Hello friends,

Today, I just wanted to record a quick lit­tle Valentine’s mes­sage for you. I think you’ll enjoy it.

I hope your day is filled with love and light.

Happy Valen­tines Day,

Burt

P.S. I’ll see you Fri­day for the next “Dear Burt.”

Dear Friends,

I’m going to keep this very short so you can get back to your fam­ily, friends and merry making…

So just take a few min­utes to watch my spe­cial Christ­mas mes­sage for you below

Merry Christ­mas and Happy Hol­i­days!

Sin­cerely,

Burt

Turkey is tasty and sweet pota­toes are, well, sweet…

But the best part about Thanks­giv­ing is how focused every­one is on the con­cept of grat­i­tude.

Don’t you just love that warm, fuzzy feel­ing that creeps up on you when you get together with your loved ones, and talk about the things that make your life beautiful?

Now imag­ine if you could get that feel­ing not just on Thanks­giv­ing, but every sin­gle day.

A friend of mine by the name of Mike Rein­ing had the same idea, and he’s started a web­site called Grat­i­tude­Log. It’s a social net­work­ing site where you can share grat­i­tude mes­sages and gifts with your friends and other Grat­i­tude­Log members.

Think of it as a hap­pier, more pos­i­tive ver­sion of Face­Book

I’ve been using Grat­i­tude­Log for a few weeks, and I dare say I’m hooked! If you’d like to join me and start telling me what you’re grate­ful for, sign up at the link below for your free account:

Con­nect with me on Grat­i­tude­Log here.

And after you’ve signed up, turn up your speak­ers and watch my Thanks­giv­ing message:

Here’s wish­ing you a Thanks­giv­ing filled with grat­i­tude, love and enlight­en­ment

Sin­cerely,

Burt

Happy 82nd birth­day Burt!

I’m sure you remem­ber the birth­day post Burt made for me last month, so here’s my way of return­ing the favour

10 Rea­sons I Love Burt

1. You’re the most gen­uine, car­ing and lov­ing per­son I know.

2. You’re always will­ing to share your wis­dom with the world.

3. You give the best advice out there.

4. You always stay true to your word.

5. Your energy is infectious.

6. You never judge others.

7. You’re always gen­er­ous with what you have.

8. Despite every­thing you’ve achieved, you remain humble.

9. You always make time for those who need you.

10. You’re an inspi­ra­tion to every­one

Now to make this even more spe­cial, I need your help.

Can you do the same thing you did for me on my birthday?

Just leave Burt a birth­day mes­sage in the com­ments sec­tion. I got 1,538 com­ments on my birth­day, so let’s try and beat that!

Thank you so much. I know he’s going to love this

Alexan­dra

Here is my spe­cial birth­day mes­sage to Alexandra.

Dear Alexan­dra,

None of this would have been pos­si­ble with­out you.

You’ve been amaz­ing to work with, and more impor­tantly a true friend over the year plus we’ve known each other.

We started out with noth­ing but a dream, and look where it’s taken us.

The Amer­i­can Monk is as much your achieve­ment as it is mine. To say I appre­ci­ate all the effort and ded­i­ca­tion you’ve put into this dream would be an understatement.

I see it as much more than just set­ting up web­sites and tele­sem­i­nars, send­ing emails and help­ing out our mem­bers — I see you as a part­ner in our quest for mak­ing the world a bet­ter, more enlight­ened place.

Your patience, resource­ful­ness and kind­ness con­tinue to inspire me to reach greater heights, and I can only hope that I’ve been able to do the same for you.

Remem­ber that week­end we spent indi­vid­u­ally wrap­ping up copies of the Mind­Box just so we could get them out to our mem­bers on time? Things were just a lit­tle more chaotic back then, but you stood by me with­out a sin­gle complaint.

I could go on and on here, but I think you get the idea. You’ve been a true bless­ing to me, and I can’t wait to see what else the future holds for us.

Happy Birth­day!

Burt

P.S. Don’t worry, I’m not going to tell any­one how young you’re turn­ing

The above let­ter is my birth­day mes­sage for my assis­tant Alexan­dra. If you’re sub­scribed to my mail­ing list, you’ll be famil­iar with her through her emails to you. I’d like to make this one really spe­cial for her, so I’d really appre­ci­ate if you could send her a quick birth­day mes­sage in the com­ments sec­tion below.

I can’t wait to see the look on her face when she receives all your won­der­ful wishes. Lets try to blow past our record of 908 comments!

Sin­cerely,

Burt

Since announc­ing my upcom­ing pro­gram on pas­sion and inti­macy, I’ve received quite a few emails from peo­ple ask­ing me some ques­tions about it.

Instead of respond­ing to these ques­tions indi­vid­u­ally, I’m going to post my answers here–that way, you can ben­e­fit from the answers too.

So here’s a selec­tion of ques­tions, along with my answers:

Q. “Will your upcom­ing pro­gram be expen­sive?“
A. The pro­gram will be very affordable–less than a ses­sion of sex/relationship ther­apy, less than a roman­tic hol­i­day in Paris, and cer­tainly much less than a painful divorce! Let’s face it, a healthy sex life is one of the cheap­est forms of enter­tain­ment you can get in these try­ing times, and it’s also one of the most fulfilling.

Q. “My part­ner is not open to work­ing things out. How would your pro­gram change that?“
A. I’ve helped thou­sands of ail­ing rela­tion­ships over the years, and that includes some very stub­born indi­vid­u­als. Trust me, I know where you’re com­ing from. I also know that even if they don’t seem open to change, or if they’ve tried other ‘solu­tions’ in the past with no suc­cess, your part­ner will open up after going through mine. My unique tech­niques and approaches go beyond con­ven­tional psy­cho­log­i­cal meth­ods, and they have an extremely high suc­cess rate.

Q. “I’m too shy to seek help for such an inti­mate issue!“
A. And that’s pre­cisely why you should use my pro­gram! This is the Inter­net, and your iden­tity will remain com­pletely anony­mous to me. Unlike sex ther­apy, you don’t need to face a per­son you barely know. Unlike med­ica­tion, you don’t need to approach a doc­tor or phar­ma­cist. Unlike buy­ing a book, you don’t even need to walk into a shop and face a cashier. No one needs to know about this but YOU.

Q. “I’m single/not in love. What could I get out of your pro­gram?“
A. My pro­gram will help you man­i­fest the right part­ner into your life, and keep them there. I want you to expe­ri­ence ful­fill­ing, last­ing inti­macy and passion–not just fleet­ing moments of love that leave you feel­ing empty and unsat­is­fied. Even if you’ve been sin­gle for years, the insights in my pro­gram could be the key to help­ing you find that spe­cial some­one. They’ve already helped count­less oth­ers, and now it’s your turn.

My pro­gram will be out tomor­row, May 27th at 10:00AM (EST). Get ready for it! An email from me will be arriv­ing in your inbox in about 24 hours!

You’ll hear from me soon,

Burt

Money said loudly, “I don’t care what you say, I’m the best. I’m the most desired, the most sought after, and the thing that every man, woman and child on earth wants more than any­thing else in the world. There­fore, I am num­ber one.”

“Non­sense,” replied Sex. “Peo­ple lose more sleep over me than they do over you. Peo­ple will kill for me, and have for thou­sands of years, even before you were invented. Peo­ple will kill for you too but not as much as they will for me. I am the great­est. If you were to develop a scale of one to ten you would no doubt be a ten but I would be off the scale. I’m at least a fif­teen. You may be nec­es­sary, on occa­sion, to get me, but with­out me you are use­less. There­fore, I am num­ber one.”

“You’re both mad. Let me tell you some­thing Sex, and you too Money, if you’re going to fight over which is top dog, give it up, I win hands down.”

Money and Sex looked up from the play board. Their eyes locked for a moment. A sly smile played with the lips of both of them. The warm breeze, that caressed the group, seemed to increase and a dry leaf flut­tered by Sex who flicked it away with a thought. They looked quizzi­cally at Rela­tion­ships who stood stead­fast, armed by the belief that the pair argu­ing couldn’t be more wrong.

Finally Money spoke. “You have got to be kid­ding. What makes you think you’re more impor­tant than I am? What good are you with­out me? For that mat­ter, what good is any­thing with­out me?”

Before the answer came, Sex broke in, address­ing Rela­tion­ships. “And what about me? They can have me with­out you. As a mat­ter of fact I believe that more peo­ple have me with­out estab­lish­ing you then ever before. No, you won’t con­vince me.”

Rela­tion­ships sighed before speak­ing. “It was always that way. Not only you two, but many oth­ers as well feel that you are the impor­tant ones but con­sider this, I rep­re­sent the good­ness and sat­is­fac­tion of the gen­eral com­mu­nity. Imag­ine a world with­out me. Imag­ine a world where not one sin­gle per­son had a friend, or even an acquain­tance. That world would be a cold and frigid one. You both are impor­tant, although I would hes­i­tate to place you in a hier­ar­chy posi­tion as age would def­i­nitely change that, but you are noth­ing with­out me. There­fore, I am num­ber one.”

“Baloney.” a voice rang out. The three turned to the newcomer.

“You all are noth­ing with­out me. Did any­one ever get a thing done with­out me? No.

“Could any­one have a good rela­tion­ship with­out me? No.

“Could any­one enjoy money with­out me? No.

“Could any­one enjoy sex with­out me? No.

“With­out me you want soli­tude. With­out me you bury your head in a pil­low and let the world go by. With­out me you don’t care a whit for a rela­tion­ship. And as far as you go Sex, with­out me peo­ple wouldn’t even be able to spell your name. With­out me there would be lit­tle, if any sex.

“Money with­out me is use­less. A dol­lar, or a mil­lion dol­lars would be all the same with­out me.

“I am num­ber one. Always have been and always will be.”

Money, Sex, and Rela­tion­ships looked at one another sheep­ishly. They could not argue with the new­comer. They knew the new­comer was right. They were all use­less by them­selves, or together with­out the bless­ings of the newcomer.

The new­comer stood up, stretched and yawned. Walk­ing away from the group the new­comer stopped and turned before going out in the world to dis­pense the com­mod­ity that all desired above every­thing else.

“Don’t feel badly my friends. You three are loved by one and by all. But remem­ber always. You are wanted. But I am needed.”

And with that, Health and Well­ness walked off beyond the hill and into the world.

I know it may seem a bit late to be talk­ing about New Year Res­o­lu­tions,
but this is per­haps the best time to start reflect­ing on them to see how
well you’re doing.

Here I am talk­ing about my Resolutions:

How are you get­ting along with yours?

Did you man­age to lose weight? Kick a bad habit? Pick up a new skill?
Get started on achiev­ing some­thing you’ve always dreamed of?

I’d love to hear from you.

All the best in 2009,

Burt

Most peo­ple know me as a pub­lished author, a spir­i­tual guru, and of course as The Amer­i­can Monk — but not many know I’m also a licensed minister!

About a month ago my lovely grand­daugh­ter Erin gave me the chance to dust off my tux when she asked me to help her tie the knot with her fiance Shaun in San Diego.

It was sim­ply beau­ti­ful. It’s not often that a grand­fa­ther gets to offi­ci­ate his own granddaughter’s wedding!

It’s times like these that I feel truly blessed.

In part 1 of this series, I shared my expe­ri­ence trav­el­ing to Paris. Today, I shall be talk­ing about my expe­ri­ence vis­it­ing Oman, an amaz­ing Mid­dle East­ern coun­try in the Ara­bian Peninsula.

OMAN

With the most hos­pitable peo­ple on the planet Mus­cat is with­out a doubt the clean­est place I have ever been. Not a piece of paper or a scrap of trash to be seen any­where you look.

Mus­cat is a place out of the Ara­bian Nights. My hotel, the Al Bus­tan, is one of the few six star hotels in the world and deserv­ing of the title. My host, advi­sor to the Sul­tan, is as gra­cious as any per­son could be. His home, hun­dreds of acres right on the bay of Oman, is set in a vir­tual gar­den of Eden with tiny deer and pea­cocks wan­der­ing freely about.

Sul­tan Qaboos has arranged for me to travel about the coun­try and a lim­ou­sine and inter­preter are pro­vided for another once in a life­time adventure.

With the sweet aroma of frank­in­cense every­where I over­stayed my visit by seven days and even­tu­ally said a reluc­tant farewell to still more vivid mem­o­ries of the pri­vate class.

Up next: Holland.