I've been thinking about fear. It's everywhere. I turn on the TV news and hear about lack of money, the financial systems coming apart, and people behaving badly. My junk mail has an ominous tone in it, assuming that someone must get elected, or must not get elected, in order to save our schools or lifestyle or community. When I create or make a choice out of fear, I am giving myself no love. By choosing or moving while I'm in fear, I will withdraw and contract. That choice will be a choice … [Read more...]
Guided Imagery for Stress Relief
Modern science has proven there is a powerful mind-body connection. Studies have found 60 to 90 percent of all illness is stress related. Imagery is a vehicle to communicate and listen to what the body needs to heal. Imagery is like a dream, a story being told, where our imagination takes us exactly where we need to go for the opportunity to release stress and heal the body. Imagery offers the body a chance to be in a relaxed state. When the body is at rest in a guided imagery, doctors have … [Read more...]
Charm, Joy in Last Chance Harvey
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It's "Award" season in Hollywood. This is the time of year when movies of "substance" finally make their way into some theaters across the country. Unfortunately, to Hollywood nowadays, "substance" more often than not means dark, depressing, nihilistic and/or violent.But not always.In most years, there are at least a couple of life-enhancing gems that somehow find their way into the mix...and our hearts.Such is the case this year with Last Chance Harvey, which … [Read more...]
Simple Steps to Your Peace
Understand that everyone experiences stress to some degree. For each of us, it is different. What triggers my stress certainly doesn't trigger my child in the same way. The stresses of my parents are not the same as mine. The best part is that we have this beautiful built-in warning system when there is too much stress in our body. That mechanism is our emotional system. If it is out of balance, our emotional system acts like a circuit breaker. When something happens, we experience emotion. This … [Read more...]
Love and the Art of Stress
It's funny to be writing about reducing stress in the throes of the holidays, especially this year. I'm currently unemployed and holiday trees are exuding more light than the job market. The economy is causing more than its share of stress for millions watching their retirement savings dwindle. Stress has this peculiar way of spreading its energy like wildfire, until everyone feels disconnected from the loving arms of Source. Our relationships, finances, careers, governments and nations are … [Read more...]
Listening to the Voice of our Knowing Bodies
In this age of emails, cell phones, satellites and instant messaging, there is one critical form of communication we tend to ignore. Its voice is soft but insistent. Its message is wise and loving; and it can tell us how to lead better, less stressed-out lives. We will find that voice deep inside the wisdom of our "knowing bodies."According to Virginia Matter, a Benedictine Sister, our bodies hold the fundamental truth of who we are - not who we think we are, or who we're trying to be … [Read more...]
Creating Rich Relationships
Our new President-Elect talks a lot about "bringing us together as a nation." That implies that we know how to relate to one another in a unifying manner. However, most of us are not very skilled at creating enriching relationships. Many of us take pride in our sense of independence. We believe ourselves to be separate from others. We often use our sense of "being different" as a protection against being disappointed, hurt or abandoned. We believe "my needs are different, so I … [Read more...]
Reducing Stress
One of the best ways that I have found to reduce stress is to turn the telephone off. Keep radios and TVs off and just enjoy complete quiet for an hour or more each day.After a while, it becomes your oasis of ritual and you become resentful when even a moment of quiet has been sacrificed. It soothes the mind and the body and the soul. You start to feel all the stress fall away from you.I like to light candles and incense to make the room feel warmer and more relaxing. I like to go into the … [Read more...]
The Power of Spiritual Integrity
In beauty is truth. In this simple statement is found all the power that you will ever need in life. Find what is beautiful for you and you will find your own truth. Find your own truth, and you will find your power.When I speak of finding your power in life, I am not talking of power over anyone else. I am talking about the power of the integrity of your own spirit, a power which is awakened by beauty. Then you can accomplish anything that you set your mind and your heart to accomplish.Many … [Read more...]
Stress: What do You Think?
There are many kinds of stress. Physical stress of an illness, injury or being exposed to toxins or allergens. Emotional stress stemming from relationships with family and friends. Work stress like trying to meet deadlines or please a difficult client. Stress from traffic, loud atmospheres, over booking our schedules...it seems to be everywhere. Certain chemicals and hormones are released in our bodies when they are stressed, regardless of what kind of stress we are under. They raise our blood … [Read more...]
Live Stress-free
As the "father" of the concept of stress, Hans Selye emphasized physical, chemical and emotional reactions to stress. In fact all illness, and ultimately death, is the result of total stress. For more than 50 years, the excess stress of smoking was reported as the number one preventable cause of premature death. Obesity has now passed smoking as the number one measurable cause of death. Two-thirds of Americans are now overweight (Body Mass Index above 24), with one-third officially … [Read more...]
News from the Edge
INTERSPIRITUAL PRAYER EVENT - A day of "Interspiritual Prayer for Peace and Fulfillment" featuring six faith traditions will take place on Saturday, Jan. 10, in Stillwater, Minn. The full-day workshop will be hosted at Arcola Mills by Nona Trealoff Bock, a mental health practitioner who recently completed training as a Spiritual Director at the Claritas Institute for Interspiritual Inquiry. Workshop leaders will present faith practices of Christianity, Judaic Mysticism (Kabbalah), … [Read more...]
What’s New: A Glance at New Things to Experience
NEW BOOK - FOOD ENERGETICS: The Spiritual, Emotional, and Nutritional Power of What We Eat, by Steve Gagne (Inner Traditions Intl), $24.95, 562 pages, www.innertraditions.comIn Food Energetics, Steve Gagne shows how to revitalize our connection to food and remedy our physical and psychic imbalances with the wisdom of food energetics. He provides a comprehensive catalog of foods and their corresponding energetic properties and explains how each food affects us at the deepest spiritual level. By … [Read more...]
What a Difference a Degree Makes
When you set out on a journey, the direction in which you are pointed at its outset makes a huge difference where and when you arrive at your destination. If you alter your course by one degree when you begin, where you end up could be altered by a hundred or a thousand miles. So it is when we begin a new year. If you are clear on where you want to go, you will get there far more rapidly and efficiently than if you harbor intentions that are mixed or other than your true choices. To upgrade your … [Read more...]
Ground, Center and Shield
Ground, Center and Shield. What do these things mean and why should you do them?Whether you're working with energy for a specific purpose (prayer, casting a spell, doing healing such as with Reiki, etc.), or just going through daily life, you may want to ground, center and shield as a practice of habit and self-protection. This is especially true for those people who are empathic or are sensitive to energy or work with it. Large crowds, people who project harmful energies, places, things of that … [Read more...]
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