By Sally Forrest
  I feel extremely fortunate to have Vernon’s principles at hand and here are a few ways I apply them in my daily life.
  It’s very important to always remember why I am here on earth so every morning upon rising, I watch a Vernon Howard video. It starts the day off in an inspirational, practical and uplifting way. It’s amazing that although I watch and listen to them often, there is invariably something there that hits home. The spiritual hearing just becomes better and better.
  The other day while out walking, a dog with his tail wagging came toward me begging for attention, a kind word, a pat on the back and to tell him he was a good dog. I asked myself “Do I also plead for attention from people — for the smile, the approval, the friendly greeting?” If so, I’m putting my happiness at the mercy of others.
  The “Do it now! Get it done! Bang! Bang! Bang!” exercise is of tremendous help in daily life. Instead of procrastinating and saying “Oh, I’ll do it later”, it gets done promptly and is not constantly on my mind.
  If I blurt out something unconsciously and regret it, oh the work is so marvelous. I don’t have to torment myself for days on end; it gets dropped much, much closer to the event.
  Another way I apply the work is that when phoning, especially for business information, it often seems to take forever, so instead of fuming over it, I just sit and know I’m in the room. This takes the negativity out of the situation because as Vernon said, “Awareness and negativity cannot occupy the same psychological space.”

By Moe Janosec
  One thing I am trying to catch inside myself and to let go of is the negativity of “demand” and of “forcing things”. This is also connected with impatience. We can see it everywhere in society — “I’ve got to have this and I’ve got to have it now!” And I can see it in myself — the ego always wants to get its way. As long as this is unconscious to me, it torments me, and is a clue that I have been living apart from my natural self. There are many preferences, attachments and identifications inside me that I am working to see more clearly — I must see them and the pain they bring with them and then I am more willing to drop them. This also connects with dropping unnecessary thought. Keeping the mind where the body is, snapping the spell. Vernon told us that “No man consciously injures himself.” Unconsciousness of these things as they take me over is what separates me from a poised serene inner life. Life was meant to be lived, not forced. Right in the middle of the mental crisis, it is a healthy shock to remember that ordinary thought has never solved my problems and it never will.
  Something else that often comes to me is that only super-efforts count. Sleep and mechanicalness are so overwhelmingly predominant on the level of this earth and in most human beings, including myself, that it takes a tremendous right effort to break free of this psychic sleep. It is most important to work when I do not want to work, when I do not “feel like it”. Truth always wants to help me but I must work to put myself in a position to receive that help. By staying in uncluttered awareness, I can more and more find out for myself what Vernon meant when he said that Truth is trying to get through to us 24 hours a day.

By Judith Anderson
  Vernon Howard principles have helped me to see that the way my mind now works is the problem. The problem does not lie in other people and events. Therefore, what seem to be hopelessly frustrating difficulties and conditions can be overcome by simply recognizing and correcting wrong thinking. That means all problems and solutions are within. My response is my responsibility.
  Examples are the bad job, the bad marriage, the bad neighbor. In the past, my solution was to blame the other person, to try to change them or perhaps to leave. Regardless of whether I leave or not, I have to face the problem and learn the lesson. Otherwise, I’ll repeat the cycle over and over.
  Yes, my neighbor is a wacko but he helps to expose the wacko in me. Facing what is inside of me is vitally important and necessary in this Work. That person or situation may be exactly what I need to study myself. Thank you Lord for giving me what I need instead of what I want. And thank you Vernon Howard for teaching me what to be grateful for. Now my action, my response is my responsibility.
  These principles have also helped me to not take this world and life (with a small l) so seriously, to not take other people so seriously and to not take words so seriously. Because I need not identify with any of them — life, people, myself, words. Words — like love, debt, problems, guilt, etc. — are just words, little lines on paper or sounds that reach the ears. Vernon said, “Anything you call yourself is a damaging, destructive lie.”
  Before leaving on our trip to the Pagosa Banquet, I had mumbled a prayer to “please make it worse.” Guess what?! Riding in the car coming and going, I blabbed unconsciously and told my entire life story to the poor trapped driver.
  Although it’s difficult to admit that I behaved unconsciously and wrongly, there was really only a healthy and increased awareness of the massive and distasteful ego and a heightened wish to be rid of it.
  Thank God our true home is not of this world. We can go home to the Father’s house right now — not later — NOW!

By Jon Johannessen
  Today, I was in our parking garage and I heard a construction worker loudly complaining. Apparently something had gone wrong and he was letting the world know all about it. Later in the day, while working on a project, I caught myself growing angry over an inconsequential mistake. I didn’t roar out my pain like the construction worker, but I had a bad feeling inside. But Vernon Howard’s teachings have taught me an amazing lesson. First, I suffer because of my reactions to the events of life and second, this suffering is completely unnecessary.
  Standing aside from myself, I have the ability to see my being in action. And what a terribly disappointing sight it can be. My image of myself and the reality of my self collide!
  Not a calm and collected man? Not someone who faces uncertainty with equanimity? Oh, no. This can’t be me. But it is. In his books and tapes Vernon has said “Face up to it. See yourself as you actually are and not as you imagine you are. This is the way to freedom.” And so I do it, and the most amazing transition takes place. Once I see the pain I cause myself by wanting to destroy the world because the screwdriver slipped off the screw, that seeing changes me.
  This is my daily work. A hundred times a day, I must look inside and see myself, see what is actually going on in there. I’ve taken Vernon’s advice for years now and the difference it has made in my life is incalculable. No longer content with simply raging at the unfairness of life because it hasn’t made me a ‘superstar’, I now want to grow ever more weary of my own sickness, and so let it fall away. Yesterday at our Sunday New Life meeting, I was given an even deeper insight. It’s not enough to just let the misery drop away; Vernon says you have to allow it to be carted away. Yes, yes, that’s what I want. Everyday from now on for the rest of my days, I have a purpose. I’ve been told this is glorious work and that the reward is an unimaginably rich life. Now that is true help.

By Karen West
  What Vernon Howard teachings do I use in my daily life? Right now, there are two I would like to mention. “Go against yourself” and “Go to work.” I have learned by virtue of these classes and through Vernon’s work that the life energy given to me by God is being wasted on unnecessary suffering, negativity and complaining.
  I have found that if I go against any laziness in me and go to work to become as aware as I can moment by moment, I am able to get a lot accomplished, which helps all aspects of my worldly life and then as a by-product, I suffer less. For example, thanks to applying these principles in my work, my business is now more efficient, productive and organized. While working, doing data entry, for example, I can see how long I can stay alert, awake and aware. If I all of a sudden notice that my work is riddled with mistakes, it is easy to see that I’ve once again fallen ‘asleep at the wheel’ so to speak. But I can bring myself back to an alert state in the very next instant. Being aware in this way just feels right and I’ve learned for myself that there are great benefits to applying the lessons in my daily life. Vernon’s teachings are so practical and I’m so thankful to have found them.

By Jodi Brunschwig
  Vernon Howard's principles are so practical for daily living you can use them literally every second of your day. It doesn’t matter where you are or who you’re with, there is always a principle that can be put into practical use to increase understanding and insight.
  One of my favorites is the very simple but powerful Truth of keeping your mind where your body is. Our mind likes to wander and drift throughout our day. If we can bring it back to what we are doing and remember ourselves, it will protect us both physically and spiritually.
  On the physical level it keeps us safe by heightening our awareness of the job at hand and can also help to protect others we may be working with.
  Spiritually, if we let our mind wander and think whatever thoughts it wants, it can take us into negative, harmful areas. It’s like a car driving around a big city. If the driver, that is Higher Consciousness, is not present, a criminal thought might drive us to a bad part of town where we leave ourselves open to mental thieves and thugs, such as thoughts of revenge or anger or bitterness or depression. Truth knows and understands these areas and knows they are harmful to us.
  If we keep these principles first and foremost in our lives we can start to learn about wrong mental thoughts, why we fall into them, how they take us over and even how we invite them into our lives. As Vernon Howard has told us, we can start to recognize them before they take over the driver’s seat and with that awareness God can come in and guide us to the safety of self-awareness.

(For an in-depth explanation of the above exercise purchase the ‘Practical Exercises for Inner Harmony’ MP3 or 3-cassette tape album.)

By Bill Brown
  Anything that strengthens spiritual principles inside of us is good. Vernon Howard gave a method to do this that is one of my favorite ways of applying his teachings daily. The method is to take what we see happening in daily life and try to make a parallel or connection with a spiritual principle. Our contact with other people, a scene in a movie, nature in action — anything we see can be used to remind us of inner-life teachings.
  Spiritual students who start really trying to apply spiritual ideas inevitably come to think or even say, “I seem to be getting worse.” Here is a curious weather fact that gives a parallel explanation of this situation and leads to a right attitude towards it.
  In cold weather, when the sun comes up, it gets even colder — for awhile. Normally, the coldest temperatures of the day are recorded one-half hour after sunrise. The reason is that the sun’s rays, before warming the air, first stir the coldest air found next to the ground at night and bring it up to where you can measure and feel it.
  Likewise, the light of spiritual teachings — from seeing ourselves as we actually are — first makes us feel the cold and dark negative parts inside before we feel its warmth dissolving them. Applying true principles never makes us get worse; they make us see what we have been unconsciously and unnecessarily suffering from all these years.

By Katherine Pascal
  Vernon Howard’s principles offer me immediate higher help every day.
  Take depression, which overcomes me without cause and I suffer. When I’m depressed, Vernon asks that I question its right to control my mind and my feelings. Using “Depression has no right to exist”, I can boot it out of my inner life. When I use this principle, the heavy negative feeling disappears. I experience what Vernon talked about when he said “The state invades me but it’s not me.” This is truly exciting because having succeeded once, I can do it again. That’s the key — I must constantly use what I’ve been given by bringing myself back to awareness time and time again.
  “I am the problem” has freed me from a lot of useless blaming so that I can now concentrate on the solution — me. When my husband tells me I’ve made a mistake, I don’t immediately attack back. I begin to understand that my wrong reaction is mine, not his. Vernon says that often the decent thing to do is to just leave people alone. When my husband is driving, I put this principle into action by no longer advising him to avoid the car turning left 3 miles ahead of us! This helps both of us.
  To consciously upset myself by doing what I don’t want to do helps me to develop. Using maps is difficult for me. But I go against myself and read the map. It feels right and at the same time, I avoid wasting a lot of time driving around lost.
  Life constantly challenges us but Vernon Howard’s principles give us true support and a higher experience that comes as we use these tools. Nothing worthwhile is going to come easily; but oh what a reward we get by applying these ideas. We can truly get our lives back!

By Dave Netherton
  To begin to explain how New Life has helped me I would have to go back to my teenage years. Back to the time when high school students are approaching graduation and making plans for what comes next.
  About that time I noticed that something was starting to bother me. It seemed that while almost everybody I knew had a detailed plan, I didn’t have a clue! One friend had decided to go pre-med at the State University after which he would intern in the big city and then start a practice in a certain specialty. Another friend was to attend junior college for two years before traveling in Europe for a couple more and then returning home to marry her high school sweetheart and start a family. And so it was. Practically everyone else had figured out what they were going to do. I secretly wondered what was wrong with me.
  Many friends and acquaintances made “suggestions” as to what I should be doing. And they explained them quite convincingly; to the point that I should seem foolish not to go along with them. So eventually I chose one and went ahead to college.
  I graduated from college and traveled abroad for several years before returning to the United States. I had kept in touch with many of my old friends and would run into them occasionally. It now seemed to me that everyone else had a head start in life on me. They already had families and had established successful businesses and careers or had made a name for themselves in some other way. I felt like I had missed out on something.
  I began to notice as I would talk with old friends though that several of them had been divorced once or twice, and some of them were nasty breakups. Others with seemingly perfect marriages didn’t seem all that happy. Several had struck out on their own in search of fortune and fame only to return years later penniless and bitter. A few ended up in substance abuse rehabilitation and a few more needed to go there. I began to notice a sense of desperation and despair in them. None of them looked or acted like they were contented.
  Years earlier I had been given a book by Vernon Howard. I believe it was Pathways to Perfect Living. I read it and moved on, not having understood much of it. That didn’t bother me much because underneath it all, I thought I already knew everything anyway. (Old habits die hard).
  But now as my life was moving along I went back and reread it. It started to make sense of what I was seeing in the world all around me. It explained what was going on and why my friends’ best laid plans didn’t seem to be making them happy. At times it seemed like Vernon was speaking specifically about me.
  As I read on, I noticed that most of what he wrote was in fact true. The stories were entertaining and each had a lesson. As I continued to read I saw that he was right about more than I originally thought. I began to suspect that he was right about everything! I was fortunate enough to have heard him speak in person and it was clear that there was something very unique about him. Here was someone who UNDERSTOOD LIFE. He knew me better than I knew myself. In fact he understood all human kind! And he had made the extraordinary effort to
communicate the lessons of life through his books, tapes and lectures.
  He told us to take what he taught and to prove it for ourselves. The more I did the more I saw it was true. I now have a much better understanding of the world in which we all live. I understand our purpose here and have been told what we should be doing. LIFE HAS FINALLY BEGUN TO MAKE SENSE.

By Regina Netherton
  It’s so very interesting how this all works. I remember hearing a whole talk by Vernon on Understanding. He said that was all we needed. I remember seeing an inner reaction of disappointment and resistance. It seemed to me (actually, to the false self, but I didn’t know that then) that there were so many more things needed. But (1) by persistence, (2) by continuing to study, (3) by breaking thought and trying to stay awake, (4) by remembering to ask for higher help, (5) by keeping notes nearby to help us remember to do the work, and (6) by practicing self-release when we are nervous or in pain, everything gradually changes. Our attitudes change, because we now see that understanding really is what we need. Now, there is nothing in life more rewarding, more exciting, than gaining more understanding.
  Taking a truth statement like the following one, writing it down, and working with it helps understanding to grow. “THE FEW HUMAN BEINGS WHO FINALLY MAKE IT OUT REFUSE ABSOLUTELY TO POINT THE FINGER OUT THERE.”
  If, instead of sleeping my life away, I will work with the basic principles to watch what is going on inside every minute and not say “I” to whatever is there, and not try to change it, but to shine a light into the inner darkness, it then becomes more clear that there is a sly impostor, a pretender, and many dragons (demons) within that are running and ruining my life. I have been calling them me, but they are not me. This is what separates us from who we really are. This is the only problem any of us has. It’s like a movie projector sending out scary scenes that we think are real. It is very exciting to become a better detective and to expose the hoaxer, the hypocrite, the insolent impostor, the pain causer, and in the process, to get our life back. Indeed, if we are honest about what we see, and will go through the hell of becoming conscious of the unconscious (e.g., fear, worry, anger and much more) we can change what we are getting, and we do have a chance to solve the Mystery of Life. Nothing is more practical.
  “Understanding the mind is everything, that is, seeing what is going on inside and knowing it is not me.” The trouble is, I don’t work hard enough and I fall back to sleep! And there are still many parts which would rather sleep and parts that want to be lazy. So I have to see I can’t do anything for myself except to ask Heaven to keep me awake and to do for me what I can’t do for myself. And then I must try to work all the harder, which appears to be a paradox but really isn’t.
  It is truly thrilling when one sees that by really doing the work, outer problems start to disappear. What was a giant crisis for me recently became a little molehill by following the instructions of turning my attention to the inner condition and staying with the pain, the fear, the inner chaos. By not trying to find an answer to the problem with the thought-self and by practicing self-release, I can move up the mountainside. Amazing, isn’t it, that nearly everyone rejects these principles, our only true friends?
  Vernon gave us a chance for something incredible. Here’s how unique it is. Vernon said he doubted if 10 men in history have gone this far (DVD #35 — FIVE STEPS TO SANITY AND CERTAINTY). How far? He said it takes many years of going through the stages of giving up calling oneself either a right or a wrong person, of not calling it ‘me’ at all, and of “finally approaching the stage of sanity and certainty, where there is no you there anymore.” Vernon offered us a chance for a new and eternal life, but we have to persist and to put these Truth Principles first every day.