By Doug Stewart
     The teachings of Vernon Howard have touched my life in so many ways. They have shaped how I start my day, how I pass through it and how I end it. How true it is that every moment presents all of us with the opportunity to wake up.
     Vernon tells us to start our day in a right way. I employ the suggestions in “Practical Exercises for Inner Harmony”. Despite the grogginess, I try to feel my feet on the floor and give my psychic system a good shake when I first get out of bed. My next inclination is to get a cup of coffee or do some calisthenics, but I don’t. A phrase came to my head one day, which was “Put the Spiritual Before the Physical”, so I move on to another Vernon Howard exercise I heard on a tape called “Walk Yourself Awake” — you’ll find it printed on the New Life website. There are probably only four or five days out of each year that I do not do this exercise, if you’ll pardon the term, religiously. One has to do it alone and sometimes it’s been a challenge while on out-of-town trips with family members or organized events like Boy Scout camp outs but one can find a way. I also include something else that’s vitally important to me.
     A number of years ago, I heard a tape about Right Prayers. I have always been fascinated with praying to God. Before coming to New Life, I was very confused and reluctant to pray, primarily because everything I learned about praying came from corrupted sources. You can imagine the kind of prayers that were answered and those that weren’t! Do you know what a miracle it is to learn how to pray rightly? I don’t go out of the house each morning without saying a number of right prayers that I have heard Mr. Howard give us on tapes and in books. I also include some that I have created myself, using guidelines he articulated. The prayers I say include “Please God, go with me today”, “Please God, save me from me”, “Please God, let me be strong with Your Strength ... let me be wise with Your Wisdom ... let me be pleasant with Your Pleasantness” and others.  One day, a prayer came to me “Please God, let me be sane with Your Sanity”. I’ll take all the authentic help I can get!
     Driving to my office or to class usually involves a fair amount of time on the road. I used to grumble about all the driving but the long stretches in the car have presented me with a unique opportunity to add more Truth to my life. There’s almost always a Vernon Howard tape playing in my cassette deck. I will listen to a tape over and over again before moving on to another one. There is so much I miss on the first pass that it often takes three or four listenings before I hear most everything on both sides. It’s fun to go back to old tapes after a number of years. I am often sure that I have discovered the side of a tape I never listened to before until I come across a particular phrase that rings a bell. When this happens, I have to chuckle at myself. An important part of my Work is to attend as many classes and banquets as I can. I make an announcement in each class about a wonderful New Life free service, the “Secrets of Life” daily quote. I often can’t wait to open my e-mail each morning to see what insights await me there.
     I end my day with a few brief prayers, all of them from New Life materials. One of the most disturbing ones to my old, bad nature is a prayer that says “Please God, show me how to make You my only friend.” It takes courage that I don’t often have to ask God for things I don’t understand. I’ve heard Vernon give words of genuine guidance: he tells you to ask God for something even if you don’t know what you’re asking for.
     There is so much to learn and not all the time in the world left to do it. With each new gleam of insight that comes from Mr. Howard’s teachings, it becomes more and more clear to me that nothing is more important than The Work. As that famous television series used to say, “The Truth is out there!” Yes, it is and no one provides it more clearly or in such abundance as Vernon Howard does.

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 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 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 Janice Peck
     Walking in the mountains at an elevation of 7,800 ft early one morning, there was dew on the tips of the leaves and grass, deer scampering across the roadway, chipmunks darting across the path, birds singing, bunnies hopping, together with the greenery of brush, shrubs, aspen and pine, and the aroma of the early morning high country fresh mountain air — Spectacular! This is God’s gift to us.
     Looking inside at my mind and observing that it is constantly thinking and thinking — the contrast is startling!
     But we have been given so many tools to break the spell of the mind and to return to our true spiritual home. Some of the most valuable of these are the spiritual exercises Vernon has given us in abundance.
     Here are some exercises and instructions I use over and over again to break the hypnosis of what Vernon calls ‘mental movies’: 1) With the Abrupt Interrupt exercise, I cut off the painful thought the moment it appears and know where I am at that moment and ‘observe’ or ‘see’ rather than think. 2) Vernon also encouraged us to practice the Run Out of Yourself exercise which is to tell yourself all about yourself. 3) Carry notes, a booklet, a book, something of the higher with me so that I can get true help at any moment. 4) Instead of running away from painful interactions with others, it is often critical to invite the knowledge that what you see in the other person also exists presently in you. It’s just hidden and buried from view. By letting the truth of the other person’s trait reveal similar wrongness in you, it cancels out the criticalness and brings a definite humility, a relief and a new understanding. This must be done honestly and truthfully and not just done to quiet the pain. 5) Practice non-identification because everything in the false self resists feeling real shame, resists feeling and knowing its own cruelty and resists being aware of its own mental ‘war games’.
     I recently observed a bumper sticker that reads: “Queen of the Road.” Isn’t that really how, in secret, we all live and consequently get from life nothing authentic? What about having a new bumper sticker, one that reads: “God, Truth, Reality Rules”? Wouldn’t it be a good reminder to thank him for his gifts and especially for the Truth Teachings we were given here, which, if used to change ourselves, can exceed the level of all the stars in the sky? When understood, we gladly obey.
     With the correct order of putting Truth first, how can anything but goodness follow?

By Roy Pascal
     A while ago, my life was overrun by my family. My father had me take him to work before I went to work. My stepmother felt she had a right to call me any time to make repairs to her house; my niece and nephew who got into a lot of trouble always called me to solve their problems. I was up to my neck in family life. They were draining me of my life. I knew it, I felt it, but I saw no way out.
     It was a “yes-mess.” Then I began to work with some of the exercises Vernon Howard gave us, exercises that if done with a right heart and spirit can change everything. I used the Themaswot exercise to begin to say NO to my family who just wanted to unload on me. “Themaswot makes the suggestions are the ones who must do the work, make the decisions and pay the money.” At first I just said no to their small “requests” and called their bluff. Then I got stronger. The howl from my family members was very loud and very long. They tried everything individually and as a group to get me back in their clutches. I was able nicely and without anger to refuse all of their demands! Slowly they faded away, and after many years of inner work and sticking very close to the classes, they are no problem at all.
     I’ve found and this is really important: THE CLASSES MAKE YOU INWARDLY TOUGHER. I NEVER MISS A BANQUET, NOT EVER; BELIEVE ME, ATTENDING THE BANQUETS HELP. This work is like riding a fast spinning top. If you stay right at the center, you stick with the Truth. If you wander at all, you will be flung off the top. Stick close to the center. NEVER MISS A CLASS OR A BANQUET THAT YOU CAN ATTEND.
     There is more to this work than I ever had any idea of in the beginning. I now have a real appreciation for what Vernon Howard gave us. I would never have had a peek into something other than Roy’s little world unless I persisted. I will never stop attending these classes. They are the only thing on the planet that has true meaning. That may sound unbelievable but it is the truth. Find out for yourself.

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!