate on him without him showing any sign of pain. By the time he was done with his prayers, Imam Ali realized that the surgeon had already performed the surgery and the wound had already been stitched. This event is another example of the negation of Time and Space. When Imam Ali started his prayers, his senses went from diurnal state into nocturnal state. The moment his mind entered the nocturnal senses his focus was shifted away from the diurnal senses (restriction and pain). The foundation of Spirituality is based on the reality that Man has two senses, two brains, and two lives. Just like the two sides of a coin, it has two sides.One life is restricted; the other one is free. Constrained life is day, wakefulness, and consciousness. On the other hand, free life is the name of night, joy, peace and the contentment of the heart.

To gain that life the easiest method in Spirituality is Muraqaba. Muraqaba is in fact the name of an exercise, effort and the angle of perception. Through it, anyone can enter the nocturnal senses while keeping the diurnal senses active as well.

Sufi-Master Khwaja Shamsuddin Azeemi is the Patriarch of the Sufi Order of Azeemia and has written over 35 books on Parapsychology,Telepathy and meditation. His most recent book Muraqaba-The Art and Science of Sufi Meditation was published in the U.S. in January 2005. (tras. by Syed Shahzad Reaz)

What is a Business Loan?

A business loan is designed for a wide range of small, medium and start-up business needs including the purchase, refinance and expansion of a business. If you run your own business, it is likely that you will need funds at different points of time for various needs. Whether it is starting or expanding business, purchasing or leasing office space, refinancing equipment or restructuring your balance sheet.

A business loan is an option that provides the most flexible solution to meet your financial needs. Finance is the lifeblood of a business. Without it you cannot grow.

Business loans are generally available from ?25,000 to ?1,000,000 at highly competitive interest rates from leading commercial loan lenders. A business loan generally has low up front payments.

Applying for business loans is a more involved process than applying for a personal loan. The requirements for a business loan are evaluated differently and the standards to be met are stricter.

Your options will also depend on the bank you are dealing with; banks offer different loan packages, each with its own particular set of terms and conditions. While you can check out what your own bank has to offer, it is worth investigating the business loans being offered by other banks as well.

One of the many advantages of taking a business loan is that it allows you to retain full ownership of the company whereas if you were to raise funds through investors, you would have to share the profits with them. In case of a business loan, you have to only the interest to pay back.

Another advantage is that you can use the loan for any business related purpose, such as buying machinery, office equipment or paying off a pressing debt without using the cash and working capital for these purposes.

A business loan can be secured by all types of business property, commercial and residential properties. Business loans are normally offered on Freehold and long Leasehold properties with Bricks and Mortar valuations required.

Business Loan rates are variable, depending on status. Your monthly repayments will depend on the amount borrowed and term.

To get approval for your loan application, you must be able to meet the lending criteria set down. Some organisations are more risk averse than others, and will therefore have more stringent criteria.

To vastly increase your chances of a successful business loan application, you will need to present the following information:

The reason for the loan

The amount required

Details of how you will repay the amount borrowed.

Details of security you will be able to offer to the lender.

Business Plan

You may freely reprint this article provided the author's biography remains intact:

John Mussi is the founder of Direct Online Loans who help UK homeowners find the best available loans via the http://www.directonlineloans.co.uk website.

All You Want is Within Your Reach

If there is one thing that I believe with all my heart it is that you can have any life you choose to. You can live the life you have always dreamed of.

We live in a period of unparalleled opportunity in human history. Think about it: Just one hundred years ago, most people really only had five or six options when it came to deciding what they would do with their lives. For most, they didn't even have the knowledge that they could do anything other than take over their father's farm when they turned eighteen!

But today a person living in the western world (and many other areas of the world as well) can choose to do virtually anything they want to! They key is the word "choose."

You see, the world is within your reach. Any job you want can be yours if you decide. All of the opportunities are there for the taking. The question is whether or not you will take.

You say, "But Chris, you just don't understand. I'm thirty-eight years old with two kids and I have bills to pay. I make $28,000 a year. I can't just go become a doctor and make big money!"

And I say, "Yes you can! If you decide to. If you will take action you can become a doctor or anything else you want to. We live in a day and age when virtually anything is possible."

For the sake of highlighting this principle, let's look at the above example. How would this person change careers? Simple.

Here is the process in specific action steps:

1. Find out from a medical school what classes you would need to take to get in. Chances are your college major would need some rounding out or if you didn't go to college, you would need to do so. Maximum time to do this: 3 days.

2. Now, go to school. Maximum time to do this: 4 years.

3. Now, medical school and residency. Maximum time to do this: 6 years.

4. Begin practicing medicine.

At this point you would be forty-eight years old. That leaves you seventeen years to practice. Now let's see the impact it has on your life:

1. You get to pursue your dream, making you and your family MUCH happier.

2. You will make, on average, $100,000 more per year.

The difference here is manifold! If you stayed where you were, you would have earned $28,000 a year for twenty-seven years and would earn $756,000. If you left and pursued your dream you would earn $128,000 for seventeen years (That's if you took ten years to make the transition. Most would be less.) and you earnings would be $2,176,000! This is a difference of $1,420,000! And this doesn't even take into consideration the amounts you would earn on investments on the difference in incomes.

So is it possible? Yes. Does it take time? Yes. Is it hard? Yes. Is it scary? Yes, and that is why most people won't do it.

It isn't for lack of opportunity. It is usually because of one of the following:

Lack of vision.
Lack of tenacity.
Fear.

The truth is that you can do anything you want to. Stop telling yourself excuses! Go to battle against a lack of vision! Pick yourself up and get tenacious! Look fear in the face and stand up to it! Your whole life depends on it, my friend!

The choice is yours. Will you continue to limp along in life because you don 't have the courage to run for your dream? Will you continue to allow the fear of poverty keep you from pursuing the riches, both materially and emotionally, that lay within the vision you have of what your life could be?

You CAN live the life you have always dreamed of. All you want is within your reach. But to pick it up, you must first empty your hands of what they already hold. Then you must reach for it, take a hold of it, and possess it!

About The Author:

Chris Widener is a popular speaker and writer as well as the President of Made for Success, a company helping individuals and organizations turn their potential into performance, succeed in every area of their lives and achieve their dreams.

To see Chris "live" at the upcoming Jim Rohn Weekend Event as he speaks on the subject of Secrets of Influence go to http://Chris-Widener.InspiresYOU.com/ or call 800-929-0434.

Man Earring: a macho look in jewelry fashion

These days, there is a call for more "metrosexuals," or men who are conscious about their looks and clothing, so much that it is actually important for them to be not only presentable, but fashionable as well in civilized society. The television program "Queer Eye for the Straight Guy" has revolutionized makeovers for all of us, for it has shown that, yes, it is indeed possible for men to be pleasant to look at without being "girly" or "dandy." Masculine jewelry, such as man earrings, are a big part of this metrosexuality trend.

Men who can boldly wear necklaces, bracelets and earrings to set off their hair or their eyes are men who have achieved the next level of metrosexuality: accessorizing. In the end, a tasteful selection of jewelry helps to make the man. Rings and necklaces, bracelets and cufflinks, all add to the image of the powerful, self-possessed male.

And man earrings are definitely "in"! Next to necklaces, earrings are the most popular men's accessories. Quite a few big-name male stars, young idols especially, are making man earrings a fashion must. Think of Johnny Depp (who started off as a teen rebel heartthrob in the television show "21 Jumpstreet") and David Gallagher (who plays Simon Camden in the TV drama "7th Heaven").

Men's jewelry is not just for clean-cut urbanites -- in fact in the streets, earrings on men are considered symbols of toughness. Indeed, the man earring, in general, speaks boldly of the courage to have one's own sense of fashion, to set one's own trend. Mr. T has his own collection of earrings that make for his tough-guy look, and quite a few hiphop and R&B artists ? such as Jay-Z and Usher -- have all but trademarked their own jewelry ensembles.

Man earrings play up sexuality without sacrificing masculinity. Worn either on one earlobe or both, it makes a man look more snazzy and cool. Whether they be diamond, gold, silver, or platinum, earrings have become a necessary part of a man's jewelry arsenal.

Sam Serio is an Internet Marketer, musician and a writer on the subject of jewelry and gemstones. For more information on jewelry and gemstones, we cordially invite you to visit http://www.morninglightjewelry.com to pick up your FREE copy of "How To Buy Jewelry And Gemstones Without Being Ripped Off." This concise, informative special report reveals almost everything you ever wanted to know about jewelry and gemstones, but were afraid to ask. Get your FREE report at http://www.morninglightjewelry.com

Everything You Always Wanted To Know About Your Credit Report

Your credit report is a very powerful report that essential controls what you can and cannot do in your life. Unfortunately many people aren't aware of what a credit report actually is and what information is contained on the report. This article breaks down what is contained on your credit report and tells you everything you always wanted to know about your credit report but were afraid to ask.

Your credit report is nothing more then a very detailed snapshot of your financial history that is furnished to anyone supplying you credit from the credit bureau. There are three main credit bureaus that handle a majority of these credit report request. They are Experian, Equifax and Trans Union. Each of these organizations are private in nature and routinely furnish your credit information when asked to do so for a fee.

Generally speaking the credit reports provided by the credit bureaus are very detailed and very accurate. For instance it's not uncommon for them to have information regarding missed payments as far back as 6 or 7 years. They collect this information in order to provide it to creditors prior to their providing any form of credit to a consumer seeking credit. The creditors can use the information they receive to determine if that same consumer can be considered a good credit risk. A good rating allows for more favorable credit terms while a poor rating essentially ends any chance for a consumer to obtain credit in the first place.

The amount of time that a blemish (such as a missed credit card payment) stays on your credit report can vary but normally these negative items are deleted after 7 years thanks to the Federal Fair Credit Reporting Act. Bankruptcies are another matter entirely and they normally remain in place for up to 10 years. Keep in mind that credit inquiries stay on your credit report for 2 years so closely monitor the number of times you apply for credit since a high number of inquiries can be viewed in a negative manner.

Until recently in order for a consumer to view their credit report they had to order a copy from one of the three main credit bureaus and pay a small fee. However new laws now allow for 1 free credit report every year to any consumer that wishes to see their credit report.

The power of your credit report is incredible. Even if you have built up a positive credit report any missed payment no matter how small the amount can result in a denial of credit. The best advice most credit can give is to stay current on your entire monthly financial or reoccurring obligations and don't overextend yourself financially.

Hopefully this quick article answered a few of your questions regarding your credit report. More detailed information can be found in various locations throughout the Internet. Don't forget to request your free copy of your credit report so you can see where you stand in the eyes of future potential creditors.

Timothy Gorman is a successful Webmaster and publisher of Debt-Relief-Solutions.com. He provides more debt relief, consolidation and credit repair information that you can research in your pajamas on his website.