OMTimes Magazine May A 2019 Edition

YOUR SOUL PURPOSE

OSSUR MIK

November A Issue

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CONTENTS • OMTIMES

Table of Contents

48

26

56 26

Kim Russo - Your Soul Purpose

By Victor Fuhrman

44

Crystal Meditation for Addiction

48

Get To Know This Superfood Quenepa Fruit

By Andrew Pacholyk MS L. Ac

By Dr. Paul Haider

52

Fractal of Divine Fire

56

What Do People Do on the Other Side

By William Keepin

By John Holland

May a EDITION

52 60

May a EDITION

60

The Recovery Spirituality

72

Transcendental Meditation (TM) Reduces Post-Traumatic

78

Listening to the Call of Life

86

11 Golden Relationship Rules

94

Turn Heated Exchanges Into Healing Turning Points

94

Content

86

116

01

Table of

78

72 44 02 104

128

86

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Table of Contents 104

Being Practical and Present as an Intuitive

110

God - The Love Guiding Us To Be Truly Loving

116

The Best that Can Happen

122

Embracing Opportunities to Let Go, Sooner Than Later

128

Creating the State of Grace on Social Media

134

Rumi's Little Book of the Heart OMTIMES | MAY A

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William Keepin

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Crystal Presence

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Victor Fuhrman

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Kim Russo Your Soul Purpose Interview by Victor Fuhrman

There are questions as old as the first human developed the ability to ask them. “Why are we here on this earth?” “Does life have significance and meaning?” “Are there lessons we’ve come to learn?” “Is there a higher purpose for all of us to aspire to?” Answering

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these questions is difficult for most of us but my guest this week on Destination Unlimited, world-famous psychic medium Kim Russo, possesses a unique gift that allows her to see what many of us cannot.

Kim Russo, known around the world as “The Happy Medium,” starred on Lifetime Movie Network’s popular show, The Haunting Of..., and speaks annually at hundreds of presentations across the United States. In her first book, The Happy Medium, she shared how at a very young age, she realized that she could communicate with the dead and offered lessons from her experience.

In her brand-new book, Your Soul Purpose—How to Access the Light Within, she guides us to embrace love, let go of fear and discover the spiritual tools we already possess to find the deeper meaning of our existence and fulfill our destiny.

Victor Fuhrman: So, Kim, let’s begin by sharing with our readers your story. When

did you first realize that you could communicate with the dead, and what was that first experience?

Kim Russo: It’s a two-fold answer, but technically they started answering me when I was in my late 20s. When you said communicate when I was a child, I would see spirits standing at the foot of my bed nightly, and the difference back then to now is they were staring through me. They never had any words to say. They never had any facial expressions.

Knowing what I know now as an adult, I believe they were from the Depression-era. They were very sad-looking. I think back now, I can see exactly how they were, and they wouldn’t smile. They wouldn’t communicate. They would stare at me while I was going to sleep.

So, years later, after an uncle of mine passed away, and after my third child was born, they started talking to me in my mind’s eye, I thought I was losing my mind. I heard Omtimes.com

voices, I heard thoughts that were not mine, and I heard information that, if I were to take dictation and listen to what they were saying, many of them wanted me to look for their families and deliver a message, and these were strangers. So, I was arguing with the voices. How do you expect me to find your family? I don’t know who you are. I don’t know if this is my imagination.

The long story short, one afternoon I was putting my youngest, who was a baby, up for a nap in the bedroom, and I ventured into my bedroom. I said, “Okay, now it’s time. Let me straighten up the home.”

I was making my bed; when I bend down to pick up a throw pillow to put on the bed, as I turned my whole body, there was a figure in the doorway.

It was the quickest vision and thought from this figure came rushing into my head, what this figure wanted to say to me, and she told me she died in a fire, and she turned her head for a split second, and everything was charred on

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one side of her body. So, I knew it wasn’t a solid entity, yet it was speaking to me, and it told me to find her parents.

At the time, she told me where they lived. They were in New Jersey somewhere, and she told me their names and her name, and she told me to contact them.

I am a skeptic by nature. I didn’t believe any of it. I thought I was hallucinating, who would take that direction and start looking in New Jersey? So, that’s how it went down; the voices haven’t stopped. They came back with a vengeance; they’re like my best friends on the other side. I speak more to them than living on most days.

Victor Fuhrman: So, how do they present themselves?

Do they always present themselves visually, or is it the voice that you hear, or a feeling, or is it a combination? It is about being clairsentient, clairvoyant, clairaudient. Is it a combination for you?

Kim Russo: It is now. In the beginning, I was only clairaudient, where I was hearing them. I don’t mean when I was a child. Children have no, predisposed programs that they’re conditioned. They come in very innocent and naturally, with a loving, open heart.

Back then it was very much clairvoyant. As time went on, I became a teenager, all that shut down, and I do believe that was to have my kids and my family.

I do believe that was my first soul purpose, soul contract that I planned on. So, I needed to fulfill that first.

When they started coming full force again, it was more clairaudient. I was hearing, just as I would go about my day, “Hi, Kim. My name is Carol,” “I died of a heart attack,” and they would always tell me how they died, and I would have these arguments in my mind. Like, well, leave me alone. I can’t help you. Somehow, they knew I could help them, and

it started that way.

Victor Fuhrman: Now, often this gift runs in families. Did anyone in your family before you have the gift?

Kim Russo: Absolutely. My father’s sister who lived out of the country my whole life has a gift, but she didn’t have the gift that I have. We’ve always known about her, and when she would come to America, anyone who was ill or not feeling well, she would do some prayer, and she has the gift. She’s still alive. She has the gift of healing.

The healing energy works through her, and I don’t even think I would call it Reiki. She had her form of doing this, and my dad said that when they were children, and they all shared one bedroom in Europe growing up, they were very poor. She would get up in the middle of the night in some form of a trance with her arms raised to the heavens. She would ask the angels to come here, and they knew not to wake her

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up because she was in some trance, and so, we always knew about her, but I was always afraid of her, to be honest. Children, I guess it’s what you don’t understand, you fear.

Victor Fuhrman: I often hear from parents who share that their children appear to be open to subtle energy and spirit, and they ask for advice. What would you share with them?

Kim Russo: The biggest advice I would give any parent is to listen to your child when they speak about having an imaginary friend, especially If they’re fearful in their bed all of a sudden when they can’t sleep because they feel someone’s in their room.

I would have the parent together with the child, go in there and try to form some communication, and do prayers, and let them know that they’re safe and that the child has all the control, and that nobody else has the control over them. The advice I would give them is to listen

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and believe your child. I have a whole chapter in my first book The Happy Medium that speaks about a bubble technique that they can do with their child every morning, so the child feels protected, and the child will be protected.

Victor Fuhrman: For those who have not yet read The Happy Medium, what would you like them to take away from that book? What message do you want them to take from that book?

Kim Russo: There are a few; for those people who are struggling with institutions such as religious organizations that teach people that their gifts are actually from the devil, that they don’t possess any power, that it’s all makebelieve. I struggled with the same belief system, that has been stopping so many people open up to their heart and putting their faith in just these organizations and institutions.

So, my book explains my journey of how I embraced my gift, besides my story, the

how I’ve come to accept and embrace this whole world and going into my heart, I share true life lesson plans, from the courses that I teach my students, and they’re very helpful, very interactive.

People could try these lesson plans with their children. I work with energy, obviously, and mediums work with energy, and there are some exercises in the book that you can test working with energy.

Victor Fuhrman: You mentioned the classes you teach; how do people find out about those classes?

Kim Russo: It’s when I am in the season of teaching. I teach in person now. I am planning on having online courses where everyone can join in on, an online platform.

Locally, people would have to be interviewed for my classes.

I had to see, what was the reason they wanted to be in the class? The level of gift did not matter because by the end of the class everyone

developed their sacred gift, not all mediumship but working with energy that cannot be seen on some level.

So, mediums, healers. Some people went the route of therapeutic touch, tarot card reading, intuitive readings, all kinds of different reiki. I don’t tell people what their gift is, but the class helps them to cultivate what their gift is.

Victor Fuhrman: How did you decide to bring your gift out to the world?

Kim Russo: Well, I had a private practice for over 20 years, one day a friend of a friend put me in front of a TV producer, and they were blown away by my reading, and they brought me into the network to read for higher executives, and when they offered me a TV show, which was The Haunting Of. So, I had a little staff meeting with my spirit guides, and said, “You’re giving me a haunting show? I want happy vibes, and now I have to go into haunted places,” and my guides kept telling me, “You

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need to trust us.”

Victor Fuhrman: When you answer their calling, the path unfolds right before you.

Kim Russo: And that truly is how it happened for me. I had no intentions of being an author, a medium; I grew up.

I didn’t have that intention.

Victor Fuhrman: What has working with people who have passed to the other side taught you about the purpose of the soul?

Kim Russo: The first thing, the biggest lesson that they’ve taught me, is that the soul is indestructible and that it transcends space and time, it’s infinite, and it has no beginning and no end. So, the soul will keep going and going, and they’ve told me that death is nothing but a passage into the next room.

Victor Fuhrman: In your new book, Your Soul Purpose, you discuss universal laws that we need to embrace to connect with that

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purposefully. Let’s talk about some of those laws and how they impact the living and the dead.

Kim Russo: I speak all about that in my first and second book, because people need to know what chakras are and that they’re very real, and they’re energy systems that flow through our body that connects us to our spiritual bodies.

So, we have to kind of make sure they’re all healthy bodies.

So, I can have a physical body that seems healthy, but my spiritual vibration is very low.

It’s going to impact all the body.

Victor Fuhrman: The essence of what we’re talking about, the soul, is a form of energy, and the laws of physics very simply explain to us that energy can neither be created nor destroyed but changes from form to form.

That’s what we’re talking about here. If you look at the foundation of every major faith and religion on this

planet, there’s a fundamental law that you could find in everyone, and that law does unto others as you would have them do unto you. It’s the Golden Rule, and that’s really--and love thy neighbor as they self, and if we all ascribed to those rules.

Kim Russo: We need to know the two sets of laws.

I’m talking about like the Earthly laws living as a soul in a physical body.

Victor Fuhrman: The soul is getting ready to come down to this planet. How do we pick the body, or the family, or the arrival?

Kim Russo: First of all, you don’t have to come back, that’s what they’ve told me on the other side. However, when you have open karma, it’s like having an open bank account. You must come and close out the account. You will come back with a lot of the same souls in different forms. Mothers may be your sister in another life, so, when you recognize a soul

here on Earth, you feel like they’re not new, that you’ve known them forever and ever, then they’re part of your soul group. They don’t all show up at birth, by the way. They are sprinkled in your life as you go, and they show up at the right reasons for the right times, you all agree to this. I’m going into that family to either learn something tremendous, to teach something tremendous, or both.

So, every family is different; every soul has a different reason why they’re going, picking that family, picking that parent. We have a reason we’re here; it’s like a plan. So, when you think about it, you picked it all. You even picked your name, the time you were Victor Fuhrman: You mention in your book that clearing physical space can help people connect more deeply to their souls. How does that work?

Kim Russo: There is a chapter on Feng shui that

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I have in the book. It’s like, you know, decluttering your mind, decluttering your space. Your space reflects your mind. People don’t realize that. Energy needs to move.

It needs to breathe, and I know, for me, just personally, when my home is tidy and neat and organized and clean, my thoughts can become organized, tidy, neat, and clean — it goes together.

I also want to say to clean the space energetically, not just physically, if someone visits, and there’s a negative person in your home, you must open the windows, get out some sage, light a candle, I believe in intention. Just say a quick prayer.

Victor Fuhrman: You Talk about soul search. How do people search for their souls?

Kim Russo: The soul is already there, okay? So, in the book, I talk about it like the floor of a home, the soul can be equivalent to

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anything physical in the world. Just think about that, and then you keep piling things to clutter the soul. So, our minds are the cluttering.

Our beliefs systems can clutter the soul.

The soul itself is who you are.

So, you don’t need to find it.

It’s not lost. It’s there.

It is your subconscious mind, which means it’s all the memories of all of the lives the soul has encountered, and all of the knowledge that your soul holds, it’s in there, right? So, there are-when you wake up--you ever hear about when you go to-when people say sleep on it when they’re looking for an answer?

The soul has to have some light. How do you get the light? It goes through the heart. That’s how.

Victor Fuhrman: What would you like your readers to take away from Your Soul Purpose?

Kim Russo: I would like my readers to take away the simple fact that Your soul is not lost. It’s there. It’s waiting to give you everything you’ve ever wanted. It’s trying to remind you of your blueprint.

It’s trying to guide you the best possible route, the fastest route, easiest route, and it’s about ascending the physical world.

Where when you live your soul purpose through your heart chakra, you are living in the way you were meant to live, through love and compassion. That’s the vibration.

We must ascend to the vibration of love. That’s why we’re here. We’re learning this. We’re learning how to do it.

Victor Fuhrman: Welcome to soul classroom, Kim, one more time, please tell our listeners where they can get your book and find out more about you and this wonderful work.

Kim Russo: Well, I recommend they go on YourSoulPurposeBook.com It’s coming out in audio with my voice, Kindle, all-CDs, all sorts of platforms and types of digital. You can listen to it in the car or while you’re exercising and everything.

My website is KimTheHappyMedium.com.

You can sign up for my newsletter where I often send out just to let everybody know what I’m up to. I’m very active on all social media platforms, very interactive as much as I can, and I look forward to hearing from everyone.

Victor Fuhrman: Kim, thank you so much for being with us this week. It is wonderful information. Your book is great, and I hope our listeners get it right away because there’s so much they can learn. We all must move from fear to love and get back to our soul purpose.

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Health & Wellness Innovative new approaches to Healing as well as holistic methods for dealing with health issues and personal growth

Addictions are the excess use and dependency of/on anything including food, sex, alcohol, smoking, caffeine, sugar, shopping, chocolate, drug.

Why do we become addicted?

Many addictions have their roots in painful childhood experiences.

According to a study undertaken by the National Academy of Sciences, children are more likely to end up addicted to something

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if they are physically abused, humiliated, or lied to, and if their parents are themselves substance abusers.

Addictions can be mild or serious. When addiction becomes severe, it is more important than social acceptance, family, friends, and even life itself.

Addictions tend to begin slowly and grow insidiously. The biggest problem in treating addiction recognizes the problem. Since there is no simple definition, the point where casual use becomes abuse is vague.

This practice is intended for most people as an ADJUNCT to getting *professional* or other supportive help from their doctors, substance abuse counselors, therapists, sponsors, family, and friends. Always get professional help when trying to quit an alcohol/drug habit. It’s highly recommended if you need to diet or quit smoking seriously.

There is an emotional aspect to every illness. Often, it is the emotional thoughts or “excess emotions” that will lead to illness.

The following therapy is utilized for calming the mind, help with

stress and focuses on our mental powers over any situation. The ability to balance your emotional, mental, physical and spiritual selves are exceptional tools on your healing journey.

The power of your mind and your belief system has everything to do with the condition, the speed and the way that you heal.

• Our Belief System is one of the major factors that can get us through situations or can cause our life to crumble around us!

I do believe that there is much innate goodness and balancing our minds do subconsciously to get us through hard times. The other portion of this is how we “program” ourselves to deal with any given situation.

• Our self-confidence and self-love are often the key to opening and strengthening this portion of our thoughts which in turn emanates from ourselves!

• Energy follows thought.

Program thought to be positive, and your energy will reflect it!

• appreciating what we DO have as opposed to what we would like to have, sometimes Omtimes.com

makes a significant difference.

IT is always an important element in healing that is often neglected.

Meditation is a central tool for calming the mind, assisting in mind over matter and calming the spirit. It will alleviate much of the angst and anxiety associated with withdrawal and detoxing! Calming the mind and central nervous system have a direct effect on how our body “vibrates” and how we choose to handle stress as it comes at us.

The more you meditate, the abler you become at handling difficult situations!

Amethyst is a mineral consisting chiefly of silicon dioxide.

Amethyst has been known as the “great detoxer” for centuries.

Minerals in amethyst provide purification and detoxification functions. It is the stone for addiction, addictive thoughts and detoxification.

Aventurine is known for good luck and bringing money; it is the stone for gamblers. It encouraged balance within your behavior and used as a meditation tool or touchstone

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for realizing limits!

Lapis Lazuli is a deep blue stone used for centuries for obtaining wisdom of the ages. It is a sage stone that shows us how we can balance and regulate our lives by applying the principles of look, listen and linger — allowing the power of observation to take precedence over action.

Clear Quartz is a highly regarded stone which resonates with our body energy and helps one to “see clearer” in their action and behavior. It brings a sense of clear thinking and the ability to bring calm and peace of mind.

Rose Quartz is a stone of love and self-love. It represents beauty and kindness, resonates with gentle heart energy, it soothes a frustrated mind and allows us to find peace within ourselves with an extra helping of self-love and awareness.

Ruby is a deep red stone of love and devotion. It is the honoring of ourselves so that we can show devotion and love to others. It is a stone of truth and fidelity, grounding and protection. Use ruby as a connection between

the heart and a grounded mindset.

As a healing tool, crystals have utilized as a tool for meditation, stress relief, massage, and energy work. Crystals offer an additional way to balance energy, amplify both energy and thought, bring clarity in thinking and harmony and alignment with our energy systems. ~ Use a crystal of your choice or one mentioned. Sit comfortably on the floor and hold your stone or lie down and place the crystal on your Heart, Third Eye or Solar Plexus. ~ Another option is to place a group of stones in a circle on the floor, yoga mat or in your sacred space. You can also save one of these stones to hold on. Lay in the center of the circle of stones.

This “aura net” embraces you, allowing you to feel the safe space you have created to relax in. ~ Close your eyes. Take several deep breaths.

Feel the crystal rise and fall as you slowly inhale/exhale. Allow your body to melt into the floor

at each breath. Take this time to find your center. Let go of those things which hold you back. With each inhale, take in that which you deserve. With each exhale, release all that tension.

If you are within a circle of stones, mentally take in their unique color and texture in your mind. Within your mind’s eye, locate each stone around you, sensing your connection to it.

Release your fear and let go. Give in to the simple gesture of being still. If your mind wanders, bring it back to your present place. Sense your surroundings and then bring your focus back to a place that may feel uneasy or uncomfortable.

Allow the breath to unwind that tension and ease it away with each slow, deep exhale. ~ When you feel calmer and more connected, slowly open your eyes. Give yourself some time to recover. ~ You may even want to journal about your experience.

Andrew Pacholyk MS L.Ac http://www.peacefulmind.com” Live life, consciously “Therapies for healing mind, body, spirit

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Get To Know The Superfood

Quenepa Fruit

By Paul Haider

Quenepa Fruit grows in the tropics and is very popular in the Caribbean, Florida, Mexico, Africa, South America, and other tropical areas. Quenepa Fruit has lots of health benefits, and that is why it is regarded as superfruit and superfood.

taste. It is about the size of an olive with a hard skin. Inside you’ll find a very sweet luscious fruit with a jelly-like consistency, most people eat them fresh; they can also be made into sauces, desserts, and juice. The seed when cooked is also eatable.

This small round Quenepa fruit has a lovely sweet and slightly tart flavor. You eat by sucking on it like candy. If quenepa is underripe, it has an awful astringent

Quenepa Fruit is full of fiber for lowering cholesterol and preventing constipation.

Moreover, Quenepa is packed with very important Vitamins

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and minerals.

1. It also has Vitamin A that boosts your immune system and prevents the formation of urinary stones; 2. Vitamin C which is very important as a great antioxidant because it allows the body to maintain healthy blood vessels, and connective tissues; 3. Calcium which keeps your teeth and bones strong and helps prevent cancer; phosphorus which is important for digestion and regulating hormones.

Quenepa also contains a large amount of tryptophan which is important for good sleep, along with lysine which is important for proper growth and the prevention of herpes.

Quenepa Fruit lowers blood pressure and helps with asthma, and because Quenepa is full of antioxidants (Phenolic Compounds), they also work to prevent cardiovascular disease, boost your immune system and prevent strokes.

Studies are being done on Quenepa as an anti-diabetic food because proteins in Quenepa lower blood sugar levels.

Quenepa Fruit is low in fat, low in calories, and cholesterol free!

Some people say if you want to lose weight keep eating Quenepa all day long, it will keep you busy.

The Fruit leaves are filled with Curative properties. The Quenepa tree leaves can be boiled and made into a tea which is great for intestinal problems.

The large seed of the Quenepa Fruit is also edible and can be cooked, and once cooked they taste great. Roasted, crushed, and mixed with honey Quenepa seeds soothing away diarrhea, and in South America, roast Quenepa Seeds are used as a substitute for cassava flour for baking. In Colombia Quenepa juice is a staple and can be bought in stores, it’s a sweet and wonderful tasting.

Remember Quenepa Fruit must be ripe otherwise they contain toxins, and because of the large seeds, they are a potential choking hazard for children.

Try some Quenepa Fruit -They Are Habit Forming You can find them in Asia, Mexican, and other specialty markets.

- Master Herbalist Omtimes.com

Simply Spiritual To perceive reality from a different perspective is to open oneself to the wonders and unlimited wealth of creation. Simply Spiritual offers the opportunity to visit new places, new methods, and different ways to perceive the vast human knowledge of our Universe.

Fractal of Divine Fire Lo ve Is a Fire

By William Keepin

“Whoever stands near me stands near the Fire,” declares Jesus in the Gospel of Thomas.

The Qur’an concurs, “Blessed is the person near this Fire, and those around it” (Q 27:8).

Similarly in Hinduism, “The journey to the Atman … begins

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and ends in fire.” Divine love is a blazing fire, and it burns alike in East or West. “God is a consuming fire” (Heb. 12:29), and the yearning for God, truth, or love is itself this same fire burning in the heart. The mystical journey is a process that transforms the human disciple into this living fire of love. “One who knows the Fire knows all that is, the secret of all being.... All the worlds are but the declension of Fire: beyond it there is Nothing.”

To unite with the fire of love, one must become this fire, on its terms. This is the secret fire of divine love, without which no true spiritual transformation can take place.

Fractal of Divine Fire The fire of divine love burns on every level of existence— from the heart of the sun, to the human heart, to each tiny cell in the human body, to the subatomic particles and the core of every star across all galaxies. It is a grand fractal fire of love. Although physics distinguishes between

chemical fire and nuclear fire, the fundamental forces of fire—the strong and weak nuclear interactions, and the electromagnetic interaction— are believed to be a single unified force.

Love is a transforming fire. Like all fires, it ignites, incinerates, purifies, and shines with brilliant light and warmth. There is no force in the cosmos as powerful as love, and nothing propels spiritual evolution as swiftly as love.

Ultimately the fire of love burns away everything that is not love.

“Set your life on fire,” proclaims Rumi, and “seek those who fan its flames.”

Why? Because in the absence of divine fire, no transformation can take place.

There is a crucial need for disciplined spiritual practice that kindles the fire of divine love, and for the all-important sincerity and depth of aspiration that fuels the flames of divine love in the heart.

With diligent practice, total

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self-giving, and surrender, this secret fire of love becomes a roaring blaze that burns away everything that stands between the devotee and the Divine.

The divine fire is one, yet is described differently in various traditions. As Heraclitus portrayed it, “The world order, the same for all beings, neither any of the gods hath made nor any human; but it was always, is and shall be ever-living Fire, kindled in measure and quenched in measure.”12 In Hindu terms, the fire of love incinerates the three “knots of the heart” that keep the soul bound to material existence.

These three knots are: (1) the knot of Brahma that binds us to physical form, making us believe that “I am the body”; (2) the knot of Vishnu that binds us to our desires and makes us say, “I want this” or “I am happy” or “I am sorrowful”; and (3) the knot of Shiva that binds us to the mind, making us believe “I am my mind” or “I am my thoughts and beliefs.”

As the three knots of the

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heart are removed, the soul is liberated into its original oneness with Brahman.

In Christian terms, “This flame of love ... is the Holy Spirit....

And that flame, every time it flares up, bathes the soul in glory and refreshes it with the quality of divine life.... The more intense the fire of union, the more vehemently does this fire burst into flames.... As a result, all the acts of the soul are divine.”

In Islamic terms, Rumi’s teacher Shams i Tabriz ignited the fire of divine love within him, and Rumi sums up his entire life in two lines, and the result is not more than these three words: I burnt, and burnt, and burnt.

“Shams had awakened in Rumi a fire that could only be satisfied with union, with the ecstatic loss of the self in the presence of the Beloved,” says Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee. Rumi became a living embodiment of this divine fire and ignited the same fire in other souls

wherever he went: It is the burning of the heart I want; this burning which is everything.

More precious than a worldly empire, because it calls God secretly, in the night.

The Essence of the Mystical Journey Where does this fire lead?

What becomes of those who give themselves to it? The Fire of Love is the supreme gift offered to every human being. Whatever name we give to this process, whether we call it henosis or theosis or divinization, whether we conceive of it as apophatic or kataphatic, whether it takes place in a Christian or Muslim or Hindu or as a spiritual but not religious practitioner, the process is basically the same.

The soul is transformed into the Divine, by the Divine, through participation in the Divine.

We cannot understand the

process; we cannot master it; we cannot force it; we cannot co-opt it any way for our own purposes. We can only give ourselves to it, if we choose, and consent unconditionally to this process on its terms. And if we do this—or rather, allow it—the living truth of love empties us of ourselves and fills us with divine love. * * *

Excerpted from Belonging to God: Spirituality, Science & a Universal Path of Divine Love by William Keepin, Ph.D. (Skylight Paths) In his book, William Keepin, a mathematical physicist, social activist, environmental scientist, and co-founder of Gender Equity and Reconciliation International (GERI), a non-governmental educational charity, illuminates the commonalities in the scriptures by focusing on the core teachings of Christianity, Islam and Hinduism to demonstrate how the path of divine love is the greatness of each of these traditions. pathofdivinelove.org

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What Do People Do on the Other-Side?

By John Holland

Your loved ones who have passed on have probably been gone awhile now, whether it’s a few weeks, months or years.

Have you ever wondered what they’re doing on the Other Side? Wouldn’t you like to know what they’re up to?

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As a medium, I’ve connected with loved ones in Spirit who’ve wanted me to relay some of the most touching messages about what they’re doing on the Other-Side. In one such message, which took place at one of my intimate group readings, a young boy told me to tell his mom that he was out of his wheelchair, playing baseball and running the bases at a game. I remember his excitement connecting with me, as he knew he was talking to his mom again. He could barely get the words out fast enough; he was so excited to be telling her how he was doing all the things he was unable to do in his physical body.

As the message continued, his mom began to speak.

You could hear the joy and exhilaration in her voice as she told me how her son had been born with spina bifida (a spinal cord defect), so he’d spent his entire life in a wheelchair. “He used to watch the other children in

the neighborhood playing baseball in a field across the street from his bedroom window,” she said. “Always yearning to be out there and wishing he was able to run and play like the others.”

As the boy started to step back, I could feel his energy fade, but not before he was able to tell her one last time how much he loved her and was happy! It’s messages like this that make the work I do all the more meaningful and worthwhile.

During another occasion, I had a grandmother come through to relay a message to her granddaughter. She described in detail how she was sitting on her porch, enjoying the sun in her favorite chair, which was the same thing she loved doing while alive on earth. The way she described it created such a clear picture in my mind.

It was her way of validating exactly who she was so that I could connect with her granddaughter.

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One young girl came through to tell her family that she was teaching school to children in the Spirit World. It made sense to the family because when she passed, she had been just about to graduate with a teaching degree and start work at an elementary school.

JOHN’S LESSON What inspires us or motivates us here on earth also motivates us in Spirit.

Whatever we loved doing while on the Physical Plane can be done in the Spirit World.

I think it’s important that parents and everyone reading this Soul Inspirations know that life does go on in the Spirit World. You can choose to pursue what you loved on Earth or try something different. Just know that your loved ones continue; death does not stop them from living, even though they’re on the Other-Side.

Just for today, I invite you to let go of your worries and

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fear for your loved ones who have passed. There’s no illness, no pain, no suffering, and no more worries that are so often associated with the physical world, such as the need for money, mortgages, food.

In all the time that I’ve been practicing as a medium, I’ve never heard any mention of missing their homes or belongings. No one is upset over who got mom’s diamond ring or other possessions. They’ve let go of the attachments to their earthly life and all things materialistic. They’re at peace and enjoying being back home with their loved ones in their own private and unique Heaven.

If you’ve received a touching message from a loved one in the Spirit World, and you’d like to share your story with me on my Facebook page, or you can call into my Spirit Connections radio show and share your story.

Live a Soul-filled life!

The Recovery Spirituality

You are about to enter the realm described as a “spiritual kindergarten� by Bill W. in As Bill Sees It. The Spiritual Adrenaline approach to spirituality is driven by self-care, learning to love and respect

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yourself, and the process of putting your needs and desires over those of others. Selfcare and the health of your body, mind, and spirit are the foundation of your spiritual program. You should ideally have a healthy body and mind as you work to connect with your Higher Power on a spiritual level. Once you’ve developed your self-care program, you then focus on learning to slow down your mind to avoid impulsiveness and retake control. It teaches you to live in serenity rather than in chaos.

In her book The Language of Letting Go: Daily Meditations for Codependents, Melanie Beattie defines self-care as “not, as some may think, a spin-off of the ‘me generation.’ It isn’t selfindulgence. It isn’t selfishness.

Self-care means learning to love the person we’re responsible for taking care of—ourselves.” Without loving ourselves, it’s not possible to love and care for others within appropriate boundaries.

Hungry, Angry, Lonely, and Tired Remember HALT, the AA acronym for things to avoid, which stands for hungry, angry, lonely, and tired? When you are any one of these things, it is much easier for you to get annoyed, act out, or say or do something you later regret.

More than that, each puts you at risk for relapse. All of these are states of being that in one manner or another deprive your body and mind of something you require. It’s a continuation of the cycle of taking your body, mind, and spirit for granted; it’s a type of self-abuse. Your goal is to shift from a lifestyle of selfabuse to a life of self-care.

Hungry When you are hungry, you deprive your body of the nutrients needed to continue to perform basic life-sustaining functions. The organ most impacted by a lack of nutrition is the brain. The brain requires both water and nutrients, most notably carbohydrates, to

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function. (Later I will introduce you to medium-chain triglycerides, another energy source for the brain). Brain function, whether normal, abnormal or messed up, is manifested through behavior.

So, when you are hungry, your body lacks the nutrients it needs to function and your attitude and demeanor change radically. How do you behave when you are hungry?

Do you lack patience with other people? Are you easily agitated? There is a word for this: “hangry.� Hangry means when you are so hungry you become angry.

Anger As anger consumes your mind and thinking, it also obstructs your ability to connect on a spiritual level. Anger takes out your true self and can turn you into a walking character defect. When you are angry, ultimately the person you hurt most is yourself. Think about this: how many actions have you taken in anger that you are proud? Not many, I bet.

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Anger is a passing feeling rather than a fact. Acting out on your anger never leads you to a closer spiritual connection, only further from it. How many times have you used at someone who made you mad? When you use alcohol or other drugs at others or your problems, you only hurt yourself.

It is imperative to learn to channel anger into something positive and constructive, something that enhances your ability to feel a spiritual connection to others and the universe around you. Some may say that is not possible, but I believe it is.

For example, China invaded and occupied Tibet, tortured and imprisoned tens of thousands, murdered thousands of Buddhist monks, burned and pillaged Tibet’s most sacred shrines, and destroyed revered Dharma scrolls more than two thousand years old. The Dalai Lama was forced to flee Tibet over the Himalayan mountains to avoid being murdered and has lived most of his life in exile in Dharamsala, India. You might think he would

be angry and hate the Chinese.

To the contrary, he prays for them. The Dalai Lama can find loving-kindness and compassion for them.

It’s critical to our program of recovery, and life in general, to learn to let all of it go.

For those with underlying trauma that manifests in substance abuse, hopefully as part of your journey and with the help of qualified professionals you can address the trauma. Carrying anger and resentments impedes connecting spiritually in a fulfilling and useful way.

Loneliness Lonely is just another way of saying isolated, a major nono if we are trying to connect spiritually. Loneliness and isolation are not the same things as solitude. Loneliness is feeling dejected by the awareness of being alone.

Solitude is choosing to be alone and receiving joy from it. In the book Just for Today: Daily Meditations for Recovering Addicts (Revised), loneliness is

explained this way: There is a difference between being alone and being lonely. Being lonely is a state of the heart, an emptiness that makes us feel sad and sometimes hopeless. Loneliness is not always alleviated when we enter into relationships or surround ourselves with others.

Some of us are lonely even in a room full of people.”

I have gone on silent meditative retreats where the goal is to learn how to become comfortable in silence and solitude. It’s a powerful spiritual tool and a way of forcing your focus inward, without the distraction of outside people, places, and things. Again, quoting from Just for Today: “The closer we draw to our Higher Power, the less we need to surround ourselves with others. We begin to find a spirit within us that is our constant companion.

We realize we are spiritually connected with something bigger than we are.” Hopefully,

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you will learn to enjoy solitude as a spiritual tool.

As humans, we are all social creatures; we need to interact with others. It’s a basic trait that makes us human. It is contrary to your genetics and best interests to be isolated and alone. Your disease feeds off loneliness and gives addiction power. Bill W. noted: “Without exception, alcoholics are tortured by loneliness.

Even before our drinking got bad and people began to cut us off, nearly all of us suffered the feeling that we didn’t quite belong.”

Many people experience mental health difficulties, but few speak openly about them to people they don’t know well. Often, you may feel like you are the only one struggling, but I assure you, you’re not. When you feel connected to a larger group, loneliness disappears, and the collective best interests of the group contribute to a sense of spirituality. When you attend a twelve-step meeting, you share

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a collective spiritual experience with others. You tear down the walls that you erect to separate you from others and instead come together to share about your innermost feelings.

Tired Everyone can relate to being tired. We are all pushed in too many directions, and a typical day can be exhausting. Most people do not get adequate sleep. When you fail to get enough sleep, almost everything seems to change. Researchers have studied the effects of sleep deprivation, and the results are important to understanding.

Sleep deprivation impairs your judgment, damages internal organs, prompts weight gain, and causes disease and depression.

A challenge of early recovery is to relearn basics such as how to sleep naturally and soundly.

Given that you had disrupted your sleeping pattern for years or had no positive habits for when you went to sleep and when you woke up, all of this can seem relatively new.

Slow down your brain function before going to bed.

Schedule your exercise to enhance your sleep.

Manage technology to promote sleep and recognize that we can become addicted to our smartphone, other devices, and social media.

HALT and Spirituality What does being hungry, angry, lonely, or tired have to do with spirituality? Everything! Each of these is an altered state resulting from a weakness in your self-care. Without a selfcare program to avoid these and other altered states, your body is put under constant stress, and you continue to cause inflammation and other internal chaos.

Living in chaos is itself addictive.

It’s a learned behavior that accentuates the effect of alcohol and other drugs. Chaos, as with your substances of choice, becomes a higher power. All of this is fed by technology, which

is also addictive. If you wish to attain serenity and achieve a spiritual connection, you must learn to slow your mind down, eliminate chaos as much as you can, and control impulsive thinking.

After even a few days of slowing down and focusing on your higher power, you probably will notice differences—some subtle, some more profound—not so much in the world around you, but your perception of it.

Tom Shanahan is a personal trainer, weight management and sports nutrition consultant, and is a certified health coach.

For the last two decades, Tom has served in government, as well as a private sector attorney where he has had numerous precedent-setting cases in the areas of LGBT rights, child custody, and public policy. His first book, Spiritual Adrenaline: A Lifestyle Plan to Nourish and Strengthen Your Recovery (Central Recovery Press), released in January 2019. https:// www.spiritualadrenaline.com/

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OM Living For those living a more Conscious Lifestyle

Transcendental Meditation (TM) Can Reduce Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and Depression

Psychological Reports Study: Transcendental Meditation (TM) Significantly Reduces PostTraumatic Stress Disorder and Depression in Students Before practicing Transcendental Meditation (TM), it was mayhem at our school. A lot of fights were going on, basically every day.

People were not friendly, they were mean. When I learned it I noticed it was different, because TM is not just closing your eyes, it is deeper than that. It makes you feel better, makes you more energized and it takes away all your stress. It really, really helps. – 7th grade student I used to be really fidgety, I used to move a lot, couldn’t stay in Omtimes.com

my seat for very long. Now after meditating I can sit down for a whole class without standing up. Before practicing TM, it was hard for me to concentrate; after practicing TM, I could concentrate very well. – 7th grade student These children live in communities and go to schools where violence threatens them and puts them at risk for accumulating high levels of stress and even suffering post-traumatic stress disorder.

Post-traumatic stress disorder, PTSD, a chronic and debilitating condition, arises from lifethreatening and deeply traumatic events: war, sexual abuse, violence and natural disasters. Symptoms

include nightmares, flashbacks, anxiety, fear, hyper-vigilance, emotional numbness, anger, and violent behavior, often leading to the abuse of drugs and alcohol.

PTSD is a chronic, debilitating condition that may last a lifetime if not treated effectively.

PTSD is pandemic across Africa and a major problem in many areas of the world. Dr. Eugene Allers, past-president of the South African Society of Psychiatrists, estimates that as many as 25% of the population in South Africa suffer from PTSD. Research indicates that a significant number of children and adolescents in South Africa are exposed to high levels of traumatic experience, often witnessing or experiencing violence of a criminal or domestic nature. (Ensink, Robertson, Zissis & Leger, 1997; Pelzer, 1999; Seedat, van Nood, Vythilingum, Stein & Kaminer, 2000; Suliman, Kaminer, Seedat & Stein, 2005).

In the United States, the National Institute of Mental Health estimates that around 7% of Americans have or have had PTSD. However, at-risk groups like soldiers, first responders, abused women, have much higher levels of PTSD, as do people living in

poor and violent communities.

Therapies utilized for facilitating recovery from PTSD include prolonged exposure, pharmaceuticals, and cognitive behavioral therapy. Also, in current use are patient education, counseling, eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR).

Transcendental Meditation (TM) effective in treating PTSD On February 19, Psychological Reports published on-line a research study showing that Transcendental Meditation (TM) is also effective in the treatment of PTSD. TM may be used by itself or in conjunction with psychotherapy, pharmaceuticals, and other PTSD reduction therapies.

Maharishi Institute students practicing Transcendental Meditation

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Practice of TM twice a day for 15 to 20 minutes enabled a group of university students in South Africa with PTSD to score below the threshold for PTSD in 105 days. This same group showed significant recovery from depression. A comparison group with PTSD who did not learn TM showed no change in PTSD or depression levels over the 105 days of testing.

This study is the fourteenth peer reviewed scientific paper on TM and PTSD. TM may also be used in conjunction with traditional PTSD reduction strategies support the recovery process.

Students at the Maharishi Institute (MI) and University of Johannesburg (UJ) with similar demographic backgrounds were first tested for PTSD by the Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder Checklist for civilians (PCL-C). Those students with high risk of PTSD were then evaluated by a certified psychologist. Students who were deemed to have Omtimes.com

PTSD by the psychologists were enrolled in the study. They were re-tested at 15, 60 and 105 days.

They also received the Beck Depression Index, a standard test of depression, because depression often accompanies PTSD.

The MI group was taught TM a few days after taking the baseline tests on day one.

The UJ students continued with their daily routines without any PTSD reduction interventions.

Within 15 days, the TM group showed a clinically significant drop in PTSD symptoms. And their scores for depression went from mild to below the threshold.

By the completion of the 105 days, the MI students’ PTSD scores on the PCL-C had fallen below the threshold for PTSD. They stayed out of depression from day 15.

The UJ students showed no significant drop in symptoms for either PTSD or depression during the study. They were invited to learn TM after the study.

A binary logistical regression analysis for the effect of TM practice on PTSD PCL-C diagnosis 105 days after instruction was also highly significant, with approximately 80% scoring below PTSD threshold in the TM group, whereas 88% of the UJ

comparison group members were still suffering from PTSD. The study showed a rapid and significant reduction of symptoms in the intervention group, according to lead author Dr. Carole Bandy.

Results were stable over time.

A team of international researchers and psychologists from South Africa, Rwanda and United States, designed and implemented the study. Two psychologists from SADAG, (the South African Depression and Anxiety Group), the largest mental health NGO in SA, Lian Taljaard and Judy de Roeck, are also authors in the study. They interviewed and tested the UJ students suffering from PTSD. SADAG assists more than 180,000 people each year, “A high percentage of young people in South Africa, especially those living in the townships, suffer from PTSD,” said co-author Michael Dillbeck.

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“To become successful students and productive members of society, they absolutely need help dealing with the symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder.

Our study shows, that after three months of meditation, this group, on average, was out of PTSD. It offers a way for others to effectively deal with this problem.”

Fourteen previous studies utilizing Transcendental Meditation showed reductions in PTSD on Congolese war refugees(https://onlinelibrary. wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/ jts.21790 ) , US war veterans(https://bit.ly/2BdjXNM ), and male (https://bit.ly/2IlZZGa ) and femaleprisoners (https://bit. ly/2RjMC9b ).

Transcendental Meditation may be used by itself or in conjunction with other treatments to accelerate the recovery process without reexperiencing the trauma. TM is a simple, natural technique practiced 20 minutes twice each day while sitting comfortably

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with the eyes closed. It is easily learned, and is not a religion, philosophy, or lifestyle. It doesn’t involve concentration, control of the mind, contemplation, or monitoring of thoughts or breathing. The practice allows the active thinking mind to settle down to a state of inner calm.

(See TM.org) Zane Wilson, Founder and Chairman of SADAG, commented “This is the first study of its kind to show how Transcendental Meditation can reduce PTSD in college students. This study shows that there are new tools available for professionals to add to their tool bag.”

New Psychological Reports Study: Ref: Bandy, C, Dillbeck, M., Sezibera, V., Taljaard, L., de Reuck, J., Wilks, M., Shapiro, D., Peycke, R. (Psychological Reports. on-line: February, 2019) Reduction of PTSD in South African University Students Using Transcendental Meditation Practice. DOI: 10.1177/0033294119828036

Listening to the Call of Life

by Jayita Bhattacharjee

Seasons change in their own their, never ceasing their cycle.

So why can’t we? Certainly, spring follows the chills of winter, and when the frosted cold seems to bite, the earth is awakened by a singing song of spring. So, what is holding

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us back, from blooming at our best? No matter how long seems the biting winter.

Nonetheless, spring never fails to come.

We spend a tremendous amount of time trying to plan, prepare, anticipate and explain how things can be, should be or could be. Rarely, do we focus on things the way they are, right here and now.

We should acknowledge the moments that we have as they are all that exists. In doing so, we open ourselves prepared to accept anything that each moment has to offer. When we do so, we turn from a bud to blossom. It is an ultimate form of self-empowerment, the same as a deep fountain of delight.

Throughout life, every human opens to a new experience, event, encounter, and change for a deeper truth in life. The unfolding is beautiful. The same as the beauty witnessed in the blossoming of a flower.

Each night says good-bye and

new dawn shares its light. We open slowly to the light of each morning, looking forward to what it brings. We didn’t forget yesterday. Instead, we can choose to honor the gifts received. Such is the way; we are called to grow by our voice.

It is a calling that can’t be ignored. Neither should it be turned away. Pushing it away means turning away from our authenticity. Ultimately, our authentic self will follow us until it can no longer be denied.

There are times that we grow through the most hospitable circumstances that are uncomfortable. However, a dandelion will push its way through a sidewalk, like a wellpruned rose. Regardless of the circumstance, every bud will blossom on its own. We don’t have the privilege of saying “no.”

Instead, we should ask ourselves what it is inside that wants to bloom. Petal by petal, with the light that breaks through the darkness, it too will blossom. It will achieve its fullness gradually through time. When something

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is in its way, let us move around it. The seasons keep changing without ever saying no. By embracing the change, we embrace the unfolding truth of that is each of our lives.

At times, it feels that we are losing in life. That too must be cherished. By letting it go, we allow the evolution of life in its purest form. Like one door closing to open another, we can surrender to the natural order of life. Like a light that passes through a window, the loss leaves behind a pathway filled with memories ensuring that the dance of life still goes on. This knowledge puts us into the very center of life.

As the sun sinks behind the mountains, we may stare at its void. We can wonder with sadness about the light that has left. But, there is always another form of beautiful waiting for us. This we know in our heart and soul, and it keeps us going. This is a bold truth that keeps the cycle of change

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moving so that we can embrace the blossom of our own lives.

Like a bud experiencing the unfurling of its petals, we can experience the beauty and wonder of life by accepting its truth. That like seasons, life is forever changing. Each moment an empowering one and through each one we continue our transformation.

Jayita Bhattacharjee, born in Calcutta, India, studied at the University of Houston in Economics, had chosen her career as a trustee and teacher.

Her love for writing on a journey of heart and soul was hidden all within. Her books “ The Ecstatic Dance of Soul’, “ Sacred Sanctuary” are some of the many that are authored, in her deepest calling.

Goodreads profile. https://www.goodreads.com/ author/show/6850731.Jayita_ Bhattacharjee

Relationships The interconnectiveness among all human beings and, consequently, the relationships among us are the focus of this section. The dynamics of the web of connections we make is one of the most prominent aspects of human existence: how we interlace with each other’s existence in a meaningful way.

11 G o lde n Rela ti o ns hip Ru le s

As a psychologist and relationship counselor for over 25 years, I speak from experience when I say that love is an ocean of infinite depths: people are complex, riddled with flaws and hidden desires, seeking to be accepted and understood.

Different partners draw different emotions out of us—some we didn’t even know we had—and Omtimes.com

keeping up a happy relationship can become tedious. Yet human beings also possess an unyielding need to love and be loved. Some people need help releasing this love they hoard within. Our first goal in a relationship should be to help our partner become his best and most authentic self. When this happens, love is exchanged without limits.

Being in a committed relationship is a daily choice: every day, you and your partner choose to act in ways that either help or hinder your mutual progress. What I see happening very often is that people continue to take the same actions in their relationship, making the same mistakes yet expecting different results. The most effective step you can take towards conquering the challenges in your relationship is to change your mindset: choosing to see things in a different perspective can shift the energy of a situation entirely. This is not to say that you’ll have to let your partner be right all the time or give up what’s fair to you, but that you’ll have to try new approaches to dealing with old problems. Here are 11 golden rules aimed at resolving conflict and improving the quality of your relationship: Evolution, not change. You should ask yourself this question regularly: Is my relationship evolving or only changing?

People are constantly changing, but that doesn’t necessarily mean they’re evolving. A relationship should not only shift, but shift positively over time as both partners work to resolve

outstanding issues. Understand how you and your loved are transforming both in personal and mutual ways. In the case of physical change, make it known to your partner that you notice his new look; always compliment a different hairstyle, weight loss, a fresh wardrobe, etc.

Remain well ahead of changes by anticipating the next phase of your relationship and strategizing how you’ll pass through it, side by side. If this is not happening, it’s time to evaluate at what point progress became stagnant.

Adventure, not routine. The daily grind becomes boring to say the least. Doing the same things over and over again can quickly kill the spirit of any relationship.

Break out of routine as often as you can. Travel with your partner, even if it’s a road trip or weekend getaway. Try new restaurants and take up new hobbies. Even if it’s something that’s out of your comfort zone, find joy in the fact that you’re engaging in a fun activity with your other half.

This principle holds true in the bedroom, too. Many men and women find that their sex drive dwindles after years of being with the same person. Adrenaline and Omtimes.com

dopamine levels drop with time, and with them fades the “rush” that accompanies intercourse.

While this is common, it’s not a good indication. Sex is an integral part of any solid relationship; the moment that it dries up is the moment a key component is lost. Maintain your sex appeal for your loved one. In turn, this will boost your self-esteem. Remind yourself that you’re doing it for yourself before anyone else. Take a bit of extra time to get ready, eat well, and exercise regularly.

Such simple actions will not only help you look good for him, they’ll make you feel great about yourself! Sex can certainly become better with time if the couple gets creative and invents new ways of pleasing each other. Get a little daring and try intercourse in different locations and positions to keep the sexual spark lit.

Communication, not interrogation. You don’t need a million talks to heal your relationship; you need one transformative conversation.

The quality of communication, therefore, is key. There are right and wrong ways to communicate.

The wrong way is bombarding your partner with all of your Omtimes.com

problems as soon as he walks through the door after a long day.

The right way is waiting until he unwinds and then gently bringing up one subject of genuine concern. You may have a tendency to bring up everything at once, but stick to one area. Don’t jump from subject to subject or concentrate on irrelevant matters that don’t pose serious problems.

You’ll get to cover all the crucial elements in time, so start with the most important.

Before you begin, ask about his day. Find out what’s important to him, what are his plans, how can you help, etc. Listen intently when he opens up to you before responding. It’s important to get your partner to let his emotional guard down before diving into a subject you’re keen to discuss.

If you begin communication too aggressively, your partner will respond with equal force. He’s more likely to be receptive if you’re already engaged in a comfortable conversation.

Listen to your partner’s statements without forming a response; it’s one thing is to hear and another to listen. In cases in which words cause irreparable harm, silence is golden. Understanding the

intention behind your partner’s words can take time; as you mull over what he said, the real meaning will emerge.

Simplify, don’t complicate.

We forget that in love, simplicity is key. We want to build an empire with our partner but in doing so, we can quickly lose sight of the simple values that first fostered love. Return to simplicity. Nothing is more valuable at the end of the day than tender moments shared in silence, with no mention of what was, could have been, or might be. De-clutter your relationship.

Cleanse your bond of toxicity: people who interfere, harmful emotions, hurtful memories, and compromising habits. Maintain a love as pure as water.

We, not me. The most destructive force in relationships is the ego; it tears down the human bond because it favors the me and neglects the we. For the sake of your relationship, let your proud guard down.

Take nothing personally. Even if your partner makes a huge mistake, understand that he may have personal issues you know nothing about that have nothing to do with you. Realize

that, yes, in a perfect world everything would be fair play, but that in relationships, everything is compromise, sacrifice, and endurance. Hold your partner closer to your heart than you hold your ego, and you’ll succeed in holding a relationship for the long run.

Strengths, not weaknesses.

Each day, you have the choice to reiterate your partner’s weaknesses or to renew his strengths—to build him up or tear him down to nothing. In truth, you hold more power than you can imagine! A person’s weaknesses are generally more noticeable than his strengths, but if you constantly complain about what he’s doing wrong, he’ll never feel motivated to do anything right. There are gentle ways to get your partner to admit what he has to do differently. As a rule of thumb, refrain from speaking negatively about your significant other in public. You may have become so used to your partner’s flaws that you think those around you are used to them, too. You might joke to friends about your loved one’s imperfections and think this is no big deal. But you don’t know how deeply his emotional wounds run. Instead Omtimes.com

of starting the day by reminding your partner of something he did wrong, begin your day by thanking him: “Thank you for being next to me. Thank you for being you,” you can say. Nurture the person who has stood by you; he’s more sensitive than you can imagine. A simple “I’m proud of you” can uplift your partner’s whole day.

Meditation, not desperation.

Doing things out of desperation only produces more desperation.

Let your feelings settle down and apply logic before you speak.

Organize your thoughts and intentions. If you’re desperate to get your partner to change, don’t threaten to break up with him; he might not know how to change.

Meditate on your decisions before you act. Imagine what would happen if you approached the situation one way versus if you approached it another way. Consider the best possible outcome in your mind. Close your eyes and see yourself having a heartfelt conversation with your partner in which you both reach an agreement. Prepare the points you will make. What can you say to make progress and inspire a resolution?

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Acting in the right time is just as crucial. At any given moment, time is either for or against your efforts. The wisdom is to recognize when you should act versus when you should wait.

Don’t obligate your partner to do things in a certain amount of time, like pushing him to get married within a year. This is your notion of time, not his. If you listen to your inner voice, you’ll be able to identify the ideal moment.

Future, not past. Planning a future with your partner motivates you to take the right steps towards manifesting your goals together. Talk about the years ahead and form a strategy to achieve the things you both want: a home, family, investments, etc.

Start each day with a clean slate. Even if your partner messed up yesterday, there’s no reason he can’t mend his mistakes today. Focus not on what he might’ve done wrong, but on the opportunities he has to do right, right now. People can change, but you must first give them the chance.

Intimacy, not influence. Many couples live together physically

but live apart emotionally.

Keep your relationship private and your affairs between you.

External influences are the weeds of a healthy relationship and can devastate a perfectly good dynamic. Don’t hang up on your significant other then call your friend and tell her all the things he’s doing wrong. It’s you and your partner who are in a relationship, not your friend, sibling, parent, or any other party.

No one needs to intervene. Filter your environment of negative influences and watch the energy transform for the better.

Reality, not perfection. The love we want to receive may not match the love we receive. Why is that? Because people won’t always give us what we want, they’ll give us what they can. Not everyone is capable of extending unconditional love, patience, and tolerance. Some people can barely tolerate themselves, let alone another person! While you should never settle for less than what you deserve, you should acknowledge your partner’s limitations and recognize his unique capacity. A healthy relationship means seeing beyond your expectations down to the reality of your partner’s defects, then working together to

improve these defects.

Solutions, not conclusions.

It’s easy to jump to conclusions.

When our partner does something wrong, we start analyzing every part of his actions and assume the worst. Our fears and insecurities cause us to amplify the severity of the situation. This kind of compulsive behavior only drives dispute into the relationship.

Before you react, sit and reflect: Is it really as bad as I think it is? The truth usually lies somewhere in the middle. Speak to your partner openly about what’s bothering you instead of blowing up on him.

When your significant other tells you something, believe it. Take his words to be the truth according to him, eliminating the ifs, ands, or buts. Even if his excuse isn’t satisfactory, respect that this is his explanation. Skip the assumptions and ask instead, “How do we fix this?” Offer your possible solutions then invite your partner to provide his.

These simple principles will create a less stressful and more durable dynamic. Alter your mentality and reshape your relationship!

To golden relationships, Dr. Carmen Harra Omtimes.com

Turn Heated Exchanges Into Healing Turning Points

By Guy Finley

Regardless of our certainty as to whether we or our partner starts or rekindles a quarrel, the real cause of the continuing conflict between us lies elsewhere. Which is why, as strange as the

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following insight may seem at first, the importance of working to see the truth of it simply can’t be overstated: Despite any appearance to the contrary, it’s not our partner, nor is it we who strikes the first blow in any dispute: it’s pain that picks the fight.

No doubt this last idea challenges most of our familiar notions, especially when we’re sure we’ve been wronged and feel that it’s our right to seek whatever “justice” we might. But, putting all this aside for a moment, as we quietly study the secret cause of our struggles rather than being caught up in them, we should also be able to see, and agree to the following: Just as it’s clear that we’d never hurt the one we love were it not for some pain pushing us to do so, the same holds true for our partner. So much depends on our being able to remember what our heart already knows is true:

if love is that timeless divine force that unites and heals all that lives and breathes, then how can it ever be that which divides us? It can’t; it’s never love that fights. Never.

With this last thought in mind, here are three main ideas to consider. #1: Let’s say we have a “bone to pick” with our partner.

This should be easy enough to imagine! Is this because we feel good about them in that moment? Or, is it more likely that there’s a pressure and a pain in us that “knows “who’s to blame for it, and what they must do to make things right? The answer to this question is pretty obvious, which leads us directly to the insight that follows. #2: This particular pain that we feel in these moments doesn’t exist without our partner being there – before us – either in body or in our mind. The same holds true for whatever pain our partner may experience in our presence; it doesn’t exist

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without us being there in the same way. This means that even though there are two of us “there,” between us there is only one pain. How can this be so? As the next point makes clear, it’s all under celestial law. #3: Whatever we oppose in our partner causes our partner to oppose us; for instance, any time we oppose something about our partner’s attitude, we can be sure our partner will oppose anything we have to say about that! Pain opposes pain. Which means that now we can see what we were unable to before: as long as we look at our partner as the one responsible for the pain we’re in, we remain effectively blind to the one thing about this condition that we must see...if we’re going to stop hurting one another: Half the responsibility for this unwanted pattern – including the pain that helps keep it alive – belongs to us, and the other half belongs to

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our partner. In other words, the pain that first sets us against one another, only to push us apart, isn’t his, or hers, or theirs. It’s our pain.

There aren’t words enough to explain how important it is that we feel the truth of the above summary insight.

Only then will we be able to ask ourselves a question that unconscious pain is incapable of considering, let alone wanting to know the answer to it. In truth, this is a question of conscience that maybe less than one in a hundred million of us have ever thought to ask ourselves.

But, for those who wish to know a healthier, more loving relationship with our partner, we must dare to ask it of ourselves, and even better...right in the middle of a fight with our partner: “Why is my pain more important than yours?”

If we’re both suffering for having been set against one another by unconsciously identifying with opposing

forces then we have to ask – especially if we love our partner as we profess to do: why do we feel as if our pain is more important than theirs?

When we really love someone, the last thing we want for him or her is to suffer. Who among us hasn’t thought upon seeing a loved one in the throes of some kind of pain that, if it only were in our power, we would gladly take their pain away by agreeing to make it our own?

And yet, though most of us have felt something of this higher wish – to surrender ourselves for the sake of love – regardless the personal cost – we’ve also witnessed our inability to do so; the truth is when comes some trial by fire, little to nothing in us can remember what was foremost in our heart only moments before. And there’s a good reason for this kind of spiritual amnesia: This kind of unconscious pain

that lives within us needs someone, something to blame for it. And, in much the same way, blame must have pain in order to keep itself alive. These opposing sides are literally nothing without each other to maintain the misery that they create together. The more aware we can be of this unconscious partnership, the less tempted we are to want any part of it!

Study closely the following pair of summary insights.

Learn to look at them as a single lesson and you will see how it’s possible to turn any troublesome moment with your partner into a healing turning point for both of you.

Summary insight #1: Any pain in us – that demands our partner pay for it – can’t heal itself; if it could have, it would have long ago. Add to this fact that whatever “payment” we’d exact from our partner in these moments not only does nothing to heal their pain but also, in fact, only

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aggravates it further! Which in turn...then turns on us, reseeding both of our suffering, and guaranteeing that same unwanted pattern is reborn.

Summary insight #2: The unconscious pain that pushes us into, and then through the repetition of any unwanted pattern with our partner is, in fact, not what it seems. It is not proof of some irreconcilable difference between us, but rather stands as evidence of something that lives in each of us, that we have in common.

bring an end to the patterns they create each time they attempt to do so. It is time for us to learn how to call upon a “third” force: an altogether higher order of wisdom, compassion, and kindness whose singular power is not only to unify these opposing forces but, in the moment of their appearance, to complete the very purpose of their existence.

Even the faintest first stirring of this higher awareness – that whatever pain divides us is, in fact, a single pain shared between us – makes it possible for us to open our heart and mind to embrace a new idea that can’t be reached in any other way.

In truth, you already know this celestial force; its most common name is love. But, let me ask you to suspend, at least for a moment, all that you think you understand about it; for the “love” that we know, in whose name we call out what we now care for most, is to this higher order love that we’re about to discover as is a candle’s light to the light of the sun.

We have but one, true hope of being able to rise above this unseen world of opposing forces that cannot heal themselves, let alone

We’re not talking about the kind of love we have for a delicious meal, a beautiful day, a family member, or even for our partner in the

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most tender of moments.

This level of love can flip-flop into its opposite at the drop of a hat.

We’re talking about a level of love that can neither be imagined, nor created. It can’t be made to change a single unwanted moment into one that we want, even though that’s the reason for its existence. And while we can’t cause this higher order of love to appear at will, we can learn to understand, and eventually have full trust in the following: Whenever, and wherever two or more of us are connected by a shared pain of some kind – as in a fight with our partner, or suffering some misfortune with loved ones or strangers alike, there is – already with us in that same moment – a higher love waiting to heal it, and to help make us whole at the same time.

Excerpted from Relationship Magic: Waking Up

Together by Guy Finley. ©2018 Guy Finley Used by permission from Llewellyn Worldwide, Ltd. Guy Finley is an internationally renowned spiritual teacher and bestselling self-help author. He is the Founder and Director of Life of Learning Foundation, a nonprofit center for transcendent self-study located in Merlin, Oregon. He also hosts the Foundation’s Wisdom School — an on-line self-discovery program for seekers of higher self-knowledge. He is the bestselling author of The Secret of Letting Go and 45 other books and audio programs that have sold over 2 million copies, in 26 languages, worldwide. Guy’s latest book Relationship Magic: Waking Up Together applies decades of spiritual wisdom to practical relationship challenges, transforming any relationship from mundane to magical! www.guyfinley.org

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Metaphysics

LIVING INTUITIVELY

Being Practical and Present as Intuitive

by Robyn M Fritz

To develop our innate intuitive and healing abilities we need to be as practical and present as we are in our daily lives. It helps by

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surrounding ourselves with things that remind us that we are making these abilities, or skillsets, part of our lives.

Most of us want to learn to use our innate intuitive and healing abilities, but we find it hard to incorporate them into our busy lives. The bad news is that we have to practice these abilities, or skillsets, before they become routine, just like any useful habit or ability. After all, we learn to drive a car by driving, not by gawking. The good news is that it’s easier than we think, especially if we make these abilities real and present in our daily lives.

Finding Concrete Ways to Be Intuitive

We make them practical and concrete by surrounding ourselves with physical reminders that we are part of a living, aware universe in which these abilities are natural, real, and useful.

These reminders assure us

that we can plug into these abilities and become our best selves while reminding us that we are all valuable and necessary to the world.

We can find these reminders by simply walking our neighborhoods, looking online, or examining books and objects that intrigue and inspire us. As we evaluate our response to them, we choose what most attracts us; these things help us keep healthy energy flowing around us.

For example, as you walk by the ocean, you breathe in the clearing energy of sea salt. As you roam the neighborhood, you may see a flower and enjoy its fragrance, or a gnarly tree that intrigues you. As you shop, you may find rocks, crystals, statues, or other objects that attract and inspire you — seeing the pattern? As you find things that deepen your connection to the world, you connect more deeply to yourself, in particular to the

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intuitive and healing abilities that will enhance your life.

Choosing Physical Reminders to Connect to the World— and Yourself You may find things like rocks or feathers or fallen tree branches in your wanderings, or you may buy things, but you don’t have to make huge purchases. Find simple things that please you and boost you up. Here are some suggestions.

Lavender is a traditional clearing flower that is also great for peace and calm.

You can grow it or buy fresh lavender in season and put it in bowls around the house to dry and keep year round.

You can get sachets or eye pillows and culinary lavender to put in food or to make tea. The lavender essential oil can also be used in aromatherapy (be careful with essential oil around cats) or purchased as incense.

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Rose is a high vibration flower; its essential oil is highly prized and extremely expensive. Like lavender, you can find it in many products, including soaps, sprays, and incense, or you dry it in the summer and keep year round.

Living plants can help clear the air and remind you that nature isn’t far away—and is always waiting for you to play. Be careful of plants that are toxic to house pets, and find easy ones to care for if you’re a newbie.

Candles come in many forms. Experiment to see what works for you, from votives to elaborate tapers or decorated jars.

Himalayan salt lamps are carved from ancient sea salt in ancient mountains; they are great for clearing energy and cast welcoming, warm light in a room. You can find traditional amber lamps, but also purple,

white, and grey, depending on where they are mined.

They come in many forms, from carved chunks to bowls, geometric shapes, and even small USBs to insert in computers.

Crystals are lovely reminders of the beauty of the natural world and its power to support us. Shop in stores where the owners are sensitive to the wellbeing of their crystals, as the mining and storing processes can damage them energetically. Find ones that attract you by reading books with great photographs and descriptions of their properties.

Amethyst flower is a particular crystal that inspires respect for nature and helps you maintain your connection to it. These crystals are nature’s art, reminding us that there is more to the world than we suspect, and we can explore it.

Photographs, pictures, artwork, even (or especially) children’s artwork can be lovely reminders of the ties to family and the planet.

Play with a camera or visit a museum: the possibilities are as big as your imagination!

Ready to start finding objects to support you as you develop your intuitive and healing skills?

You’ll be astonished—and grateful—at how much help it is to surround yourself with these practical reminders that boost body, mind, and spirit.

Robyn M Fritz MA MBA CHt hosts the OM Times radio show, “The Practical Intuitive: Mind Body Spirit for the Real World.”

An intuitive and spiritual consultant and certified past life regression specialist, she is an award-winning author whose next book is “The Afterlife Is a Party: What People and Animals Teach Us About Love, Reincarnation, and the Other Side.”Find her at RobynFritz.com.

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God

The Love Guiding Us To Be Truly Loving

The best of times, the greatest of human experiences, and the best version of ourselves are happening when we are truly loving. When we are manifesting love for

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ourselves and others that is connective, unconditional, unburdened, and unlimited.

Unfortunately, all of this becomes unavailable to us when our ego leads us into believing we are the source of our love—rather than God. It is when we have lost touch with our Divinity and the Love—God Is. The greatest of human experiences are those times when we are truly loving. Times when we are manifesting a connective, unconditional, unburdened, and unlimited love with whatever we are doing and whomever we are doing it with or for. A loving embrace of life is happening when we are caring for our children and loved ones, tending a garden, writing inspiring music or stories, teaching skills that lead to a better life for others, putting ourselves in harm’s way to protect others, and a million other ways we can be truly loving. The reservoir of Love serving as the source of this loving comes from within,

but it is not of our making, as much as we may want to think or believe that. It is the Love—God Is, which we can choose to manifest in any way possible as it has no boundaries that can be placed upon it. It is the foundation for what become the loving thoughts, words, feelings, and actions we use to express this Love.

This Love is connective because there can be no walls or barriers that stand in the way of its connection to ourselves or others. However, we can create walls made from ego illusions such as separation, unworthiness, and inequality that make it appear as though this Love is absent or beyond our reach. This Love is unconditional as there are no reasons for which it can be offered to some and not others. Differences of race, religion, gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation, political affiliation, income level, intellectual capability, emotional stability, physical ability, and species have no

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place in this Love. This Love is unburdened as there is no challenge it cannot meet so that this Love can be offered to or received by those in its need. This Love is unlimited and inexhaustible as it has no end and in its giving more is created to be given.

Some may disagree with the notion that we are not the source of our loving thoughts, words, and deeds. It is certainly an understandable belief that we created the manifestations of love and must be considered the source of them, rather than God. Unfortunately, this understanding becomes a misunderstanding when we believe that we can stand alone or apart from God. It also misses the intense intimacy we share with God and how much the Love, Life is impacting our lives, and Energy—God Is, whether we know it or not. Every breath we take, the image we see, a song that fills our heart, taste we enjoy, and so on is the culmination of

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the Love—God Is, built upon the wisdom of the ages. God has made all of this possible including our capacity to be truly loving—we are not its source. The really good news is that this Love is available to everyone and at all times with which to fashion a greater life than what we have known. We can only become distant from it when our ego energy is creating distance from it.

When we default into believing we are the source of our loving rather than God we have opened the door to many distortions in how we know and show our love as well as our ability to accept it from others. Our loving thoughts, words, and deeds become fashioned through the prism of our ego energy. Our ego power, flexibility, and vulnerability when imbalanced can promote distortions of love that distance us from being the Love—God Is and can be quite twisted. We can think it is Ok to love some and not others. We can think

we only have so much love to give. We can think we don’t deserve to be loved.

We can think we must earn love. We can think others must earn our love. We can think that showing love is a weakness. We can think that needing love is a weakness.

The Love—God Is, would not have us thinking any of this!

Our recognition that God is the source of our being truly loving not only has profound implications for ourselves but also for how we see our neighbors. We can see not only the humanity of their loving thoughts, words, and deeds—but also the Divinity. We can hear the voice of God speaking to us through them telling us about the Oneness and Unity we share with them. We can put aside the distraction of any human differences to see more deeply who they are and who we are. It is within this awareness that we can combine our human resources to address any of the challenges we face individually and collectively

when being truly loving. The Love—God Is, within our being will defeat any fear or weakness within ourselves or others as their source is only within our humanity.

They cannot withstand the connective, unconditional, unburdened, and unlimited love we can meet them with when we truly love of ourselves and others while being the Love—God Is. Dr. Nickolas Martin is a licensed psychologist who has worked in clinical, university, public school and private practice settings as a therapist, diagnostician, educator, and consultant for 35 years. He authored Ego Therapy: A Method for Healing Your Whole Self and It’s Your Ego—Stupid!: Fix It to Fix Your Life and has co-authored with Rev. Linda M. Martin, EgoSpiritualism: Awakening to Your Human and Divine Self and The Two Voices Within: Balancing the Energies of Ego and Spirit to Enhance Your Life. https://www.egoandspirit.info/ https://www.facebook.com/ egoandspirit/

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Personal Growth & Development We grow as individuals as we face challenges and overcome life’s obstacles. This section is dedicated to helping you chart your course.

The Best that Can Happen

My coaching client Andrea has struggled with issues of lack and poor self-worth for a lot of her life. Although she is smart, spiritual, and attractive, she has regularly feared that she would become impoverished and bereft.

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She told me, “Whenever I drive under a bridge, I check it out to see where I would set up cardboard boxes for myself and my kids to live in, in case we lose it all.”

I asked Andrea if she was in danger of losing it all, and she firmly answered, “No.” This dear woman has always been provided for, and even as a single mom she has manifested various means of support. But the fear of not enough has siphoned off her happiness. In coaching we underscored the fact that Andrea has always had enough for herself and her children, and there is no reason that would change. But fear is not based on reason. It is based on illusions.

I see the same tailspin fantasy in many clients, as well as myself. When faced with a challenge, our mind goes to the worst thing that could happen, and we start preparing for it. When I ask clients who face a difficult situation, “What’s the worst thing that could happen?”

they usually have a wellprepared list of possible dark outcomes. When I ask, “What’s the best thing that could happen?” they usually take a while to think of an answer. They are so practiced in pessimism that optimism hasn’t crossed their mind.

When we start to explore positive outcomes, the client’s demeanor changes radically, he gets excited about opportunities, and he begins to activate them by stepping in healthy, productive directions.

It’s not just challenges that stimulate fear. So does success. The ego will take every opportunity to wedge itself into our experience and turn blessings into problems.

When something wonderful happens, we may start to think about what could go wrong.

United Airlines once sent me an unexpected gift of a free round-trip flight anywhere.

I went to my travel agent and asked him if the award was for real. After reading the terms of the award, he affirmed, “Sure, you can use

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this anytime anywhere.” I kept double-checking with him until I walked out of his office, the ticket he printed in hand.

When I finally took that flight, it represented to me the reality of grace, and reminded me that I must let it in.

When you think, “This is too good to be true,” immediately shift your affirmation to “This is good enough to be true.” In the big picture, only the good is true. Everything else is a warped perspective. A Course in Miracles tells us that only love is real and all else is a nightmare we have fabricated. Fears of lack and loss are part of the nightmare.

Confidence in well-being and the presence of benevolence is the awakening.

When things get really good, some people wait for “the other shoe to drop,” expecting that some threat or challenge is lurking around the corner. This is another trick of the fearful mind, a limiting belief calling us to

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transcend it. What if, instead, we decided that something good happening is a sign that better, perhaps even better, will come? Inspirational author Mike Dooley says, “When something good happens, the chances of something equally good or better following it increase astronomically.”

Abraham-Hicks calls us to affirm, “the better it gets, the better it gets.”

The motto of the Boy Scouts is “be prepared.” Good advice.

The question is, “What are you prepared for?” If you are preparing only for disaster, you miss out on preparing for blessings. You cannot be preparing simultaneously for failure and success. Jesus said, “You cannot serve two masters.” Either you are placing your canoe in the stream of love and trust, or you are placing your canoe in the stream of fear and protectiveness. A Course in Miracles asks us to remember, “In my defenselessness my safety lies.” The more we defend ourselves, the more

we need to defend. The more we recognize we are protected by Higher Power, the more energy we liberate for creativity and healing.

Do what you need to do to feel safe. Have insurance, lock your door, and choose a secure password if your find those acts helpful.

Meanwhile, consider where your real safety comes from.

Are you sustained by money, position, medicine, prestige, and possessions? Or are you sustained by the grace of God? Use the things of the world but fall back on the Source of all good.

A business mentor told me, “Act as if success is inevitable.”

People who act as if success is forthcoming succeed more than those who worry about failing. A salesman friend of mine based his career on “the assumed close.” Treat all of your customers as if they are going to buy. They may not all buy, but more will buy than if you treat them as if they may not buy.

The universe is created in utter enoughness. God is not stingy, but extravagant.

Everything created contains the seeds of much more like itself. It is said, “A person can count the number of seeds in an apple, but only God can count the number of apples in a seed.” When we recognize the riches within us and around us, we don’t have to size up freeway bridges as potential shelters. We can see bridges as symbolic of crossing the chasm from abysmal lack to lavish supply.

Alan Cohen is the bestselling author of the newly-released Spirit Means Business, illuminating how you can successfully merge your career and financial path with your spiritual life. He will present a program related to this book on the US Mainland (west coast) in August. For more information about this program, Alan’s books and videos, free daily inspirational quotes, online courses, and weekly radio show, visit www.

AlanCohen.com.

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World Vision

When you look at the view of Earth from space, you are immediately in awe of what you do see: the incredible beauty of Creation. It is not until you look closer that you realize what you do not see.

You do not see lines partitioning countries.

You do not see separation between races.

You do not see division between religions.

You do not see the walls people build to isolate themselves from each other.

There is only One Planet. There is only One Humanity.

This section is dedicated to introducing thoughts and ideas to foster a greater understanding of Humanity’s interdependence.

Embracing Opportunities to Let Go, Sooner Than Later Defining opportunities to let go. Embracing and receiving the moments in life when we are faced with the choice to breathe, connect, and let go or to constrict our breathing, disconnect and hold back.

Embracing those moments

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that are calling us to let go and making more empowered choices, sooner than later.

Opportunities to let go are the moments in life when we are faced with the choice to breathe, connect and let go or to constrict our breathing, disconnect and hold back.

Our lives are filled with opportunities to let go, revealing themselves in different forms, times and places. Some manifest as leaky roofs, overdrawn bank accounts, politics, environmental issues, and disagreements. Some come in moments of feeling shame, blame or guilt. They inspire, motivate, gladden, sadden, madden and scare us when the choices we make can change our lives. What if we respond to these opportunities as gifts that we are being given? Gifts that can expand, challenge and empower us on the journey to fulfilling our dreams.

Living in a culture that promotes lying, trying, control and over-riding our bodies often leaves us

feeling powerless to have the experiences we want. Lying to ourselves can feel like the easiest road to success until we find ourselves in a crisis where our circumstances force us to let go. What if we get honest about what we are doing and embrace those moments that are calling us to connect and be present? What if we learn how to let go into making life-affirming choices sooner than later?

Things we can do to receive our opportunities to let go.

Breathe. Relax and give ourselves the air we need to be fully alive.

Ask the questions: What is the nature of experiencing the power of letting go? What is the nature of receiving the opportunities in the most loving, life-enhancing and empowering ways?

Support and trust ourselves to stay connected with our source, and it’s greater intelligence. Cultivate the ability to listen and respond to our inner guidance. Stay connected by meditating,

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napping, walking, dancing, vibrating and moving our energy in ways that release us from any tightness, control and holding back.

Practice unconditionally loving ourselves.

Let go of criticizing and look for all the positive, loving and empowering aspects of ourselves and others.

Listen to music, audios and read books that support a sense of wellbeing. Look for opportunities to love and be loved such as soaking up all the love that our friends, family, and pets can give us.

Cultivate the ability to shift the way we think. Notice and let go of any unsupportive thinking. Shift our focus, vibrate, circulate and move our energy in ways that open space for making the shifts more easily.

Let go in our bodies. Letting go in our bodies is exemplified by this simple exercise: Hold an arm out and clench the fist for as long as possible. Clench and hold it, hold it tight! Start letting it go and releasing it very slowly. Then shake, shake, Omtimes.com

shake it out! Notice what happens to our breathing, thinking, feeling and behaving when we are uptight and contracted. Ask ourselves how is this like our lives? Make new choices.

Free our emotions by letting go into their full expression in safe and invigorating ways.

Be in a living process. Ann Wilson Schaef, the author of Living In Process, reminds us that we can relax, let go and allow the details of our projects, relationships, parenting, and dreams reveal themselves in their perfect timing. Learning to find the satisfaction and empowerment in watching our dreams reveal themselves in many surprising ways.

Absorb and digest our experiences. Learning to let go into receiving and absorbing what we have been given.

Integrating, digesting and getting ready to receive our next steps.

Withdraw from habitual control such as criticizing and being disgusted by other people to cover up any

discomfort we are feeling.

Embrace the experiences of loss. Learn to let go into the truth and give ourselves time and space to grieve and vibrate whatever feelings come up.

Embrace any pain and suffering by breathing and letting go of any control and contraction around it.

Practice letting goes of reactivity. A good exercise is noticing the details of what triggers us and how we feel and behave in those moments so we can change it.

Let go of stressing about what we might be missing — remembering that our source is always guiding us to the most beneficial experiences.

Be willing to let go into opportunities that may not be totally what we expected.

Opportunities that help us learn and discover how to navigate and appreciate the power in the gifts we are being offered. Remember we can always say yes or no.

Enjoy and look forward to the perfection of a life full of opportunities to let go.

Remembering that life is not always what we expect it to be, and if we keep letting go life is always better than expected!

About the author: Crystal is a certified expansion guide with the Total Integration Institute, author, multidimensional coach and facilitator for the live event called Freedom at the Core. She is the instructor and coach for her online course, Freedom From the Inside Out. She draws from her own experience and the experience of the thousands of people she has worked with over the past 35 years.

Crystal is known for the fun and empowering way she supports people in bringing forth the experiences they want in their lives. www.crystalpresenceonline. com www.facebook.com/crystal. presence/ www.facebook.com/ crystalpresenceonline www.facebook.com/ emotionalparadigmshift

Omtimes.com

Creating the State of Grace on Social Media

by Katie Brockhurst

Social Media continues to get more and more of a bad reputation. Surveys confirm the thought that most of us are addicted to our phones. As well, social media can negatively impact our well-being and mental

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health. Social media platforms are finally coming under scrutiny for they have in the issue. By releasing new tools, they are beginning to take responsibility for their monitoring of how we spend our time online.

Many of us have admitted that social media leads to feeling anxious, overwhelmed and even burnt out. Some feel that they must be active in social media for their business and careers and struggle with not wanting to be online all the time.

Is it possible to create a state of grace and bring more balance to our lives and how we use social media? The answer is yes. By using a strategy of love, we can find the joy and simplicity that we were meant to experience.

Using a Strategy of Love The media and the digitally and socially connected communities can have a beneficial impact on our lives when it is experienced with a more conscious relationship in mind. It is possible to work positively with the aspects of social media that are available to us. Being aware and alert to the Social Media Vortex of Doom, we can participate in online communities that would otherwise be stressful and harmful to our well-being.

There are countless examples

of social media connecting the right person to the right time, and it always comes from having created a space for grace and authenticity in the content, conversations, and activity. It means having come from a place of love. When a strategy of love and grace is present in our social media interactions, there isn’t any room for the more negative aspect that would otherwise be available.

It is still possible to get caught up in the Social Media Ego. The vortex that likes, followers, clicks, and comments feed the addictive behavior some of us have befallen. It is the ego that is caught up on what everybody else is experiencing for fear of missing out. It ’s the shouty, show-off, the noise of being overly busy that can overwhelm us when we are scrolling our timelines. If we come from this place, there is a clear energetic blueb]print that triggers us to move further into the ego self, which means that we would respond from the same place.

It is where the Social Media Vortex of Doom begins. The question to ask is simple. Is the reaction to impress others, or is

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it to create a positive impact?

Another question to consider is what it would be like if people commented and reacted in real life the way they do on social media? It’s likely that friends would appreciate the behavior even less sometimes. Particularly if the communication is to broadcast, show-off, or be pushy.

It isn’t kind or graceful. Social media, unfortunately, lulls us into a false need of always being online and it becomes too easy to accept certain behaviors that we wouldn’t deem appropriate in person.

4 Ways to Finding Joy and Simplicity In Social Media There is a way to enjoy social media for what it is meant and create a state of grace as well.

First: We should stop and breathe. Think about the content about to be shared or participated. Where is it being seen and why. Think about whether its purpose is to provide joy.

Second: We should remember that everyone is on their journey. What’s happening Omtimes.com

for someone online or off is a journey. Comparing ourselves to others leads to a place that our egos can thrive.

Third: We can create joyful content. If we enjoy the content that we share, it will be evident to others. It will become an experience of joy for all of us.

This joy will radiate in a way that allows for a graceful connection.

Fourth: While it feels good to get attention, we can remember that it only takes one person to create a shift in the universe. We are trusting that our message will reach those that it is supposed to allow us to share our joy without expectations.

When sharing from a place of love and truth, we can connect with people authentically. It is a conscious awareness that we deserve in social media.

Katie Brockhurst is a social media consultant that focuses on the mind, body and spirit experience.

Her book ‘Social Media for a New Age’ is designed to start a conversation about how we can think about using social media for the benefit it should have. www. socialmediaforanewage.com

When a Household Breaks, Many lives are changed, and others just End.

DOMESTIC ABUSE There are Many Forgotten Victims

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