“Giving birth is like taking your lower lip and forcing it over your head.” Carol Burnett

It goes without saying that yesterday’s inauguration was one of the great days in American history. If the times were not so tough and the economy was not so bad, would Barack Obama have won the election? Maybe not. One could easily argue that the strife of the current day is the pain of birthing a new era.

I believe this new era will have profound effects on people at their deepest level of being. Following are 3 things that will take place in the minds, hearts, and spirits of all Americans…whether or not they support the new President.

1. A New Beginning

“The secret to a rich life is to have more beginnings than endings.” David Weinbaum

In anyway that you are perceiving these tough times as being full of “endings,” take note. Sometimes those subtle shifts in perspective cause massive life changes. As the yogis believe, no amount of action can compensate for misaligned thought. So if you can clear your mind, that’s where all positive change begins. As hard as things might be right now, see if you can perceive this time as the beginning of a new chapter filled with greater appreciation for simpler pleasures, loving connections, and renewed faith

2. The New American Dream

“The highest reward for a person’s toil is not what they get for it, but what they become by it.” John Ruskin

If you’ve not yet seen the movie Slumdog Millionaire, it’s about a poor boy (slumdog) in India who strikes it rich on a game show. I was reading a article pondering why the American moviegoer is so fascinated with this movie. The rags to riches dream was once the American dream. But now it belongs to another nation in another part of the world. In this new era, Americans are concerned less with getting rich and more with getting by. With so many people out of work and with so many people having lost a lifetime of savings in the financial markets… a good meal, a loving embrace, and a steady income never before brought so much joy. What this new American Dream may lose in glamour, it will more than make up for in wealth. Spiritual wealth. As a wise one said, “Being rich is a measurement of how much money you have. Being wealthy is a measurement of how much time you have.”

3. A New Definition of Power

“We look forward to the time when the Power of Love will replace the Love of Power. Then will our world know the blessings of peace.” William E. Gladstone

The most influential city in our country is fast changing from New York to Washington DC. Wall Street now bows to the government and with the government being led by a seemingly good and honest man, the word “power” is about to take on a brand new meaning. For as long as I’ve been alive, money has fueled power. Everyone wanted to earn money in order to buy the things seen in countless TV, radio, print, and internet ads. Our duty always seemed to be to make as much money as possible because by doing so, one could take better care of self, family, company. But now, money is scarce and the new power is held by the one who rides a growing wave of collective ambition to achieve the seemingly insurmountable task of rebirth. As Obama said yesterday, “There is nothing so satisfying to the spirit, so defining of our character, than giving our all to a difficult task.”

• Dreams Of Home Ziggy Marley & The Melody Makers
• Hand It Over Keb’ Mo’
• Video (Main) India Arie
• Don’t Stand So Close to Me (Original) The Police
• Rocket Smashing Pumpkins
• Lately The Helio Sequence
• Imbarueri Maurício Pereira
• New Slang The Shins
• Rivers of Babylon Sublime
• Plush Stone Temple Pilots
• End of the Line Traveling Wilburys
• Always On My Mind Willie Nelson
• Piano Man Billy Joel
• Landslide Tori Amos