Are You in Heaven or Hell?

Throughout the ups and downs of life, it can seem at times, as though the quality of our lives is determined by the individuals, situations, and conditions of the world around us. Yet, to become the powerful creator of our lives, we have to be prepared to see beyond this short-sighted perspective of ourselves and our own lives.

Whether we are aware of it or not, the choice each of us is constantly making is the choice of choosing between heaven or hell. The reality is, every moment, each of us decides. There's absolutely not any external force that decides. We choose it each moment.

The humor is that even though we have the option -- usually people pick the experience of hell over heaven.

To find out whether you are presently residing in heaven or hell, look around your life. On a scale of 1 to 10, with 1 being hell and 10 being heaven, where would you rank your lifetime?

This week, observe your thoughts and words.

How often and about what do you complain?

How often and about what are you disappointed?

At what frequency do you wish things could be different than they are?

How frequently are others letting you down and not meeting your expectations?

How frequently are you letting yourself down?

Focusing on complaints, disappointments, should be's, and unmet expectations creates the illusion of hell.

To have a life a bliss, you must be ready to challenge the assumption that the origin of our dissatisfaction is really about the complaints and unmet expectations that dribble out uncontrollably from your mouth.

Step One: Clean up your thoughts and language.

Catch yourself before that same old complaint indomitably burps from your mouth. Choose your language carefully.

Before you tell yourself,"I have to wash the dishes," note that you really don't have to. Even when you're at gunpoint -- that I completely doubt you are -- it is still a choice -- to do the dishes or not.

Adjust your language to be both more accurate and empowering. An example is,"I decide to wash the dishes rather than later, because I know how great it feels to walk into a clean kitchen."

Step Two: Watch the real issue beneath the illusion.

The topic of your complaints and unmet expectations are a facade of this deeper issue that is really the culprit to your life feeling more like battle and pain than joy and bliss.

The culprit lies in picking self-worth over self-hate.

Step Three: Expose underlying beliefs and assumptions.

The best way to make the choice between heaven or hell -- or self-worth and self-hate is dependent upon your assumptions and beliefs of if you feel worthy, good enough or deserving of happiness.

To take yourself from hell to heaven, you must always choose to locate inner value and inner value. To do that you must be ready to become deeply aware of yourself. You have to see what overshadows your feelings of value, so that you can send love, kindness and compassion to all those places.

Otherwise, your experience of life will always be painful.

Step Four: Accept that you already reside in and deserve heaven.

A lot of our socializing has taught us to think that"life is hard," and"you have to endure," and"you have to endure this life" to find the bliss of heaven in your life.

Challenge these beliefs.

Rather than living this life trying to earn your way to heaven in another, start today and each day living in the assumption that not only are you are already worthy and deserving of heaven -- but you are already there. All you have to do is claim it.

Step Five: Illuminate your own worth.

If you want to"go to heaven," it's your trip to illuminate your value of bliss today. The amount of pain and struggle you are feeling in your lifetime is inversely related to your feelings of value. The more self explanatory and self-worth you have, the less the pain and struggle you may encounter.

Every second, you are the one who chooses heaven or hell. When you decide that you are not worthy of heaven, by default you will experience hell, and consequently so will be color of your lifetime.

Step Six: Make self-love your #1 duty.

Self-love happens when you realize your value and worth. It becomes who you are, when you set your life in alignment with your inner wisdo.