In November 2002 I attended the Celebrate Your Life Conference in Arizona and I wanted to share some of the topics and ideas presented with you. Most of these ideas are things you've heard before, but the reminder of those ideas can be priceless. At the end of this article is a complete list of the speakers at the conference.

The main reminder I want to EMPHASIZE is the idea of having YOUR OWN POWER and feeling good about yourself and your life. Whether or not life is determined by Free Will or Pre-destination, one thing you can focus on is your own attitude and how you deal with the situations that arise in your life. You can have all the freedom you need mentally while being shackled and tortured physically, it's all in your perspective.

So you have your own power whether or not you admit it or acknowledge it, so you might as well do both! There are many ways to get your power back and everyone will have their own unique technique. At the conference I saw nine different speakers and they all had a similar message in different words. The message was simple: "You can enjoy your life no matter what!"

If you are at all familiar with self-help material then you will understand that the very basic questions are what drive us. Why am I here? What is my life purpose? Do I have a life purpose? Is there a higher power? Why does this suck so much? We all want to know, yet the real truth eludes us. We turn to other people to answer our questions, people like the speakers I saw, people with expertise. But did you ever notice everyone has a different story, their perspective is just a little different than the next guy? It can be confusing when two experts give conflicting information. Unfortunately, it has to be that way. As no two people are alike, no two experiences are alike either. That is where conflicting information comes into play. You as a client or student of these experts must come to understand that what they offer is support, reminders, and a rendition of THEIR EXPERIENCE.

As you grow along your path you will notice that it is your OWN EXPERIENCES that shape your thoughts, beliefs and attitudes about how it all works (including psychic phenomenon.) For instance, two people may both have an experience of actually seeing a ghost appear, but they paint a very different story. One may say "the ghost was white and translucent and it hovered a few feet above the ground!" while the other might say "I saw a ghost, looked just like you and me in the flesh, feet on the ground wearing jeans and a flannel shirt!" Now the skeptic mind would say "Hey! One of them must be wrong!" Just remember, there's always exceptions to everything and nothing is impossible. So both people may have had a 100% real experience, but saw the ghosts differently. So the reminder here is not to expect things to happen a certain way just because someone says it will happen that way (this includes what psychics predict, but I am mostly referring to someone telling you that Out of Body Experience will be a certain way because it was that way for them).

Another good reminder from the conference was about having FUN! Does anyone remember what that feels like? We HAD to do all sorts of fun stuff in the workshops. That's right, I said we HAD to do fun stuff because you would not believe how people just totally resisted doing anything that made them feel good. We would all have rather sat tensely in our stiff chairs scribbling notes and ignoring the person next to us rather than give ourselves foot massages and sing silly songs! But once we did the fun things, we felt INCREDIBLE! Do yourself a favor, do something you actually LIKE to do and try your best to actually ENJOY it!

I do have to say a little about some of the people I met. Sonia Choquette was my favorite speaker. You could just tell that she really cared about the people there and she was a lot of fun. She even gave me a hug when I bumped into her in the bookstore! SARK was also another excellent speaker. She has a knack for pulling the bad and the good of life together in a fun and productive way. She was hilarious in personality and style! Dr. Wayne Dyer had the most impressive demeanor and kindness one could imagine. He covered many topics from his different books. He's one of those people you just want to sit next to because he radiates such a gentleness about him. If you've ever heard Sylvia Browne on TV she's exactly the same in front of a crowd. She's a no-nonsense lady with incredible confidence.