I have always loved learning about the sparks of inspiration and insight that lead directly to something new being created. Laurence Olivier based his Hamlet on a young man he saw in a cafe hurriedly drinking a cup of coffee. Bob Dylan wrote his first song, Song to Woody, because he had something he really wanted to sing about and the song didn’t exist. Jennifer Egan was revisiting the rock and roll concept albums she loved (Quadrophenia, Ziggy Stardust) when the idea came to her to write a book in that form, which became the Pulitzer Prize winning A Visit From the Goon Squad.

All of these moments of inspiration led these artist to take action until their creation was complete. They knew what to do and did it.

Every single one of us who is on a spiritual path has already had that moment of inspiration, insight or suffering that prompted us to expand our knowledge. While we may use different words to describe it, our goal is the same: Enlightenment. The process of being fully present in the truth that everything is connected by unconditional love, to master joyously our attention and intentions, and to be gratefully in vibrational harmony with what we are consciously manifesting.

Modern Enlightenment is making a state of being alive and accessible in the present moment. Outdated concepts of enlightenment celebrated deprivation (sitting in a cave, poverty, celibacy). In our time, we have the choice to live full, integrated and engaged lives. Enlightenment is an active process, not a static state or a momentary flash of clarity. Our intention can be to enlighten ourselves moment by moment, day by day.

Part of our enlightening is understanding who we are and what we are doing here in the first place. And, who God is and how God works.

We are here, as souls who chose to incarnate into our current lifetimes, to change. The challenges that manifest in our lives appear with purpose. They get our attention, and present an opportunity to change our patterns and beliefs. When we do change, we create an opening for new insights and experiences to emerge. We make our world bigger, which is part of our job here.

God is pure, unconditional love. God sees each of us as perfect. God is confident and unwavering in broadcasting love and support to every single being, no matter what. Angels, who are messengers of God, actively help us to be in harmony with this love and support.

Just like Laurence Olivier, Bob Dylan and Jennifer Egan, artists infuse creativity into their technique to create work that is beautiful, memorable and enlightening. I believe we can do the same with our lives. I have created a list of twelve practical actions steps to make every aspect of our lives expansive, peaceful and focused on love. These actions are all based in technique and work as a process, which is designed to be simple and clear. All of my work – readings, workshops and audio experiences – centers on these action steps:

Know who you actually are, and what is available to you.

Choose to use your free will to connect with God, your angels and guides.

Ask them for help. Receive their guidance. Take action on that guidance.

Master your attention by compassionately placing it on yourself and off of others.

Vision what you want – your highest possible good. What you want, not how it should happen.

Clear what is not current in: this lifetime, your identity, your past lives, and your ancestry.

Forgive everyone for everything, especially yourself, and know that everyone is doing their best.

Take Action daily toward manifesting what you want.

Allow yourself to be visible, to express yourself and to share your gifts with the world.

Receive and Give with grace and gratitude, understanding that you are circulating abundance and that there is plenty of everything.

Love everyone and everything, especially yourself. No matter what.

Be Grateful for everything in your life.