There has never been a more opportune time to follow your heart and realize your dreams. However getting to the pot of gold is not always easy. It takes dedication, commitment and the willingness to do whatever it takes.

So how do you go on when the going gets tough. When you have dug and toiled, day after day, week after week, and you experience all kinds of disappointments and frustrations.

When you have used the best scientific data, indicating the best locations to dig and are still not finding the rich deposit, which you know is there somewhere. Or when you have developed the best looking website, developed the best product and what you think is the best sales copy, and you still fail to make the sales that you know should follow?

Do you say it is not working and give up, like the gold prospector in Napoleon Hill’s classic “think and grow rich”, who stopped just 3 feet from his pot of gold?

What do you do when everything you know, doesn’t seem to work?

The best thing to do is to take time out and become still. Yes, stop toiling for a while and make some quiet time, because it’s no use just hammering away if you are hitting at the wrong place.

The quiet time will help you reflect on what you have done so far and gain some new perspective. Take a book that has inspired you countless times or the Bible and read.

Don’t put pressure on yourself trying to find an answer, just let yourself go, any whichever way and the answers will come.

Take a piece of paper and just write. What about? Anything really. You can write about the confusion you feel.

Talk to yourself, not negative stuff that will make you feel worse then you already do, but tell yourself that you are getting the answers you are looking for. Don’t talk as someone who is without hope but talk like someone who knows it’s only a matter of time.

Most importantly though, listen to yourself, and then try again using some of the new insights you have gained from your inner person, your subconscious.

Sometimes, you’re at the right place, you just need to go 3 feet further down or 3 feet to the left, or right. Or sometimes the time just isn’t right and you just need to wait a little while longer.

But these are things no scientific data will ever tell you. This is something which comes from inside you, your subconscious mind which knows everything.

That is why it is important to take time out and listen, because if you don’t you may just miss the key you need and waste an awful lot of time and money.

Here’s something else you can do. Every time you feel discouraged or a little afraid, go and read about your icons or heroes. How they started out. How they felt, when they were still at the bottom, the things they said and did when it really got rough, and be inspired. If possible try and trace a childhood friend of your heroes and talk to them.

In his classic, “Think and Grow Rich” Napoleon Hill describes how his subjects held imaginary conversations with great men who went before them. The result was that afterwards they became more inspired.

Imagine having an intimate, one on one conversation with Bill Gates or Henry Ford, and asking them all the questions you’ve always wanted to ask them.

It would be awesome wouldn’t it. When you come out of there you will be so focused on your goal that nothing anybody say will discourage you.

Something else you should do is to continuously remind yourself that everybody who is now successful, was once at the very place where you are now. The important thing is that they didn’t remain there.

If you are serious about attaining your goals you will also not remain there. But remember, it requires commitment and dedication even through the tough times.

Oh, how sweet it is to hold that prize after all the struggling. That’s when you realize all the trials and tribulations were worth it. But you will never savor that experience, you will never know how good it feels when you give up.

Today turned out to be one of those textbook beautiful days. The sun is shining, the breeze is blowing softly and the temperature is just right — the perfect day. Even with all the challenges I have to face, I still look up at the sky and smile as the clouds chase one another across a “picture-perfect”, blue background.

But I know that all the days to come will not be as beautiful and comfortable as this day is. Yesterday was dark and dreary, pierced with giant streaks of lightning, which generated thunder that rattled the windows.

Yes, I know that all the days that follow today will not be as bright as this one, nor as dark as yesterday. Some days will be better than others. Some will be worse. And I do not know which ones will or won’t.

But this one thing I know: There will be change. There will be ups and there will be downs. That’s how life is — there are good times and not so good times. The good times will not last forever. Every now and then, there will be rough times. But remember, even the worst times won’t last either.

The trick is to enjoy the good times and make the most of them; to tolerate the rough times and know that they won’t last forever. Generally, it appears that the good times seem to go so fast and the bad times seem to last forever, but this is not really so. It is our experience of time that makes it seem that way.

Five minutes in my dentist’s chair may feel like an eternity, whereas sixty minutes spent chatting with a friend may seem like just a few seconds. What we are dealing with here is a matter of focus. Let me explain.

Whenever we encounter difficult problems, the tendency is to focus so intensely in trying to arrive at a solution that we become all tense and tied up in knots. When that occurs, we tend to become frustrated, fearful and sometimes angry. The problem here is that we’re trying to force a solution instead of allowing a solution.

Anger could be expected, but prolonged anger is harmful to body, mind and spirit. It was the great author and lecturer, Dr. Elisabeth Kubler-Ross who said, “Natural anger lasts for only about seventeen seconds”. Anything beyond that is a reaction to circumstances or remembered situations.

Fear is one of our deadliest enemies. The fear I refer to is the type that causes us to stay awake at night conjuring up all the terrible things that could happen because of the unsolved problems we’re facing. This kind of fear is dangerous, self-defeating and downright useless. It shakes our very foundations and needlessly drains us of energy.

And to be frustrated is natural. But let us not dwell on the frustration. It’s like having a flat tire while driving in a thunderstorm and getting out of the car, becoming soaking wet and kicking the flat tire for being flat. It does no good.

So you ask me, “How then do I deal with my problems?” The first most important thing is to disconnect from the problem. By this, I don’t mean that you pretend that the problem doesn’t exist. It does exist, so get all the facts you can and then let it be. Break focus with it. This way, your subconscious mind will work towards a solution.

When we force our minds to be totally focussed on the problem, when we do not let it go, even for a short while, we deny the subconscious mechanism the power it has to help resolve the crisis. We must let it go. We must take a break from thinking about the problem.

Do whatever you can to break focus. Since all things have energy, even our problems are energy “things”. If we focus on the problem too long, we energize it and make it stronger. By letting go and switching our focus, we shift our energy away from the problem and are now “energizing” the solution.

Does it matter how big the problem is? Not really. The Higher Self knows the answer to every problem we could ever encounter. The size of the problem is not important. What is important is how we look at the problem. Withdraw your attention from it for a short while a number of times a day.

During those times, don’t look at the facts. You’ve already done that. Just look away from the facts to something pleasant, maybe listen to some good music, watch a great movie, go for a walk, talk to a good friend, read a good book. Just break focus with the problem for a short while.

If you do this, you will notice that the problem will appear to be less and less formidable. And somehow, in some way, you will get the guidance to do what’s necessary to overcome the challenge. It may be that your car is being repossessed, the house is being foreclosed, a close friend or relative or even you yourself may be battling poor health. Doesn’t matter what the problem is, break focus, allow calm, quiet and hope to flow through your mind.

As you practice doing this, almost magically, things will start to change; you will feel better, more hopeful, more empowered. And you will think more clearly. You will hear the “still small” voice within giving you the guidance you need.

Don’t take my word for it. Just try it and see for yourself. You have nothing to lose except your problems. And you have everything to gain.

Next time I’ll reveal how to use various sources of inspiration to keep on going when it seems that the road has been too long and dark. Remember, Morning has been all night coming, but see how surely it comes.

Training yourself to make brainwave meditation work for you takes a bit of patience. But the rewards can be tremendous and well worth the effort. That is because of all the various meditation techniques, brainwave meditation combines traditional meditation disciplines with the science of monitoring and controlling the flow of your brainwaves for the good of your health and well-being.

That is one of the reasons that brainwave meditation adds another layer of value to the time you put into your meditation efforts. It takes what is already is good about meditation and focuses the science and the discipline of an athlete to help you get the most from your meditation as possible. But, just like anything else, if we do our part to be an active participant in the brainwave meditation process, we are sure that we will get the most out of brainwave meditation that is possible in the time we have to invest in it. So let’s discuss some things we can do to make our time in brainwave meditation most beneficial.

Understand the Process.

If you have been involved in meditation for very long, you are already benefiting from the brainwave benefits even if you don’t know what they are or how to direct them. That is the natural reaction to meditation. During meditation, you direct your mind. You learn to discipline it to put it into a contemplative state. Then you learn to direct that contemplative state to relax your body and achieve the other positive effects of meditation that you want. Finally, you may learn to be able to go into that contemplative state on demand even if you are in the middle of your work day.

The truth is that whatever meditation technique you are using, you are unconsciously learning to do brainwave meditation along the way. This is simple biofeedback at the most basic level. As you ease into your program, your meditation technique will reduce stress thus causing negative brainwaves to subside. Then, those well rehearsed meditation routines will slowly raise your level of relaxation and control. This is actually using brainwave meditation to accelerate the brainwaves that cause that kind of psycho-physical reaction.

So what happens with brainwave meditation is you are just wrapping the science around that process and equipping yourself with additional tools and knowledge so your meditation efforts are far more effective and you get the most out of your brainwave meditation exercises.

Do Your Homework.

Just like with any new discipline, the more you know about brainwave meditation, the better you will be at it and the more you will get out of it. The science and development of brainwave meditation came out of several different disciplines. We already mentioned the science of biofeedback. You can view this science as both a source for brainwave meditation theory and an outcome of it as well.

The meditation sources for that side of the discipline of brainwave meditation come from Kundalini Yoga, for which there are ample sources for you to use to increase your knowledge and skills in this ancient art. So you can see that brainwave meditation is very much a combination of the old and the new.

Finally some groundbreaking new research into such brain activity research such as binaural beats have had a positive influence on how brainwave meditation is used to benefit you both medically, mentally, physically and spiritually as well. If you take the time to do your homework on these key topics, you will be able to select the right approach to brainwave meditation. But moreover, you will be able to enter into a program of brainwave meditation so much more effectively and achieve much greater results as well.

Your Brainwave Meditation Journal

There is a lot to learn to make brainwave meditation become a major part of your meditation program. And because Kundalini Yoga is a discipline, it will take time for you to grow and advance in your ability to conquer this mental and spiritual discipline. As with any regimen of discipline whether it be diet or exercise or even athletic preparation for an event, a journal is an outstanding way for you to track your progress, record questions and update each day with new discoveries and things you want to do to improve your brainwave meditation approach.

We know that entering into this new side of your meditation program is going to be an adventure. But if you put in a good faith effort, you learn to understand the process so you know what to do with each new change and advance in your discipline and you do your homework so you are both a smart and educated student of brainwave meditation, you will get the most from your work. Not only that but you will benefit the most from brainwave meditation and you will have a lot more fun with it too.