Transformation Magazine: Connection

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3 INSPIRATION 3 Let’s Choose Hope 4 Raise the Bar on Love 6 The Grand Social Experiment: Building Community on a Foundation of Equality and Diversity 8 Love 9 The Mosquito and the Dove... a Love Story 10 Life on Earth: Living Defferently and Creating Consciously, Part 2 14 This is the Life 15 TOOLS & TIPS 15 I Love You Unconditionally, Now Shape Up! 16 Connect to Your Abundance: Money is the Root of All Awesomeness 18 Night Bingeing No More 20 DISConnection: The 7 Day Media Cleanse 22 The Best GIft You Can GIve Your Sweetheart 24 3 Lessons on Creating Trust 26 SPIRITUALITY 26 Connect to Your Creativity: It’s Exactly What You Think 28 Are Animals Our Spiritual Teachers?

30 The Power to Create Miracles 31 Celebrate the Love of the GOddess 32 Connect with Infinite Being 33 Ms. Spiritual Matters 34 12 Keys to Connect with Your “Departed” Loved Ones 36 Heart Threads

© Copyright 2017 Transformation Magazine. All rights reserved. www.TransformationMag.com

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Inspiration

By Linda Commito I recently had an opportunity to talk to 25 college seniors. I asked them: “With a show of hands, how many of you are feeling hopeful or positive about the world today?” Not surprisingly, not a single student’s hand was raised as they looked around amidst the awkward silence. “So, let me ask you”, I continued,

“what is it that you would find hopeful and what would you be willing to do to create that?”

I must admit I’ve been asking myself that question a lot during these last few months, especially post-election and inauguration, struggling to find the hope in today’s troubled environment. One might be tempted to hide under the covers or to run away to live in a peaceful place. Although it may feel comforting, we might ask, “Is that what we came here to experience in these precious bodies?” Life is short. What are we waiting for? We can choose to create a more caring, compassionate world right now.

In this dance of life, we have an opportunity to engage in a new way with our fellow earth dwellers. We can choose to love or to hate, to include or to exclude, to share or to hoard, to cooperatively build a better world or to destroy what we have. We can choose to hope or to live in despair and fear.

The best way we can help others—and ourselves—is by choosing HOPE. We may need to look deeper for reasons to be happy, hopeful and grateful, but it’s from that place that we can inspire others.

Let’s open our eyes, minds and hearts to those who are right in front of us—who may look, speak or act differently than us—for they are our current dance partners, whether for a moment, a day or a lifetime.

Start by offering a little kindness, a gesture that says, “I

see you, I witness what you are experiencing right now. I care.” Oftentimes, it’s the little things that touch us in ways that matter.

Letting someone get ahead of you in a traffic line with a friendly wave, taking pictures for strangers, holding a door open with a smile, or buying an extra rose at the farmer’s market is so simple, so easy. Sometimes just witnessing the kind acts of others can make us feel more positive about the world.

It’s not only uplifting, it’s contagious, creating a ripple effect of kindness. When in doubt about what to do: Just be kind!

We can even take it up a notch by truly listening to all viewpoints, by acknowledging others in a way that makes then not only feel seen and heard, but valued and appreciated. How can we extend our hands and invite others to participate in this dance of life . . . connecting and expanding until there is no one left out?

I am reminded of a quote by Buddha:

“What you think, you become What you feel, you attract What you imagine, you create.”

Let’s choose to create a new world vision of kindness, hope, love and peace.

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Linda Commito, author, speaker, entrepreneur, consultant and teacher, is passionate about her vision to leave this world a kinder, more loving, and interconnected place. Her award-winning book of inspirational stories, Love is the New Currency, demonstrates how we can each make an extraordinary difference in the lives of others through simple acts of love and kindness. Linda believes that in order to inspire a kinder world the place to start is with children.

She recently volunteered at a Title One elementary school, working with over 500 students, to create and facilitate “Kindness Starts With Me,” the results of which include a website (www.kindnessstartswithme.com) and a book for children. Also visit www. loveisthenewcurrency.com for more information and/or to sign up for an uplifting monthly newsletter.

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Inspiration

By Alan Cohen Every February, in honor of Valentine’s Day, I explore loving relationships. Many of us have faced challenges in relationships, and we struggle with how to create truly rewarding connections. We search for our soulmate, wrestle with friendships, and dread going home to see our relatives. At some point it dawns on us that “this cannot be the way I was born to live.” Then we get serious about creating relationships that work. If we are sincere, that will happen.

At the end of a visit to a town where I used to live, I was on my way to return a rental car. I stopped at a gas station to fill up, but could not find the lever to open the gas cap. So I decided to just return the car half-full. Along the way I discovered the lever and stopped at a gas station near the rental car return. While filling up, I saw a friend of mine at the next pump. He is a sincere, ecologically minded guy who has been running for county council for years, and he was up for election once again. We shared a hug and schmoozed for a few minutes. I told him, “I can’t vote for you now that I’ve moved, but if I could I would surely get behind you.”

A big smile lit up his face and he answered, “That’s worth a lot of votes right there.”

As I drove away, I marveled at the synchronicity of meeting my friend. If I had found the gas cap lever at the first station, I would have missed that encounter. I like to think that the universe had set up that meeting. A deeper wisdom was behind the apparent error, leading to a moment of rewarding connection. Life is always aligning us to be with the people we belong with, if we are open to follow internal guidance and external signs.

We must not settle for less-than-rewarding relationships.

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Any form of enmity, conflict or abuse is not life’s intention for us. Yet we put up with pain because we believe we cannot do better. But we can and we will. Before we can do better, we must change our minds about what we deserve. You can always tell what you believe you deserve by what you are getting. When you are in pain in a relationship, the universe is sending you a wake-up call to realize that you have been accepting too much suffering. Then you must do whatever it takes to extricate yourself from sorrow and create a relationship that works. Sometimes that can be done right where you stand, and sometimes you must leave. Either way, you must find your way to higher ground. Our tolerance for upset is too high. We must raise the bar on love.

A Course in Miracles tells us that it is the destiny of all relationships to bring us joy. Sometimes the people who are hardest to love are the ones who offer us the greatest reward once we master the lesson the relationship is bringing us. The only purpose of relationship is to deepen our capacity to give and receive love.

Abraham Lincoln said, “I don’t like that man. Let me get to know him.”

Everyone we don’t like is pointing us to shine light on a judgment we are holding. When we examine that judgment, we realize it is not valid, and we recognize the unnecessary pain that holding the grievance is causing. Then we can let it go and be free.

The relationship has served us well. The Course further tells us, “The holiest spot on earth is where an ancient hatred has become a present love.”

All healthy relationships are founded in self-love. If you don’t love yourself, it is going to be difficult to love others or re-

ceive their love. We project our fears and self-judgments onto the world “out there,” which exists more in our mind than as an external entity. We make up stories about other people based on the stories we make up about ourselves. If you can’t find someone outside to love you, you haven’t found someone inside to love you. Loving people around you reflect your love for yourself.

Unloving people represent your self-judgment. Don’t attempt to change what you see in the mirror by rearranging the images. Rearrange the source of the images—your mind—and the images will rearrange themselves.

Awhile back I had a little Honda Civic to sell. I parked the car at a gas station with a sign, “$1,100.” The car sat for a long time without an inquiry. Then one night I attended a healing service by a Christian minister who took up many collections during the evening. His solicitation was quite bold. During one basket passing he announced, “God told me there are five people in this audience who can donate $1,000, and He wants you to give it.”

Although I later learned that the preacher was a charlatan, I was

impressed by his confidence to ask for money. That night I went to sleep with the realization, “I deserve to get $1,100 for that car.”

The next morning I was awakened early by a phone call. “I’ll give you $1,100 for your car,” a voice said. Within an hour the car was sold. It was not waiting for any market conditions for me to sell it.

It was waiting for my recognition of my deservingness to sell it.

So it is with all of our relationships. They are just waiting for us to receive the love we deserve. Let this Valentine’s month be the month we let love in.

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Alan Cohen is the author the bestselling A Course in Miracles Made Easy: Mastering the Journey from Fear to Love. Become a certified professional life coach though Alan’s upcoming transformational Life Coach Training. 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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Inspiration

By Nancy Selig Amsden I was very fortunate to spend my most formative years participating in what is probably the grandest social experiment of all times.

In 1969, my family moved to a small, new city called Columbia, Maryland. Unlike most planned suburban developments that were popping up, Columbia was more than just a planned community. It was an idealistic concept of how a community could be home to families of all ethnicities, religions, and social “standing.” A city where neighborhoods would embrace the differences of the residents. A place where people would play together, work together, go to school together, and worship together. No prejudice, no judgments, just people living together in peace and harmony. This concept, born of world renowned developer James Rouse, seemed to resonate with some folks living in the “Peace, Love, and Harmony” era of the late 60s.

The town, by design, would have homes ranging from one-bedroom, subsidized housing to 4000-square-foot golf course homes which would neighbor each other, rather than being set in separate zones. Each neighborhood had an elementary school, rec-center, swimming pool, and convenience store. Children walked to school, the streets were safe, walking and bike paths were everywhere, and an inexpensive public transportation system that could take you to other neighborhoods that weren’t within walking distance.

I remember when my parents decided to move to Columbia; I was 9. Every time we went to see the progress on our home, we went to the Columbia Exhibit Center, which had a model of the new city in its lobby, information about the stages of construction projects, plans for the future and, my favorite thing, the slide show room. I remember sitting on the avocado green car-

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peted blocks in a dark, round room, and watching the slide show of different landmarks and statues in Columbia. Mostly, I remember the smiling faces of adults and children—Black, White, Asian, Native American, Muslim, Indian, Hispanic—all smiling. Sitting together, playing together, worshiping together, learning together….

It felt so good to know that my family would soon be moving to this wonderful place. Once we did make the move, we always took our guests to see the Exhibit Center, to share with them images and concepts about our new community. At one point, my brother and I were in one of those slides in the slide show room.

THAT was very exciting.

Growing up a “Columbian,” I truly felt accepted and loved by my community. I had friends of all ethnicities and religions. My family attended synagogue in the Wilde Lake Interfaith Center.

Columbia did not have single denomination churches or synagogues. Each congregation rented space in the interfaith centers.

Religious symbols and art were stored together and taken out to decorate common sanctuaries for each congregation’s religious services. There were Baptisms and Bar Mitzvahs performed in the same building simultaneously. I always had an appreciation for what other people believed because it wasn’t foreign to me.

In 1971 my family decided to adopt a child. My parents explained that we were going to welcome a baby who was considered “hard to place,” meaning a child of mixed heritage. Late in 1971 we welcomed Matt to our family—a “mixed race” child with Black, White and Native American heritage. He was five months old. In 1973, another sibling was adopted, Rachel, 10 months old,

also of mixed heritage. My parents were always trendsetters. Over the years, other friends of the family moved to Columbia and families we knew also adopted “hard to place” children.

I went about my life as a child in Columbia, never really knowing that the world I lived in was different from the world “out there.” Sure, I read about tensions between the races and religions and saw stuff on the news, but it just never seemed to be a concern. This type of behavior didn’t exist where I lived. It wasn’t until I went away to college that my eyes were opened to what bigotry and prejudice there was all around. I did not hear racially motivated slang used in conversation until I was 18 years old. I always thought I had led such a worldly and exposed lifestyle, but in reality, I was quite sheltered—although in a very different way than most.

As an adult, I have always maintained the view that we are all of one race —the human race.

I believe everyone has worth and dignity and their beliefs are not “wrong” because they are different than mine. Although, I must admit that I have struggled to deal with those who are intolerant and bigoted. Yet, as I have matured, I have found a place in my heart to tolerate the intolerant. We are ALL equal, after all.

I continued my parents’ legacy of Columbia in my own life. I married a Congregational minister’s son. We moved to New Hampshire when our daughters were young. Because this state is not diverse, we attended a Unitarian Universalist Church, where our girls could grow up with an understanding of many belief systems and could choose their own paths. As adults, both daughters have married Puerto Rican men. Our family is now even more diverse.

I have often wondered if my experience, being a child of Columbia, is the same as others who came to that new city back in the early days. Over the past few years, with the integration of the Facebook community in our social existence, I have learned that my feelings and experiences are shared by others who grew up in Columbia during that same time. We share stories of love, compassion, understanding, and a lifelong commitment to that concept that all people can live together in peace.

Some say that I am truly “color blind.” I say that isn’t so. It is the differences in people that make them special. It is their background, traditions, and heritage that make them who they are.

We may be of one race—human—but there is beauty in the variety of humans on this earth. I would not want to be blind to all the colors of the rainbow that comprise humanity.

When I look back at my life, the things I have experienced, the woman I have become, and the women my daughters have become, I can say with certainty that, even though Columbia has changed, The Grand Social Experiment was a great success!

It’s now up to each of us as individuals to germinate the seeds that were planted in Columbia and continue to come together to build and grow communities on a foundation of mutual respect, equality, and diversity.

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Nancy Selig Amsden tells the story of her experience growing up in Columbia, Maryland—a planned community that was designed to promote diversity and inclusion. Nancy is an author, singer, and songwriter whose compositions and writings focus on cultural awareness, social justice and honoring the world around her. Nancy has had a 30-year career in consumer advocacy and regulatory compliance, and has participated in diversity management, cultural awareness and corporate culture initiatives. Nancy has had articles published in Transformation Magazine and contributed a chapter in the book Transform Your Life, Book 2 (Transformation Publishing).

Several of her songs and lyrics have been published and recorded

by Stellar Voice Productions, Inc. Columbia was developed by James Rouse in the late 1960’s and was ranked the #1 Place to Live in 2016

by Money Magazine. Her book explores how this “utopian” environment impacted her life, as well as provides testimonials from others who have called Columbia home. She highlights what worked in this “grand social experiment,” what we can learn from Columbia, and how people of diverse backgrounds and lifestyles truly can live together in peace and harmony.

Available at Amazon.com or www.ThroughDifferentEyesBook.com

With every opportunity that presents itself, I speak to our human experience…to loving each other…to reaching out our hands to those who need a little extra help in understanding that we are all here to share and embrace our humanity.

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Inspiration

By Terez Hartmann Take the road less traveled, take a trip to the edge Have an adventure, set out on a quest Dig a little deeper, live a lot sweeter Love.

Take the road less traveled, take a leap of faith Enter the next dimension, through a new doorway Free your soul Let go...LOVE.

Find out about you, find out about me Find out about life and all the great mysteries Make the decision to expand your horizons Love.

The Bottom Line: Love.

What if love is, was and always has been the reason for it ALL?

Open up your eyes, open up your mind, look to the sky Open up your heart, open up your wings, fly Love.

Took the red one, in a whole new place Old rules don›t apply here, the only constant? Change.

Imagination, exhilaration!

Love.

Down the rabbit hole, second star to the right Through the magic mirror, between the beams of twilight Get ready for the ride of your life!

Love.

Open up your eyes, open up your mind, look to the sky Open up your heart, open up your wings, fly Love.

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Onward, upward and forward—to Love!

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Terez “Firewoman” Hartmann,“Your catalyst for all things Fab-YOUlous,” is the author of Allowing Your Success!, a proud contributing author of Transform Your Life! book one and two, a professional Keynote Speaker/Workshop Facilitator, Singer-Songwriter/Recording Artist, “Allowing Adventures!” & “Savor Vacation” Facilitator, and true Renaissance Woman, and Visionary. She keeps her fire lit by embracing and promoting a lifestyle of “Allowing,” and by using creative expression to elevate and ignite the human spirit, a passion that she shares with her husband, soul-mate and creative partner of over 15 years, John Victor Hartmann. Together they share “Allowing TRUE LOVE” workshops and experiences designed to help others attract, allow, and maintain extraordinary relationships, and create custom jingles and voice-overs in their studio, THE Creativity Express. Visit: www.TerezFirewoman.com

Inspiration stalked the mosquito, killing it. He said he knew better but felt no guilt about it. He didn’t question whether he should have or shouldn’t have killed it. But suddenly everything froze. He went into 12 seconds of silence realizing he had killed something that he was intricately connected to.

He was the food of this insect. And in that realization he was the instrument that killed that which he was part of.

We talked about the killing of the dove and the mosquito. It didn’t matter whether the dove was not deserving of death or the mosquito deserving of death for biting humans. Both were entwined in this vast network of life, each dependent on the other. He told me that when humans begin to function with the realization that all of life is sacred and interconnected, we will become like prophets. He said:

By Jo Mooy One is a tiny annoyance, buzzing around and biting the unsuspecting victim. The other is a gentle bird making cooing sounds and threatening no one. One is a menace to anyone enjoying an afternoon in the park. The other sings its songs in the enjoyment of the park. But can a mosquito or a dove change your life? Yes, if you’ve killed one.

When I was six years old, my playmates were all boy cousins. We traveled as a “pack” playing games or trying to outdo one another in contests of strength or skill. One day we decided to make slingshots. It took hours to choose the right tree branch, cut it to size, and carve the V shape just so. Finally, each of us had a perfect sling shot. Next we had to find our prey.

We set up a target and fired small stones at it. Then growing bored, the boys began to aim at birds in the sky, missing each one. Taunts and wagers filled the air as each stone flew wide of its mark. Then I spotted a mourning dove on the ground near a distant hedgerow and announced I could hit it. My cousins jeered telling me there was no way I could hit anything that far away. I drew back the rubber sling, aimed at the mourning dove and hit it. I watched in horror as feathers flew and the bird disappeared in the undergrowth.

Though I survived the cheers and backslaps of my cousins, my eyes filled with tears. When the boys went off to other pursuits, I went to the place I’d last seen the mourning dove. On hands and knees I searched for her. Reaching into the dead leaves at the bottom of the shrubs I looked for feathers. There were none.

Sobbing, I looked for blood. There was none. I pulled all the low branches of the shrubs aside, examining each one. I knew I’d hit the dove with a stone but there was no evidence of the bird. I went home bereft.

That night in bed I imagined the injured bird had hidden itself from me.

I saw her nest with the eggs now untended. I knew she was dying alone somewhere, all because of me. In the silly moment of showing off to my cousins that I was as good a shot, or better than them, I’d killed an innocent creature. The pain wracked me with guilt and grief for I knew, even at the age of six, that it was wrong and I had not only hurt it, but something precious inside of me. I cried myself to sleep that night and many nights after. Decades later I still live with the sadness of taking the life of this most gentle of innocent creatures. To compensate I declared the mourning dove my totem, treasuring these birds and their sounds ever since.

Years later a spiritual master told me his story of killing a mosquito. He was playing with his grandchildren and heard a mosquito buzzing them. The kids began to cry because the mosquito had bitten them. So with determination he

The secret of the prophets is that they know love is the foundation of life and that all things are one connection through the magnetism of love.

The stories of The Mosquito and the Dove are apt metaphors for the love we can hope to have for each other. It’s easiest with family. It’s kind of easy with friends. It’s not as easy with the birds and insects that also inhabit our spheres of influence. That is, until you have the experience of killing one of these creatures. Then you’ll experience their loving essence pouring out and enveloping you. At that moment you’ll know at the core of your being the loving interconnected relationship we have with all things.

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Jo Mooy has studied with many spiritual traditions over the past 40 years. The wide diversity of this training allows her to develop spiritual seminars and retreats that explore inspirational concepts, give purpose and guidance to students, and present esoteric teachings in an understandable manner. Along with Patricia Cockerill, she has guided the Women’s Meditation Circle since January 2006 where it has been honored for five years in a row as the “Favorite Meditation” group in Sarasota, FL, by Natural Awakenings Magazine. Teaching and using Sound as a retreat healing practice, Jo was certified as a Sound Healer through Jonathan Goldman’s Sound Healing Association. She writes and publishes a monthly internationally distributed e-newsletter called Spiritual Connections and is a staff writer for Spirit of Maat magazine in Sedona.

For more information go to www.starsoundings. com or email jomooy@gmail.com.

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Inspiration Backing up a bit, I thought it was our beliefs that must first change, not our thoughts? Shouldn’t you be saying that our “beliefs become things”?

Your beliefs are almighty, not because they override your thoughts, but because they allow you to think, or prevent you from thinking, along certain lines in the first place. In other words, your beliefs are pivotal in all of your creations because your thoughts become things, and your beliefs regulate what you can and will think.

Your beliefs interpret what you see with your own, unknown prejudices, which in turn determines how you’ll react to what you see—in thought, word, and behavior. They’re like sunglasses, to use them as a metaphor again, in that they filter all your experience.

You can sometimes forget you even have them “on.” Unlike sunglasses, however, you usually can’t just take them off, and that means, generally, you have no idea of how else life could look, other than how you now see it. I mean, “Is that the most gorgeous sunrise you’ve ever seen . . . or am I wearing my blue-blockers again?”

You don’t have to know what your invisible limiting beliefs are to move past them.

By Mike Dooley So, what about “lessons”? Aren’t we here to learn things?

Yes, but only to the degree that they will help you go bigger, run faster, and live longer, and only if you care to. There are no lessons that you “have to” learn, but many that you want to learn, with as much desire and passion as you might now want a fancy new car or a dream home—even more so. Why? To experience the ecstasy of living deliberately, loving consciously, and knowing all is supremely well! The more you learn, appropriate to the life and experiences you wish to have, whether of patience, love, or other obvious virtues, the more powerful and intentional a creator you become. These lessons, faster than anything else, however seemingly mundane in and of themselves, will get you your fancy new car, dream home, warm hugs, and so much more, including deeper experiences in love, health, and happiness.

Moreover, it’s not as if your life, parents, place of birth, and the other givens of your life are random and you just hope to have the opportunity to learn what you most want to learn in your next life. Everyone, always, chooses all the parameters of each lifetime, in large part for the great probability of mastering the lessons they wish to learn. Sweet. Life, your life, was a “setup”! Set up by you! It matters not that today you might not be able to see the reasons for other people’s choices, nor recall even your own, particularly among challenging times. You can, nevertheless, rest assured their and your objectives are being met, such is the perfection of this rigged game.

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Obviously, then, some beliefs will serve you, while others can hold you back. This leads many on a wild-goose chase after the invisible, limiting, self-sabotaging beliefs they assume they must have. But just because you haven’t made the progress you’ve dreamed of, that does not necessarily mean it was because of your beliefs. Maybe it was priorities? Maybe it was not taking sufficient action? Maybe there’s been no problem, and your hoped-for manifestation lies only days away? Yet the person who now believes they have limiting beliefs, even when they don’t, ironically runs the risk of creating them through this belief! You needn’t go there.

NEW BELIEF ALIGNMENT AND INSTALLATION A work-around that’s much simpler and less dangerous involves these two steps: 1) Name as many beliefs as you can that would support you and your dreams, and then 2) behave, in some small way, daily if possible, as if those beliefs were actually yours.

It’s much easier and wiser to name beliefs you want, some of which may actually already be yours, than to claim beliefs you don’t want—some of which probably weren’t yours (yet in claiming, they become so).

This approach to installing new beliefs works even if there are contradictory, opposing beliefs held by the practitioner. Even if they don’t know they have such limiting beliefs. You don’t have to know what your invisible limiting beliefs are to move past them. As you name the beliefs you wish were actually yours, and behave as if they were, your new, empowered life begins to emerge for which the old, invisible, unknown beliefs no longer make any sense, to such a degree they fall away into oblivion.

What about our emotions and intuition? These are thoughts too, right? Do they come first, last, or in the middle of the process of creation?

Your emotions, ranging from happy to sad, are your reaction to what’s happening on the stage of your life. They come after the manifestation. Whereas feelings, like your intuition and hunches, are more instinctual, at times even bypassing immediate circumstances, to inform or confirm what’s happening, or about to happen, in the world with relevance to you. They arrive before and/or during the manifestation.

YOUR EMOTIONS Your emotional reaction to what’s happening in the world provides great insight into your beliefs, and when this matters most is when your emotions aren’t fun. This means, once poked, your invisible, limiting beliefs aren’t so invisible after all. This is not an attempt to go looking for invisible, limiting beliefs, but when you find you’re suffering from any unpleasant emotion, it does mean that through choosing to react differently, choosing to see with your inner eyes and from a higher perspective, you can alleviate, for example, the sadness that stems from a broken heart.

Through rightly seeing that you are more than any relationship can define, and that there are indeed countless more opportunities for romance and adventure awaiting once you turn the page.

By tuning in to your emotions, you can immediately know exactly where your illusions have become their most captivating, and misleading, in order to know where best to bring about change and relief.

YOUR INTUITION The hunch, the gut feeling, the spontaneous sense of knowingness: these are literally “gifts from heaven.” Sometimes they seem to arrive on their own; other times you may intentionally summon them. These gifts represent your invisible link to everywhere, always, at once, a link that’s never been broken.

They’re the sixth sense you’ve been taught not to trust.

Yet that hasn’t stopped them from raising the hair on your neck, giving you goose bumps, or telling you when you’re in the presence of an ancient friend, who in the instant you meet makes you feel deeply understood. Believed in or not, your sixth sense rarely takes a day off from reaching you with warm and witty, cold and scary, or fast and furious insights.

If you’d like to exponentially enrich your journey, it’s time to learn the language of intuition—through practice. Go within.

Find the quiet. Ask questions. Feel their answers. Demonstrate.

When does the loving, “conspiring” Universe enter the picture to show us the way and make our day?

Firstly, “the Universe,” of course, is a widely accepted metaphor for a spiritual, nonreligious God. Pretty cool. After all, religion needs spirituality, spirituality does not need religion.

“The Universe” is seen as a no-strings-attached, loving essence who dotes on and approves of all “Its” children. Not only does this Universe seemingly refrain from any and all forms of negative judgment, but believers imagine it works feverishly on everyone’s behalf—calculating, scheming, aligning, even dreaming for you exactly what you have been dreaming of for yourself. So tireless is She, and patient are believers, that when disappointed with life, they react with, “the Universe has ‘Her’ own schedule” or “the Universe must have something even better in store for me.”

Nice. Warm and fuzzy. Compassionate and forgiving.

Loving and supportive. This “She” is certainly closer to truth than an irritable, impatient, jealous “He”! Yet, for the intuitive and logical life explorer, upon closer examination, even this new image appears to be slightly “off.”

For instance, consider these implications: • Isn’t any kind of judgment, negative or positive, limiting and exclusive?

• What’s wrong with humanity that you are so ineffective without “Her”?

• If “She’s” out there watching, who or what are you—entertainment?

• Where was “She” that time you ran into the tree?

Unless, perhaps, “She” is almost none of the things just ascribed to her . . . righto!

So, now what?! There’s no angry God and no bubbly Universe?

This is when things start feeling scary again. When you start getting that the truth means: You really are special, as special as everyone else.

Ack! In other words, you’re not favored at all!

The Universe can’t and won’t live your life for you.

Uh-oh! In other words, you may as well be alone!

Everyone has an equal chance at getting whatever they, or you, want.

Dilution. In other words, there goes your supernatural advantage!

Crushing! Devastating! Rip-off!

Fortunately, getting back to the previous implications, but now viewed through a lens of truth, drumroll, please . . .

• While the Universe is nonjudgmental, this doesn’t mean it’s neutral.

• Thriving is in your nature state; positive thoughts are more powerful than negative ones.

• Among illusions, there’s more than enough for everyone.

• Given your eternal nature, success is assured.

• You don’t need “Her,” you are “Her.” So, for none of the reasons ever given before, like an oldschool God answering your prayers or a “new-school” Universe favoring you, you’ll nevertheless succeed at having, doing, and be-

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ing all those things you now dream of having, doing, and being— or better. The “or better” being a catchall not just because there is better out there than you even knew to ask for, but because sometimes not getting what you now want is better than getting it, if this is in accordance with all of your other desires! So, even not getting what you want, in such cases, and with hindsight, is actually getting what you really want! You just didn’t know, at the time, that you wanted it that way—that you wanted to be blocked until you got your thinking straight, to ensure you could ultimately, irrevocably, and permanently move onward and upward.

Every cell and atom in your body is divine and alive, you are divine and alive, upon a planet that is divine and alive.

However loopy this sounds and is, it’s part of the builtin magic that ensures no one will ever get stuck in mediocrity or stagnation. And far from implying you’ll always be at the mercy of receiving things you didn’t know you wanted, these exceptions will soon fade from your experience altogether as you become wiser and happier in your upward spiral.

And so we can say, however new age-y, though not literal, it’s far truer than false: the Universe is your greatest conspirator. It roots for you, cheers for you, and loves you throughout every step of your life. It yearns for your happiness and fulfillment, and without a doubt, the cards of life are stacked in your favor because of it. No, it can’t and won’t reach over your shoulder and manipulate the deck independently of your thoughts and beliefs; to do so would violate your freedom, steal your power, and undermine your responsibilities—negating the very reasons you, and “She,” chose to be you in this time and space. But as the Universe yourself, as one of the original fearless explorers who created the jungles of time and space, all of the elements are there for your intents and your purposes. You put them there, and chief among your aims was to thrive in your life on earth.

If all of this were true, wouldn’t I be rich by now?

You are rich right now! See it. Every cell and atom in your body is divine and alive, you are divine and alive, upon a planet that is divine and alive. Lack, illness, and discord aren’t normal for anyone; they’re simply the temporary by-products of limited, fearful, and/or contradictory thinking, unless chosen at birth, in which case the gifts they bear are far less obvious and more complicated. The earth is teeming with countless creatures that live in harmony above, below, and around it. Bursting with intelligent life: an animal kingdom, plant kingdom, and adventurers like yourself. It’s lush with abundance and loaded with diversity, filled with dazzling colors, sights, textures, and sounds; with tantalizing sceneries from the plains to the mountains, from the seashores to ocean floors, from valleys to glaciers and deserts; with breathtaking sunrises and sunsets, snowfalls, rains, towering clouds, and crystal-clear blue skies. What’s going on here is the blossoming of Divinity, not the decline of planets and species, where every

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moment and all it contains is born of a super-loving, ever-growing intelligence that connects and celebrates all.

Are you beginning to see how you fit into the equation of reality creation? As a creator yourself? As Divine and sacred, the center of all you experience? Before whom all the elements bow?

Born to explore and destined to succeed? Supernatural? Here to inherit the Kingdom? The prodigal child who’s lost your way, as all have by design, yet now in the process of ascending into the light to behold the truth of your magnificence and eternal nature?

See this!

How does all this work in relationships? Are soul mates part of the equation?

It all works fabulously in relationships, as long as you’re not insisting upon or attaching to specific behavior that you want to experience from specific people—which would boil down to manipulation. Would you like to live in a world where others could force your behavior or affection based on their thoughts, beliefs, and expectations? Instead, create the space for your dream partner to enter your life, describe them in your mind, imagine the fun and laughter, the travel and surprises, and all that you value. Make yourself available, take some baby steps, but then let the right person show up at the right time! When you insist upon a certain someone, you exclude all other candidates.

If you already have a partner but wish the relationship would go deeper and be more mutually appreciated, then imagine a deeper, more mutually appreciated relationship, but do not insist it must be with your present partner. This, incidentally, does not exclude them from contention. It just means they need to step up to the plate, or else. And it means you’ve sent out a new vibe to the conspiring Universe that you’ve raised the bar and it’s time to “tango.”

The notion of a soul mate being yours by destiny, necessary to complete you, is usually a misguided, romantic attempt to reconcile the dichotomies of living in the illusions. The notion being, if you’re a male in this lifetime, you must be balanced by a particular female, and vice versa, and in either case, there’s someone “out there” so perfect for you it’s as if “God” had arranged it, and all other suitors pale in comparison. The truth is, over all of your lifetimes, you are both male and female, with varying sexual orientations, and in any particular lifetime, you have both male and female energies.

What defines you physically does not limit you spiritually. You are complete and whole as is, in spite of your physical gender, which is not to say that your journey, at times, or maybe throughout a lifetime, can’t or won’t be enhanced with other people in it—defined as partners, family, friends, and the like. But this is never true to the degree that you’re incomplete without them.

And while there no doubt exists, at certain intervals in most lives, one single person who better matches you than any of the other seven billion people alive, and with whom you’d be happier and learning more than if you were alone, that person may well change throughout the years! Defining them this way, you would very likely have multiple soul mates in one lifetime—some you would outgrow, others would outgrow you, and, at times, you

might have more fun and learning without a partner.

Seems like a lot to know?!

Fear not. Consider that those who are successful in the world today, whether romantically, financially, or in any other way, are so, most typically, in total ignorance of these spiritual principles and truths. You have space stations, DNA technology, transplanetary communication systems that enable anyone to speak to anyone else, all with your spiritual heads in the sand, either afraid of a nonexistent angry God, or thinking that life is pure, random chance. Shocking! And still you thrive.

Can you even begin to imagine what life on earth will look like when her populations understand their divinity? Life’s sacredness? Your Godship? Unimaginably different. Unimaginably spectacular!

Try, anyway, to imagine your educational, political, social, economic, and health-care systems when everyone understands their interconnectedness and inclination to succeed. Imagine future rock stars, athletes, bankers, doctors, accountants, and attorneys all versed in the subject of their divinity, knowing who and what they are; who and what the Universe is, how stunningly powerful their thoughts are, how their beliefs, emotions, and intuitions can be harnessed for direction, and knowing how to deliberately engage life’s logistical principles to profoundly change their own journeys and to help other people with theirs. Imagine

the joy and love and peace on earth. Mind-blowing, huh? Because it’s so different from today, it’s even difficult to clearly see. But that’s OK. Editor’s note: Part 1 of this article appeared in the January 2017 edition of Transformation Magazine.

••••••••••••••

Mike Dooley is a former PriceWaterhouseCoopers international tax consultant turned entrepreneur. He’s the founder of a philosophical Adventurers Club on the Internet that’s now home to over 800,000 members from virtually every country and territory in the world. His inspirational books emphasizing spiritual accountability have been published in 25 languages, and he was one of the featured teachers in the international phenomenon The Secret. Today Mike is best known for his free “Notes from the Universe” e-mailings, social network postings, and his New York Times bestsellers Infinite Possibilities: The Art of Living Your Dreams and Leveraging the Universe: 7 Steps to Engaging Life’s Magic. Mike lives what he teaches, traveling internationally to speak on life, dreams, and happiness. Visit his website at www.tut.com “Reprinted with permission from Life on Earth: Understanding Who We Are, How We Got Here, and What May Lie Ahead, by Mike Dooley, 2016, Hay House. The book is available at HayHouse.com and all retailers.”

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Inspiration What he found when he looked at the frozen water crystals under the microscope was amazing. The crystals that had the positive words of affirmation had beautiful symmetrical crystals. The water crystals that had the negative words were uneven, distorted and jagged.

He then decided to see if the results could be changed so he reversed the words on the petri dishes; the original dishes with the positive affirmations were now replaced with the negative affirmations and vice versa. They were surprised to see that the water crystals that now had the positive affirmations became beautiful and symmetrical while the water that had the negative affirmations went from beautiful to jagged and uneven.

The implications of water being changed by words that were either written, or in other experiments, spoken—and the fact that our bodies are made up of 60 to 70 percent water—is astounding.

By Ann Darwicki I just did my first live video on facebook! It was something that I vowed I would not do until I was thin, feeling optimistic and in a good place every day. Not surprisingly, all of these conditions did not align to create the perfect scenario when I debuted. Instead, I was feeling pessimistic, at the mercy of circumstances out of my control, and less enthusiastic and engaged in life than usual.

Ironically, I was feeling so low that finally decided to do the video. “Why not,” I said to myself, “I can’t feel any worse afterward.”

So I decided to have my first conversation about my morning routine and the intentions I set for each day. My day begins like most people’s probably does, with that first cup of coffee. I have several coffee mugs with affirmations on them such as: “Life is Crazy Good,” “This is the Life,” “Life is not about Finding Yourself, it is About Creating Yourself,” and “Good Karma” (which reminds me of John Lennon’s song “Instant Karma” and the lyrics “Who do you think you are/a surperstar/well right you are”). I select my mug based on what I am feeling that day or what I would like to cultivate within myself for the upcoming 24 hours. On this particular day I chose, “This is the life.”

On the video, I shared the importance of words based on the water studies by Dr. Masaru Emoto, a Japanese author (Messages from Water), researcher, photographer and entrepreneur, who revealed that human consciousness has an effect on the molecular structure of water. In one experiment, he took samples of water, placed them in petri dishes, taped on them words of positive affirmation such as love, peace, harmony, etc., and then froze them. He then took other petri dishes of water and taped negative affirmations on them such as war, you make me sick, I will kill you, etc., and then froze those.

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Dr. Emoto’s experiments imply that what we say and think actually changes our chemical makeup.

How can we ensure that what we are thinking and saying are words of affirmation to ourselves? I start with my first act of the day: pouring that cup of coffee.

You can do the same or adopt a gratitude or meditation practice when you first wake up. Do something that makes you feel good!

Getting ready to make the video, I looked at my “This is the Life” mug, and I became choked up. The truth is that often times I do not feel this way. My time is focused on going to work, getting as much done as I possibly can each day, falling into bed exhausted, waking up and repeating the process. Then I was suddenly reminded of my aunt.

Earlier this year, she started dating after being widowed for several years.

She met a wonderful man, they were very happy, and she would frequently post pictures of the things they were doing together. At the beginning of December, she posted a picture on facebook of his house completely decorated for Christmas. I could feel her excitement and happiness from the picture, as they looked forward to celebrating their first Christmas together. A few hours later, I receive a phone call letting me know that my aunt’s new boyfriend began complaining of a headache. She tried to get him in the car but was unable to, so she called an ambulance. He was taken to the hospital where doctors diagnosed him with severe bleeding on the brain. The outlook was very grim. He passed away a week after that picture was posted, never having the opportunity to celebrate Christmas with my aunt.

After reflecting on this memory, my coffee mug message because a gentle reminder of the fragility of life, coupled with the importance of loving, nurturing and speaking kindly to ourselves. I became filled with appreciation for this life, and for the people that I am blessed to share it with. I felt a deep connection with my soul, a love for my life, and love for the life of the all the people that I am blessed to share it with.

This truly is the life.

•••••••••••••••••••

Ann Darwicki RN is a Certified Professional Life Coach who completed her training at the Institute for Professional Excellence in Coaching. She is the owner and founder of Whole Being Coaching, specializing in coaching others to live the life of their dreams. Prior to becoming a life coach, Ann obtained as Associates Degree in Nursing from Delaware Technical and Community College. She has 25 years of nursing experience caring for women and children, with a life long affinity for holistic medicine. She is a Reiki practitioner and Nurse Luminary. She is also a freelance writer. She can be reached at 302.750.0574 or by email at adarwicki@comcast.net.

Tools & Tips When you feel any unpleasant emotion, you know something is not OK. Determine what it is, and change your programming to make it OK. It’s that simple, and look at the consequences: Support Support is a feeling that has little or nothing to do with the words, “I support you.” When you feel OK, you can support your partner. It’s the key to happy relationships.

Commitment Under the new paradigm, your commitment is to feeling good. If a need triggers bad feelings, you change it. Then you feel good and support is automatic. Happiness becomes a moment-to-moment experience instead of something to seek, hope for, or demand.

By Gregg Sanderson

“Don’t go changin’ to try and please me...I love you just the way you are.”—Billy Joel, “Just The Way You Are” This beautiful love song of the late ‘70s threw quite a monkey wrench into unconditional love. Its message is not, “I love you.” It’s, “Freeze!

You’ve got it.” “...Don’t go tryin’ some new fashion. Don’t change the color of your hair...”—same song.

But what if I want to “...go tryin’ some new fashion or...change the color of my hair?” What if I want to do something else, see someone else or go someplace else? What then?

This song, like most, suggests the experience of love depends on your partner. As an “enlightened” being, you know you are responsible for your life. If your feeling at the moment isn’t love, all you have to do is shape up the other person.

Your “shape up” tools are the “J”s... Judgment, Justification and Junk. You use guilt trips (Judgment), demands (Justification), and/or bribery (Junk) to manipulate. Has any of that ever brought you anything more than a temporary fix? Chances are, at best, it delayed an inevitable departure.

What about commitment? If you commit to forever like the fairy tales say, there could come a time when one of you might not want to be there. Then what? Commitment becomes a club to beat each other with.

That’s the way life is under the old paradigm of Stimulus > Response. How well does that work for you?

What would it be like with our new paradigm: Stimulus > NEED > Response?

It’s a whole new world! You no longer depend on another person’s behavior for happiness. Now it’s all within your control. Your unsatisfied need creates the stress, and you have the power to change it.

Unconditional Love Instead of “Be mine,” Love says, “Be you.”

You don’t find many valentines or songs that express that unconditional love.

You’re in charge of how you feel! Ain’t that grand? Instead of shaping people up, you can feel OK about the shape they’re in. That’s unconditional love.

Instead of getting your buttons pushed, you disconnect the buttons.

Several years ago, Marla and I traveled the country to lead relationship workshops. One day, we found the perfect love song. One line expresses everything we teach about support and unconditional love.

When we first heard it, we both cried. It’s all you need for a happy relationship.

“I’ll make music while you sing your song.”

Think about it. (Check out the song: https:// www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZH5P44kq2MA)

••••••••••••

Gregg Sanderson is author of Spirit With A Smile, The World According To BOB. He is a licensed practitioner in the Centers for Spiritual Living, and a Certified Trainer for Infinite Possibilities. His earlier books were, What Ever Happened To Happily Ever After? and Split Happens—Easing The Pain Of Divorce. His latest project is the New Thought Global Network, where subscribers can enjoy the best in New Thought presentations from anywhere at any time. You can see it at www. newthoughtglobal.org.

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Tools & Tips

By Natalie Rivera

us don’t recognize how abundant we truly are. Even people who are truly “wealthy” in financial terms usually still feel that there is “not enough.” One sign indicating that you have a poverty consciousness is feeling a sense of competition. Ask yourself if you believe there is a Money Pie and when YOU receive money (or resources or opportunity) that it takes AWAY from someone else.

Often, feelings like this stem from childhood experiences where either you experienced true lack of necessities or were in an environment with adults who FELT lack. When we hear “money doesn’t grow on trees,” it may inspire us to become “smart” with our spending, but usually it just makes us feel a sense of lack. These emotions related to money create a powerful money blueprint at an unconscious level, but these beliefs can be changed.

How? Evidence.

1) Look for evidence that you do, in fact, HAVE money by looking at those who have less 2) Look for evidence that money is easy to GET by remembering times in your life where it just appeared when you needed it 3) Look for evidence that there is more than ENOUGH in the world by looking how many millionaires and billionaires there are in the world 4) Look for evidence that there is, in fact, no competition because each person’s “right clients” will find him or her

In the United States, everyone grows up hearing “money is the root of all evil,” and at an unBLOCK #2: Money Guilt conscious level most people actually believe it. This is evident Money guilt is a feeling passed be based on the general consensus that any heart-centered field (education, social tween humans, often adult to child. Phrases like “eat services, personal growth, etc.) should be “low paying.” After all, these people everything on your plate because there are starving should be offering their services out of the kindness of their heart, right? children in the world” is a good example of how this mind virus is transferred. How do you feel when you What a totally bogus notion. grow up knowing you HAVE while others DON’T? Guilty. And so what does this cause? Guilt over havI say light workers and helpers of all kinds should be paid ABUNDANT- ing MONEY. And how are you supposed to create LY! This unfounded belief causes many people to develop a negative association money if it makes you feel guilty? with money. Moreover, most don’t even realize they have resistance to money because it is so “normal” in our society.

To overcome money guilt, you’ll If you want abundance in your life you need to make sure you don’t find yourself going around expecting that those who help you or others should need to reprogram your association be doing it for free or a pithy wage. Be honest with yourself: Do you have limitwith money to a feeling of ing money beliefs? Do you believe “money is the root of all evil?” worthiness.

Well, I say, “Money is the root of all awesomeness!”

Try THAT belief on for size! Then, consider whether you have any of Why are you worthy to have it? Because these three common limiting money beliefs lurking in the deep recesses of your you have a WORTHY reason for wanting it. Think mind, blocking your financial flow: about it… if someone handed you millions of dollars BLOCK #1: Poverty Consciousness tomorrow, wouldn’t you do powerful, positive, helpEven though we live in the wealthiest country in the world, most of ful things with it? You see, money is not “evil,” it’s

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AWESOME! Picture yourself using your money to improve the lives of others and that feeling of guilt will subside.

BLOCK #3: Fear of Money If you are one of those people who has negative feelings about wealthy people—they are selfish, crooks, evil or lucky—then you have a fear of money. Why? Because you fear that if you GET too much money it will turn you BAD. But wait, you already agreed if you had a BUNCH of money you’d do something positive with it. Money doesn’t change people; it just magnifies who they are.

For example, I met Bert Jacobs, the founder of the TShirt company Life is Good. His company brought in 100 million dollars last year. He was very humble and definitely heart-centered. More importantly, he understood that the more wealth he created the more he could contribute to the things that he is passionate about. His foundation has helped millions of people around the world.

Now, to root out any fears related to money, ask yourself: How would your life change if you were to experience financial success? Would it create drastic changes in your life? Do you see any possible negative effects from it? Be really honest with yourself to find out if you have any unconscious beliefs that “negative” outcomes would happen if you were to become financially successful.

Unconscious beliefs can only block your abundance if they remain unconscious.

Money can only be evil in the hands of those who make it so. Abundance can only be cultivated in the hands of those who recognize their own awesomeness!

•••••••••••••••

Natalie Rivera is a firestarter, speaker and entrepreneur. She is passionate about empowering others to GET REAL and live authentically. After a decade of living a life that wasn’t hers and developing Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, Natalie let go of everything and completely transformed. Through her journey to healing she rediscovered her true self and greater purpose—to inspire others to transform their lives. Natalie “retired” from the rat race at 24, put herself through school as a freelance designer, created a nonprofit teen center, and later created Transformation Services, Inc., which offers motivational speaking, curriculum development, life coaching, event management, and publishing. She is also the Publisher of Transformation Magazine. Visit www.ignitelife.me.

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Tools & Tips

By Rena Greenberg Do you go all day long eating small portions of healthy food and moving your body as much as possible only to find yourself raiding the refrigerator at night? If so, you are not alone. So many people tell me that they are “so good” during the day, only to find themselves glued to the refrigerator from dinner until bedtime. Does the scenario of overindulging at night, going to bed feeling bloated and disgusted, and waking up feeling regretful and remorseful seem all too familiar?

You may feel hopeless when it comes to correcting this self-sabotaging habit, yet baffled as to how you can run other areas of your life so successfully.

If you frequently fall victim to nighttime bingeing, realize that there are two main reasons why this is likely to be occurring—either you are physically or emotionally hungry—and neither is a reflection of your intelligence or innate value. This may seem obvious, but if you truly believed it then you wouldn’t add insult to injury by beating yourself up for the mistakes that you’ve made and continue to make. Until you understand the root cause driving your unwanted behavior and then correct it, you can expect to repeat the same actions that are causing you so much inner pain.

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One reason why people overeat at night is physiological.

Are you eating enough during the day or are you running around frantically only to realize when you finally get home that you are starving? If you find yourself devouring food right out of the refrigerator, eating from containers instead of at the table from a plate, or if you plunge into your food with your hands as opposed to using utensils, then it’s very likely that you are simply hungry— physically hungry.

Your body needs a certain amount of calories each day to operate, and your brain needs a steady supply of nutrients to maintain optimal functioning. One way or another, your body is going to force you to give it the nutrition it deserves.

It’s time to start caring for your body. Many people take better care of their pets or their cars than they do of themselves.

Your body needs a steady intake of balanced meals throughout the day. A balanced meal consists of protein (for many people this must be animal protein to end hunger), complex carbohydrates such as root vegetables or whole grains and vegetables. Simply put, you must eat regularly throughout the day and include healthy snacks.

Some healthy snack ideas to keep your blood sugar steady are: • Peanut butter and celery • Almond butter and carrots • A slice of fresh turkey or roast beef with romaine lettuce • Tuna fish on a whole grain cracker

The second far more common reason why people overeat at night is based on the innate human drive we all have to fill our emotional needs.

If we are feeling unfulfilled, with unresolved emotional issues lurking inside, we are likely to turn to food in a futile attempt to meet these inner desires. It is natural for each of us to want to fill our needs for love, companionship, safety, control and relaxation; unfortunately, there is no amount of food that can fill these very real requirements.

I once worked with a man named Bill who couldn’t stop his night bingeing. It didn’t matter what was in the house—raisins, chips, ice-cream—he would sit in front of the TV at night and eat.

Using self-hypnosis, he came to discover that stimulation what he was really seeking. He realized that he was slightly bored and unfulfilled with life, and at night he would turn on an action movie and want to keep eating as a way to keep himself stimulated.

To provide that excitement directly, Bill bought a treadmill, began waking up earlier and running every morning. He created a CD of some of his favorite music and used the recording as a way to completely lose himself in the activity and, as a result, began looking forward to this special time of day. Eventually, Bill began challenging himself to run with others, enjoying the comradery, competition and the opportunity to be outdoors when the weather permitted. Soon he found himself skipping the late night movies and the binge eating because he just didn’t like the way it made him feel. Bill looked forward to waking up in the morning, feeling light and energized from a good night’s sleep, his stomach empty and ready for his morning exercise routine.

Once discovering what our underlying needs really are, we no longer need to turn to food in a vain attempt to meet them.

Just take a moment and imagine yourself at home at the end of the day. Picture yourself on a typical evening where in the past you may have been tempted to binge. Then ask yourself, “What is it that I need?” Are you physically hungry? Did you eat enough during the day? Or were you running around taking care of other people’s needs or scrambling to meet the demands of your job—without stopping to care for yourself?

Offer yourself compassion and make a decision to begin eating right during the day. Get into the positive habit of

planning your meals and taking healthy snacks with you if you know that you will be in a situation where you might not have access to healthy, balanced food choices. Do not let yourself get too hungry because it will increase the likelihood of a binge later in the evening.

If you feel that your physical needs for nutrition are being met, ask yourself if there are unfulfilled emotional needs you may be harboring. Maybe you have some pent up anger that can be released by writing in a journal. Perhaps your stress level is high at the end of the day, and maybe you need to take 15 minutes of alone time and practice some deep, abdominal breathing, allowing the oxygen to go way down into the bottom of your lungs. Deep belly breathing, using positive affirmations such as telling yourself, “breathing In, I breathe in peace....breathing out, I breathe out calm,” is a wonderful way to release some of the day’s tension.

Before your evening meal, be sure to check in to see what you truly need. Select the foods that will nourish you, satisfy your physical hunger and comprise a balanced meal. Whenever possible, eat natural, unprocessed water-rich foods, and then identify your emotional needs and fill them directly.

Like Bill, if you’re bored or frustrated, physical exercise could be the very remedy you are seeking. If you require more love or relaxation, cuddle up with a special person or a pet, or spend quality time with yourself. Thrill all your senses by soaking in a warm aromatherapy bath. Take up a practice such as meditation, journaling, yoga or self-hypnosis.

Create your nighttime routine to become a special ritual that you cherish—a time when you can pamper and love yourself and unwind from any stresses of the day. Each time you make a constructive choice, you are installing a new habit and creating positive momentum to turn your life around.

••••••••••••••

Rena Greenberg, a Hay House author, can be reached at EasyWillpower.com. Her weight loss and gastric bypass hypnosis success has been featured in 150-plus news stories including USA Today, Woman’s World, The Doctor’s, CNN, Good Morning America and Nightline. PBS stations nationally aired Rena’s show, “Easy Willpower,” in August 2015. Her wellness program is sponsored in 75 hospitals and 100-plus corporations. She conducts hypnotherapy sessions with people all over the world on Skype and in Sarasota, FL.

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Tools & Tips

By Joran Slane Oppelt

“Everyone can perform magic, everyone can reach his goals, if he is able to think, if he is able to wait, if he is able to fast.”

—Hermann Hesse, Siddhartha It wasn’t even my idea. It was my seven-year-old daughter, Alchemy, who suggested it.

“Daddy, let’s go a week without watching TV!” Her mother, Jennifer, and I had just finished our second juice cleanse of the year, and I think Alchemy was caught up in all the cleansing and fasting and wanted somehow to be a part of it all. She got no argument from us. In fact, we had just been commenting on her ability to lose herself for hours in the ridiculous time-suck that is the “EZ Bake Oven” app on her iPad. Recognizing the opportunity to break myself of that nasty texting-and-driving habit, I suggested we also incorporate devices and apps (like Facebook and Twitter) into the mix. Since Alchemy didn’t have access to these, she was cool with it.

So, here are the fast and not-so-loose ground rules for our Seven Day Media Cleanse: 1) No TV, 2) No apps, 3) No Internet. This meant no Facebook, Twitter, Netflix or Hulu and (voluntarily) included iTunes and streaming audio services (we use Beats).

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For seven days, we listened to vinyl at home and had only work-related access to email and Google Drive. We had dinner at the dining room table, said a short blessing before the meal, and enjoyed facing each other, talking and laughing. I endured deafening and cathartic silence on my morning and evening commute; my bag rode in the back seat. I rarely touched my phone, a stark contrast to the usual relationship I have with the device—a constant need to click and fondle, the straining of the eyes to scrutinize and decipher it’s small type, and the panic when it’s not immediately within reach. I was not exposed to any on-screen advertising; pop-up, in-line or e-mail notifications; marketing messages; in-app upgrade opportunities; pornographic images or news feeds.

To hear it told, you’d think I was an obsessive and domineering partner. But that’s how we behave when we are fixated. That’s how we act when we are addicted.

The effects of the cleanse were dramatic and the benefits were clear—I was calmer, more level-headed, more focused, less prone to distraction and, in the last couple days, felt a palpable happiness that was like a warmth throughout my body. I got current with my family and was more conversational with strangers.

Going forward, a media cleanse should be considered a serious part of our regular sacred fasting traditions (Lent, Ramadan, Maha Shivaratri). As with any dietary cleanse, the conditions are not universal, and it would not be the same (nor necessarily recommended) for everyone. However, the results consistently indicate that a more routine management of expo-

sure to these types of media continues to yield significant benefits—including stress reduction, increased productivity, heightened overall well-being and, most importantly, a sense of actual connectedness to those around us.

Like any tool or prosthetic, if we allow the virtual web and our various devices to be a substitute for our own real hardware (body), software (mind) or GPS (soul), we risk confusing our partial experience of the Universe for the bigger picture. We risk confusing the technosphere with what Pierre Teilhard De Chardin called the “noösphere.” And we risk the atrophy and loss of the latter for the former. Empathy, or the ability to feel subtle emotional and energetic shifts around us, will never develop as long as we are looking at a screen to find out how our friends and community are “feeling.” Like the human bodies used as batteries in the film The Matrix, we risk being a “wet cell,” plugged into a larger machine that relies on us to survive.

We risk never actually living ourselves. We risk everything.

Now, It’s Your Turn Are you interested in organizing or participating in a group media cleanse? Are you interested in cutting down your device (or social media) time, but not committing to a full seven days or more?

Try these tips to break you of your old habits.

1) Get some distance. Charge your phone across the room at night—don’t be tempted to check any feeds before you’re fully awake. Place your phone out of reach while driving—either in the back seat or trunk.

Try silence on the car radio and see how it feels.

2) Put your phone away when you’re eating. If you’re with someone who is constantly checking updates on their phone, simply look them in the eye and initiate some conversation.

3) Go hands-free! Use a headset when on the phone.

The less you touch and fondle the device, the more you will reduce your compulsive and tactile attachment to it. And some argue that it’s just plain healthier.

4) Disrupt Your Routine. Remove links and shortcuts to sites like Facebook and Twitter from your bookmarks and favorites. Keep a tally of the amount of times you unconsciously try to click on something that’s no longer there.

If the idea of a cleanse or fast seems too radical or drastic for you, then simply try to be more aware of your behavior involving these screens, devices, apps, and software. By constantly weeding and pruning your apps, newsletters, feeds, network, (and yes, even friends), you are engaging in a conscious personal development. You are developing a higher and more acute level of “infotention” (a word penned by futurist Howard Rheingold).

And you are affirming that you are no longer the same person you were when you subscribed to the “Southern Women’s Turkey Meatball Recipes” e-newsletter back in 2011.

1) Unsubscribe to any e-newsletters that have become irrelevant or impractical. Don’t passively mark them as spam or delete them. Actively unsubscribe.

2) Unfollow any people, brands, personalities, or accounts that you no longer enjoy or find authentic. People change, inside and out. And your favorites, lists, and feeds are a direct reflection of you, your tastes, and interests. Delete and deny access to any unused or extraneous apps that you have allowed access to your social media accounts.

3) Unfriend. That’s right, I said it. I don’t care if they’re family. If that cousin of yours and his political or religious views are causing you undue stress or distraction, unfriend him.

You’ll still be related by blood, and you can still pick up the phone if you need to tell him you love him.

Be present, do the work. and move on.

••••••••••••••

Joran Slane Oppelt is a blogger, musician, interfaith minister, marketer, chaplain, public speaker, father, event producer, husband, and facilitator—not necessarily in that order. Joran is the founder of the Integral Church in St. Petersburg, FL, and has spoken at many colleges and conferences such as South by Southwest in Austin, TX. Integral Church is an interfaith community that encourages individuals to create their own personal transformative practice, using the tools and teachings from the world’s major wisdom traditions in a pluralistic and sacred environment. For more information, follow @joranslane on Twitter or visit integralchurch.org, where you can find the unabridged, daily journal of this Seven Day Media Cleanse, plus more information on cleanses, meditations and other tools for transformation.

This article is a chapter from the book Transform Your Life! written by 60 real-life heroes and experts and available at Amazon.com, BN.com, www.Transformation-Publishing.com and all ebook formats.

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Tools & Tips

By Tracey Ashcraft As Valentine’s Day approaches, many of us experience anxiety around finding the perfect gift for our beloved. Scouring store shelves to find just the right card or gift, we encounter items that seem lackluster and clichéd. We end up buying something they don’t need, hoping it will not end up buried in the back of the closet or deep in a drawer with the tags still attached. Does this sound familiar? If yes, then maybe this year is the time to consider giving a gift from the heart—one that will keep on giving long after the flowers wilt and the chocolates are gone.

What if there was a way to truly know our partners and help them to feel deeply loved—not just on Valentine’s Day—but on each and every day?

There is, and it’s called Authentic Listening!

“Listening?” You might think, “I already listen to my honey.” However, Authentic Listening is a learned skill. It is not listening for a break in the conversation so you can jump in and share your latest anecdote about the guy you saw wearing snorkeling gear and flippers at the grocery store. It is not hearing a complaint and responding with your 19-point defense. True listening is not nodding your head and mumbling “uh-huh” while scrolling through your facebook newsfeed on the phone.

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Authentic Listening offers our loved ones a chance to be heard. Having someone intently focus on what we are saying—to understand what is being conveyed—makes us feel loved. And truly listening deepens connections. As humans we feel more connected to people who understand us—even if they do not always agree with us.

Listening saves time and pain. When we take a few extra minutes to hear what people are saying, we gather more correct data points. Instead of half-listening and hearing part of what is said, we hear the grocery list, the directions to the party, or the warning that the stove is still hot.

So how does Authentic Listening work? Here are some steps to listening based on the work of Harville Hendrix, the creator of The Couple’s Dialogue and the Imago Method.

1 Create an environment free of distractions.

2 Invite your partner to share thoughts with you. Let him know you are trying a new way to listen.

Let her know you will be reflecting back what you heard. Ask to keep the dialogue manageable.

3 Focus only on what your partner is saying and the feelings he is conveying.

4 When she is finished, repeat back what you heard said. It is ok to paraphrase, but this is not the time to interpret what you heard.

5 After paraphrasing what you heard, ask

“Did I get that right?”

6 This is where your partner has a chance to clarify if you did not get it quite right.

7 Listen again and then paraphrase what you heard. Repeat these steps until your partner lets you know you got it right.

8 Validate what he is saying even if you do not agree with what has been said. This step can be challenging, but it is part of the gift of listening. One way to show validation is to use phrases such as, “That makes sense to me as you say____.”

9 Offer statements of understanding and empathy. An example of a way to communicate empathy is, “I can imagine that _______ was ______ for you.”

10 If your partner is feels heard, he or she may be willing to switch and be the listener at this point.

It is important to be aware that you may have strong feelings come up while your partner is talking. Mentally set those feelings aside and bring your awareness back to what is being said. You will be able to express your feelings when it is your turn to be the sender. Remember, listening is a gift for your partner; it is not about you when you are on the receiving end.

Giving the gift of Authentic Listening does not mean your darling will never want a token of your love on a holiday such as Valentine’s Day. However, listening does help us to be more on target with understanding other gifts our partners would appreciate. For example, you might have decided on the King Kong-sized box of chocolate covered caramels to show your love on Valentine’s Day, but after listening to your partner you learn that he decided to give up sugar this year and that he dislikes chewy foods that get stuck in his teeth. You also learn that he feels most loved when he receives personalized handmade gifts.

Listening is like having an owner’s manual to your loved one’s taste and desires—and helping your partner feel deeply loved and understood beats heart-shaped boxes of chocolate and overpriced roses any day.

••••••••••••••

Tracey Ashcraft, MA, LPC, is an accomplished Licensed Professional Counselor, Certified Life Purpose Coach and the Founder of Best Life Therapy, where she has been transforming lives since 2004. She specializes in helping adults, couples and college students cope with emotionally intense people. She brings her sense of humor and direct, down-to-earth style that helps clients get to the truth quickly.

For more information visit www.bestlifetherapy.com.

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Tools & Tips longer. Later that day I got an email from our loan officer. He did a little digging and it turned out there was a way for us to buy a house!

Life is full of opportunities to trust. Whether it’s trusting the universe, trusting yourself or trusting others, without trust life can seem very unpredictable, scary or just unfair.

It wasn’t until recently that I realized I had a problem with trust. I’d withhold it from those who deserved it (including myself) and give it freely to those who had never earned it. Over these years I’ve worked hard to change that and have a few takeaways I’d like to share.

By Rebecca A. Watson

Trust is to human relationships what faith is to gospel living. It is the beginning place, the foundation upon which more can be built.

Where trust is, love can flourish.

—Barbara Smith A few years back, my husband and I were considering buying a house but knew we had some hurdles that might make it unlikely. We contacted a loan officer who worked with us and gave us a positive opinion. We were absolutely thrilled and started looking at homes.

It turned out, however, that he’d processed some incorrect information and we might not be able to get a loan after all. To say we were bummed out would be an understatement.

Both of us tried to see the positive side but couldn’t seem to shake our disappointment.

Neither of us wanted to talk about it, but finally I brought it up.

“Maybe this is exactly what’s supposed to be happening to us right now. Remember how we didn’t get the first house we wanted to rent?

And we ended up with this killer house on a dead-end street next to the ocean for less money? That ended well, right?”

Opportunities for Trust My husband agreed and we started talking about our Plan B. I agreed to postpone my overseas vacation until next year when we’d likely be able to buy. He decided that he didn’t need to buy a new mountain bike this year. We’d make it happen—it just might take a little

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You Are the First Person Who Deserves Your Trust Maybe you don’t agree with this. Perhaps you think you’ve messed up too many times or maybe you’ve been told you’re untrustworthy. Lord knows that was the case with me.

The thing to remember is that you’ve got an opportunity to prove yourself every single day as long as you give yourself a chance.

Too many people, myself included, believe they’re incapable of making the right decisions, choosing the right path.

But as a good friend of mine once said, “You’re exactly where you need to be right now.”

All of your choices up to now were made with the information you had then. Mistakes are judgments applied in hindsight.

Open your mind to trust. If you have one mantra during this time, it should be I trust myself.

Start small. I trust myself to chop these vegetables. I trust myself select the right water temperature in my shower. It might seem silly, but these small blocks help you build up to the bigger ones—interviewing for that dream job, painting your masterpiece, backpacking across Europe.

I would’ve never been able to start my business without

trusting myself, and that started with a knowledge that I work hard. I can trust myself to do that.

It Takes Time to Build Trust Because you’ve got to start small with trust, it usually doesn’t happen all in a week or even a month. It took years to be able to trust myself. Some of that was because it was connected to some basic beliefs I had about myself.

Another big reason is because trust is based on showing, not telling. So while your mantra should be I trust myself, remember you’ve got to have a reason to trust yourself. And the small things may come easy: grocery shopping, paying your bills, working out. The bigger things don’t happen as often. You’re probably not tempted to embezzle from your company or cheat on your spouse every day.

When you choose to take the high road, it will definitely feel good and reinforce your trust in yourself, but it generally takes longer to develop. This is probably for good reason. It takes a while to process something of that caliber. Situations like that often come with other trauma or drama that can take a lot out of you. It might take months before you can pat yourself on the back and draw on that experience in a positive way.

But once you’ve gotten past that, you know you’re good. I can think back on ways I’ve been really tempted and took the high road—I know that while it was hard to refuse, it just gets easier because I trust myself to make the right choice.

Trust Begets Trust Begets Trust An old housemate of mine once told me how her girlfriend would tell her “I trust you,” whenever they went out without each other. She said it made her feel secure and worry less about the relationship.

You’ve probably heard someone say, “How can you love someone else if you can’t love yourself?” The same is true about trust, which is why I made my point above. But once you’ve started to trust yourself, it becomes a domino effect—a cycle.

Trust leaks into the way you live your life. So if you can trust yourself, you’re more likely to trust other people. And when you trust other people, they’re more likely to trust you.

And when you’re all trusting each other, you stop trying to control everything and everyone and start trusting the universe.

It’s sort of like the rule of threes: Whatever you give comes back to you three times. Peace, harmony, and light seem to come easily when you trust that everything unfolds exactly the way it’s supposed to.

I’m not suggesting you sit idly by while life happens; you can still make goals and strive! Just add trust to your repertoire.

•••••••••••••••

Rebecca Watson is a Truth Advocate and Soul Connection Coach who supports women who’ve dealt with trauma and abuse to find and express their truth in harmony with their soul. A recovering journalist, Rebecca uses journaling and writing as a tool to teach women who feel unheard, broken, and misunderstood to listen to their own truth, trust their instincts, and connect with the divine part of themselves. You can read more of her work and learn more about her coaching programs at sunnysanguinity.com.

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Spirituality the entire universe. I didn’t make it this way but it works in my favor.

My mind is a doorway to connect with Universal Mind, just as is yours. There is no distance. It’s present in me, and this makes me One with Its All-Knowing Intelligence. I can access that Mind for wisdom and guidance, any time or all the time. You, too.

As part of the All-Knowing Power and Presence, I turn my attention to it and ask for whatever I need to know. I also get to watch for the answer revealed in different ways. Sometimes it’s an inner prompting or flash of insight. Sometimes it’s a serendipitous event. Sometimes it’s just knowing that I know.

When I understand how it works, I can connect with the Creative Power through the use of my own mind.

My mind connected to the Mind that created it all. Imagine the possibilities!

What I hold in mind is the mold for everything that fills my life.

By Marla Sanderson There is much to say about creativity, but what’s more important is knowing that we create all the conditions and situations in our life. If (or because) we didn’t know this before, much of our life may have seemed like it just happened.

The Creative Source of all things is Omnipotent (all powerful), Omnipresent (everywhere present) and Omniscient (all knowing). We can call it Divine Intelligence, Spirit, Creative Mind, Universal Mind, God, or something else.

We say It is Omnipotent because there is no other force or source, and it is GOOD. There is no power for evil, none for disaster, none for harm of any kind. Nothing fighting for our eternal soul nor damning us to everlasting punishment. There just can’t be two Omnipotent Forces.

As we recognize It as Omnipresent, we know there is not a single place in the Universe where It is absent. It is in, about, over, around and through all things. It is right where we are, always and forever.

Think of it as Life and Intelligence flowing through us, and It enables us to think, see, perceive and know. If not for this Intelligence, could we think even a single thought on our own? Could we communicate with each other at all if there were no common mental connection?

What It Means As an Omnipresent Power, It is in me. That makes me an expression or extension of It, endowed with Its creativity. And that is extraordinary! It’s the Intelligent Force and Source that created

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It consists of my thoughts and beliefs, and it’s easier to change my thinking than it is to change the outside circumstances. When I change my thinking, it opens up my entire world and lets in new possibilities for great and wonderful things. New ideas, sparked by the Intelligent Presence, light up the dark corners of my mind and my life.

More than anything else, you have control over what you think. No matter what’s happening in your world, only you have power over your thoughts. Make them good. Make them creative. Make them something you want to live out as your life.

Thought is creative. Believe it, use it, and connect with it.

••••••••••••••

Rev. Marla Sanderson has been a student of spiritual practice for more than 35 years. She began as Assistant Director of The Next Step, a psychic and spiritual community in a New Mexico ghost town. She’s been a workshop leader, teacher, practitioner, and minister of Living Love, and the Science of Mind. She recently founded the New Thought Global Network, a virtual “church” that offers inspiration anytime, from anywhere. The site showcases many powerful Science of Mind and New Thought speakers and writers, and intends to expand these teachings to the world. Check it out at www.newthoughtglobal.org.

27

Spirituality

by Kumari

“We patronize the animals for their incompleteness, for their tragic fate of having taken form so far below ourselves. And therein we err, and greatly err. For the animal shall not be measured by man. In a world older and more complete than ours, they are more finished and complete, gifted with extensions of the senses we have lost or never attained, living by voices we shall never hear. They are not brethren, they are not underlings; they are other Nations, caught with ourselves in the net of life and time, fellow prisoners of the splendour and travail of the earth.”~Henry Beston In grade school my teachers taught that animals had no soul and therefore were inferior beings. It didn’t make sense to me then, and certainly does not ring true now. In fact, my experience is quite the opposite.

I have found animals to be amazing teachers in general, for demonstrating qualities humans could certainly aspire to, such as: unconditional love, light-heartedness, patience, persistence, playfulness, presence and forgiveness. These are qualities that most people would say their pets possess in abundance. But it doesn’t end there.

Animal communication pioneer and author Penelope Smith observes that, “Animals can teach us about our own true nature, since most of them always know and never disconnect from awareness of themselves as eternal spirit functioning within the whole web of life.” I

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would have to agree.

I spent over two decades studying with renowned Spiritual Masters, energy healers and intuitives. Then I began to notice how certain animals were assuming the same roles, teaching us how to meditate, how to be fully present no matter what is happening, how to release old energies and patterns instantly, and how to do advanced and profound healings. I have witnessed animals who are clearly advanced souls and Spiritual Teachers, serving to show us more evolved ways of being better humans.

Animals as Meditation Masters A client called me years ago about her cat who was diagnosed with cancer with very little time left. I sent Reiki energy healing and he had instant relief from many of the discomforts of the cancer. There was a sense of completion with his human, as he had been with her through a very challenging time. But now he was a bit despondent as he was waiting to die. He needed another purpose.

So we talked about what he could focus on now, and the cat showed me that he was a powerful and skilled meditator. His person confessed to being a bit stuck in this area, as she would get to a certain place of emptiness, which she called “the white room”, and would become afraid that she would not be able to return to her normal consciousness. I suggested that the cat could become her Meditation Teacher with whatever time he had remaining…

He was elated and got to work immediately.

Her “Buddha Kitty” then proceeded to support her by first going to different states of consciousness, having me describe them and hold the space, so that his person would more easily access these different planes. Her fear of leaving her body diminished with each session.

Animals as Master Healers I once asked my puppy Suki: “Who are you in that little doggy body?” as time and again I felt a deep knowingness and profound presence in her. She communicated that she was a “healer”, but she wanted to be somewhat incognito and have the freedom to work unconventionally. I initiated her into Reiki when she was only a few months old, and made the mistake of attuning her paws since she didn’t have hands. Suki proceeded to use her paws and “punch”

people at times in their solar plexus, and just as I was about to scold her, they reported that she shifted major blockages they had been unable to release!

When Suki was very near transitioning, I was very sad as she had a huge open tumor on her shoulder, and she left our bedroom to sleep in another room when we told her quite firmly not to irritate it further. So I followed her and curled up next to her on the office couch that night. Suki immediately filled the room with a blanket of enveloping energy that was so thick I felt like I was in the Divine Womb, and all my deep pain and sadness melted away.

Suki explained telepathically that I should not just treat the body with healing energy, but fill the room with it, too, so that people and animals would feel safe and be able to more easily release their fears and limitations.

Interestingly, she had always insisted on attending every healing session by positioning herself under the table, and this is how many clients reported feeling her presence during treatments, commenting how her energy made them feel so relaxed and safe.

“Be Here Now” Much of human misery stems from the fact that we are most often living in the past or the future, rarely in the present moment. Animals are incredibly able to demonstrate this ability to be fully present.

People often called me to find out if their animals are in pain. Though animals feel all types of pain, they often are not experiencing it the way humans are because they are not obsessing mentally about it. They have the ability to be fully in each moment. So one moment they are perhaps aware of their body and its discomforts, and the next they are watching a bird, and so fully in that moment that there is little or no pain experience.

So if you have been secretly wondering if your Snoopy is a Sage or Shaman, if Buddy the beagle is a Buddha, or Lucky the cat is a Lightworker, you may be on to something. Don’t let the fur or feathers fool you! There are some pretty awesome spiritual adepts masquerading in animal garb.

••••••••••••••

Kumari is an internationally acclaimed intuitive coach, master healer, best-selling author, spiritual evolutionary, and animal mystic.

Her deepest joy is empowering others to unwrap their innate intuitive, manifesting, and healing gifts. Kumari hosted “Co-Creation Activations” radio show on World Puja Network and the Internet TV program “How to Heal Anything Live.” She is coauthor of the bestselling book Empowering Transformations for Women and just released her new eBook Animal Communication Magic & Miracles: 13 Keys to Deepen Your Bond with Your Pets, Improve Health & Change Behavior Immediately. Kumari is a catalyst for spiritual evolution.

Through energy alchemy and unveiling the human/animal spiritual interconnectedness, she has helped thousands around the globe experience bliss, our true divinity and Oneness. For more information visit www.kumarihealing.com.

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Spirituality

By Lisa Beaumont

“A Course in Miracles.” Sounds a little mysterious, right?

Does anyone really believe in miracles?

I have walked an ever-ascending path to spiritual enlightenment since I was 10 years old. Along the way, the concepts of peace, happiness, healing and emotional freedom became possibilities that I embraced and promoted with gusto.

No matter how much I practiced and struggled, however, attainment of these blessed attributes remained elusive, always just out of reach. After experiencing catastrophic loss related to my husband’s suicide nine years ago, the gulf between what I believed and what had manifested in my life seemed to stretch interminably.

Feeling utterly devastated, I was ardently searching for a way to bridge that gap when a friend gave me a copy of “A Course in Miracles.” Though I had been exposed to this life-changing text years before, I had never taken it seriously. When I was reintroduced to it at that time, I decided to give it an honest look. I had nothing to lose.

The pain generated when my husband died, coupled with menacing circumstances created by his death, had humbled me. I found myself willing to be open to the opportunity to heal that “A Course in Miracles” seemed to offer. Digging into the mind-expanding lessons, I voraciously devoured its delicious offerings. Emotional freedom became more than a concept as hope lit an unquenchable fire in me.

These many years later, I am a witness to the reality and power of peace and happiness to create miracles in our lives. The promise illuminated by “A Course in Miracles” seems too good to be true, but I attest to its certainty:

“We can leave all pain, all heartache, all fear behind if we are but willing to extend ourselves, leaning into joyful, spiritled lives, leaving the ego behind.”

Simply put, this is what you might expect of a sincere study of “A Course in Miracles”: • Be the powerful embodiment of “enlightenment” you are intended to be • Find peace in every circumstance and learn to offer it to a pain-filled world • Identify and uproot erroneous beliefs, while embracing truths that propel you toward happiness • Challenge fear and move past its devastating effects • Be the master of a clean mind, a conduit for positivity and creativity • Take control of ego-centered impulses, allowing spirit to guide you into your highest and best good • BE THE BEST YOU CAN BE!

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Miracles flow naturally from spiritcontrolled lives. The rules of earthbound, limited thinking no longer apply to those who live from the broadened perspectives enabled by “A Course in Miracles.” We are entitled to miracles.

They should be flowing continuously in our lives, based on our need. They are but a breath away.

I am one of many who chose to accept an assigned role as “light of the world.” I am committed to sharing this ancient wisdom in an effort to help awaken others to their own calling.

We hold the power to change the world in our hands. What greater gift can we offer than to shine a lantern of Love on the darkened road to peace? We do not have to live in the dreadful clutches of fear. We can dwell above the reach of terrorism and the horror it projects.

Every effort we make toward the attainment of our own peaceful existence creates an unseen energy that spreads to the wounded parts of our war-torn world. All that is necessary is that we say “yes” to simple happiness as we choose faith and belief over fear. We are not only the creators of our own destiny but the destiny of this planet as well. If not we, than whom?

Perhaps the best assessment of “A Course in Miracles” can be found in the words of Psalm 23, written long before we were given “A Course in Miracles” the book: The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters, He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name’s sake.

Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; For thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.

Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies; Thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over.

Surely, goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: And I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

••••••••••

Lisa Beaumont is a practicing intuitive, medium and lifecoach. Her mission is to help others awaken to discover their own divinity and unique purpose through the concepts outlined in “A Course in Miracles.” She offers a twice monthly, one-hour, online class featuring instruction and inspiration directly from the text.

You may register for this free class by phone, text or email: 702-504-5937 or lisabeaumont@ ymail.com.

Spirituality Acceptance: Love and know that you are okay exactly the way you are.

Honesty: Profound honesty takes us into the depths of truth. Truth guides us to see obstacles, fears and resistance, as well as positive and negative traits, and move past them.

Heal Your Heart: Difficulty and pain helps us to go deeper into our beingness. Releasing and accepting the past, wounds and abandonment experiences is painfully healing. Being stuck in a story of resentments, hurts, scars and dark places keeps us blocked. Set yourself free to be new!

By Arielle Giordano The Goddess Aphrodite/Venus is the goddess of love, sensuality, sexuality and beauty in mythology and ancient cultures. She is everywhere in history, art, statues, music, songs and myths and represents the quality of love and being in our hearts. When we connect with the goddess, she reminds us of love’s tenderness and gentleness, experienced in the openness and softness of hearts.

Love is the most powerful emotion, and its influence is one of the most common storylines for movies, book, theater and the arts. For example, one of my favorite movies is The Matrix, in which Neo (the main character) is saved from death by a kiss of love.

And then there is self-love, as defined by psychologist and social philosopher Erich Fromm, which is different from being arrogant, conceited or egocentric. He proposed that loving oneself means caring about oneself, taking responsibility for oneself, respecting oneself and knowing oneself (e.g., being realistic and honest about our strengths and weaknesses).

Conditional love is defined as having requirements such as doing, wanting or getting something from oneself or another. Unconditional love is love without boundaries, limitations and expectations.

Loving unconditional is accepting the “self” we have no matter what and at all costs. We may not like or feel good about our personality, habits, choices, patterns, strengths or weaknesses. But when we open and soften our hearts in our adversity, we overcome negative self-talk. Difficulty and the constant pulls and pressure of the world challenge us, but we love no matter what the cost. If we do this, there is a subtle shift that happens, and we see ourselves in a new light. Inside our hearts, our being invites us to love and to know the truth. In the knowing, we know that what we are LOVE.

Being the presence of love nurtures and nourishes us in a profound way.

We love as “human” beings when we get out of our own way and live in our hearts. We become an eternal, effervescent fountain of love. Let your heart fill and flow everlasting with love for you and others.

Being Love

Let Go of the Past: Free yourself of the baggage you carry from the past. Be conscious of your thoughts, feelings, reactions, responses and patterns. Don’t recreate the past in your future. Enjoy the golden nugget of life experiences, learn the lessons and move forward in your life.

Dance The Romance And Enjoy Being With People Who Love You! Be with people you love and who love you! Enjoy spending quality time loving you and others.

Intimacy of Being: Connect with your true being in your heart. Be love, which is what you are. Be the love of an open and soft heart. Be in love with you!

••••••••••••

Arielle Giordano’s new book, Dancing with Your Story from the Inside Out, will be released March 2017. With a Masters of Arts and Masters of Education, Arielle is an author, professional dancer, inspirational speaker, certified Essentrics/Aging Backwards instructor, and workshop facilitator. She enjoys sharing her gifts and talents with an authentic style rich in the grace of dance, psychology, philosophy and the expressive arts. Her career includes: provisional psychologist, guidance counselor and substance-abuse therapist. As a Lead Faculty Area Chairperson and Faculty Member for College of Humanities at the University of Phoenix, she inspired students with her creative gifts. She also writes for Tampa Bay Wellness, We Woman and Transformation Magazine.

Arielle offers classes and workshops on empowering women, creativity, and dance. She also offers consultations and private sessions, and she is a certified instructor in the Essentrics/Aging Backwards program.

Arielle has been a guest speaker on radio and television, featured in newspapers and magazines across the United States and Canada. Visit www.dancingfromtheinsideout.com or email agbeautifuldance@gmail.com or call 813-545-7173.

Awareness: Be open and soft in your heart, and aware of your deeper beingness when you are in nature.

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Spirituality of Infinite Being. Because it is ever-present in all things, you only have to focus upon it in order to find that one anchor which never moves in an evermoving world.

by Owen K Waters Infinite Being is the ground state of consciousness behind all things. It does not move. It does not change. It just is.

It is the awareness behind all things. When you become aware that you are aware, that is the silent essence of Infinite Being within you.

Your normal state of consciousness is in constant motion as you experience life in all its ever-changing forms. However, behind that consciousness-in-motion is the ground state of unmoving, singular awareness.

Infinite Being is that which is beyond all things. It is the state of pure being-ness that is beyond all manifestation. It is the silent, unchanging consciousness that is behind all of Creation. It always existed and it always will exist. It is complete within itself. It is infinity in every sense of the word.

Infinite Being is the ‘I Am’ consciousness within you. It has also been called the Absolute, the All That Is, the Godhead, Brahman, the Isness, and the Tao. Because of its unmoving, pure beingness, some people have been tempted to call it a state of non-being. However, non-being is one of those impossibilities of existence. Everything is conscious, even the tranquil, unruffled state of pure beingness that exists behind all things.

Another impossibility is for you to ever cease to exist. You are; you exist as a unique perspective of Infinite Being. You will never cease to exist. In the physical world, you come and go, choosing different incarnations in order to experience the variety that human life has to offer. In between those incarnations, you live in the spirit world while you make sense of all you learned in the latest incarnation. Then, at a soul level, you plan your next adventure into physicality.

On your journey back home to the All That Is, you will always be you. Your consciousness will grow continually along the way until it eventually expands to fill all things and you will once again be back home. You will be back where you started out on your journey into experience.

Infinite Being is the original consciousness behind even the One Creator of all life. Infinite Being formed an aspect of itself that stirred from the silence into action, thereby creating the Creator of all life. Infinite Being decided to express a Creator aspect of itself so that the Creator could decide how to explore all of itself and all possibilities of itself in order to see itself from infinite viewpoints. The One Creator then decided how to manifest the universe and all that is within it.

The terminology used to describe this perfect awareness is simply, ‘Infinite Being.’ It would be less than accurate to say, for example, AN Infinite Being or even THE Infinite Being, as such expressions would suggest that there may be something outside of this one, all-present state of perfect, complete and eternal beingness.

When you become aware that you are aware, you connect with the ground state of consciousness within yourself. There is nothing more balancing than to anchor your ever-moving thoughts and feelings to the ultimate state of personal peace—the unchanging, ever-aware, all-present state

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Author’s Note: Next month, we will explore a complete how-to article called the “Infinite Being Meditation.” It employs the most powerful affirmation possible in the English language, namely “I Am Infinite Being.” This affirmation of the “I Am” awareness within you and your conscious alignment with the ultimate state of Infinite Being takes on an even deeper meaning when you appreciate the powerful silence of that ground state of all consciousness. When you practice the Infinite Being Meditation, you are aware that you are aware and you will better connect with your deepest essence. When you really become aware of that still, silent awareness within you—that state of Lucid Being—you will be in a place that few have found; but a place for which most people yearn.

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Owen K Waters is a cofounder of the Spiritual Dynamics Academy, where a where a free spiritual growth newsletter awaits you at: www.SpiritualDynamics.net. He is an international spiritual teacher who has helped hundreds of thousands of spiritual seekers to understand better the nature of their spiritual potential. Owen’s life has been focused upon gaining spiritual insights through extensive research and the development of his inner vision. For the past 12 years, he has written a spiritual metaphysics newsletter which empowers people to discover their own new vistas of inspiration, love and creativity. Spiritual seekers enjoy his writings for their insight and clarity.

Dear Ms. Spiritual Matters, This is the month of love. I have had some romantic partners. However, my friendships with men only last a few dates. My friends say the problem is that I pick men who have qualities I admire but not anything in common with me. So, the romances fizzle quickly.

I was attracted to a musician who played with a symphony orchestra, although I know nothing about classical music. In fact, I do not like it. On our last date, he said he wanted a girlfriend who could speak about Mozart or Bach. I could not. I liked an accountant because I admired how smart he was with money. I am routinely overdrawing my checking account. The accountant told me my overdraft habit was stupid and absurd. Then, he broke up with me. I dated a youth minister at my nephew’s church. He said he could no longer continue our relationship since I was not a member of any congregation.

I cannot seem to find love. How do I go about discovering the man for me?

Hopeful for love, Edie

When we meet a person who shares our view of life, enjoys being with the people we care about, takes part enthusiastically in activities we love to do, and gives to others in the ways we do, then, we have found a person we could love and who could love us back.

According to Thomas Merton, “Love is our true destiny. We do not find it alone. We find it with another.” You will discover the man for you in the communities you enjoy. Here, you will connect with a person who captures your soul because he shares your hobbies, likes and values. A true mate is one who reflects your soul.

Sincerely,

Susan Schoenbeck holds Baccalaureate and Master’s degrees in nursing from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She is an experienced educator and teaches nursing students at Walla Walla University -- Portland, Oregon campus. She is an oblate of a Benedictine Monastery where she learned centering and contemplative meditation practices. She is author of the book, Zen and the Art of Nursing, Good Grief: Daily Meditations, and Near-Death Experiences: Visits to the Other Side.

Dear Edie, Love occurs when two people come together and recognize they share a common bond.

To find love, we need to know who we are. The people we spend time with tell us who we are. Our hobbies show our interests. Our giving to others reveals what we value. Our prayers disclose our view of life and death.

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Spirituality

by Mark Pitstick, MA, DC One of the most common questions I receive is, “Why hasn’t my deceased loved one contacted me yet?” Other people experience some contact, but ask why there hasn’t been more.

I understand the questions since there is still so much needless worry and fear associated with death and dying. I will use quotation marks around the words departed, deceased and dead since those often have a connotation of an end. Instead, I’ll use more accurate words such as graduate, transition and cross over.

This will help us remember that no one really dies, that life—and love—are forever.

The following keys can enhance your chances of having meaningful “after-death” contacts (ADCs) and help you be more peaceful about living and “dying.”

1) Learn the documented clinical, scientific and empirical evidence that “death” is not an end. This data indicates that life continues on after the body dies. Further, this evidence clearly shows that you will see your transitioned loved ones when you pass on. There’s no question about it.

Duplicated, double-blind, peer-reviewed, journal-published and statistically significant university studies leave no doubt. “Death” is not an end . . . just a new beginning into the next phase of life. This evidence, as summarized in my book Soul Proof, can decrease your fear, confusion, worry and other lower-energy emotions about graduating from this earth-experience. And that, in turn, can help you deeply realize that life is never-ending.

2) Know that ADCs are real and very common. Even though your loved ones who have changed worlds will certainly greet you when you graduate from earth-school, you don’t have to wait until then to communicate with

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them. Just knowing that this is possible is the first step to establishing a real, although different, relationship with them. At least 25 percent of Americans have experienced “after-death” contacts. That number swells to 66 percent for widows and widowers, and 75 percent for bereaved parents. So these contacts are not weird or kooky but, rather, very common.

3) Ask for contact with them. Wise spiritual teachings have reminded us, “Ask and you shall receive.” So ask, intend and pray for a sign. Don’t be timid. Wanting contact with your loved ones who have passed on isn’t sinful or evil.

Yes, I know . . . certain chapters of a book—that was written several thousand years ago and has been changed extensively—warned against consorting with spirits. But those same chapters said it was OK to make foreigners slaves for life. They also warned against the sin of cutting the hair a certain way, planting more than one type of seed in the same area, and going to temple when menstruating.

That last one was a capital offense, by the way. So who in the 21st century is taking those chapters seriously?

4) Upgrade your consciousness to higher and finer levels. To best enjoy contact with your loved ones who have gone on to the next phase of life, get on a similar wavelength as they are. How? Meditate, spend time in nature, pray, serve others and express gratitude. Focus on the positives in your life, optimally care for your body/mind, and finetune your body/mind as explained in my book Radiant Wellness. Doing this regularly helps your energy be more on the same page, so to speak, as those you are hoping to contact. You can’t communicate with their station 101.5

FM—with higher, more peaceful and loving programming —if you’re tuned in to station 0.1 FM that broadcasts negativity, fear and resentment. Make sense?

5) Be aware of subtle communications. Those who feel that they must have a solid and extended contact from transitioned loved ones probably will be disappointed. So realize that their contacts may be more ethereal or fleeting than you expect. Be grateful for contacts such electronic aberrations, lucid dreams and mysterious occurrences. Be ecstatic about gauzy and temporary apparitions, meaningful coincidences and telepathic communications. It’s already been proven that afterlife exists so your contact doesn’t have to involve scientific proof. Enjoy your contacts and know they are often not just your imagination or wishful thinking.

6) Talk to them as if they are present . . . because they probably are. Your loved ones who have crossed over are not a zillion bazillion miles away up in the sky somewhere.

That’s a Middle Age or even earlier mistaken concept.

They are likely very near, especially when you think of them or feel their presence “out of the blue.” So continue your relationship and talk to them aloud or in your heart and mind. Then listen for subtle responses. Remember that many ADCs have been authenticated so they’re not crazy or strange. Talking helps you remember that everything about them—except for their physical body—is very alive and well.

7) Release the pressure. Realize that it’s not easy to communicate from one dimension to another. Can you easily and clearly contact those in other realms? I can’t. So don’t put pressure on yourself or them about it. Worry and fear are lower-energy emotions so avoid those. Instead, replace them with positive expectancy, excitement and enthusiasm.

Don’t become upset if your initial efforts aren’t fruitful. That will just create additional lower energy and decrease the chance of a successful contact. As in many pursuits, practice makes perfect and relaxation assists success.

8) Hold an object of theirs. Some psychics and mediums encourage their clients to bring personal items that belonged to those spirit beings they wish to reach. This makes sense since objects can absorb and retain energy. Holding an object of your departed loved one—in conjunction with the other steps—is another way to enhance a connection with them.

9) Give thanks when any kind of communication happens so it’s more likely to happen again. Gratitude is one of the highest energy emotions that—along with love—is closest to the energy of Source/God. So focus on the glass being half full and have appreciation for even a fleeting or minor contact.

10) Leave room for the “X” factor. The universe is indescribably vast and magnificent. There’s much we humans still don’t know about every aspect of life including the phase after physical “death.” Who doesn’t like a great mystery?

Our five senses perceive much less than 1 percent of reality, so realize there is much that we cannot perceive or even imagine.

For example, contact from your graduated loved ones

may be delayed for good reasons that you can’t understand. Maybe they are still recharging, healing or getting reoriented to spirit side. Perhaps they are very busy with other tasks and are clear that you know love and life are eternal. So don’t get too obsessive about it all and do trust this wonderful Universe/Life/Creator.

11) Use the Facilitated “After-Death” Contact technique. I’ve created a special way to help you enjoy visits with loved ones who have crossed over. Deep relaxation/hypnosis helps you become more calm and clear. I use some of the points outlined in this article to create a holistic experience. For optimal results, do this session in a quiet setting where you won’t be disturbed. Feel free to share it with close family and friends and, if desired, discuss your experiences afterwards. To order the CD or audio download product, visit http://www.soulproof.com/shop/.

12) Assist the SoulPhone® Research. Exciting new technological advances are underway to allow reliable communication with “deceased” loved ones and luminaries from every field of study. The first step is completion of a SoulSwitch® that non-physical beings can manipulate to give yes/no replies. The next device will be an array of these switches to create a SoulKeyboard® that will enable a SoulText®. After that, a SoulStudio® will provide the opportunity for both audio and video contact with those “on the other side.”

The ultimate goal is to create an application to be used on a SoulPhone®.

This research obviously requires space-age quality equipment and staffing. Your assistance—by donation and/or volunteering—can accelerate the completion of this project. To learn more, visit How You Can Help and the websites www.TheSoulPhoneFoundation.org and www.DrGarySchwartz.com Let me know if we can assist you and your loved ones in any way. I know that life on Earth can be difficult at times. However, evidence-based knowledge that life and love are forever can immensely improve every aspect of your life in the here and now.

•••••••••••••• Mark Pitstick, MA, DC is an author, clinical psychologist, holistic physician, frequent media guest and workshop facilitator. He is Director of The Soul Phone Foundation, Vice-President of Eternea, and board member of Helping Parents Heal. Mark can help you know and show that—no matter what is going on around you and even though it may not seem like it at times—this earth-experience is a totally safe, meaningful, and magnificent adventure amidst forever. Visit www. soulproof.com for free articles, newsletters, and radio shows with top consciousness experts. Email Mark at mark@soulproof.com with your toughest questions about life, death, and afterlife.

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Spirituality

by Berenice Andrews The Cosmic Tapestry In the language of metaphysics and metaphor (the agesold expressors of spirituality), the on-going creation of the universe could be compared to the weaving of a tapestry—a Cosmic Evolutionary Tapestry—constructed by a Cosmic Weaver.

Since the very beginning, it has been an immense undertaking! Each one of the macrocosmic warp threads—Life, Light, Love and Law—had to be strong and stable enough to carry the entire tapestry yet remain concealed within the construction.

From the beginning, this has been accomplished. Meanwhile, each one of the microcosmic weft threads—life, light, love and law—necessary to form the entire design had to be interlaced into the warp at the exact time and location. Since the beginning this, too, has been accomplished. Meanwhile, the evolutionary tapestry has slowly developed and the Weaver has ceaselessly labored on.

When the weft design had progressed far enough (not without a few “glitches” along the way!) there came a complex new addition. It was to be a focal point in the tapestry.

There, in the area of the tapestry depicting the Milky Way, with its solar system and its planet Earth, the human segment had been incubating for countless eons, as microcosmic life (being), light (knowing) and love (heart awareness). At last, the threads for the human design were ready. More so than for any other design, they were to be the expression—“the image and likeness”—of the Weaver’s own attributes.

The Human Design We pick up the story at the Peche Merle cave paintings.

These Ice Age masterpieces had already indicated a shamanic

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awareness of a primitive heart connection between people and animals. But the tapestry required many more interwoven evolutionary threads...

Thought Teachings In order for people to become a fully human image and likeness of the Creator, the evolution of a thinking mind was necessary. For this to happen, the centers of consciousness (chakras), which had (probably) started with the Earth’s first cellular life forms, had to develop.

Thus, there had slowly emerged in the evolutionary tapestry the design we know as the root chakra (masculine/ physicality) consciousness closely accompanied by a sacral chakra (feminine/emotionality) consciousness that was predominantly fear-based because physical survival was essential. But, in this splendidly conceived holistic system, despite appearances to the contrary, the solar plexus chakra (masculine/mentality consciousness) necessary for the mind had slowly been making headway.

And always the androgynous (masculine/feminine consciousness) heart connection—the breath of the Weaver—had been present.

The interlacing of life, light, love and law within the macrocosmic threads of Life, Light, Love and Law continued without ceasing. Even when “god was a woman” and the female of the emerging human segment was dominant, the masculine and feminine energies were evolving. In all this time, while the necessary human thinking mind was developing, the Weaver was being expressed by shamans, prophets and other holy helpers (including Jesus, the Great Teacher, Hildegard of Bingen and Julian of Norwich). They prevented the feminine heart consciousness energies

from being lost entirely. And the weaving continued...

On planet Earth, there were many centuries of “learning,” while people formed societies and came together for mutual benefit and mutual destruction. The Weaver incorporated all of it into the tapestry. Then, after humanity had progressed into the beginning of “new thought” and quantum physics, the design in the tapestry became especially complex.

It was the lifetime of Ernest Holmes and many other great teachers who were exploring how “spirituality” could express through mind. It was also the lifetime of Albert Einstein and other remarkable scientists who were exploring how “mind” could express through spirituality. At long last, metaphysics and science were starting to “dance” with each other! After that, the speed of tapestry making greatly increased.

Computer technology began creating a global village out of planet Earth. Huge changes of awareness began forcing people, especially in the Western Hemisphere, into new and often paradoxical patterns of thought. To speed up that process, there was emerging a new breed of thinkers. They perceived that while “mind” might be starting to flourish mightily, “emotion” was still stuck in the ancient ways. These were predominantly expressing the consciousness energies of the archetypal victim, prostitute and saboteur. They had prevailed at least since the Ice Age, and they required healing if humanity was to survive.

With the holy helpers and the Weaver hard at work, the necessary healing work, i.e., the restoration of balanced consciousness energies, has very slowly come along, right into this year of 2017. The “lost” feminine threads are making their reappearance. They are the glorious new heart threads—human heart empowerment and transcendent knowing—that have required evolving past their fear-based, primitive beginnings.

While the Weaver has been ceaselessly interlacing the threads of metaphysics and science into a new design, we have been the recipients of brilliant brain/heart gifts from many thousands of people. Those holy helpers have included Nathaniel Branden, Ken Wilber and the people of the HeartMath Institute. They are bringing us forward into a new, enhanced consciousness about ourselves—who we are and why we exist—on this earth plane.

Compassionate Rationality What these people have been teaching us about compassionate rationality has brought us into a more immediate awareness of the evolutionary tapestry...of which we are an inextricable part...and with its Weaver.

Slowly, we have been realizing that the idea of an anthropomorphic “god” who punished and rewarded “his” children for bad or good behavior (but managed to “love” them anyway) was probably needed in an earlier, less enlightened, state of awareness. Now that idea can be replaced by those indicating a new paradigm.

Dr. Nathaniel Branden For half a century, until his death in 2014, Nathaniel Branden wrote and lectured extensively about the vital need for us to recognize and revere our thinking minds. Supporting his thoughts with sound psychology, Dr. Branden laid down what amounted to a lifelong course of study for those who were ready to learn.

In brief, he taught us to live consciously, to accept and value ourselves, to acknowledge our self-responsibility, to assert ourselves, to function purposefully and to uphold our personal integrity. (For more detail, see “An Inside Job” in the November 2016 issue of Transformation Magazine.) {When these principles are understood in the light of an evolved awareness that we are “already in heaven” (Ernest Holmes), we can see that the human path of rational spirituality has likely been part of the Weaver’s design plans since the beginning!} In his later years, when Branden began to recognize that human heart feelings, especially kindness, might not be amenable to rational analysis or control, he modified his thinking somewhat. Yet, his principles of rational human beingness remain a good grounding foundation. They have become part of the evolving tapestry.

Ken Wilber Into that segment came Ken Wilber. For him, Spirit-inAction has always been what human consciousness is all about.

Like Branden, Wilber has focused on enlarging the context and content of human mind. To that end, he has developed and promoted his Theory of Everything, within which any statement about any reality in this world can be situated and comprehended.

Because he sees Spirit-in-Action as an unceasing forward movement, Wilber teaches us that while we are living now on this planet Earth, we’re also living in a multidimensional and multileveled “post-metaphysical universe.” In other words, human evolution with Spirit leading the way has progressed into its next stage. To support this idea, his Theory of Everything includes a description of our “Kosmic Address,” i.e., our expanded centers of consciousness (chakras) complete with colors. He then notes that the inner “altitude” of each human perceiver determines his/her awareness of the realities, including the spiritual, in each dimension and level (“worldspace”). Thus, the higher we go in our own inner development and understanding the more we can know about ourselves and our spiritual ground-of-being. (Eventually we will see that they are one and the same.) He teaches us that “the history of the entire “Kosmos,” is the history of your very own being and becoming; you can feel it in your bones because you know that is what you are.”

Clearly, Ken Wilber has been, and remains, a mighty contributor to the progress of the evolving tapestry! (For more detail, see any of Wilber’s publications including Integral Spirituality: A Startling New Role for Religion in the Modern and Post-Modern World.)

The Heart/Math Institute Then we get to the work of the HeartMath Institute in which a blend of metaphysics and science has produced new parts in the tapestry.

So far, the work has been splendid. Now we are relearning about the balanced “dance” of the masculine and feminine energies (the androgynous consciousness) out of which we are made. Slowly, the feminine “face of god” is being restored to our lives and to the evolutionary tapestry.

Until now, the Institute has given us the teaching that: • the human heart radiates an electromagnetic signal that

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can be detected by other people (and by animals); • information relating to our emotional state is encoded in the magnetic field radiated by the heart; • the human heart and brain are connected to a source of information that operates outside the classical boundaries of time and space; • the heart receives this information before the brain receives it; • people possess “non-local intuition” that empowers the human heart and brain to respond to future events before they happen; • a heart coherent state relates directly to the power of our intent and produces harmony in our physical and subtle bodies (emotional and mental); • learning how to generate a “heart coherent” state requires much concentration and effort but can be accomplished with attentive breath work and visualization (which are ancient yogic practices); • our higher vibrations naturally generate “heart textures” such as gratitude and compassion, which are two of love’s greatest powers; • with heart-connected thoughts and with an inner stillness, love matures into its highest vibration, whereby we are capable of creating our own joy and fulfillment while supporting others to do the same.

Indeed, these are exciting times with more to come!

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(See Joseph Chilton Pearce, The Heart-Mind Matrix: How the Heart Can Teach the Mind How to Think. See also Doc Childre and others, Heart Intelligence Connecting with the Intuitive Guidance of the Heart.)

Conclusion It would appear that humanity has been slowly coming into an awareness, appreciation and even acceptance of what the world’s holy helpers have been trying to teach for many millennia!

Now we are finally catching up.

And here is the Weaver patiently and doggedly interlacing the threads into what more and more of us are realizing is the tapestry in which we live, move and have our being. In short, we are “getting the picture” that we, as part of an evolutionary design are being created all the time, while at the same time, we are the co-creators of the design.

•••••••••••••• Berenice Andrews is a shamanic teacher/healer. For more details about the healing practices mentioned above, see her book Rebirthing Into Androgyny: Your Quest for Wholeness...And Afterward. See also her articles “Finding Your True Self: A (Sort of) Socratic Dialog,” September, 2014, and “Understanding the Human Energy Being,” June, July and August, 2015 in Transformation Magazine. If you are interested in reading more and/or becoming her student, see her web site: thestonecircleclassroom.com.