OMTimes Magazine September B 2017 Edition

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September B 2017

Cover Story

Metaphysics

24

72

Mastin Kipp - Growing Into Grace

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Spirituality 40

The Power of Forgiveness

Personal Growth

OM Living

84

48

88

52

Releasing Worry: It’s More Important Than We May Think Choking Under Pressure: Pace Your Day with Music

Relationships 62 66

Why Is My Relationship Crumbling?

Is Higher Ego Power Damaging Your Relationships?

Get Your Intuition to Work For You What's Up with Spirit Guides?

92 96

How to Cultivate Willingness Examining Our Love Affair with the Self Resign as Your Own Teacher How to Be Immune to Praise and Blame

Books 102 Book Spotlight - Intuition On Demand

OM TIMES

Mastin Kipp

Does this describe you - you’re constantly busy, working hard, trying to achieve your perceived goals, and yet you feel like you’re getting nowhere, you’re easily distracted, frustrated and uncertain about your life’s true purpose? Is there a way to turn this

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around, greet each new day with energy, excitement, and intention and not only find financial success but personal satisfaction and joy.

Mastin Kipp, says that, in 40 days, you can turn your life around, find abundance and happiness by finding your life’s purpose and living it. Mastin is a number one best selling author, speaker and life interventionist for people who are seeking rapid transformation in their lives.

He has been featured on the Emmy Award winning show Super Soul Sunday and recognized as a thought leader for the next generation by Oprah Winfrey. Mastin Kipp has built a highly successful international personal development company that helps people create rapid change, connect to who they really are and how to live their lives with passion and purpose.

Through his writing, online courses, in person seminars and international retreats, Mastin has worked with more than 2

million people in more than 100 countries around the world.

Oprah recently also named Mastin one of 100 Awakened Leaders who are using their voices and talent to elevate humanity alongside other teachers such as Tony Robbins, Deepak Chopra, Marianne Williamson and Eckhart Tolle to name just a few.

His book Daily Love: Growing Into Grace is a national best seller and a viewed number one on Amazon, which is quite an achievement.

He joins OMTimes this week to discuss his brand-new book Claim Your Power: A Forty Day Journey to Dissolve the Hidden Blocks that Keep You Stuck and Finally Thrive in Your Life’s Unique Purpose, and he taught me how to get that out in one breath.

Victor Fuhrman: This is a great

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honor to have you with us.

Mastin Kipp: Well, it’s a pleasure to be here, and I’m excited to talk to you about purpose. It’s my favorite thing to talk about, and I’m jazzed that you’re jazzed about it.

Victor Fuhrman: So, Mastin, you were born fully aware and awakened, knew your purpose and pursued it with a passion, right? Please share with our readers your story and your path.

Mastin Kipp: Exactly. I had it all figured out ahead of time. No, not at all. As Deepak Chopra says, every sinner has a future, every saint has a past.

I went to, Los Angeles, California as a young kid and was in the music business and got very successful very swiftly and picked up a lot of bad habits and addictions very quickly and then kind of came crashing down very fast. And it kind of led me asking the question, “How did I get here?”.

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And that question I’ve been asking now for about 15 years and has led me down a personal development path.

And eventually, it has become this very full-time thing. And now I’ve also gotten very clear on, sort of what my unique contribution is to this world of personal development. The Claim Your Power book is really the functional life coaching process in many ways of how to really, really identify the hidden blocks that are keeping you stuck and get really crystal clear on what those are so that you can really get success quicker.

And one thing’s for sure is that when you discover what your purpose and you bring it to life, that’s when real like abundance comes. That’s when joy comes, fulfillment, the things that we really want to come.

Victor Fuhrman: Did you have a dark night of the soul, and just talk about what that was like.?

Mastin Kipp: Yeah, I have a different, completely different

term for the same thing. I call it a divine storm. And the intensity of your divine storm is sort of directly related to how stubborn you are or aren’t or maybe how obedient you are or aren’t to our own intuition.

And a divine storm is a time in your life where everything seems to be against you. You could call it a dark night of the soul. That’s another term for it. But, it sorts of represents this process of death, a dying and then a resurrection. And the purpose of a divine storm or the dark night of the soul is to realign yourself with your purpose and to, kind of pay attention to the signs that life and your intuition have been sending you and really start to, align with that. And the faster you align with that, the better.

Victor Fuhrman: Have you ever contemplated working with school systems to develop a curriculum for kids to find their purpose?

Mastin Kipp: I haven’t done that, but I would absolutely

do it. But, I also think that it would have to be a sort of a very progressive nature because most school systems, are not really set up to do that. Like, it’s really the opposite of that.

It’s finding out what makes you unique. So, the system would have to change dramatically I think for that to really come into full effect.

Victor Fuhrman: A lot of us have amazing dreams and desires, and yet we procrastinate. Why? Mastin Kipp: Because procrastination keeps you alive.

Victor Fuhrman: Is that the fear of death, also, huh?

Mastin Kipp: Yeah, all survival patterns end in, and then I’ll die. So, procrastination, not following your intuition, playing small, perfectionism is the fear of failure disguised as a high standard. We not following your intuition, addiction, staying in toxic relationships, distraction, information overwhelms,

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getting lost on Facebook or Instagram or, being a sort of information overload.

One of my favorite procrastination things is like the six months quit your job timeline. If you’re telling yourself you’re gonna quit your job in six months, you’re completely BSing yourself because six months is just long enough away where it feels like all survival patterns boil back to at some point then I’ll die.

That’s the unconscious belief.

Victor Fuhrman: What other stumbling blocks do people create for themselves on the road to passion and purpose?

Mastin Kipp: Oh, man, how much time do you have? I’ve worked with thousands of people one on one, and I’ve seen patterns, and I’d have to be an idiot at this point not to be able to figure out and determine some of these patterns.

Like a lot of the neurotic

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patterns I see are just coping mechanisms to survive stuttering, a lot of different mental disorders. It’s like a way where someone’s trying to cope for significance or trying to cope with feeling that they’re enough on a certain level.

Pretty much anything that you could imagine will prevent someone from moving forward.

And some of the ones that are popular today there’s the standard ones, procrastination and the ones we’ve talked about, perfectionism.

Victor Fuhrman: What prompted you to write Claim Your Power?

Mastin Kipp: The way that I develop content is like Claim Your Power was created over the course of a decade. I wanted to write a unique and effective framework book that helps people get faster results. I’ve been putting this stuff together and teaching it at high-end events and retreats and seminars for a long period of time now. And

I finally have gotten to a place where I feel confident in the frameworks and the results, and it’s ready to sort of be released to the world.

And so, after, doing this work for years, it’s time to bring the book forward so that I can kind of, reach more people with the framework that’s been created and really change as many lives as possible.

Victor Fuhrman: How long did it take you to write it?

Mastin Kipp: Well, two 28-day sessions spread out over about a four-year period Victor Fuhrman: What’s your anticipation about Claim Your Power?

Mastin Kipp: I have a completely different expectation for it. On my last book, I was really like--I wanted to hit New York Times, and I didn’t. And I was in so much pain about it, I said, Mastin, like what’s up with that, like this is not normal.

And I realized I had a lot wrapped up in that identity.

So, for me, this book is about-I see it as like--I want to reach with this book like 10 million people. So, like I’m thinking this book like, as a legacy, not as like a first-week thing because this is gonna be a great book for rehab centers, for prisons, for therapy groups, for so many different things.

So, for me, I wanted this to be something that is around for a long time because there’s a timelessness to it. There are things in this book that will always be true.

So, my hope is that it becomes something that, it--goes much further and longer than the first-week release.

Victor Fuhrman: Mastin, you begin your book with an invocation, and with your permission, I’d like to show the invocation for our readers.

“A day will come when you will be stirred by unexpected

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events. A part of you will die, and you will begin to search for the elixir that will bring this part of you back to life. You will seek the elixir in friends, lovers, enemies, books, religions, foreign countries, heroes, songs, rituals, and jobs.

But, no matter where you look, the treasure will evade you, all will seem lost, and you will lose all hope that this magic potion even exists.

This will be the darkest of nights, and the promise of certain death will lead you to the abyss of despair. But, staring into the abyss, you will see the dim light of your own illuminated soul. Your radiance will transform the abyss into the elusive elixir of life. And for the first time, you will realize that all the while, it was your own life that you’ve been searching for.”

Mastin, It’s just breathtakingly beautiful. Thank you for sharing that.

Mastin Kipp: That means a lot.

Thank you so much.

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Victor Fuhrman: In Claim Your Power, you’ve broken it down into a series of revelatory exercises over a period of 40 days. Why did you choose that format?

Mastin Kipp: Probably for three or four different reasons I think that the first reason was that the book is for you if you’re really ready to do the work. Like, if you’ve kind of like doing what I call spiritual entertainment, maybe just kind of pretending that you’re spiritual or pretending you’re on the growth path, this is not the book for you.

But, if you want to do like real work, this is the book for you, and you want to get the results.

And the reason why I chose 40 days is that it’s really deep.

Like, this work like will take you further in 40 days than you may have gone in a decade in your personal development and therapy practice. And that’s not hyperbole. This is the consistent feedback that we get.

And so, there’s time to integrate it, which was really important. Then the next reason is that there’s the whole idea that it takes 21 days to break a habit. I’ve not found that to be true. It takes a minimum of 30 days.

So, I thought 40 days is a good period of time to actually create new habits.

And then I think the third reason is sort of a spiritually sound or, accepted, length of time. Jesus went on a 40-day journey, and many spiritual teachers have. So, I think there’s sort of like an archetypal idea behind 40 days, as well, too.

Victor Fuhrman: Now, the first 10 days you call separation.

Please share with our readers the essence of that process.

Mastin Kipp: Sure. So, to create a new life, you have to separate it from your current life. And that’s the part that people have the hardest time with because that’s the part where they say, no, I have to keep it the same, because if I

keep it the same, then I’ll stay the same, and if I stay the same, then I’m gonna, survive.

And so, what we have to do is consciously get you to separate from your life as you know it.

After that, the rest is awesome.

So, we kind of start with a really intense, heavy, beginning.

But, it’s like that’s the real work and like that’s the most important work in many ways.

Victor Fuhrman: Can you give us a little bit of what separation is like, just a little bit?

Mastin Kipp: Sure. Well, the idea, like there’s four phases - separation, initiation, ordeal, and return. And it’s based on Joseph Campbell’s Model of the Hero’s Journey. So, this is a journey that every hero, heroine, this is the way every story is told, and this is the way if you’re on a personal development journey, it’s the same structure because this is like innate in human nature.

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If you’re hesitant, it’s gonna be a little bit like ripping off a Band-Aid, but it’s a Band-Aid that you’ve wondered about for a long time and now’s the time.

have more money because you want the financial freedom or certainly, the feeling of freedom or certainty.

Victor Fuhrman: Now, after separation come 10 days of initiation. What are we initiating into?

The purpose is an emotion that you generate within yourself, and then you share with others in the form of service. And that sounds a little airy-fairy, but let me explain a little bit.

Mastin Kipp: The initiation process here is really getting clear on, what is my purpose, I’ve kind of understood why I’ve stayed stuck, I understand the patterns that have kept me stuck. But, like, really, what’s my purpose? And I need to bring that to life.

And ultimately, when you set a goal, you set a goal because you want to hit an emotional target. You know you want to lose weight because you want to feel self-respect or energy. You set a goal for a romantic relationship because you want that love and passion.

You set a goal to kind of to

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And this is kind of the idea of like what Joseph Campbell says when he says to follow your bliss. It’s really a pathway and a framework and a model for it so that you can get really clear on it and not have to have it be confusing.

Victor Fuhrman: Now, your third sequence of 10 days comes under the ominous heading of the ordeal. Do we have to?

Mastin Kipp: You have to, yes, you have to. 40 years of research from Joseph Campbell would say you have to. Every

story ever told would say you have to. Every wisdom, tradition would say you have to. It’s just a part of the cycle of life.

And the reason why is, once you get clear on, what’s holding you back, once you get clear on your purpose and what you want to create, then you meet all the parts of yourself that have kept you stuck. Like, you come into contact with the parts of yourself that would sabotage your purpose for financial security or for, not having to take responsibility or for, wanting to be safe.

You get to experientially meet yourself because it’s one thing to, know what your purpose is or to have a vision for it. It’s another thing to not just bring it to life but to overcome and really get to know and have compassion for all the parts of yourself that have held you back.

Victor Fuhrman: And then you finally bring your journey back

from the abyss with the journey home. What can they expect?

Mastin Kipp: So the idea there is, now that you’ve had compassion for the parts of you that have held yourself back for a good reason, and you’re clear on your purpose, now it’s really about paying it forward. So, this is really about how to really be in service in a way that produces abundance. That’s really the goal.

Victor Fuhrman: So, the other subtitle for Claim Your Power can be Claim Your Power and Feel Good.

Mastin Kipp: That’s right. If you think about anything, like why do you go to the doctor?

To feel good. Why do you eat kale? Hopefully, to feel good.

Like, why do you do yoga? Like, to feel good. Like, that’s pretty much all we want is to feel better, you know?

But, the book is really designed with the idea of, you do have a purpose, and here’s how to find it.

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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.

Jeri arrived at the writing workshop with the look of someone who had paid serious dues. As the group listened to her story, they were amazed that she looked as youthful and vibrant as she did. It would be a profound

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understatement to say that Jeri had had a hard life.

When she was in her early twenties, she got involved with a boyfriend who was a drug dealer. She experimented with drugs and found herself in way over her head. One afternoon she and her boyfriend went to the home of another dealer to purchase drugs. The two men got into an altercation that resulted in her boyfriend shooting and killing the dealer.

Jeri was convicted of 1st degree murder and sentenced to life in prison. Her boyfriend was found guilty of 2nd degree murder and sentenced to seventeen years, despite the fact that he was the one who fired the fatal shot.

What choice does one have in these circumstances?

Jeri told the group, “I was still in shock when I received my life sentence. Over time, the

reality of the situation began to hit me; I was going to spend the rest of my life in prison. I couldn’t help but hope that someone would realize that this was terribly wrong, that I didn’t deserve this, that something would happen that would allow me to go back to the life that I had known.

But as the days and weeks and months passed, it became increasingly evident that no rescue was going to happen.”

“I began to accept the fact that I could either continue to dwell on how unjust this whole situation was, or try to understand how to survive this ordeal without going completely insane. I looked around at the other women in the prison, and saw how hard and bitter most of them had become. I vowed then and there that I would not let this experience destroy me as it had them. Still, I wasn’t sure just exactly how I would do that. “

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“By what I can only call a miracle, I came to befriend another inmate who helped me to see there were alternatives to being consumed by hatred and self-pity. Nancy had already served several years in prison, but there was something very different about her.

Unlike the others, she smiled frequently. She always had a kind word for everyone. She was a loving person.”

“One day she told me that she was grateful for her prison experience because without it, she would either be dead or bitter and miserable. Nancy helped me to see that my power was in choosing what kind of a person I would become. She helped me to see that the way I used my time, the way I interacted with others, my attitude and thinking were the factors that would determine how my life in prison would be.”

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“As I observed Nancy’s encounters with other prisoners and correctional officers, I noticed that her every interaction contributed something positive. She was truly an angel of mercy, the quality that is most lacking in prison. I realized that I would have to become more merciful not only with those around me but also with myself. I would have to forgive myself for the mistakes I had made that had led to my arrest.”

What can we learn from Jeri’s story?

Jeri became a model prisoner, helping many inmates during the years of her incarceration.

Whenever she came up for parole, she got a strong recommendation from the parole board. She even had a letter from the judge who sentenced her, saying that the term was excessive and strongly supported her release.

But the governor refused to

allow her to be pardoned and in fact swore that he would never pardon anyone who had been convicted of murder.

After that governor left office, the new governor honored the recommendation of the parole board. After twentyfive years in prison, Jeri was finally released.

Jeri told us that she knew early on that she could resist with anger and self-pity. Or that she could take a forgiving stance toward herself for getting into such a compromised position, towards her boyfriend, towards the penal system that dealt her such a stiff sentence, and towards the governor who refused to allow her release.

She knew that she didn’t want to do even more harm to herself, so she decided to forgive and to do as much good inside the prison as she possibly could.

Most of us do not have a

betrayal or wound that is as long lasting, disruptive, and life changing as Jeri’s. If she can practice forgiveness in such dire circumstances, then surely, the rest of us can make an effort to live with a more open heart.

Author Bio Linda Bloom L.C.S.W. has served as psychotherapist and seminar leader practicing relationship counseling almost forty years. Check out her OMTimes Bio. If you like what you read, click here to sign up Bloomwork’s monthly inspirational newsletter and receive our free e-book: Going For the Gold: Tools, practice, and wisdom for creating exemplary relationships.

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OM Living For those living a more Conscious Lifestyle

Release Worry and Feel More Joy:

It’s More Important Than We May Think

by Rachel Horton White

Life is not meant to be heavy or hard. Many of us feel like we are supposed to worry as if everything might fall apart if we let go.

We worry about money, our relationships or our jobs.

Often, these worries are based on a

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past experience that we replay like a bad song stuck in our heads. Something happens to us in our lives, usually as a child or young adult. In a similar situation later in life, our memories are triggered and our brains instinctively believe that the same thing is going to happen again.

Then we re-live our past over and over. The same patterns tend to occur in our lives. According to Abraham-Hicks, ‘Worrying is using your imagination to create more of what you don’t want.’

The good news is that we can work past our worries, allowing ourselves to experience more joy. The mere act of feeling joy can raise our personal vibration, the invisible waves we give off energetically, to bring about the wonderful things that our souls want for us.

This is not about getting rich, famous or acquiring the latest trendy gadget. It’s about aligning with our true purpose, or what we are here on Earth to do.

If we find ourselves in an unhappy pattern in life, we

might ask ourselves if there is an unconscious thought under the surface contributing to this pattern.

Human beings have tens of thousands of thoughts per day, and most of them are quite negative. What if we could contribute to the nature of our daily experiences with our thoughts every day? Imagine if we were to replace the negative ones with positive ones. What could we bring about in our lives?

Here are some ideas on how we can work past the fears/ doubts/worries to create what we long for: Identify the Root Cause of the Belief We might explore something we have been told, or that happened to us in the past, to notice any subconscious beliefs lingering there. Writing takes an emotion out of us so that we objectively see it for what it is.

Move On from the False Story How are these beliefs holding us back in our lives? What would our lives be like if we no Omtimes.com

longer decided to believe this story? We may uncover some powerful revelations by diving deep into the kind of lives we wish to co-create.

Separate from the Belief-In our Minds and on Paper Imagine telling the person who may have inadvertently created this belief that we are no longer going to believe this. Feel the separation in our bodies and write it down.

Minimize the Daily News The information overload within the news these days often keeps us in a constant state of fear and anxiety. Turning our TVs off and minimizing our exposure can create a heightened sense of peace and alignment.

Wonder Like a Little Kid and Enjoy Life Children have so much to teach us. Marveling at the treasures that exist in nature and throughout all life, they know how to find joy in each moment. They live as if they were on permanent vacation.

Like a child, what if were to try something crazy that we would not normally do? Our brains Omtimes.com

thrive on spontaneity and keep us excited about life.

Learn about Personal Vibrations When we are joyful, we emit a high-frequency wave toward which people, opportunities, and events naturally gravitate. When in a negative space, we give off a low-vibration wave, often attracting negative situations.

Instead, we can create a vision of our ideal futures, living in a state of joy so our current vibrational frequency might eventually match that of our future one.

Be Aware of the Negative Ego Our negative Ego-based minds will tell us we are being irresponsible when we are intuitively following our bliss. It will scream that things will fall apart in our lives. But will they really? We are just experimenting, just exploring.

Tell that Ego to settle down and let us try something new.

Connect with a Like-Minded Community and with Nature Our energy is amplified as a loving community. We feel uplifted and restored. Spend

some time with friends, relaxing, hanging out, and enjoying food.

Join a meditation group. And get outside and run. Jump in water.

Sing out loud. Run barefoot in the grass and absorb the healing energy of the Earth.

Our inner selves are begging us to let go and find joy. When we can release our internal blocks, we experience true freedom and a life that feels good in our hearts, bodies, and souls.

About the Author Rachel Horton White is an intuitive coach, spiritual seeker, and writer. She connects the spiritual to the real world through guidance sessions, workshops and communities of support with Soulful Work Intuitive Consulting and in her podcast, The Courageous Path. A mother to two young children in Portland Maine, Rachel longs for a world of healing and shared consciousness.

Rachel can be found also on: Website: http://www. soulfulworkconsulting.com Facebook: https:// www.facebook.com/ restoringthesoulineverydaylife

Twitter: https://twitter.com/ rachel_h_white Instagram: https:// www.instagram.com/ soulfulworkconsulting Soundcloud: https://soundcloud. com/thecourageouspath Itunes: https://itunes.apple.com/ us/podcast/the-courageous-path/ id113596672...

Medium: https://medium.com/@ rhortonwhite Quora: https://www.quora.com/ profile/Rachel-Horton-White Abstract: This article provides practical suggestions on how people can reduce worry in their lives. It offers a new perspective, perhaps, that worry negatively the vibrancy of the energetic waves (or frequencies) that we emit each day. And that these ‘worrying’ frequencies actually repel the kind of lives we long to co-create. This article also offers ideas on how we can dive in deep to identify the root cause of the worry (or limiting belief), and then separate from this belief if we choose, to help us release what holds us back from experiencing joy and freedom from worry in everyday moment.

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Choking Under Pressure?

Pace Your Day with Music

by Kara Johnstad

Choking Under Pressure? Pace Your Day with Music Music can help us pace the day so that we can arrive in the evening at the finishing line having accomplished what we

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need to do in a healthy and balanced state of mind. How can we create a playlist that keeps us from choking under pressure and helps us to pace our day?

Soothing music is known to decrease stress and the level of the stress hormone, cortisol.

And yet upbeat music can also relieve fatigue and boost our energy. Although we do not become entirely synchronized by merely listening to music, it still has an influence on how we move throughout the day, how we talk, and how we communicate.

Music Can Often Make or Break Our Day. Everything around us has a pulse, a rhythm. Not only music. Our words have a rhythm and tone. The music we listen to has a rhythm and tone. Our heart has a rhythm and tone. The earth has a rhythm and tone, as do the weather patterns and the cycles of nature. Our circulatory system is pulsating

with its surge and release. We are rhythmical beings.

Athletes know the effects of using the proper music to pace them in running long distances.

They use music consciously in training. They use music to pace distances and in highpressure situations.

Take, for example, the final three minutes of a soccer game: The score is tied. There is a foul, and the referee calls for a free kick. Studies have shown that recalling a positive, upbeat rhythmic melody line and mentally singing it, a song such as “always look at the bright side of life,� improves greatly the chance of staying calm and focused and making the shot.

Connect with a Positive, Rhythmical Melody Can we learn from top professional athletes to use music as a tool? Can music help set the tone not only for giving a top performance but also throughout the entire day?

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Simply connecting with a positive rhythmical melody line relaxes us in pressure situations and can improve our overall performance. The next time we are slipping into overwhelm after a tiring rehearsal or meeting, standing in traffic, can we recall a positive upbeat tune we love and change our mood?

Perhaps we prefer some slow drones and rhythmical mantras to take the tension out and put the love intention back into the room?

When we are under pressure, with the phone ringing off the hook and we are unsure how to get everything done in time, playing something as simple as the Bach Prelude in the background helps bring us back into the moment. It can slow us down enough to go from overwhelm and scattered to a clear focused mind.

The Pulse or Pace of Music Affects Us Very closely associated with the type of pulse of music is the pace. For example, why do

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we feel that time moves more slowly in the countryside?

We are able to relax more and “come down” a bit. Many things affect us. We cannot close off our ears easily. The music or pulsations and frequencies that we hear do influence us.

The reason that the feeling of time moves quicker in the big city has a lot to do with the pulsating rhythms of the metropolis. Take away the audible sounds and sirens and moving traffic and machinery and replace it with the sound of chirping crickets and time will seem like it is standing still.

While listening to other’s stories listen for the beat, words, and the melody. Listen to the pace that is happening around you. We can challenge ourselves to create the pace we need by consciously pacing and spacing our words as we join in conversations. Use the music in our environment to stay fully in tune.

Using Music as a Tool

for Balance As the listener and creator of our lives, we determine the final impact that the music will have on our system. It is up to us how much we allow ourselves to participate consciously in the power of music to transform our days into perfectly balanced gems.

Our music library provides unprecedented control, setting the pace and organizing the rhythm of our day. Most likely, the music played on a lazy Sunday morning is very different than the music used on a long run. The music we might listen to while cooking may be different than the music we listen to while packing and dashing out the door to catch a flight.

By paying close attention to our inner voice and the pulse, pace, and patterns of the music we are listening to, along with the spacing and tone of your words in a conversation, we can create a sonic diet plan. Those of us prone to anxiety and stress now have

another tool to use for staying in balance. It is easy to pace our day and stay energized, refreshed, and always relaxed if we listen to our inner voice and allow the music within and without to pace our day.

About the Author Kara Johnstad is an OM Times Expert, Transformational Catalyst and a powerful voice in the time and age of transition. She is an acclaimed singer/songwriter, producer, sound healer and international voice expert. Founder of Voice Your Essence, Kara has helped thousands with her “break-through” Technique and shares with us the role the voice plays in fine tuning our body-mind-spirit systems and healing humanity. Tune into Kara’s Livestream every Thursday at 12 pm Eastern Time on the Humanity Healing Facebook page as we cocreate a more conscious world.

Enroll in her OMTimes Expert classes on Learn It Live, and discover more at http://www. karajohnstad.com/

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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.

ABSTRACT – Each one of us enters into soul contracts before we incarnate. However, we have also been given free will.

At times during relationships, one partner chooses a different path toward their spiritual growth, which raises their vibration. If the other partner chooses a different path leading to a different vibration, the relationship may dissolve.

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Are Relationships Pre-Destined?

As time progresses and we are traveling at what feels like jet speed, more and more relationships seem to be unraveling at the seams. At times, we may even begin to question our sanity.

Many of us during our lives have experienced a sense of

dĂŠjĂ vu, through dreams, from entering a certain physical space, or possibly through an inner knowing that we have lived in another place and time. Some of us have had past life regressions and re-lived previous lives. A certified past life regressionist can provide an opportunity to re-experience past lives, while also providing a lesson that can be helpful in our current life.

We enter into soul contracts with various people, before we incarnate each lifetime. As our souls grow and expand from a new soul to a very old soul, we have experiences and lessons we choose to learn from each lifetime, which compel us to move forward towards expanding our soul growth.

Why Has My Love Gone?

When we experience the trauma of a relationship coming to an end, one way to begin the healing process is to think about the higher spiritual meaning to help explain the result of the breakup.

One reason a relationship crumbles is when a spouse or partner has chosen not to further his or her soul growth

at the same rate as the other partner. Imagine each of us traveling together side by side for many years, with our paths advancing in parallel and in unison. We vibrate at the same frequency. Then, one partner comes to a fork in the road and realizes that to remain on the same path as his or her significant other, a certain amount of work and changes would be required.

We have been given the gift of free will, and with free will comes the ability to make life choices, even if those choices do not align with our partner’s.

One partner may choose not to continue the same path as the other, therefore growing apart.

As we move towards higher dimensions, it is now almost impossible to share our space with someone who does not have the same energy vibration as we do. In previous times, we could remain with someone who did not share our beliefs so long as they supported our choices. This option is now a more difficult path to travel.

When our lessons from a relationship are complete, Omtimes.com

many times, we are given signs to help us know it’s time to move forward. The key is to pay attention to those signs. It is hard for many of us to accept what we feel is a failure. However, if we learn to embrace the change, we will allow ourselves to release, have faith, and emerge with renewed strength to begin on our final journey towards our lives filled with peace and enlightenment!

If we have refused to acknowledge the signs even when they hit us over the head, then our partners may realize on a soul level that our time together has come to an end.

They may not even realize why they have made this decision, as it does come from perhaps a subconscious knowing on a soul level that it is in both people’s highest and best good to move forward.

Is There Hope for New Happiness?

True growth and completion come from thanking your partner’s soul for helping you move forward with this important step. Forgiveness for the pain and hurt is also vital

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in making advancements to new horizons.

We will be led to like-minded people who share our beliefs, passions, and soul-centered love for all, as we spiral towards higher dimensions and frequencies. Life changing transformations are possible when we can embrace the inner realization that life is a continuous journey with twists and turns along the way. When we empower ourselves, stand tall with pride, become humble with faith, and open our hearts wide, many times the magic that unfolds is more fulfilling than we can begin to imagine!

About the Author Jill M. Jackson is the 2016 and 2015 Psychic of the Year by Best American Psychics. She was given the Social Activism award in 2014. Jill is an international Psychic Medium, Author, Spiritual Teacher, and Speaker. Jill is also one of the OMTimes Experts. Jill is under contract with Creative Laughter Productions for a metaphysical television show. To learn more about Jill and read some of her testimonials, visit www.MississippiMedium.com

FINDING LOVE In Trying Times, Count on the Conscious Relationship Expertise Of Ascending Hearts Dating

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Is Higher Ego Power Damaging Your Relationships?

by Nickolas Martin

The Danger to Relationships Starts with Mental Chatter Research shows that a very important influence on wellness and the quality of our lives involves the relationships

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we experience. Relationships with our parents, children, spouse/ partner, friends, coworkers, as well as with ourselves, are a barometer as to how well things go in our life –or not. The more imbalanced our ego energy is, the greater the chance that we manifest unhelpful and unhealthy relationships—but often, we do not know it.

The worse things go in our relationships, which a person often fails to recognize, the “louder” is ego’s voice in our being. For those with higher ego power, the control of others is at the center of their relationships. They enjoy controlling the thoughts, emotions, and behaviors of others, particularly those closest to them while resisting any influence from others.

Difficulty Balancing Ego for More Positive Relationships Frequently, they use manipulation, exploitation,

and abuse, physical or psychological, to establish this control. Their needs come first, and they bring selfabsorption and narcissism into their relationships, which is destructive to the relationship.

The following is an excerpt from The Two Voices Within: Balancing the Energies of Ego and Spirit to Enhance Your Life, in which the impact of ego’s voice and higher ego power on relationships is presented.

It contains the ego voice... so readers do understand it more as what thoughts run through the mind of a person struggling with ego dominance.

Ego’s Voice Through your power, I am helping you to dominate, control, or know more than others. You are to believe that listening to others is not necessary; that listening to others, thinking what they think, or doing what they do would

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be weakness, an experience that is foreign to you. Others cannot really know more than you do.

Your way is right and doesn’t need to be challenged or changed—their does. Changing yourself would be foolishness and a sign of weakness. You can mistreat people when necessary, know that you are better than them, underestimate them where needed, insist on doing things the best or right way – which is your way – and be overly confident.

You must stay independent from those who are closest to you, be they your spouse or partner, children, siblings, or parents. They cannot know as much as you do or influence you; that would be weakness.

You must not communicate, compromise, or show compassion since that would signal weakness to them.

You need to do most of the

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thinking in the relationships with the people who are closest to you, so everyone can be protected by your wisdom.

I help you to insist on your partner becoming as much like you as possible in his or her approach to things, so your partner can be a better person—you.

You are to love yourself more than anyone else, someone others can love even more than they love themselves, and someone who is more important than everyone else.

Recognize that all criticism of you is destructive, only intended to weaken you.

You must know that you are entitled to and deserve all the love that others can give to you, love that you can use to further empower yourself.

Two Voices within Struggle for Dominance

If this content resonates, I encourage additional reading to see if you are living any of the roles we discuss that may link to higher ego power energy (Dictator, Rebel, Narcissist, Ultra-Competitor, Control Freak, Exploiter, Independent, or Bully). When we live these roles some or most of the time, we can be most destructive to others and ultimately ourselves.

Complementary material for those who would like to heal and bring their higher ego power into balance can be found in Ego Therapy: A Method for Healing Your Whole Self (Chapters 6 and 12) and EgoSpiritualism: Awakening to Your Human and Divine Self (Chapter 7).

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 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.

About the Author

https://www.youtube. com/channel/UCpAD-zgwZbXF8V09A6VV1w

Dr. Nickolas Martin is a licensed psychologist who has

Connect with him at: https://www.egoandspirit.info/ https://www.facebook.com/ egoandspirit/ https://twitter.com/ egoandspirit

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Metaphysics

Get Your Intuition to Work For You

by Lisa K., Ph.D.

In this excerpt from Intuition on Demand: A Step-by-Step Guide to Intuition You Can Trust author Lisa K addresses one of the first steps got getting your intuition to work for you when you want it‌

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Why Is Your Intuition Random?

Intuition is not under your control because you don’t know how to make it happen. I have waited for my intuition to appear. I waited in my dreams, while I was standing on line at the grocery store, when I first met someone new. I waited for a long time and nothing happened. Like you I want to use my intuition on what I want and when I want it. But, intuition doesn’t usually happen that way. Your intuition may be a vague experience. You may feel you don’t have control over it, and often, you may not even know if your intuition is working or happening at all. When your intuition is right, you only know it after the fact. You might say to yourself, “I had a feeling that was going to happen.”

Perhaps, like me, you feel like intuition happens to you rather than being able to use your intuition when you want to. There is a solution – a way to get your intuition to act and I call it Step 1 of the Intuition On Demand Technique - trigger your intuition by asking it a question.

How to Ask Your Intuition a Question It’s important to understand that you are not asking yourself the question, but you are asking your intuition as if it were not YOU. You are not asking yourself the question, because the thinking mind identifies with “yourself.” The thinking mind, when asked a question, will automatically try to come up with an answer. Your intuition will answer as well, but your intuition is quieter than your thinking mind and you won’t hear her if they are both talking at once. omtimes.com

September B Edition

This is why it is important that you ask your intuition a question as if it isn’t YOU. There is a reason for this. In essence, there are many systems in your brain that you are both conscious and not conscious of. Some of these systems are what make up your intuitive mind, which you’re not always conscious of. It is almost as if you have a separate part of “you” that is picking up messages and information, processing and making sense of it, but you are unaware of it.

This is the intuitive side of you or your intuitive mind. I will explain later how this works in the brain.

You trigger your intuition by asking a question that you pose silently in your mind. You can ask your intuition a question out loud but it’s not necessary. If you’re not used to asking questions to yourself, or “talking” to yourself, you can practice! No one needs to know you’re doing it since you’re just asking a question in your mind. The good thing about this part of the technique is no one needs to know that you’re talking to your intuition. You’ll be asking your intuition a lot of questions

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silently, so get yourself used to it.

Asking Your Intuition the Right Kinds of Questions There are good questions and bad questions to ask your intuition. Good questions keep your thinking mind guessing and slow to respond, which gives your intuition a chance to answer fast and be heard. Your intuition will always answer and respond quickly, so you don’t have to wait for it to answer.

Again, the trick is not letting your thinking mind get in the way. That’s where asking the right question is important. I’ll give you some examples to help clarify. First let’s start with the kinds of questions that are bad, or not so good, to ask your intuition.

Bad Questions Generally, questions that are not good to ask your intuition are: “yes or no” questions, questions that are rhetorical, and highly emotional questions.

“Yes or no” questions are questions that have a “yes” or “no” answer. These are not good questions to ask because

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it’s too easy for your thinking mind to jump in and answer yes or no. Here are some examples of yes or no questions that are not good: “Should I take this job offer?” or “Is he my soul mate?”

Rhetorical questions are not good questions to ask your intuition. Rhetorical questions are, by definition, questions that are not expected to be answered so they are not good to ask your intuition. For example, “I’m beautiful, aren’t I?” This also goes for questions that you think you already know the answer to, or more importantly, that you want a particular answer for. The biggest pitfall for messing up receiving true intuition is anticipating and looking for an answer you want from your intuition. To combat this, you can ask an indirect question or use intuition tools, which we’ll go over later.

There are also times when it is not good for you to ask your intuition a question. When is not a good time to ask? When you are extremely emotionally upset or when your mind is not clear. If this is the case, then

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you can wait until you are a little calmer and have a clearer mind. Also, asking questions that are highly charged with emotion are not good questions to ask your intuition either. Your emotions get in the way of your ability to recognize a true intuitive message. For example, this would be a bad emotional question to ask your intuition, “Why does my exboyfriend hate me?” A better question to ask would be, “What can I do to improve my next relationship?”

Good Questions to Ask Good questions to ask your intuition are ones that are emotionally neutral and are open-ended. An open-ended question is one that cannot be answered with a one-word answer such as yes or no.

Open-ended questions require your thinking mind to give it some thought before answering and usually the thinking mind gives an answer that is wordy. That takes time for your thinking mind to come up with an answer, but for your intuition, it will answer immediately. In essence, you are stalling your thinking mind a

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bit and this gives your intuition an opportunity to quickly respond and be recognized.

Here are examples of good questions to ask your intuition: Open-ended questions, such as, “What can I do to get more customers for my business?”

“What can I do to change the way my boyfriend treats me?”

Some non-emotional examples would be, “What will be the health status of my mom 3 weeks from now?” “Who are the people that affect my reputation the most at work and how?”

General questions can be good when you don’t know what to ask – “Give me a message for my highest good.”

Highlighted Tips and Summary The first step in the Intuition On Demand Technique is, Ask a Question. Our minds, and brain will always react to a stimulus, which in this case is a question.

Ask the right kinds of questions – open ended and questions that do not have “yes” or “no” as the answer.

About the Author: Lisa K. PhD, is a teacher, author and speaker on intuition. She has taught hundreds of people around the world intuition development.

Lisa holds degrees in Engineering from Columbia University and Psychobiology from the State University of NY as well as a PhD in Metaphysical Sciences. For more information go to: intutionondemandbook.com

Here are some other examples of good questions to exercise your intuition: • “Which way is the car in front of me going to go, where will they exit?”

• “Which line at the grocery store is fastest?”

• “What time will my subway train arrive at the station?”

• “What time will the doctor call me in?”

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Sacred Music

E N U T IN

iOM.FM The best of Alternative and  Sacred Music,

What’s Up with Spirit Guides?

By Robyn M Fritz

Spiritual Guidance and Spirit Guides Who do you turn to for spiritual guidance?

When? Why?

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One constant throughout human history is our need and desire for spiritual guidance.

Yes, we often turn to fellow humans for that, from friends to counselors and spiritual advisors, but we also yearn for the presumed authority, skill, and 24/7 protection of ethereal or nonphysical advisors, from guardian angels to modern spirituality’s spiritual team, or spirit guides.

Since we’re asking these beings for help, it’s a good thing they’re real, then, isn’t it? The problem is, many people know very little about their spiritual team, or, as I’ll call them from this point, spirit guides, so we can’t work well with them and don’t benefit from their support as much as we could.

What’s the solution? Like most things in life, being proactive.

Instead of sitting around and waiting for our spirit guides to pop in and explain the universe to us, we should invite them in to work with us and treat them as respectfully as we would treat any guest.

Intuition and Spirit Guides We can start to connect with our spirit guides by first learning how our intuition works. While everyone is eventually a combination of the four main clairs (intuitive seeing, hearing, feeling, and knowing), most of us have a dominant intuitive ability.

Experimenting with our intuition and documenting our findings will help fine-tune it.

Many people think intuition alone solves a problem, but in fact, it needs to be combined with what our belief, intellect, emotions, and experience tell us. That includes believing in our spirit guides, learning what is known about them, understanding our emotional response to them, and experimenting until (eureka!) we connect.

What Spirit Guides Do Does everyone have a spirit guide? Yes, every single one of us has at least one spirit guide to be with us and support us

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in our personal lives as we grow our souls, which is why we take bodies in the first place. However, we also do many things throughout the day and our lifetime, and that determines how many guides we have and their jobs.

For example, writers and other creatives have guides who are also called muses; so when people say their muse inspired them, that’s literally true. Other spirit guides support health, relationships, self-esteem, and motivation. While some of these issues might be the job of our main guide, sometimes people can have a guide for a particular issue or special life circumstance; for example, the death of a loved one can result in a guide showing up to simply hold us in our grief.

We can also have different spirit guides for different times in our lives. For example, spirit guides “train up” to different jobs, so children often have less experienced guides who are “learning the ropes,” so to speak, because children don’t usually face the variety of issues that adults do. When they

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do, they’ll often require more seasoned guides.

Here’s an example: I’ve seen children as young as seven and eight who are what I call “mediums by default,” children who are talking with or seeing dead people who come to them for help, not realizing (or caring) how young they are. The children and their parents are rightfully perplexed, even frightened.

Because the children’s spirit guides are clearly not up to mediumship, I have replaced them with more experienced ones who can actively protect the children and more directly interact with them. But please note: “firing” or replacing a guide is a sensitive issue, one best handled by an experienced professional intuitive who is also a healer.

Adults may also need new guides when our lives or careers dramatically change. Guides usually sort themselves out with little input from us, which is generally a good thing, since we aren’t always as aware of what we need as we should or could be. A guide’s help

can be simple daily things like an intuitive nudge to try something different to deep contemplation that can give insights on new directions for personal or professional growth.

Beyond our personal spirit guides, there are specialist guides. These include gardening guides and advanced medical guides who can advise on health care and even step into a direct role in surgeries.

Working with Spirit Guides The key to working with spirit guides is to actively engage them. We have to ask for help, we can’t be passive observers in the spirit guide experience.

We also need to monitor them to make sure they are on the ball and doing the job they committed to, which is supporting us. We must be aware of what they are doing, ask for help when we need it, and actively work to create a useful and inspiring partnership.

Just like us, spirit guides can and do make mistakes, so the best partnership is a give-andtake one that allows both sides

to learn and grow together.

As in real life, sometimes the partnership needs to end, and the best person to know that is you. Being respectful, curious, open, thoughtful, and precise about our needs allows us to help our guides help us. Which is why we have them in the first place.

My webinar “What’s Up with Spirit Guides?” covers how they work and how to create the best partnership with them, including what to do when things go wrong.

Participants will join in a guided meditation to meet the spirit guide who assists in their daily life and will leave having established a solid working relationship with their guide.

Robyn M Fritz MA MBA CHt is a tested and certified intuitive and spiritual consultant and past life regression specialist with an international practice based in Seattle, Washington. An OM Times Expert and award-winning author, teacher, and speaker, she hosts “The Practical Intuitive: Mind Body Spirit for the Real World” each Monday at 2 pm PST/5 EST on OM Times Radio.

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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.

How To Cultivate Willingness

by Crystal Presence Abstract: Defining willingness and bringing awareness to whether we are willing or not. Tips and examples on cultivating willingness.

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On the path to becoming more conscious, we find ourselves asking, “How do I know if I am willing to end the struggle and holding back?� Willingness takes a keen ability to observe and be in the truth with ourselves.

Willingness takes a suspension of tension, resistance, and contraction in our bodies. It also requires a release of old ways of thinking, feeling and behaving.

Willingness is something we cultivate and learn to feel and know. Our minds may try to convince us that we are willing, and our bodies and emotions let us know when we are off track. We might be holding back from fear of the unknown or fear of being rejected for making changes. We may be trying too hard or just not feeling ready. All of the above are fine. We are learning to trust our timing and allowing the process to unfold in all of its perfect ways.

A great question to ask yourself is: What is the nature of experiencing 100% willingness?

A wonderful thing is that even a full 10 seconds of letting go of how we have been holding things, will get the ball rolling. Ten seconds of 100% willingness, not 99.99%, will create the space for something new to happen. It works so well that we may not even notice what is happening. For example, Jerry was tired of struggling with his finances. He finally made a decision to allow himself to be willing. He took the time to observe his willingness and do what it took to align his intention. After a while, he realized that everything was falling in place and his struggle was dissolving! It is true, when we are willing to let go of the grip on what is holding us back, we can wake up one morning and realize that our dreams are coming true.

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Bottom line, we know if we are willing or not. We know when we are holding back, we feel it. A good example is Sarah who walked the country roads breathing into her intentions, screamed into pillows, went to seminars, danced and spent hours in nature. She did everything she could think of to make a shift. All those things were helpful but it was not until she fully admitted her level of willingness that things actually changed. She discovered that she needed to love and nurture her willingness up to 100%!

The following ideas will help us cultivate our willingness…

• Explore, observe and admit our level of willingness. Rate our willingness on a scale of 1-100%. Ask yourself, “How willing am I right now?” We may discover that we are at 45% willing. Great! That is a good start! Keep checking in with ourselves for new

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reference points for higher levels of willingness, and expand on that. Remember, every time we receive the truth there is a point of power.

• Embrace and breathe into any unwillingness, letting it know that we are not going to push it away again. Interact with the unwillingness and let it talk to us. Let it move, vibrate and express any feelings that it has.

Keep letting go of any contraction, knowing that even if we tighten up again, we have created a crack, a doorway for something new to happen.

• Meditate into any unwillingness as we release any holding back.

Let it dissolve, resolve and evolve.

• Remember that we may be tempted to spring back into our old ways

of being just before the change is about to happen. Keep breathing through any discomfort of withdrawal we may feel • Ask yourself questions such as: Am I really willing to be free?” Does a part of me want to stay how I am? Has my unwillingness become a habit? Am I willing go through withdrawal? These questions have no right or wrong answers, they are simply about noticing where we are in our process.

• Remember that no amount of convincing does any good when it comes to willingness.

Willingness only happens when we are ready.

Wherever we are in our evolution is fine. Embrace whatever we find. Our bodies will keep getting the message that willingness is where we want to go. We are breaking a habit and

establishing new pathways.

• Be in connection with our source and let ourselves be guided by the greater intelligence that is part of each of us. Trust the timing, knowing that all changes happen at the most beneficial time for everyone involved.

• Let the process to be fun and easy by loving ourselves, no matter what the evidence.

About the Author: Crystal is an expansion guide, coach, facilitator, and author.

Her passion is supporting people in lifting themselves out of struggle and holding back. She gently guides them to an experience of what it means to be in living in freedom from the inside out. www.CrystalPresenceOnline.com https://www.facebook.com/ crystal.presence

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Examining Our Love Affair with the Self

by Baba Shuddhaanandaa Brahmachari

We Are Humans with a Spiritual Being We all long for our soul life!

A life that is natural without any masks. It is only when we dance in joy when drenched

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in pouring rain and feel happy for no reason that we touch that cord that connects us to our natural self, our spirit soul.

That is who we truly are, naked like innocent children.

We are all called ‘human beings.’ However, it is our humanness that is mortal; our ‘being’ is immortal. Hence we are all humans with a spiritual ‘being.’ The sole purpose of human life is to take a pilgrimage from human to being, from mortality to immortality. The poetry and dance of life happen when we are humans, aware and conscious of our great responsibility of flowering into enlightened oneness.

Living in the Default Mode Awareness is a continual process of our inner culture.

It is to find the flow and flow with it. When we are aware, our steps are like a dancer; our strokes on a canvas of life are like a painter’s. We become the co-creator of our own destiny.

But instead of being aware of the potential of our natural being, our minds usually jump into the default mode no matter what the external situation. By default we are robots, reacting without awareness. With awareness, we recognize our divinity. We recognize we alone are unique in creation; our search for the source of the eternal and infinite dance of creation is perennial and we never rest until we reach that pinnacle of realization, for that is our innate human destiny.

How do we reach for this highest pinnacle of realization and get out of the rut of living in the default mode?

By meditation, prayer, yoga or loving surrender, whatever practices work best for us. Our practices are only the stepping stones to the realization of our inseparable oneness with all that exists.

Living Our Practice versus Doing Our Practice We may have been practicing

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(doing spiritual practice) for quite some time, now is the time to assess the next level of awakening to ‘live our practice.’ ‘Doing’ often results in being ritualistic. ‘Living’ most often leads to revelation.

Doing could be mechanical, another act of regular routine, robotically, but living is vibrant with the elixir of life, as it springs from the root of the being within.

a dance. Let us appreciate ourselves first. Let us glorify the gifts that we already have.

Let the day flow with the dance of self-appreciation and self-love. Let our dependence on the external give way to a joyful life of pure independence and spiritual freedom. This is the secret of our happiness!

When we start to live our practice, the unseen hands of the divine become visible to our naked eyes! We are awed; we are in a state of inner dance! It is a shift of consciousness that flows out of our long practice, regularity, and most importantly, loving efforts. When we add life to our practice, the practice will turn into a live experience!

Let us maintain a journal of our evolution of consciousness from the caterpillar state to butterfly state! We are here to fly, to soar, to have what we need but receive it all effortlessly, as life energy flows through us and manifests its infinite dance of creativity. Let us clean up our divine conduit through meditative practices and enjoy being awake and aware. That is enlightenment.

Making Our Practice Come Alive!

We Are All Parts of the One Whole

Let us first realize that this body of ours is the most exquisite creation gifted to us only to meditate and feel every part, every organ, every cell, every molecule, as a flow,

We are the parts of one whole.

Even if we plunge as a diver into the very oceanic depth of our own physical body, we will find trillions of cells functioning there. We are individuals but

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are all knitted together in a seamless dance of continual festivity that is life. All the parts, all the sparks, all the cells, join in harmony that is life. Let us accept this reality and as a part let us always contribute to the wellness of the whole, which is all of us.

The evolution of consciousness demands each of our participation in the process of reshaping the destiny of humanity. In spiritual practice we need to affirm this positive thought that we are inseparable from the whole, hence, our awakening to the world of love and joy cannot be in isolation.

When we breathe with awareness and see the presence in everything around us, then the whole Nature dances in joy and we hear its resonance in our inner being!

As we bathe in that cosmic energy, bask in it, dance in it, we are in the utter ecstasy of divine bliss. Once we realize the need to connect to our deepest source within, we will come to know what we have been missing all through our lives. It

is our love affair with our Self!

About the Author Shuddhaanandaa Brahmachari (Kolkata, India): Globally acclaimed motivational teacher (mindfulness meditation, stress reduction) author, peacemaker (Man of Peace Award 2012) Visionary social advocate; founded Lokenath Divine Life Mission, 1985, which serves thousands of poverty-stricken individuals in India. (Lifetime Achievement Award, House of Lords, UK, 2015) www.courseinmindfulness.com/ https://www.amazon.com/ Baba-ShuddhaanandaaBrahmachari/e/B003W5XP5W www.facebook.com/srisri. shuddhaanandaa Abstract: We all long to let our soul live our life and not need to wear any masks while dancing joyfully in the rain.

Learn to embrace your natural being, the being within, by refusing to live in the default mode anymore. Start “living� your daily spiritual practices rather than doing them! Have a love affair with your Self!

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Resign as Your Own Teacher

While traveling in Europe to attend an AndrÊ Rieu concert, my laptop wouldn’t boot. If you ever had this happen, you know it can be, well, disconcerting. I Googled

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computer repair technicians in the small Holland city where I was staying and found two technicians with good reviews.

One of them seemed really attractive, with lots of great comments. I decided he was the guy for me and phoned him. It was Saturday, and although Google said his shop was open, it wasn’t.

I didn’t have much choice but to phone the second tech, fingers crossed. Harry answered immediately and came to my hotel to pick up the laptop. In a foreign country, I had to really trust to let the machine go. Yet to my happy surprise, Harry returned a few hours later, the hard drive perfectly restored. In spite of my misgivings, he was the perfect guy for the job.

Often what I often believe is my true guidance, isn’t. It’s quite humbling not to know it all. A Course in Miracles underscores our inability to make healthy decisions when

we depend on our intellect only. A Course Workbook lesson asks us to remember, “I do not perceive my own best interests. The Text bluntly advises us, “Resign as your own teacher.” The Course explains, “You cannot be your own guide to miracles because it was you who made them necessary.”

The way we have been taught to make decisions, through intellect and emotion, is ultimately not our answer. If we can’t trust our thoughts and feelings, then, what can we trust? Are we bereft of guidance, impotent to know what is right for us?

To the contrary, we have impeccable guidance. We have an inner teacher to whom we can turn with perfect confidence. Call this teacher Higher Power, Holy Spirit, Divine Guidance, or whatever you like, there is a voice of deep knowing within us that will show us exactly what to do.

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We must turn challenging situations over to this Higher Power. Say, “I do not know what to do here. I am not seeing clearly. I now release my attempts to figure this out, and I place this situation in the hands of Greater Wisdom.

I ask and trust that right action be revealed to me, and this situation be resolved in the best interests of everyone concerned.”

Now that’s a prayer that will work—if you pray it sincerely.

In the case of my laptop repair, I didn’t see my true guidance because I had made up my mind about how events should go. But when I turned it over and trusted the process, everything worked out perfectly.

The Course advises us to ask at the beginning of each day, “What would You have me do?

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Where would You have me go? What would You have me say, and to whom?” Instead of depending on ego, the mode from which we usually operate, we are asking for guidance from Spirit.

Many of us make up our mind about an answer before we ask the question. We decide that someone is our soulmate, or a particular job or house should be ours, and then we ask for guidance. Real asking is openended. “Send me the right partner, job, or house,” allows that the partner, job, or house may be the one you think it should be or another. End all prayers with “this or better.”

Einstein explained that you cannot solve a problem with the same mind that created it. The problem is moving you to rise to a higher level of consciousness so you can see the issue from a broader

dimension and resolve it from the Big Picture. Don’t be so sure you know what to do. If you think you know what to do, head in that direction.

Then watch for signs. Is your solution flowing and attracting people and events that foster resolution? Or are you hitting walls, having conflicts, and getting frustrated? If the latter, try another approach.

The walls you are hitting are redirecting you to move in another direction. Great Spirit is very generous with signs as to whether or not we are on the right track. But we must be keen to observe and act on those signs.

The spiritual path is not about gaining sophistication.

It is about gaining simplicity.

We must become like a little child and be open to being shown. Don Marquis summed it up: “The most pleasant and useful persons

are those who leave some of the problems of the universe for God to worry about.”

André Rieu and his orchestra will be coming to the U.S. in October and November. His concerts are extraordinarily inspiring, creative, enlivening, even lifechanging. I highly recommend you attend his concert(s) while he is here. Visit andrerieu.com or watch some of his many wonderful YouTubes. I promise you will be glad you did!

Alan Cohen is the author of A Course in Miracles Made Easy; mastering the Journey from Fear to Love. Become a certified professional life coach though Alan’s transformational Life Coach Training beginning January 1.

For more information about this program, his books and videos, free daily inspirational quotes, online courses, and weekly radio show, visit www. alancohen.com.

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Be Immune to Praise and Blame

by Tess Pender

Explores the dangers of praise and blame to the helping professions. Explains the seductiveness of praise, and describes the daily practice taught in twelve step programs used to avoid falling into addiction to people-pleasing.

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Includes several slogans useful in avoiding internalizing praise or blame/

Newly ordained ministers are warned to never listen to the comments at the end of a service. After delivering a sermon, the Minister stands at the door of the sanctuary and says goodbye to the congregation, and is frequently complimented on the vital, life-changing content of the sermon! Sometimes, they are told what significant points they missed, or how off the mark they were. In any case, the warning is to recognize that the praise or complaints are NOT directed to them, but to the projection of the Divine the congregant is addressing.

bones, but words can never hurt me.” And ignoring the obvious untruth of the ditty, (yes, words can do incredible damage) we are regularly encouraged to let criticism slide off. We at least learn to conceal our pain under a “thick skin” and are taught not to be so sensitive. Learning to let go of compliments is much harder! We all want to be a force for good, and recognition of our victories is sweet. The only ones taught to reject – or deflect – praise seems to be gospel singers (finger pointing up, “all praise to God”), black sports stars from majority-black churches (“I thank the Lord who gives me everything”), and some followers of eastern Gurus (accepting an award with “for God and Guru”)!

It’s actually easy to shake off complaints. We are taught from an early age that “Sticks and stones may break my

The trend to encourage selfrespect fuels the addiction to praise, as do our electronic devices! We are taught not

ARTICLE

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to deflect praise (oh, this old thing?) but to accept and welcome compliments with a sincere “thank you”. While this approach may be good for selfesteem, it draws us deeper into addiction to other’s opinion.

In twelve step programs, a powerful slogan is “What you think of me is none of my business” – meant to break the bonds of people-pleasing that is so much a part of addiction.

A recent report says that people even check their cell phones while in church to see if there are new “likes” for their page, post, or video.

It is evident why negative feedback or judgments are harmful, and chasing approval leads to loss of self and weakness. But what in the world is wrong with learning to accept compliments? How can admiration be a bad thing? There is nothing in the universe quite so seductive

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as adoration! Look at all the fallen idols who succumb to the siren call of admiration – politicians, spiritual leaders, teachers, -- in fact – the entire gamut of helpers.

The urge to make things better is a doorway to “believing your PR” – where the helper becomes enamored with their own success in making the world a better place.

Surrounded by admiration, the idealist becomes a target for manipulation, a mark for every con-artist appealing to ego! It is just a small step from teacher, to guru, to higher power!

How does one avoid the traps of praise and blame? Once again, twelve step programs offer a path. From the big book of Alcoholics Anonymous: “Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it. This thought brings us to

Step Ten, which suggests we continue to take personal inventory and continue to set right any new mistakes as we go along. We vigorously commenced this way of living as we cleaned up the past. We have entered the world of the Spirit. Our next function is to grow in understanding and effectiveness. This is not an overnight matter.

It should continue for our lifetime. Continue to watch for selfishness, dishonesty, resentment, and fear. When these crops up, we ask God at once to remove them. We discuss them with someone immediately and make amends quickly if we have harmed anyone. Then we resolutely turn our thoughts to someone we can help. Love and tolerance of others is our code. “- A.A. Big Book, p. 84 The best escape from addiction to approval is daily evaluation

and honest review of all our behaviors. For those in a profession that attracts regular praise (or blame), daily inventory and immediate corrective action is the defense against the seductiveness of admiration. And of course, with gospel singers, give all glory to God! AUTHOR’S BIO Tess Pender is an ordained Interfaith Minister, active in 12-step programs for over thirty years. Her spiritual practice began with Native American Sweat Lodges, and continued with a series of Vision Quests. She led a Teen Spiritual Education Program, and regularly teaches classes on accessing intuition. She practices Earth-Centered Spirituality. She can be reached on Facebook at https://www.facebook. com/Rev-Tess-InterfaithMinister-1333335763419...

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MAGAZINE

September B 2017 Contributors Writers Alan Cohen Baba Shuddhaanandaa Brahmachari Crystal Presence Jill Jackson Kara Johnstad Linda Bloom Lisa K. Nickolas Martin Rachel Horton White Robyn Fritz Tess Pender Victor Fuhrman

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