Every time I hear someone blatantly espousing the catch phrase “change is good,” I want to scream out, “It depends on what’s being changed, and then you have to consider all the ramifications!”

When spring finally arrives, we feel a surge of personal renewal from the rebirthing of our long-yearned-for plant life. During the summer we’re glorified by the hues and scents of our blooming flowers; the birds, bees, butterflies and other insects they attract; and our lush trees. For many of us, just working with the soil is inherently pleasing. And in the autumn we marvel at the kaleidoscope of colors, while the crunching of leaves under our feet lends us an inner peace. In essence, our souls, spirits and inner-energies depend on these gifts from nature.

Yet, everywhere we turn throughout the world, we’re rampantly developing our earth, yanking out countless trees and flowers — the source of that seasonal rejuvenation, and even more important, what we rely on to emit our precious oxygen. We’re also changing and destroying the vital habitat and ecosystems that our trees, flowers, birds, bees, butterflies and other insects, besides countless wildlife, depend on for their food and shelter — their very existence. Then we’re burying the soil under slabs of cement to make it easier for us to walk or park our vehicles, and erecting dead buildings. In turn, our waters are getting filled with the debris we’ve generated while doing so.

To escape from that sterile environment, we flock to cabins to see less common birds, butterflies and flowers. But once there, we chop down the dead trees that cavity-living birds depend on, and clear away the country denizens’ life-sustaining fallen logs. We mow our grass all the way down to the water’s edge, destroying the birds’ and ducks’ mating grounds, shelter and needed rest areas during their migration. In essence, we’re destroying the vital habitat and ecosystems for everything we came there to see.

I live in the city, and I’ve filled my front yard with a myriad of native plants that attract butterflies, bees and birds. In back, besides more flowers, I’ve hung up a myriad of feeders to attract countless types of birds, and they do come–even the rare ones, during their migration. I sit on our front porch or gaze out the kitchen window and watch nature’s show unfold. Other times I tiptoe through woodlands, listening to the living earth beneath my feet, and the tiniest sounds of life above.

If all this disappeared, would my heart ever sing again? Would yours? I’ve also hung crystals on my windows, so on sunny days I can rejoice in the swatches of rainbows they cast on our walls. Yet, I doubt if that would suffice.

Is it any wonder why I cringe every time I hear those words, “change is good?” Sure, change is inevitable. But good? In this case, not only us but a lot of life forms had better be able to adapt.

Circumstances have overtaken man. His old languages are not sufficient to describe what is happening, and what is about to happen. To think in terms of a millennium or such tame concepts as “the eleventh hour” is ridiculous. Better that he should realize that he is in an era which might be more accurately described as the “eighth day of the week.” – Idries Shah

For the spiritual traveler, we are living in a complex and unique age – one of tremendous upheaval and great opportunity to solve problems. Turn on the television set and listen to the reports coming in from all across the world: religious wars, effects of global warming, famine, new strains of disease, drug wars, overweight children, advances in technology and people beginning to work together to solve problems of housing, job loss and keeping their family together. This combination of factors has been called the “eighth day of the week” and the beginning of a new era; clearly, until many of these problems are resolved, if that is possible, the amount of unsettledness, fear, anxiety and personal worry for many will continue to grow.

For increasing numbers of people, the personal balancing factor to this stress and chaos, is spiritual development. It must be added to the mix and used with our other capacities to find solutions. Higher knowledge will not replace common sense, experience, hard work or economic imperative. That is not its function. It is an added capacity which integrates and works alongside others.

The present discussion will examine some basic thoughts about being spiritual – and how spiritual capacity can help the traveler deal with this period of chaos and change.

What does it mean to be spiritual?
What does the term spiritual mean? Spiritual is not an easy word to define, because there is an experiential aspect to it, with many levels and dimensions. It’s like love, which is a sublime experience and occurs in many forms; poets and songwriters proclaim its virtues and sorrows, yet, no matter how fine the words, they are only an approximation.

Typical definitions include phrases such as: Spiritual means…of the spirit. This type of definition defines itself using the same word, yet, surprisingly is reasonably accurate. Spiritual does mean of the spirit.

For the spiritual traveler, the soul is comprised of a spiritual energy fabric – the source of life that powers our body, five senses, emotions and consciousness. To the soul, there is a higher and lower aspect, which correspond to different parts of our functioning (physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual); to further complicate things, in some discussions soul/spirit are used interchangeably.

• The goal of spiritual paths, or being spiritual, is to add a measure of conscious spiritual awareness to the traveler’s individual life and day; this knowledge or awareness serves as an enriching, enabling element, so the traveler can complete daily and higher functions.
• For the most part, everyday activity, work and worry block the inner (spiritual) awareness from coming forward.
• All life operates through consciousness, which is awareness and energy on multiple physical, mental, emotional and spiritual levels. Through our soul, which is comprised of this spiritual energy fabric, we create our multiple levels of reality, every moment of the day.
• Each one of us is a creator of reality. We are souls that have taken on a physical form to create our lives and participate in the higher design. In order to do this, we must follow a spiritual path and lead a balanced life.
• A full life is a life where we express all the parts of self and participate in something higher.
• Increased spiritual capacity helps the traveler know what is going on around them; this knowledge helps them on a daily basis.

Characteristics of a spiritual person
Another way to help define spiritual is to examine personality traits of spiritual people. These characteristics help us get a better understanding of what it means to be spiritual in daily life. However, there are problems here, as well. While these traits are accurate, they also can be said to exist in non-spiritual people:

• Spiritual people have a sense of humor and are not “stuffy old farts” – and enjoy laughing.
• Spiritual people are involved in their community and may work/raise a family.
• Spiritual people seek to help others as much as themselves.
• They are free with their time and energy; they volunteer their efforts.
• A spiritual person demonstrates continual striving to get better.
• A spiritual person lives by their conscience.
• They try to live a life that is free of expectation and comparison to others.
• They try to look at different issues from a broad framework and entertain/respect the ideas of others.
• They are not on a power trip or trying to control the ideas/lives of others;.
• Spiritual values are long held and they are genuinely humble.

While the spiritual traveler acknowledges problems in definition and realizes they are seeking an illusive essence, there is another part of the consciousness that offers: “Do not worry – you will know it, when you find it.” Like love, spiritual defines itself – and by adding this capacity to your life, your life will be fuller, more complete and you will be better able to face life’s ups and downs.

Routine change or the end?
Through increased information that is available via television and the internet, the average person viewing the unrest in our world cannot help but wonder: What is going on? Conversely, scientists and philosophers tell us that chaos and order are simply opposite ends of a continuum. Both are natural to life and necessary to the physical order. And so the spiritual traveler wonders: Is this era simply a routine period of unrest, soon to be followed by a period of relative calm?

Consider the following themes and ideas, and how each contributes to our fear and growing anxiety level. Each of which can be found either in your religious/spiritual belief system or on your local television programs, nightly and weekly.

• Many religious and spiritual paths discuss a destruction/ending of sorts, of which many scenarios seem to coincide with this time period. Is this the end of the world? Also, current scientifically based television shows describe “end of world” natural disasters, questioning: Will the world shift on its axis? Will a large meteor hit the earth? Through global warming, will we send the earth into another ice age? When will the next super volcano erupt? Often these shows include prophetic references: Are these events the earth changes that Cayce and other prophets have described?
• Some belief systems hold that previously there have been four destructions of the earth. The Mayan Calendar ends in year 2012. According to Sufi Tradition, the Stream of Life has died and will be replaced with the new Stream of Life. Destruction and rebirth: Are they natural cycles that have occurred many times?
• Recently, across the world, there has been a failure of government and large corporations to solve economic problems in a timely reaction to natural disasters. Also, for the average person, these institutions appear to have been at the center of many of the ills that affect us. As a result, gradually, many are turning away from reliance upon authoritarian-based models to individual-based structures. Slowly, we are collectively realizing that governments/corporations/religion alone cannot save us. We must all work to make the world better and begin this effort with ourselves.
• More people are solving problems locally and are gradually realizing that the world is made better one person at a time. This is the person-centered approach. Additionally, there is growing interest in spiritual paths that emphasize personal development. Better individuals make a better world.
• Personal, corporate and governmental greed, along with religious fanaticism, increasingly are threats to our way of life.
• Honoring the Earth Mother or destruction of the environment: How will it end? Will we pull together or destroy the planet?
• Information explosion: Boon or curse? How do “others” manipulate us.

Understanding Emotion: Love and Fear
By nature, we are emotional – and our reactions to life, through multiple feelings, contribute to a richer, full experience. When something happens in daily life that is painful, we all have a reaction to it. We are multi-level beings and our emotions bring us both great joy and sadness. That is the way we are hardwired and for good health, must honor our feelings.

One model, suggests that all emotions arise from the two basic feelings of love and fear. According to Frank Sant’Agata, all emotions can be traced back to these primary feelings:

“Love and fear are the only emotions we as human entities are able to express. All the others are just sub-categorical emotions. For example, on love’s side there is joy, peacefulness, happiness, forgiveness, and a host of others. On the other hand, fear reflects: hate, depression, guilt, inadequacy, discontentment, prejudice, anger, attack, and so on.

Love and fear can not coexist. Where one is, the other can’t be also. The one will leave immediately, should the other enter its presence. If you find yourself in a situation where you are experiencing great joy, and are suddenly overtaken by fear, the joy is gone! But it works the other way too: If you are terrorized, frightened, or otherwise threatened in any way, all you need to do is turn to the love within and the fears disappears.”

Next time you are watching TV talk shows and the host is trying to convince you of something, evaluate their presentation using the following criteria: Is this a manipulation of the fear-and-reward stick. Do as I say and good things will happen; if not, bad things will happen. Most often, the media, politicians, some forms of religion, and corporations continually use this manipulation. Unless you see the manipulation, it is very difficult to understand and disarm, particularly, when you are up against a formidable societal power structure.

From a spiritual standpoint, we want to become masters of our emotions, so we can temporarily get beyond them. When we are emotionally charged, most often, the quiet, spiritual part of ourselves will not come forward. It will not operate under these conditions.

Daily Practices to Counter Fear
Now that you have me totally paranoid, and frightened about the end of the world, what am I supposed to do about all of this? Here are a few suggestions, from my personal toolbox on life, to help you conquer your fear reaction, and more easily access that quiet part of yourself, which is more peaceful and serene.

• Honor your Fear. Express it in healthy ways – pray, kiss your children, and be grateful for what you have. Ask the Universe/God to help you go beyond your fear and live a full life. Offer up a prayer of gratitude/thankfulness for what you do have and not what will be taken; turn to love and gratefulness. Ordinarily, the mind is so constructed that it can only keep one thought in it at a time.
• Scenarios of the world ending are just that – scenarios or potentials. Unless we collectively change and live according to the Golden Rule, this is one potential. Remember, you can only control yourself and work to make your world/life better.
• Lead a full Life. Participate in the world; try to make it a better place. Travel to the different parts of yourself and follow one of the great spiritual paths to completion.
• Live in the moment. All you have is this moment; try to make it work and be joyous for you.
• Happiness Calendar. Every day do something small that makes you happy. Laugh, tell a joke; make a telephone call to your friends. Research tells us that happy people have many small things they look forward to each day.
• News Vacation. Take a vacation from your computer, the television set and reporting of the bad things on the news. Sit quietly or go for a walk; try to listen to that quiet part of yourself that knows where it is going.
• Pray. Make each moment a celebration to life and offer up a song of gratitude for the opportunity to be here.
• Think Happy Thoughts. And when you find yourself becoming sad, angry or confused, remember that from confusion comes order. One moment we are happy and the next sad. We have the capacity to create our own reality, and a happy traveler thinks happy thoughts. Tell jokes, laugh or watch a funny movie.
• Avoid making comparisons between yourself and others, particularly what they have and you do not have.
• Monitor your expectations about life and people. Often, expectations are a trap that robs us of our happiness and peace of mind (i.e., I expected by this point in my life…or if I followed this spiritual path, I would be free of pain).
• Life can be glorious, but remember it’s a full-contact sport. Chaos and order co-exist and are part of the Cosmic Plan.
• Be with positive people. Be selective with the people you hang around and what they speak/talk about. Positive/loving people are good medicine.
• Avoid alcohol and other recreational drugs. Most are depressants and can affect your mood.
• Balanced living. Keep all things in moderation and strive to lead a complete, multi-level balanced life.
• Replaying old tapes. Avoid going over and over, troubling things that have happened. Some of this is necessary, but most often, we replay it too much.

Conclusions
The more we practice controlling our consciousness and awareness, and seeing the fear/reward manipulation about us, the easier it will become to think more tranquil thoughts. Then, one day we will experience what lies beyond emotions; and the higher consciousness will emerge.

Often for many events in life, we cannot control harmful outcomes; when something painful or chaotic occurs, we must feel and honor the pain. Yet, experience teaches with a little hard work, we can limit fear and worry about potentials; all of us must learn to separate out what is a possibility, and learn to use the tools in our personal toolbox to move past potentials and reach happier, more tranquil states.

In 1969, it was during a BBC interview that Mrs. Beryl Worth, when questioned about her positive personal adjustment to a recent potentially fatal diagnosis of cancer, answered in the following way.

“I think it was St. Ignatius who was sweeping the corridor and his novices came and said to him, ‘If you knew the world was going to come to an end in 10 minutes, what would you do? And he said, ‘Go on sweeping the corridor.’ And that is just what I’m going to do.”

In every moment, life is ending and beginning; life is joy and pain, chaos and peace. With every moment, after we have experienced what we need to experience; we must learn and remember to go on doing our work, and “continue sweeping the corridor.”

From the editor

On this day, as I sit and write to you, it is February 18 and protesters in Egypt celebrated “Victory Day” in Cairo’s Tahrir Square during the 18th day of the populist uprising, which has led to the exile of President Hosni Mubarak and has spread to neighboring countries where similar anti-government campaigns are underway.

Closer to home, at the Wisconsin state capitol in Madison, a throng of people carry on during the seventh day of protests against a proposed bill that would curtail the right of state workers to negotiate for benefits above base salaries.

Protest, it seems, has gone viral. Or perhaps it is more accurate to say that transformation is in the air — manifesting personally and collectively.

It’s been long suggested that this is the age in which paradigms would be busted and rebuilt to reflect the will of the human spirit. The rise of Democracy in the Middle East seems to be a perfect example of that.

A change just as profound is underway here. The outsourcing of American jobs overseas, combined with the rapid collapse of the U.S. housing market — and simultaneous escalation of personal fortune for the wealthiest among us — have resulted in a perfect storm that already has hit our shores. People have lost their jobs and their homes, and states are beginning to cut lifelines to the least among us.

The end result is still ours to determine.

The first step toward the rest of our lives is our commitment to listening to our soul.

Mine tells me to begin to express myself more creatively and become more involved in helping others. By picking up my old brushes and paint with acrylics like I used to years ago. By writing those novels that have been gestating within me. By volunteering regularly.

I hear within that there is nothing to wait for, that there is only now. As a result, my wife and I are close to selling our home in the suburbs. We will be downsizing next month to a townhome on the eastern edge of this magazine’s region, in Madison, where I will paint, write and begin to volunteer regularly.

And I look forward to hearing how your soul’s whispers are leading you through this time of transformation. Submit your story to The Edge so I can share it with our readers. I can’t wait to read it.

A new year has begun. You think, with a sigh, that you haven’t lost those 20 pounds, you’re still working at the same unfulfilling job and you are still in the same power struggle with your wife/husband/lover/child/yourself. Where did the possibilities go?

A client recently said to me, “I have to make a New Year’s resolution to stop procrastinating, but I’m better at breaking them than making them. Is there a trick to making a good New Year’s Resolution?

There is no trick, except in the mind. The only thing that I have to do is question my thoughts about having to be better, work harder, and go faster. What if where I am is exactly where I’m supposed to be? My life is my teacher. What if I’m enough, just as I am? That’s a peaceful thought, and in thinking it, I feel better. If I try to force myself to change through tricks and manipulations, I end up pushing the same rock up the same hill over and over again. So I stop pushing against and start going with myself.

Where did this need to constantly push and bend ourselves into a pretzel of twisted improvement come from? We were told a story. When I was a very little girl, I was told that there was a Santa Claus. About age 7 or 8, a sixth grader told me that Santa Claus was made up. I was confused and sad, but my mom told me that it was true. She told me that I was growing up now and grown-ups don’t believe in Santa Claus. I didn’t find that very helpful, so she told me that I’d still get presents. I felt a little better. When she told me that I could help trick my younger brother, I felt even better. This is just one of the stories I was told. But at least I was told it was a story.

Another story that I was told when I was very young was that I was born originally sinful (read: not good enough) and that if I didn’t try hard to be better, I’d be punished. A lot. No one came back later and told me that this story was also made up. It was. And it was a very scary story for a child. Most of us carry a version of it with us today at the subconscious level. Even if we’ve personally walked away from this particular doctrine, its residue permeates the subconscious level of our culture.

In many ways we’re still pushing, rushing and forcing to get our lives right, to be better, to go faster because no one came back and told us it’s all made up. We’re good enough. Even rush hour is made up. I don’t have to rush to improve my life. When I create calm hour and calm life, I thrive.

As it turns out, I’m originally blessed. When I live my original blessing, my deep sense of inadequacy dissolves. I begin to trust that my own life will guide me and teach me. I begin to trust that when I do what gives me energy, I thrive and become who I really am. I create my life’s purpose with Joy and Balance. And no pushing is needed.

Life happens on its own. It’s a flowing river. All I have to do is turn my canoe downstream and paddle with the flow instead of against it. I can trust the process, this natural flow of life. Instead of living my life, life lives me. It gets easier.

Discover the benefits of curiosity and openness. Learn to live in the flow of the Universe. Suzuki Roshi famously called this ability beginner’s mind. In his words, “We pay attention with respect and interest, not in order to manipulate, but to understand what is true. And seeing what is true, the heart becomes free.”

Here are three simple steps to help you begin:

• Find a quite place to sit, close your eyes and take a slow, deep breath into your diaphragm (visualize blowing up a balloon in your belly). Breathe in through your nose and out through your mouth. Make your exhale twice as long as your inhale. For example, breathe in to the count of 4 and out to the count of 8. Keep it at the same pace. You don’t have to do it perfectly. Human beings do better with practice.
• Take another deep breath in (as above) and on the exhale say in your mind, “I live and breathe in the flow of the Universe.” Repeat this for 5-20 minutes, 2 or 3 times a day, until you feel calm and open. Be curious about what you notice. Rather than judge it, see what you can learn from it. As thoughts, pictures or memories come into your mind, thank them and simply return to your intention statement. You don’t have to do it perfectly. There is no such thing as a mistake. There is only new information.
• Through-out the day, anytime you are about to judge yourself or anyone else, say to yourself (like you really mean it), “I love you, (your name)” and smile.

Trungpa Rinpoche says, “People always want to change their lives instead of using their lives to wake up.”

I was raised to be very frugal, with the mantra of “waste not, want not” being drummed into me at a very young age. Frugality certainly has its place and, with the economy being the way it is right now, I am not suggesting anything different for people. Still, there comes a time when the ideas we are raised with no longer serve us.

I thought of this when I recently read a newsletter sent out by Feng Shui expert Carole Hyder.

In her article, Carole talks about people who save things just in case they might need them later. Whether it is your “skinny” clothes that you might fit into again one day or the tool in your basement you never use but might just need, Carole says the message you are giving the universe is the same. As Carole puts it: “If you keep something with the thought that later (next month, next year, after weight has been lost, after the kids leave, after you retire, next time you go to Hawaii, next time there’s a costume part, etc.) you may have a use for it, you’re making a proclamation and an affirmation that you will not have the money to buy what you need when you need it. If this is your mindset, this affirmation of ‘not having enough’ will surely program itself into your life.”

I think Carole is right. And, I think, this mindset goes way beyond possessions to many other areas of our lives. After I read her article, I thought about other things I have kept in my life “just in case.”

For years after I was positive I would never again practice law, I dutifully continued to keep my license up to date, taking continuing legal education courses that had absolutely no relevance or interest to me. Why? Because of my fear that I might someday need to return to the active practice of law.

I have been known to keep up relationships in the same fashion. Even though both the person and I know that we really have nothing in common, we continue to “have coffee” once a year or so. It is as if we are keeping a friend “in reserve” just in case we might need one. (Not a pretty thing to admit, but I suspect I am not alone in doing that.)

I have seen people stay in marriages or other more intense relationships in the same way. Fear of not being able to find another lover keeps a lot of bad relationships going.

As we enter into an era of massive change and new beginnings, it seems more important than ever to look at what we are clinging to out of a fear that we will not be able to replace it with something equal or better.

As a society, we are clinging to a lot of things that are no longer working. We are afraid to let go.  Many of our most treasured institutions (a job with benefits, a retirement plan, a single family home) may, in fact, not be the norm for people in the new age. We are, as a society, terrified of letting these things go from our lives, even though they are being yanked away from more and more people.

Why? Because we don’t know what is going to take their place. We are afraid that without them we will not have what we need. And, as Carole so aptly described it, “If this is your mindset, this affirmation of ‘not having enough’ will surely program itself into your life.”

I am not certain what the solution is, but I am positive that this mindset is keeping us from joyfully entering into the new era. We are beings who always have enough. We are born into a world that joyfully gives us what we need. Embracing and believing those truths is the challenge of 2012 and beyond.

Growing up, as a child of the ’60s, peace, love and harmony were the words being chanted by the hippies, flower children and all who questioned authority and were against the Vietnam War. I remember thinking how I couldn’t wait to grow up. I knew in my young mind, it was only a matter of time before these youthful rebels would age and mature and eventually be able to take their place in the world of politics and public opinion. With it, they would be able to change all the things they saw wrong with the “establishment” from a place of power and influence and not from the streets.

I recall my excitement, thinking what a wonderful world it will be, knowing that these brave crusaders were blazing a trail before me, their radical new views and opinions becoming a reality. And at that young age, I recognized I would be the first generation to reap the benefits of their efforts. I felt blessed to be born in such an historic time.

Wow, was I wrong.

Often I ask myself, where have all the flower children gone? Where are the young men and women who fought for life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness? Where are the people who burned flags, bras and draft cards, who marched on college campuses and on Washington, D.C., so their voices could be heard? I find it hard to believe the thoughts and values they fought so valiantly for have disappeared and are only a fond memory of a golden age gone by.

Over the past few months, this point has become painfully obvious. As I work with clients and talk with friends, I hear the sound of hopelessness in their voices. They watch as gas and food prices soar. They gaze in disbelief as senseless violence escalates. They stand by helplessly as their jobs are moved overseas and their personal freedoms are taken away one by one. In the end, they are left feeling impotent, because they are unable to control the path their lives are taking and feel powerless to change it.

It’s interesting, because on an individual basis, all we want is to be happy, healthy and live our lives in integrity. We want to know that we will have a job to go to on Monday. We want to be able to feed our children, breathe the air around us, drink the water and step outside our homes. Instead we have become increasingly alienated by the harsh reality of our world, a reality that creates conflicts between how things are and how we would like them to be. We end up feeling dissatisfied and give up all hope of a better, simpler life.

Hopelessness is a hard emotion to experience – one we have embraced at some point in our lives. It seems to happen just before we hit rock bottom, when we can’t see the light at the end of the tunnel or when life seems futile and we just want to give up. It is a natural part of the human condition.

Over the last six months, the feeling of hopelessness has become overwhelming for many of us. Every time we turn around, there’s a crisis. Someone we love dies, we lose our job or our child falls ill. After the situation we are facing is handled, it isn’t long before another challenge steps into our lives and once more the drama begins anew. With this unrelenting pressure, we are left feeling tired and disillusioned – transforming the most optimistic person into a pessimist.

Today, the pressures being experienced are not only coming from our personal lives, but also from a much larger community – the world of big business and the political arena. As we watch what is going on in the world, we may think, “What can I do to change or affect what is going on?” Unfortunately, in our state of hopelessness, the answer we receive is “nothing.”

Because we believe our lone voice will never be heard, we end up conceding to the futility of fighting the establishment. And in our sea of inner disquiet, we realize that we are being coerced into accepting a system that does not support us and the greater good of society. It is from this perspective that we surrender our power and feel we are unable to bring about change.

It is said that it is always the darkest before the dawn. For many of us, the truth is that we cannot even see the light at the end of the tunnel. We are living in the midst of darkness, hoping and praying for even the faintest glimmer of light to emerge. And while this period in human history may not be fun, there are many blessings that will come from it.

The good news is that hopelessness causes us to go within. It forces us to reflect and evaluate our lives. It provides us the opportunity to uncover steps necessary to alter our life course. As a result, we find a strength which helps to build our inner resolve and restore our faith.

We also have to realize that we are not alone. There are countless millions who are feeling trapped, hopeless and at the end of their rope. What the “Powers That Be” don’t realize is that it is only a matter of time before they push us far enough into a corner that we will have no choice but to take a stand. When that happens, it won’t matter what they say or want us to do. When we determine enough is enough the strength of our unity as a whole will make a difference and a change will begin on all levels.

So for all of us, the sick, the tired, the forlorn, remember: It’s just a matter of time. Things can’t keep going the way they are. Change is inevitable. Whether today, tomorrow or next year, we must let the light shine into our darkened tunnels to lift the veil of hopelessness and despair. With this newfound sense of hope, we will be able to walk peacefully through the darkest of night. We will find through our renewed courage, fortitude and sense of self that we will be able to create a world of change.

Dr. Rita Louise will present “Tapping Into Your Intuition” at 10 a.m. Saturday, March 27, and “Ghosts, Spirits & All That Goes Bump In The Night” at 1 p.m. Sunday, March 28, as a keynote speaker at Spirit Spectacular Show at Crowne Plaza Minneapolis North Hotel, 2200 Freeway Blvd., Brooklyn Center, MN. Visit www.spiritspectacularshows.com or tickets at www.brownpapertickets.com. Call 1.800.838.3006.

In our search for the seemingly elusive higher consciousness we find that no matter how far we’ve come, we learn how far we have yet to travel. Stumbling and falling along our journey often will cause pain to varying degrees. Many times we may feel grief because of the ending of a relationship, a financial burden requiring aggressive resolution, or just simply growing away from what you once knew. These things can be rather difficult, but they are needed for our continued progression as we are spiritual beings having a human experience.

They say where one door closes, another is opened. Occasionally we may need to close that door ourselves, because for us to move on to the next level we must first finish our business on the current one. It’s possibly God’s version of having a fresh start, if you will.

We are presented with opportunities to change for the better and it’s always up to us to accept or reject them. When we reject them by choosing to remain in bondage, we may find that our existence can become riddled with difficulty due to our own resistance. However, if we accept them and accept the change that occurs along with the opportunity, we will find the harmonious life for which we’ve been searching. We begin to notice things coming together for us and there will seem to be fewer bumps in our journey when following the plan of the Divine.

We are always guided to the graduation of our next level by the beloved heavenly realm. We can tell because a recent difficult experience may have drawn a tear, but it also has surely drawn more strength in character. For us to move we may have to outright sever the ties that hold us to this self-inflicted bondage. This bondage could be an abusive relationship, financial woes, or any situation that causes pain in our life. There is no sense for us to punish ourselves with this bondage, as we are part of the Whole. By continuing the self-defeating patterns of punishing ourselves, it’s as if we punish our Great Creator and that causes the greatest pain of all, a disconnection from the Source.

So pull yourself away from the bondage and cut the ties that bind! Move on and live the life you are destined — with the freedom and serenity you deserve.

There are many differences between us as human beings. We look different from each other. We think differently. We believe differently. We speak differently. We certainly do things differently. It’s easy to see the differences between us, because they are noisier. The differences tend to bully their way to the forefront. They get the headlines and the top billing on network broadcasts. Differences are the reason we wage war and kill each other.

Differences also are a habit. Over time, culturally we are taught to accept differences, to ridicule differences and even to protest and fight against differences. Our belief in the validity of differences is part of our DNA. Many of us accept differences as the way things are. Can’t change it, so you might as well accept it.

The only thing is, change is in the air.

With wars being fought, with racism continuing to rear its ugly head, with politics again reclaiming its title as the top blood sport (sans wagering), it would be easy to think the world is going to hell in a hand basket. Just turn on the TV. Just look at the fear in people’s eyes as they push their shopping carts down the grocery aisle. For goodness sake, just look at the economy! But I am convinced that the tide will turn and peace will prevail.

The energies at play, the ones that decide whether we arrive in one piece, seem to be outside of ourselves — globally with climate change, deadly earthquakes and hurricanes, and economic meltdown. But I sense that the energies that are at play are rearranging themselves way down deep in the cells of each of our bodies. It’s a microscopic transformation reflected in the outer world.

I can feel change within my bones, and I bet that you can feel it, too.

FOLLOWING THE SIGNS
I follow the signs as they come to me in my personal life. Like the email that came to me last week from the Maitreya people, the folks at Share International who for decades have been predicting the return of the highest spiritual master — yes, he’s a mentor to Jesus, even — in human body.

As you might have already read on our Now (news) page, Maitreya’s principal spokesman Benjamin Creme has announced that the long-awaited return of the “World Teacher” is imminent. Not only has he created a human body through which he now operates in this third dimension, but Jesus and more than two dozen other spiritual masters also are in body, prepared to step in and lead humanity. Maitreya, in a body but not calling himself Maitreya, reportedly has already convened a global leadership conference on economics and has conducted an interview on American television.

Creme and other followers of the Maitreya information say the presence of Maitreya in body, now, does not signal the end of the world as we know it, but “the beginning of a new time for humanity.” They say human freewill will continue to reign, but they plan to provide some spiritual leadership — not global control and dominance — to inspire us to share our wealth, treat every human being with respect, and work together to find new ways to co-exist peacefully.

My reaction is twofold. First, I see this is a sign that humanity may have stepped to the edge of no return. It is no coincidence that this big announcement about Maitreya’s imminent public presence came shortly after the failed talks in Copenhagen over climate change. The inability of world leaders to cooperate and work together for the safety — and survival — of the planet was certainly a siren that not all is well on planet Earth. Did you happen to see the most recent cover of Rolling Stone magazine? The issue introduces us to 17 “polluters and deniers who are derailing efforts to curb global warming.” While I have no personal knowledge whether Maitreya is or is not among us now to help us, it seems likely that if spiritual leaders would choose to intervene, to give humanity a ray of hope and renewed inspiration to cooperate, now is as good a time as any.

MY PERSONAL HOPE
My second reaction to the Maitreya information is that it gives me personal hope. I will confess to you now that, despite outward appearances, deep down I have not always been as optimistic as you might think. At times, my will to live has teetered. I have stumbled emotionally and have wondered aloud, and inwardly, why living is so difficult. And yet, I persevere. I have had spiritual experiences that remain with me constantly, reminding me that what we call life is a temporary reality, that we all are actors playing our roles, and that each of us has incredible powers to create what we need to not only succeed, but thrive.

Many prophets herald 2012 as the beginning of a new era for humanity, and I am convinced that love will become the greatest viral movement the planet has ever witnessed. I believe a tidal wave of love will engulf the planet — and each of us will rescue ourselves.

There will be those who resist. There always are. They won’t accept those who are different. They call Maitreya the Antichrist. They resist efforts to cooperate globally. And some, who believe in the End Times predictions of a final war between good and evil, will lay down their lives believing that they are fighting the good fight.

But the true fight is being waged now within the souls of each of us. We are being called to be authentic human beings. We are being asked to reflect who we truly are in our everyday lives. To that end, I salute you.

This morning I found myself reflecting on personal experiences lived over the past 30 years. Or so. I can now say that fully half my life has been spent actively engaging in the large-scale change of consciousness I agreed to assist before I arrived.

A large group of baby boomers came in as transforming agents, and I dutifully took on my part and those structures within consciousness that were mine to transmute. I didn’t always know I was doing such work, of course, but I can finally see the effects we have had within the whole of humanity. It would appear that breakdowns of long-established institutions of manipulation and control are now gaining momentum, and I give my compatriots a collective high-five for a job well done. However, I’m still holding off on scheduling the big party because we have a teensy way to go before our full intentions have been realized.

Each of us in this group of change agents had our own chunk of the grand distortions to work with and appropriate triggers to kick-start us into the process. The part within consciousness that I chose to heal (transform) expressed itself through a debilitating chronic fatigue and depression so heavy that only a persistent will could effect any movement. I found myself engaged in psychotherapy, channeling, alternative healing modalities, whole-food cooking classes, psychic development, a men’s group, hands-on-healing training, various explorations in consciousness and more reading and discussion sessions than I’ve had before or since. I would expect that some of these activities ring familiar to many other boomers, and I also expect you are as happy as I am about completing those legs of the journey. While immersed in our processes, we thought we just had to get through our painful little somethings so we could get back to our “normal” life. Ha ha. Nope.

As I progressed through the various stages of healing, my manifest reality also began to shift, bringing a painful process of divorce, a complete job change, physically moving several times and ultimately landing in a life where my more apparent work, as it were, is all about change, healing and transformation. This time around I’m more conscious about what I’m really up to, and that feels like a calming relief in whatever process I find myself.

After all this time I can finally grasp that transforming means to change form, and that the biggest challenge at any point along the path has been clinging to a known factor out of a fear that the unknown will bring suffering or death. Now, if something is so uncomfortable in life that one is manifesting depression and debilitating physical experiences, wouldn’t one usually want to change things as quickly as possible? I’m tempted to say “duh,” but I’m writing about myself and I’ve learned that logic is not always guiding the choice.

Fear sucks. Literally. It sucks the Life from our lives for no purpose other than to maintain its own existence. It is an energetic leech that is totally made up of nothing. Fear seems all powerful when we’re in its spin, yet fear has no essential nature. It is not real. The sages have said so, but minds develop strong beliefs that create contractions we name fear and are reluctant to release when faced with emotions, feelings and anything else that can’t be neatly defined, categorized or compartmentalized.

Mind has refused to value things it considers intangible, claiming they are not of substance. What if believing that perspective has been one of our largest bindings? I suspect we are about to entertain a realization that beliefs are actually the intangible items of no substance and what is real are things often discounted as unimportant or even detrimental to life.

We have faced many challenges on our journeys of transformation, but the next round may be the most challenging: surrendering the belief that mind is superior to matter. Getting thrown off that horse may prove to be a painful experience, but it doesn’t have to be. We have already learned from a lifetime of making changes that giving fear any power only prolongs the agony. This time, take a moment to remember the truth about fear when you are challenged to let go of your need to dictate how you think your personal life should function.

Life and the new Living Field are present to help you manifest the deepest desires of your heart and soul, even if you are unable to name them. 2010 is purported to be a year of shifting out of mental dominance and going deeper within to re-establish connection with Living Wisdom. Trust the substantial nature of Life to guide you through the changes and bring full support and everything you need for fulfillment. Once you move past trust into natural receptivity I sense that you will discover the real meaning of freedom. And by you, I mean me, too.

Then, we can party.

When we are born, it would be helpful if we were given an owner’s manual for our body, mind and soul. However, learning how to care for ourselves is part of our life’s journey. But to make it a bit easier for you, let me share five key items that I believe would be included in our owner’s manual.

First, before the list began there would be a disclaimer that explains bio-individuality. Bio-individuality means that no perfect way of eating works for everybody. The food that is perfect for your unique body, age and lifestyle may make another person gain weight and feel lethargic. Listening to your body’s unique messages will lead you to the combination of foods that work best for you.

The body’s owner’s manual would start off with what seems like an obvious one, but one that many people ignore. In general, we need 7-8 hours of sleep a night. Have you noticed that Americans have many tactics to avoid investing in a full night’s sleep? Many people try energy drinks, caffeine and various other stimulants to skimp on sleep. Using caffeine does give you a short-term energy but with a cost over time. Stephen Cherniske, M.S., explains in his book Caffeine Blues that consuming more than 300mg of coffee on a regular basis can negatively affect your liver, impair digestion and increase your cortisol levels — just to name a few common affects.

Next, the manual would state the type of fuel it needs. For optimum health eat whole, natural foods such as greens, whole grains, vegetables, fruits, nuts and naturally raised, clean meats. Would you ever consider putting diesel fuel in your gas engine? Of course not, so why would you run your body on sugar, processed foods and caffeine?

Thirdly, it would state to: drink plenty of clean water. Water does valuable things for you such as flush toxins, cushion your joints and muscles and helps you to have beautiful skin.

The owner’s manual would next discuss exercise. It would state to: move your body regularly by finding a type of exercise that you enjoy and make it a habit. Remember, the amount of exercise you do in your 30s, 40s and 50s determines how well your body will age and move in your 60s, 70s and 80s.

And lastly, I believe another key component would be to spend time relaxing and engaging in activities that feed your body, mind and soul. When people traditionally think of “being healthy,” they think about the food on their plate. But as a culture, we are beginning to realize that health goes much deeper. This area warrants further explanation because learning to relax can have a profound impact on your health.

Your Work
Let’s first address the topic of work. I invite you to think about how many of your waking hours are spent working. Are you working too many hours to pay for a large house, new car, material possessions and conveniences? I realize that there are people who are struggling to support a one-income family, others who work for unfair wages and couples who need to both work to just make ends meet. These are not the groups that I am addressing, but keep in mind that working too many hours without relief can lead to a condition called distress — a negative stress reaction. Distress can lead to physical symptoms including headaches, upset stomach, elevated blood pressure, chest pain, and insomnia. Research suggests that stress also can bring on or worsen certain symptoms or diseases. In addition, people who work too many hours tend to drink alcohol or overeat to try to manage the stress of overworking.

Let me share what I learned from recently downsizing my life in order to work less hours. Before downsizing, I thought I wanted more “stuff” such as home furnishings and more clothes. But what I realized from downsizing my car, home and closet is that what my soul desperately wanted was more free time. This extra time for family and enjoyable activities is what I found made me sincerely happy. I paid cash for an older car, bought quality clothes but less of them, purchased a simpler home and I’m the happiest that I’ve ever been. Another example of the positive affects of downsizing would be a friend of mine who downsized their large home for a townhouse and finally lost a stubborn nine pounds! She is an extremely healthy eater and exercises regularly, but she couldn’t lose the weight around her middle section. Within several weeks of downsizing their home, she lost the weight and has kept it off.

Why do we think we “need” bigger houses, nicer cars and more stuff? Because it is the job of advertisers to put this thought in our heads. Check out the movie Art and Copy for an honest look at how advertisers pray on fulfilling our emotions with buying more stuff. It takes independence and confidence in who you are to live against the mainstream. Wealth is a positive aspect of life, but if it is negatively affecting your health, perhaps consider simplifying your life.

Your Time
Let’s continue with another look at how you spend your time. Do you make time to actually sit down and just relax during the day? Do you have a meditation, yoga or journaling practice? Sadly, many Americans spend hours a day watching other people live their lives on TV. Have you thought about this before? Instead of fully engaging in your life, do you spend time watching others live theirs? Do you yearn to do something new like take a knitting class, tennis or dance lessons? Have you always wanted to take a creative writing course? Do you fantasize about going to college but don’t let yourself take the first steps?

Spending your time in a meaningful way improves your health by making your life more enjoyable. That, in turn, releases endorphins, which have been scientifically shown to improve your health. Less stress in your life will allow you to make wiser food choices, because you aren’t eating to relieve the stress.

A more fulfilling life also improves your health because it gives you another enjoyable activity to engage in besides eating. Have you noticed that food has become the favorite pastime of many Americans? They eat when they are sad, afraid, bored, stressed and lonely. I invite you to become conscious of how you’re living your life. If you took a third-person perspective of your life, would you be really excited to live the life you have created? Has mindless eating taken over your life? Start slowly and begin to listen to your intuition on what fulfilling activities you might like to try. Starting a new yoga practice, taking a class or simply learning how to relax with a cup of tea will go a long way toward improving your health and happiness.

Unfortunately we aren’t born with an owner’s manual, but consider the above recommendations when looking to make healthy changes. Also, many people succeed when in a group environment, so ask a friend to help you stay accountable on these simple recommendations. And perhaps, this friend will join a new class with you!

Have you made any New Year’s resolutions? As Dr. Phil might ask, “And how’s that been working for you?” If you are like most people, New Year’s resolutions do not last more than a few days or weeks. Health clubs thrive on people signing up to begin a new regime after eating rich desserts over the holidays. Yet, many members cease going to the club after a short time, often more exasperated than when they began, compounded by self-judgment for not following through.

So if New Year’s resolutions flop for most people, how can you actually move ahead in your life and make your life better?

The key is to understand two universal principles: First, there are no right angles in nature. People create right angles in rooms and houses, but that was not God’s idea for nature. If you take a walk in the forest, you will see that everything grows and moves in a curve, or gradually. Take a carpenter’s square and hold it up to any plant, tree, or river, and you will find no perfect squares — only curves. Even tall straight trees move out from the earth in a small gradual slope.

Everything changes in steps. So when you decide you are going to lose 20 pounds as soon as possible, you are trying to bypass the natural change process. If you are going to lose weight, you will do better to plan to lose one pound first, and then move on from there. You can target to lose 20 pounds, but you will not do it in one shot. No one ever has, and you will not be the first. (You can get liposuction, but it’s far more natural to melt weight as you shift your consciousness.)

Instead of going for your New Year’s resolution, go for New Year’s evolution. You change your life by shifting your thoughts, which usually occurs in stages. Sometimes you might have a quantum leap and everything changes overnight. Such a change is wonderful when it occurs, but it can rarely be engineered. People who try to make quantum leaps usually have to go back and build their consciousness to match the change they are trying to make. Everything comes to you not by forced action, but awakened mind. When your consciousness grows to be equivalent to your goal, the object of your intention will come to you naturally and often easily, and you will really own it.

The second universal principle that will help you make real change is this: Growth occurs not on a ladder, but in a spiral. If you are trying to walk or drive up a steep mountain, you will generally do better to ascend by either circling the mountain, rising in progressively smaller circles, or by way of a switchback, which goes back and forth in gradual movements. Then you will not be exhausted when you arrive, and you minimize the chances of plummeting down a steep precipice.

Remember, too, when making your New Year’s resolution or evolution, that the premise from which you begin will determine where you end up. If you begin with a faulty premise, you will not get anywhere. It is said, “Logic is a systematic method of coming to the wrong conclusion with confidence.” You can indeed get wherever you want to go, but if the thought that originally drove you is erroneous, it will not lead you to anywhere you really want to go.

If, for example, you feel desperate to find a soulmate, have a baby or win on “American Idol” to prove your talent, and you decide that you are going to do it this year no matter what, you are setting yourself up for disappointment and sabotaged results. Any act that proceeds from desperation will only increase your sense of desperation. Never do anything because you feel desperate. Desperation is an interpretation, not a fact. Act from strength, wholeness, and confidence, and you will attain results far superior to any that desperation has ever wrought.

If you would like a soulmate, baby or the American Idol title, proceed from a sense of joy, fullness, celebration and vision. Know that you can have what you deserve, but you have to own it inside yourself first. You have to know that you are worthy of your goal and that the universe can and will provide it without you having to struggle, strain, or sacrifice to get it. Then the good things your heart desires will show up as a natural byproduct of your consciousness, not a substitute for it.

One final note on your goals for the coming year: Seek experiences more than objects. In addition to your “to do” list, or instead of it, create a “to feel” list or a “to be” list. In wanting a new car, relationship partner or promotion, you are really seeking to feel the good feelings you expect such things and events will bring you. If you got the person or the thing but not the experience, you would still feel hungry. But if you set your intention on the quality of experience, and that comes, the way and form in which it arrives will not be important. You will succeed because of something that happens inside you, not outside.

We are on to a bright new year — the best ever. Life always goes from good to better to best to off the charts. May this year bring you all of your heart’s desires, one blessed gift at a time. You will have everything you want, and it will come in the perfect way.

Gary won’t talk to Mark. Kim submits to Gary. Doug no longer speaks to Mark. Paul just recently ended his friendship with Mark. Mark’s wife left him a few months ago after 30 years of marriage. No explanation. Mark, a soft gentle Piscean type, is bereft and confused by the emptiness in his life. Reaching, yet lost.

Paul no longer speaks to Don. Sherri has Don in her cellphone as “Sicko” and no longer takes his calls. Sherri’s boyfriend Charlie puts up with Don’s intrusive, assumptive calls. Charlie beat Sherrie. Sherrie went to the women’s shelter where they took pictures.

Bruce beat Peggy. One hundred stitches on her face, bruised ribs and elsewhere. Bruce will be doing time in jail. Peggy will finally let go of Bruce. While I don’t condone one person beating another, I don’t condone the choice to stay. Peggy’s previous husband beat her, as well. I have observed ongoing choices on her part to condone abuse towards animals, to disregard the red flags of abuse, to choose to stay in a destructive situation rather than to choose self-respect. Peggy has a space around her now where there once was destructive behavior. What will she fill it with? Sherrie went back to Charlie, bruises, body aches, pains and all.

Barb and Harlow are no longer speaking to their friends Bob and Myrtle. Another old-timer neighbor successfully drove a wedge in between the longtime friends. An element of darkness held sway there. Barb commented that Myrtle was two-faced anyway. The couples used to meet daily for coffee in the afternoon. I’d see one couple driving over to the other’s house when I was out for walks. There is a space now in all of their lives.

The mailman still speaks to everyone. Except when his girlfriend, who has a dark bent, intervenes between him and those he can trust.

This area where I live, a poor-man’s up-north ’70s development, called Enchanted Lakes, just as easily rings to Disenchanted Lakes. This state of impasse among many of the relations is a remarkable space to be in. A light-hearted comedy in a sense, which apparently will shift at some point as an evolution of the energies occurs. Here is what the Divine Beings apparently guiding my life have to contribute:

“We want those who seek Higher Light to recognize that the Self is stable in all situations. Whether in a state of connections to others or disconnections from others, the Self is whole and intact. It is by the pulling apart that one learns who one is, even if it is painful, unfamiliar in the process. The Self is meant to grow. Impasse with one person can lead to impasse with another. It is a state of disease, socially. On the other hand, ‘passe’ with one person can lead to ‘passe’ with another. Change and heal the connections in your lives, and by doing so you will be contributing the influence of growth and healing to others. This particular region that Felisha speaks of will eventually grow and change. Gary and Kim have already gone through a healing process, that while not public, has permitted more growth in their marriage, which was at the point of falling apart.

“Continue to grow, and contribute your growth as a gift to the planet, to the community of friends you share. What you have to contribute among others is your light of growth. Share equally and joyously. Make fun of the growth process, of its difficulties and pain. Humor is the ease that gets you through. Open up to the higher realms. We are waiting for intervention opportunities, real moments when we can download light and transformation and change. Sometimes this healing light only comes through a healing process, such as a crisis; but it can be opened up via light vials, accessed on a regular basis, sparing you the difficulty in transition that many of you share in common. Open up to the this light on a regular basis, call it in, share it with others, and move through your growth patterns in a joyful, voluntary way. This is one way to enjoy growth, by embracing life and the change that it has to bring.

“Thank you for this opportunity to share. We look forward to connecting with those seeking Higher Light.”

Are you ready to move through any impasses around you? What will you fill the space with? The time is now to put down new roots and plant for a preferred future, the time is now to live in a preferred moment. What does your preferred moment look like? Allow yourself to receive it, to open to the gift of a new vibration in your being. It is available, waiting for you.

To renew and reinvent our lives, we need a plan! Here it is: a seven-day process to work with over and over. This plan incorporates physical, mental and spiritual work. Use the whole seven-day process, or choose any one of the days to work with as you create the life you want.

DAY 1: RE-CHARGE A Day of Commitment
Focus on changing your mind-set: This is the day to change the thought patterns playing in your mind. Get rid of phrases such as “I can’t.” “Why does this happen to me?” “Things always seem to go wrong.” “After three bad things happen, life will change for the better.” Insert thoughts such as “I can do it.” “There are creative solutions to any problem.”

Create a visual logo that works for you: Imagine the ocean or the lake, waterfalls, butterflies, sunshine, moonshine – whatever works for you. Note the image or images that work for you, and if you begin to feel negative, simply bring one of your positive images to mind. Your image is your logo for positive energy.
Tools for Day 1: Motivational books, music, dance, art, all that is inspirational.

DAY 2: RE-VAMP A Day of Planning

• What changes do you need to make in your home?
• What changes do you need to make in your office?
• What changes do you need to make in your exercise routine, OR do you need to begin an exercise routine (with doctor’s permission of course)?
• What changes do you need to make in your diet?

Tools for Day 2: A notebook and pen, or computer.

DAY 3: RE-CYCLE A Day of Throwing Out
Choose an area of your home, your garage, your backyard, and clean it out thoroughly. Have three boxes set up: one for things to keep, one for things to repair, and one for things to give to others. The hard work begins. Do not tackle your whole house on this one-day. This seven-day program can be repeated again, and each time you can choose a new area. You can repeat Day 3 every week for six weeks.
Tools for Day 4: Boxes to sort things in, vacuum cleaner, broom, dust rags, music to cheer yourself up through this hard day of work.

DAY 4: RE-FRESH A Day of Refreshment
This is a day of reward. If you cleaned out your office or home on day 3, then refresh this space with a new plant or bunch of flowers. Give yourself a present. Open the windows and make sure the light can shine in.
Tools for Day 4: A present for yourself.

DAY 5: RE-TURN A Day of Spiritual Contemplation
This is a day to contemplate your spiritual values and re-turn to the values that are important to you. This is a quiet day of soul searching. In the past two days you have re-cycled some of your belongings and you have refreshed an area of your house or office: you did a lot of physical work. You were involved with a lot of “things.” Today, focus on the soul level. Sit and connect with the God of your understanding and ask questions:

• What is the meaning of my life?
• What am I here to do in this lifetime?
• What am I proud of and what advances have I made in my life?
• Which areas of my life need work?

This is the day to take an honest look at the way you spend your time, the people you associate with, the worries that occupy you too much, the fears that you allow to control you, the anger you may have towards others.
Tools for Day 5: An honest heart and an inquiring mind.

DAY 6: RE-INVENT A Day to Change Patterns
Yesterday was an assessment day. It was a hard day. Today is a day to make plans to change the parts of your life that need changing.

• Do you have health problems you are not facing? Make an appointment with a health professional or get back to taking care of yourself in the way that you know is best for you.
• Are you allowing the problems of others to dominate your life? If so this is a day to make plans to change your schedule. If you are a caregiver, find creative ways to get time off. And do not say, “There is no way.” Find out what your community has to offer. If the person you are taking care of does not want to receive care from others, then you must be strong and explain that you have to have time off.
• If you spend all your time compassionately listening to others, remember that you will burn out if you do not have time for yourself. We all know this, but we do not always allow time for ourselves.

Tools for Day 6: A notebook, pen, computer, a telephone, appointment book.

DAY 7: RE-INVEST An Investment Day in All That is Positive
While I hesitate to use the word “re-invest” during this financial crisis, it is time to think about how to best spend your money, how to best spend your time. You have spent an entire week taking a look at your physical and spiritual life. Today is the day to take a good look at your financial life as well. Another coffee for five dollars may not be the best way to go. A lot of takeout food costs money. Are there ways to organize your cooking so that you do not pick up as much food?
Tools for Day 7: Your financial records, your checkbook, a willingness to make changes.

Okay, let’s get started and change our lives.

A coaching client told me about a friend of hers who was freaking out because “the economy is never going to recover.” I suggested to her that her friend was suffering not from economic distress, but simple nearsightedness. Of course the economy is going to recover. Thinking that the economy will never return would be like standing on an ocean shore watching a wave break on the beach and anxiously exclaiming, “There will never be another wave!” There is always another wave, and the tide always comes back in.

Everything in the manifest universe functions in cycles. It’s all about frequency and vibration, crests and troughs. Economics is no exception. The economy goes up and it goes down. The stock market goes up and it goes down. Real estate goes up and it goes down. For every up there is a down and for every down there is an up. To believe that when it is up it will stay up and when it is down it will stay down is quite the short view.

People who recognize the wave nature of life are not disturbed when things change. Smart people do not resist or complain about change; they capitalize on it. In the 1970s during the “gas shortage,” people were selling their big gas-guzzling cars and buying little economical ones. At that time I read a newspaper article about a fellow who was buying Cadillacs for ridiculously low prices because he expected that the time would come again when gas would be plentiful and there would be a demand for Cadillacs. Sure enough, the oil companies “found” more gas, the price of fuel plummeted, and the price of Cadillacs soared. The man was an entrepreneurial visionary.

Translated to today’s market, we might say that a visionary would recognize there are other sources of energy besides oil, and place his or her chips on the tide of commerce flowing in that direction.

In the wake of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, lots of people were afraid to fly and travel, and the tourist industry suffered badly. Many tour agents threw up their hands and found other careers. In the spring of 2002, I read an article in a Hawaii newspaper about several tour agencies that were thriving. In the midst of the doldrums following September 11, they were planning trips for the following spring. They realized that at some point people would feel more confident and want to travel again, and these tour agents would be waiting for them and have trips for them. That’s exactly what happened. While the tide of tourism was out, they were preparing for its return. They were the only agencies thriving at that time.

One of my favorite models of vision in action is portrayed in the film, Tucker, the Man and His Dream, based on the true story of Preston Tucker. In 1947 Tucker developed an automobile many years ahead of its time, with a range of features that have since become standard equipment. Because his invention posed a threat to the auto manufacturers in power, Tucker was squashed and falsely accused of crimes. In the midst of his trial, Tucker doodled. When he was acquitted, Tucker showed his wife the sketches – schematic plans for a new kind of refrigerator with the potential to revolutionize the industry. Tucker wasted none of his precious time. Why bother with a trial when you can be creating things that will change the world?

I am also inspired by creative entertainers who see beyond appearances. Mel Torme, for example, wrote “The Christmas Song” (“Chestnuts roasting on an open fire…”) in the month of June, when there was no Christmas, snow, fire or chestnuts. Oscar Hammerstein, partner in the legendary musical team of Rogers and Hammerstein, composed his magnum opus, The Sound of Music, while he was dying. While his body was withering, his spirit was soaring. He was not distracted by the appearance of limitation. While one tide was going out, another was coming in.

An economic downturn, or recession, is an intrinsic piece of a greater progression. Abraham-Hicks notes that, “This economy is planting seeds of desire, intention, and invention that will make the economy stronger than it ever was.” Likewise, Native Americans would purposely burn down certain forests because the area needed cleansing, and the forest that grew back would be healthier. There is a wisdom in apparent destruction, which paves the way for ultimate construction. I once saw a sign posted at a road construction zone, “The inconvenience is temporary. The improvement is permanent.”

We are going through a period of temporary inconvenience. We can moan, complain, criticize and blame, or we can take a breath and flow through it. Just keep watching the ocean, and you will find that the next wave is not far behind the last one.

Many years ago, Agnes Whistling Elk and I were talking about how difficult it is for people to take their own power in today’s world. I was looking at all of the pragmatic aspects of our complicated modern world, trying to understand where the individual might actually fit in amid all of the chaos and confusion with which we surround ourselves, the demands on our time that are unreasonable by anybody’s standards. Agnes always says that people were never intended to live with the amount of stress that we face in today’s world, yet here we are.

Agnes wasn’t having any of it. She simply looked at me in that way that she does, and she said, “If you speak to a person who is standing in a powerless position and ask her to take her power, she becomes frightened. She becomes frightened because you are implying change. She must take a step into the mystery of the unknown to become powerful.”

There is great truth and great understanding of modern human nature in what she said. We are frightened of the unknown because it has become so unfamiliar to us. We have become so frightened of the unknown that we would rather languish amid all of the stresses of our lives than step outside of the chaos and look at what other possibilities exist.

Why is it that we have grown so afraid of the unfamiliar, especially when much of what is “familiar” is exactly what is blocking us in life?

What has happened to the great human spirit of discovery and invention that has brought so much good into our world?

These are not questions that anyone can answer for you. They are questions you must answer within yourself. Then, when you find yourself standing in a powerless position, you will know what you must change in order to become powerful in your life.

It is fundamental to the shamanic world view that power is born from the unknown. If you sit in front of Stonehenge or the great pyramids of Egypt, you understand that you are in the presence of great power, power that comes from an unknown source, yet power that is as undeniable as it is mysterious.

But you don’t have to travel to Stonehenge or Egypt to find the mysterious world of the power that already resides within you. All you have to do is become willing to venture into the unknown wilderness of your very own self, the place within where your own personal truth resides. This is the place where you are one with the Great Spirit and all of life, and what a tragedy it is for the world that it is so unfamiliar to us.

When I first found Agnes Whistling Elk and Ruby Plenty Chiefs – and through them the other women of the Sisterhood of the Shields – I was filled with fear. In the beginning, I so desperately wanted change, but it was the thing I feared the most. I was terrified of the unknown. As my training progressed, it became imperative that I lose this fear, that I learn how to grow beyond it and stop using it as my crutch and excuse for staying stuck in a life I did not want. My teachers showed me that if I would become willing to let go of my fear of the unknown, I could move into the sacred mystery, where the miracle of existence emerges from the darkness and transforms us into the higher spirituality that we so urgently want.

When you are ready to bring much-needed change into your life, you discover that it is all a matter of perspective. You can choose to see change either as something to fear or as something to embrace, a gateway to discovering the seeds of success, harmony and your own potential that are already within you. If you want to change, you must look at your fear of change for what it really is: Your own self-imposed limitations. I certainly had those self-imposed limits when I first embarked on the pathway of shamanic discovery. What a huge change that presented to me!

In order for my work with my teachers to be successful, I was forced to change how I saw myself and what I could really do in life. I had to go within myself and challenge all of my notions about living. If I thought I couldn’t do something, that was exactly the thing that my teachers demanded I do. I had to change from someone who wanted power to a woman who was ready to take my own power. In the process, I learned that if you want to have power in your life, you must make a place within you for power to live. You do that by letting go of your fear of power, letting go of your fear of the unknown, letting go of your fear of change. As long as you are holding onto fear, there really isn’t room for much else.

Power is something that you build through having faith in yourself. When you back away from your power, as I did so often when I began working with the Sisterhood, what you are really doing is expressing a total lack of faith in your own capacity. But how will you ever know what you are truly capable of doing until you take the risk and try?

As you move toward fulfilling your own capacity, you find that you move toward embracing change. That is when you step into the mystery of the unknown, simply by doing something you didn’t think you could do.

What are you sitting on in your life that means more to you than everything else, that you are terrified, perhaps, of even acknowledging as possible? Take a really good look at all you have already done in your life. You will be amazed at what you have been able to accomplish just by putting one foot in front of the other and getting done the things you needed to do. Look at all of the changes you have already faced and embraced in life. Then you can recognize that change is only frightening when you stand on the edge and do nothing.

If you want to move forward in your life, use the strength you have gained and what you have learned about yourself from what you have already accomplished and let them energize you for the changes you are about to make. Then you can replace your fear of change with your passion for what you want to accomplish and become a person of true power.

Comets are known to be harbingers of change. The comet Lulin has been making an appearance to us on Earth. With a green, gaseous atmosphere, its symbology speaks to the heart as we begin to lead with our hearts, choosing that which supports the whole, not just the few. By leading with our hearts, we can merge opposing forces, and peace and cooperation can become the foundation for the new.

In mid-February the comet was conjoining Saturn and opposing Uranus. Both of these planets are important, as they continue to oppose each other throughout 2008-2010, creating a pull between the old ways and the new, all the while encouraging the wise use of discipline and moderation as we rapidly transition into the new.

I find this interesting, as I have an inner planes connection (and an ordinary reality one as well) with a man halfway across the world. He embodies the essence of Saturn (wise, responsible, disciplined) and I embody the essence of the planet Uranus (sudden change, new thoughts at lightning speed, intuition). We have had an amazing and miraculous long-distance relationship, which has led to great change for both of us. We have come to know and understand some great differences in our backgrounds and experience. There have been so many spiritual gifts and lessons throughout our connection, that I plan to write a book about it.

Recently my guidance informed me that because our Divine Selves (my friend’s and my own) have merged as one, we are assisting the planet by having laid the energetic pathway of the joining and cooperation among these opposing forces (the Saturn, Uranus opposition). The end result will be the unification and opening into Oneness, from diverging spectrums of experience; using the best each of these planets (energies) has to offer, on the way towards resolution.

I find it most important at this time that we each realize that we are connected in Oneness, through the “field” that many physicists write about. This field contains all of the thoughts from every person on earth. And when many of us are thinking the same thing, these thoughts become the dominant consciousness. It is only when we decide to make these thoughts high and empowering that we can shift the consciousness of the masses to higher levels. I do believe this is happening, with the preponderance of spiritual growth and teachings as of late.

So, my plea to each of you is this: Let us all raise our consciousness of each and every thought, word and deed sent out into this field. Let us together raise it even higher, through faith, knowing without a doubt that the challenges befalling humanity at this time are for the betterment of us all. Only by seeing that our security does not lie in the material world, but rather in the spiritual connections and growth during these times of chaos and change, will we move forward into our new world of peace and prosperity for all.

Our personal and collective duty is to have faith that all is well and in Divine Order. In this process of change, add only the highest words and thoughts to the “Field,” knowing that this is your contribution to the whole. Everything we say, do and think is recorded for eternity in this field we share. So, please, as you add your contribution, make it a high one, filled with love and light.

As Martin Luther King Jr. said, “Faith is taking the whole step, even when you don’t see the whole staircase.” We are collectively rewriting reality, inventing our new world, and at the same time integrating, within and among, the various spiritual and physical dimensions we inhabit. Let’s do it well.

Many religions and spiritual practices say that the life we are living in these bodies and on this planet is an illusion. It is said we are spiritual beings having a physical experience and it is all a dream. Our reality is that we are all one with God and are just creating this dream/nightmare ourselves.

If we believe this to be true, we should be able to take a good look at one of the illusions inside this great illusion, our economy.

Oh boy, that is a touchy subject right now isn’t it? That word is practically on par with The Boogie Man. Many people see the economy as this out of control monster that is coming to get us and is making our lives miserable. As if it has a life of its own. But it doesn’t. Not really.

It is a set of agreements we all made, consciously or not, as an exchange of energy. I’ll give you this and you’ll give me that – and that is a fair exchange. Somewhere along the line it got away from us. Our collective agreements added up to something we don’t quite recognize and are more than a little afraid of.

Think about it this way, when we created money, it was a representation of something we gave value to, such as gold. This amount of gold was worth this amount of paper with these markings on it. It was a little more solid and “real” at that time. But then it got more interesting and complicated. Instead of gold, something we could hold and felt real, we gave value to things like “shares of a company.” Hmm, that’s a bit trickier to hold onto. I get to own a small part of a company and it’s worth this much money. Ok, still not lost yet.

We also created credit and loans. You need more money so I’ll lend you some of mine to use, but you have to pay me back a little more at the end – and that is what we’ll call fair. So now we were spending money we didn’t actually have and having to pay back more of what we didn’t have in first place. This is sounding a little crazy. But we kept it up. And we kept deciding things were more expensive based on how many people wanted it. If more people want this, then we can charge more. Ok, fine.

At some point this got completely out of control. We actually just started printing more money, not backed up or based on any solid thing we call valuable. Then the value of our money went down because there was too much of it in circulation. Does anyone else remember learning about “imaginary numbers” in grade school way back when? I think our whole economy is now based on imaginary numbers.

My point in putting this all down in terms that sound a little like a Monopoly game is to show that we are making this all up – and we have from the beginning. Now we have become victims of our own illusions. Everything about our economy and how money is handled in our society and around the world was started by decisions by us as individuals and agreements by us as a collective. We have turned it into a monster that feels completely out of our control. Like Godzilla rampaging Tokyo. I believe that by taking a step back and looking at what our higher selves may be trying to tell us at this time is a healthy response to the craziness all around us.

In this time of change, our illusions are breaking up. We are no longer able to hold them together – and I don’t think that is necessarily a bad thing. I know it is difficult and feels very real if you have lost your job, but feeling like a victim is never an empowering place to come from. If we can look at our economy as the self-created illusion that it is, it will cease to have the power of fear over us. We can see that it is a collection of decisions made by us as a collective, and it has been draining our energy and pulling us further and further away from out deeper spiritual truths.

Perhaps our higher selves are using this financial crisis to show us the folly of buying into our own illusions too deeply. A Course in Miracles says, “What God creates is eternal. What the ego creates is not.” If we all take a step back out of the fear we have generated with our collective illusion, perhaps we can change it, shift it, heal it – and ourselves.

Change and transformation are always in process to evolve us. How we respond to changes will determine how we evolve. We are now living within the 2,000-year cycle of the Age of Aquarius, and are amongst highly accelerated times of personal, emotional and spiritual growth. These evolutionary shifts have been prophesied by many ancient philosophers.

To help embrace the shifts being revealed, I am comforted each day by these words of wisdom of The Serenity Prayer magnetized to my refrigerator door: “God, Grant me the Serenity to accept the things I cannot change, Courage to change the things I can, and the Wisdom to know the difference.”

We cannot control economic trends, government shutdowns, energy shortages, war and catastrophic changes to our earth. As these events happen, we must consciously stay neutral and allow these uncontrollable changes to unfold. Much of the chaos we see is actually an opportunity to recreate something new. Collapse and corruption rise to the surface to be revealed, healed and learned from. Like a river, chaos has its destination and purpose. It helps to shift our priorities from material obsessions to spiritual enlightenment. This may be the catalyst needed to rebuild our institutions based on truth, integrity, equality, sustainability and empowerment for the greatest good of all.

It’s easy to cling to what is safe, secure and familiar. It takes “courage to change” by releasing fears, speaking our truth and following our passion. Most of humanity is living in a trance and must be un-hypnotized from collective subconscious fears and limiting beliefs that keep us small and stagnant. Life’s greatest possibilities are realized when we trust the calling of our hearts, the whispers of our intuition, and surrender to the synchronistic flow of the Universe.

Changes in our global and individual evolution cause us to either fight and keep old patterns that no longer work, or take flight and open up to new possibilities. To thrive, we must merge the high vibrational thoughts of our mind with the authentic emotions of our heart. We must use our voices and take action. Serving humanity with compassion through giving and receiving love is essential. Have you listened to the wisdom of the children? They are here to help us evolve. We must take time to breathe and remain in the present moment. We must find our people, join in community, and rise up to the challenges of balancing our Earth.

To rebuild with new visions, we must have the serenity to embrace change with wisdom, courage and trust. This is critical for our own happiness and for humanity’s evolution and survival. My hope is that we see change as a welcome tap on our shoulder to learn, grow and evolve.

The time is now to seize opportunities to live joyfully and realize our life’s greatest mission on Earth.

In early 2008, I decided to make the choice to retire from my day job. My plan was to do so at the end of 2009. I have been a social worker for 35 years, and although social work has been good to me – and hopefully, I to it – let’s face it: 35 years is long enough. Then, somewhere in 2008, the “economic downturn” happened, with its far-reaching effects on the nation, the state, and, of course, my job. A great deal of what I like to call “the sky is falling” energy. Suddenly, my choice to retire from a job with an adequate salary, and decent health benefits, didn’t seem as desirable.

I started to change my focus. I started to give my attention to the catastrophic thinking that is attached to the situation.

But how long have we known that something of this nature is in the wind? Way back in the 1960s, the 5th Dimension started to sing to us about the Age of Aquarius (“Aquarius/Let the Sunshine In”). I know because I was going to college at East Carolina University in Greenville, NC; on my way to and from Goldsboro and Greenville, I used to sing along and try to hit the high notes. The 5th Dimension did not elaborate, but moving into the Age of Aquarius means moving out of the Age of Pisces. Piscean energy can be dualistic in its expression, with an emphasis on opposites: good vs. bad, right vs. wrong, me vs. you. Aquarian Energy is revolutionary energy with a strong humanistic component.

Then we have the Mayan Calendar, which begins in the year 3115 BCE and ends in the year 2012 CE. The time of the beginning of the Mayan Calendar correlates, roughly, to the “dawn of civilization.” This was a time when alphabets and writing, as well as organized agriculture, were making their appearance on Earth. The Mayan Calendar appears to describe the vibrations of the energies that determined evolution of human consciousness. Those who embrace catastrophic thinking put energy into describing end time scenarios. However, the calendar ends at 2012 because we are now moving into a radically different energy vibration that is related to the evolution of human consciousness.

Radical and revolutionary. We all want to change the world. Is there such a thing as peaceful revolution? Not all growth comes with pain, of course, but some does. A shift in Universal Energy this significant, this radical, this revolutionary, is going to cause discomfort. It will often be deeply unpleasant. Sometimes it will be deeply painful.

The holocaust of World War II was a terrible thing. It wasn’t until after the war that the world began to understand what a terrible thing it was. More than 12 million people were murdered for reasons of race, creed, politics, and lifestyle or ability, alone. Between 50 to 70 million people died altogether. Following this war, in Nuremberg, Germany, the International Military Tribunal brought legal proceedings against those accused of war crimes. As the horror unfolded, many in the world began to say “never again.” Never again would atrocities of this nature be allowed. Of course, the world was not able, or willing, to follow through with this, and so atrocities continue to occur. However, there was a subtle, yet significant shift in human consciousness as it relates to human rights, following the holocaust of World War II.

And so, as much as it pains me personally, and as much as it throws my thinking and my plans into disarray, I believe that what is happening in our civilization and in our world has been foretold and is necessary. World energy is being raised to a higher vibration, to a place where awareness of the sanctity of life becomes more important than the current sanctity of “stuff.” The old structures must be, and are being, rearranged, recalibrated and renewed. Some of our political and economic structures will fail and disappear; some will experience a metamorphosis so profound as to be unrecognizable when compared to their current expression. Some will stay in a similar expression.

As for me? I will keep my eyes wide open and wait to see what I will be called upon to be and to do.

“The definition of character is what you do when no one is looking.” – Beck Weathers

We are rapidly approaching a time of convergence when the behavior patterns of the past no longer enable us to move forward effectively. The growth of the alternative/holistic health industry is a testament to the changes that are taking place. More and more people are searching for answers to the fundamental questions regarding the purpose and meaning of life. The proliferation of specialty products and modalities that are designed to “heal” or “fix” us is a testament to the demand for such answers.

These products and modalities are not necessarily good or bad. They are more expressions of a desire for answers than the actual answers themselves. With the myriad of challenges that face us as individuals, as a society, as a culture and as a planet we need to realize that the true answers are only going to come from within. We can experiment with all the different methods of alternative/holistic healing, but until we realize that the work needs to take place inside ourselves, the results will only be superficial.

The challenges that face us may appear overwhelming. Indeed, the financial crisis appears as if it is going to fundamentally change the dynamics of our society. At times like this it is easy to give in to the forces of negativity that seem to be growing in power. For some there is a seductive aspect to the concept that things are going to fall apart. For others there is a tendency to allow doubt and fear to permeate their lives. Still others see an opportunity to profit from the disaster. None of these outlooks are beneficial in the long run.

As we all struggle to adapt to the rapid changes that are occurring in the world we must take care to maintain our center. It is easy to start making compromises when times get difficult. Yet, this only leads to trouble. In truth, the only way forward is to maintain peace and balance in our lives as we adapt to the ever-changing world.

Of course there are times in everyone’s lives when it is difficult to stay on the path. Events and circumstances often conspire to challenge us in ways we never could have imagined. We all have certain unappealing traits that appear in times of weakness. However, if we are sincere in our desire to be of service to others, we must get our house in order. Without a sincere core of integrity within, it is impossible to offer pure, positive energy to those we come in contact with.

In the alternative/holistic health community, be we energy workers, psychics, healers, teachers or simply beings exploring our own spiritual nature, we need to take a moment to turn our attention inwards and look at ourselves. It is not uncommon for there to be grey areas in our lives that we keep hidden because they do not gel with the spiritual persona we are working to project. No matter how much we may try to convince ourselves and persuade others that the persona we project is our real self, there is no hiding from the truth. You may convince others of your expertise for a while, but you are really only fooling yourself.

While it is necessary and important to make a living to support yourself and your family, if you are engaged in alternative/holistic practices with your primary focus being to make money, you are in the wrong business. Of course, we need to be compensated for the work we do, but this cannot be the driving force behind what we do. By the same token, if you are focused on gaining prestige and recognition for the work you are doing, then you are being guided by your ego. The heart of this business is to be of service to others, to help those who are seeking answers to the fundamental questions of life. The moment we become more concerned about ourselves than our clients, patients or students, we sacrifice our integrity. We lose the ability to work from the heart.

The time has come for each of us to walk along the path we are so good at talking about. The time has come to let go of the behaviors that no longer serve us. The time has come for us to become the true embodiment of the spiritual essence that exists within the core of our being. We have reached the point where we must now truly evolve. To do this we must release the chains that bind us to our lower selves and begin to vibrate on a higher level.

The road ahead may seem dark and forbidding. We may have doubts as to our ability to continue on the path. But this is the time for each of us to step up, open our hearts and shine the light of truth and love out into the world. This is only possible if we have come to terms with ourselves. We need to walk the path we profess to travel.

Walk the talk. Lead by example and allow others to recognize and benefit from that pure energy within us. We must do no less.

“The most precious gift we can offer others is our presence. When mindfulness embraces those we love, they will bloom like flowers.” – Thich Nhat Hanh

“Strange fascination, fascinating me
Ah changes are taking the pace I’m going through”

So I turned myself to face me…
Just gonna have to be a different man” – David Bowie, excerpts from “Changes”

Oh, man are we going through some stuff as deep, rapid, fundamental changes demand our attention. Did I mention relentless? You’re probably not so surprised because we’ve been talking about these things for years, but your experience might be different than imagined. I’ll bet you didn’t know how much fear was programmed into your system until it started coming out.

Why is this transition to a more desirable experience so challenging? Perhaps because we continue to bump up against the places where we have become crystallized. We have this vast creation that continually changes form and a soul path that is part of a very long story, yet somehow we manage to get so absorbed with a version of reality that we grip onto it like nothing else exists. Life zigs while we zag, and we decide Life is the problem. Seems, well, delusional. Like an addiction, we stay attached to something that is not in our best interest, unwilling to explore the binding that lurks under the surface of awareness. This is the basic fear of letting go.

Considering our experiences in lifetimes of duality-based experiences, I completely understand how fear injected us with patterns of disfunction. In techie-speak I might call these patterns plug-ins. As Duality dissolves and we install our new programs, those old plug-ins only serve to crash the system. They must be uninstalled. Right now there are a ton of plug-ins being uninstalled, so if you’re tired and feel a bit stuck in place at the moment, know that something happening at another level needs your energy.

Minds are also challenged by this transition. We can’t think our way through it, which is a bit of an issue when minds have assumed they can control outcomes. They don’t, but the illusion that they do is powerful. That illusion also is melting down along with everything else unreal; often the main impediment to change is the mind’s reluctance to let go.

As I see it, the dissolution of our own “plug-ins” is the process calling for attention. What is taking place in the outer world is just demonstrating the same dissolution elsewhere. My advice? Do what is yours to do. You have a good deal of support, and so does everybody else.

The old story does not want to die, and it will do everything it can to keep you bound. Fear is the mechanism employed to bind, while self-distraction is the habit of avoiding the fear. Where your attention is will inform you whether you are facing and releasing the fears – or keeping yourself otherwise occupied. Are you enmeshed in the drama of the outside world, or are you immersed in your process of transformation? If you have ever left a relationship that you knew wasn’t a match for you after much futility of trying to make it work, you have awareness of the challenges of making a choice to move beyond what you have known.

There is an amping up of Duality as it seeks to remain viable. “New agers” are not exempt from turning their focus away from their own processes and being drawn into one drama or another. The clue? When attention shifts to something external that must be fixed or exposed, or something external that promises salvation. Yes, we are sometimes called to assist this transformation on behalf of the whole, but that guidance comes from within and the process unfolds organically. For me, the presence of an agenda is usually a red flag.

Despite the turmoil in a world being challenged to re-imagine itself, I remain quite at peace and confident that this process of change will be short-lived on the scale of human transitions. I also feel fully supported by beings of heaven and earth. If my mind ever rises up in protest, I use a little self-talk based on what I have learned about the bigger story. It might go something like this:

The planet is alive and embodied by a magnificent being of consciousness. She and those who assist Her are facilitating and informing the process.

Some aspects of consciousness took dominance during the reign of duality. By design, that dominance is not possible in the new reality.

Illusions are dissolving, including the money trance.

Money is not a substitute for life. Everything real exists without it.

Fear shifts the focus to something external demanding your attention. Deal with the fear, not the externalization.

Recreation is re-creation. Recreate.

Turning within is vital. Pay attention.

We are here by choice at this time. Remember why you chose.

Breathe. All is well.

What is it that we look for the most in life? On what do we place a higher value than love, money, health, sex, work and success? Above all else comes happiness. It is our No. 1 priority, although these many elements are clearly integrated in it. Happiness is the big umbrella that saves us from the rain.

So what is happiness? More important, how do you find it? Even more important, how do you hang onto it? It’s an age-old quest, as they say, and one that unconsciously drives most of us.

The first question may seem easy enough. Any thesaurus will throw up multiple synonyms – contentment, peace, gladness, bliss, joy and a plenty of variations on those themes. But happiness is, of course, quite individual and what fills one person with joy may send someone else into the pits.

It gets more complicated when we try to find it. Many of us believe that a person – a partner, lover or companion – is vital to our own well-being. A dog even. Events make us happy…the birth of a child, a trip to the country, an anniversary celebration, the local team winning after a deluge of poor results. We externalize it. We generally need our happiness to be created for us. It’s normal.

As for retaining the feel-good factor – well, the simple answer is that we don’t. It evaporates like mist under the morning sun. Very few people, even those who reside in Prozak happy land, can claim an ongoing sense of contentment in their lives. Because we have so much to worry about. And even if logic and our healers and analysts insist that these worries are unnecessary (they never seem to be), we can’t stop doing it. So we see happiness as a fleeting, elusive experience.

You may have read that happiness has to come from within. Well, that is basically true, but it depends on how you go about it. On that route there are detour signs all over the place and big holes in the road. It’s easy to go flying off into space and end up on Cloud Nine. And that’s not happiness, even if it appears to be.

From all of this, it might seem that happiness is virtually unobtainable on a long-term basis. Not at all, but it requires effort, often considerable effort, plus a willingness to look at areas of our lives that we would often prefer to avoid. Yet, we probably know people who go through life apparently unperturbed by its twists and turns. They are few, but they stand out.

The secret they have learned, if it can be called that, is simple but profound. Happiness comes from being able to live with your suffering. And if suffering seems too powerful a word, you can call it pain, stress, anxiety or any other that captures the difficulties of ordinary living.

Most of our suffering, indeed virtually all of it, originates in our childhood, usually in the early months or years. Just by being born into the physical, we encounter often minor events that generate fear. Although these fears are obviously wordless, they include rejection, abandonment, betrayal and others. And the wounds are inflicted unwittingly by parents who are generally doing the best they can. Simply, we cannot avoid being wounded.

We therefore guard against those wounds by building defenses that stay with us for the rest of our lives – if we don’t attempt to heal them. For example, a woman who suffered some form of abandonment in childhood will usually find it difficult to form relationships because she fears she will be abandoned again.

Unless we have a degree of awareness, all of us live our lives in ways that are determined by our defenses. There are people who have to be right all the time and in control. Some see themselves as perpetual victims. Others are completely self-absorbed or cannot cope with rejection. So we work hard to avoid putting ourselves in situations where the old wounds can be re-opened. We don’t take risks or want to change our life-long patterns.

Maintaining these defenses puts us under enormous pressure, leaving little room for pleasure and the enjoyment of simple things, the basic ingredients of happiness.

Suffering is never going to be totally eradicated. It is the human condition to suffer. How we deal with it is another matter. The first step is to recognize the old belief systems that cause us emotional pain. The second is to begin changing them, preferably with the support of a healer or therapist. Our energy fields can hold dark blocks where we store our grief, anger, shame and other negative emotions.

So deeply imprinted are our wounds that profound change can be long and arduous. The ego was created to protect us and it does this job only too well – in that it protects us from living our lives to the fullest.

But when we do set about healing ourselves, we begin to see the world from a whole new perspective. Old fears and anxieties diminish to the point where they no longer rule us – and happiness emerges.

Today I will speak about the three new chakras. The three new chakras are located above your head and are gold, pearl or pearl essence, and blue/green. At the moment, this magical addition to your chakra system might be causing you some memory challenges. You might not recall where your car keys are, or, for that matter, where you left your car. Some of you might feel as if your footing is a little off when you get up in the morning, or as if you’re losing your mind at times. Your memory is not failing and you’re not losing your footing or your mind. Rather, the new chakras are connecting you to your etheric mind, the omni brain, and the omni brain is trying to get the information stored there into your local brain.

Your job is to be aware of this journey and change your thoughts about what’s happening to you. Your memory won’t fail unless you say it’s failing. So, when you think you can’t remember where you put your car keys, don’t say, “I can’t remember where I put my car keys.” Instead, say, “I will look closer for the car keys.” If you say you can’t remember something, you are not being in the present moment. Stay in the moment and these three new chakras will raise the percentage of brain power you use to 20 or 25 percent compared to just 10 percent a year ago.

Understand that more of your energy is going into your brain, enlivening it more every day. In essence, your brain is overpowering the rest of the body right now. That sense of overpowering the body won’t last. Just be aware that it’s happening. So, if you feel a little off center, or as if your limbs aren’t as strong as they could be, don’t be concerned. Just be aware of what’s really happening.

You can continue to say, “I’m getting dizzy” or “I forget where my car keys are,” and things will only get worse, or you can give no credence to such thoughts and work with whatever the situation is and things will get better.

With the awareness of what’s happening, you won’t think, “Oh, my God, I’m getting dizzy when I stand up. That’s very bad. I’m getting worse all the time.” Those thoughts will fade from your mind. You will be able to replace those thoughts with thoughts such as, “That’s one of those little things that Master Kirael said. That’s my body adjusting and that’s perfect.” These thoughts will help dissipate what’s happening in the body.

You can change anything by changing your mind. Your mind is where the power is. You can do anything you want to do and you can use your mind to accomplish it. It’s your choice.

Tend to your own journey and don’t spend time commenting on anyone else’s. This whole journey is about your awareness, knowing what’s happening with your body, and knowing what you want and then doing it.

Now that you understand what’s happening in your body as a result of the addition of these new chakras, I will focus on the new chakras themselves. As I said earlier, the three new chakras are gold, pearl or pearl essence, and blue/green.

The gold chakra is just above your crown and is woven into your omni brain, the connective force between all four bodies. You can practice using this new chakra by summoning your higher self when you meditate. When you summon your higher self, you will see a mist of golden light that will flow into you. As this mist of light flows into you, listen with your feelings, not your ears. If you listen with your ears, you will hear nothing. You will feel, rather than hear, what your higher self is saying to you. Your journey will be in-lightened as you slowly breathe in the prana energy, taking it down through your brain into the pineal gland. Do this for three to six slow deep breaths, so deep that you exhale slowly, controlling the outward flow of your breath. Eventually you’ll get lightheaded, because all of these energies will come into your brain and be taken down through your system into your body. All your conscious awareness will be involved in this journey.

Next, the pearl essence chakra is the guidance factor of all the light coming into your person. The pearl essence is your true spiritual essence. If you could see yourself for what you really are, you would see the pearl essence, not the physical body you see now. The physical body is an illusion. It’s what you created to get into this journey, but you are not your body. You’ve all heard that Master Jesus would return to this Earth plane at some point in time. You think he will bring his body, but it will not happen. Master Jesus, Master Buddha, Lady Quan Yin, all of the great masters coming into this journey will do so in this beautiful pearl essence.

Now, I’ll address the blue/green chakra, a winner from the word “go.” Currently, you still have your green chakra, which is your love, and your blue throat chakra, which is your truth, but this new blue/green chakra is the truth of all truth because it’s heart-woven. You cannot speak through this chakra unless you’re in truth. If you think, “I will check it out by telling a lie through that chakra,” you will find that the lie will not come through that chakra. It’ll come out below or even above it, but it won’t get out through that chakra, because that chakra will only accommodate the highest truth.

That’s just a primer on these new chakras.

Q: How old are the chakras and how do we use them?
KIRAEL: Chakras are spinning through you that are probably, at a minimum, about ten thousand years old. You have the same chakras no matter how many times you’ve come into body. Your awareness of your journey depends on the chakra system holding you together.

You will have the same chakras you have now until you go through the shift in consciousness, at which point your lower chakras will be absorbed into the green heart chakra. At that time, your heart chakra will be your base chakra. Your current throat chakra, which is your truth chakra, is nothing to toy with. Be aware of your truth one hundred percent of the time. If you use your truth chakra to speak your truth, everything coming toward you will be in truth. If you tell somebody an untruth and they’re working with their throat chakra, they will hear that untruth.

Truth is the first and most important principle in the Ten Principles of Consciously Creating. Be aware that this whole journey is about your truth. With your current chakra system, when you speak from the heart and out through the throat chakra, an abundance of love comes out of you. If you become angry while speaking from the green heart light, stop what you’re saying, take a breath and speak again. You see, if you say anything in anger, it will not come out in truth. It cannot be in truth. You say, “That’s not nice, Master Kirael, because I want to get angry with people, because they get angry with me.” Well, then, be angry, but be aware that your words will be untruthful.

With the introduction of the new chakras, you won’t hear with just your physical ears. You will also hear with your four-body system, with your awareness. The four-body system has its own set of ears, so to speak. Learn to constantly speak your truth, and the more truth you will hear. Hearing with your four-body system and constantly speaking your truth can be a dangerous thing for anybody around you, because you will know when anyone else speaks an untruth. You won’t know exactly what the untruth is, but you will be aware of it because it won’t resonate with your body. As these new chakras move into place, you will become attuned to how the new chakras work, and you will recognize a truth and an untruth immediately.

All the chakras are woven into you, including the purple or violet strands, and the more you use them, the more attuned you will be to their use.

Q: How will these new chakras operate in the fourth dimension, the dimension of thought?
KIRAEL: These new chakras will enhance your journey into the fourth light. Thought is what the whole journey is about. Thought is woven throughout your bodies.

Working with the new chakras, when you enter into the mental weave, you will be aware of your journey. You will feel that you’re getting smarter, but, in fact, you will be remembering more. Your omni brain will awaken in its fullness and will impel itself into your journey. You will have new powers and new understandings.

When you enter the emotional weave, you will find that you love at a more powerful rate. When you love someone unconditionally, you know love beyond your wildest dreams. In present time, unconditional love is usually reserved for the parent/child relationship. With the new chakras, you will love each other unconditionally without regard to the nature of your relationship. You will look at each other and say, “Wow, that was truth/love beyond my wildest dreams. I’m so thankful.”

Finally, the physical body will be in-lightened. With the introduction of these new chakras, you will have a light body, and everybody’s weight will be reduced, not because you need to be skinny, but because you’ll move to a more natural state of awareness. You will feel and be lighter. If you really like being heavy, you can gain that weight back later on, but I don’t think you will, because your whole body changes in the fourth light. Although I’m using the physical body as an example, all four bodies will change in this journey of the new chakras and the fourth light. Everything in the fourth dimension becomes in-lightened.

Q: What can I expect from the new chakras and the activation of the additional DNA strands?
KIRAEL: Whether or not you go through the Shift, you will get new DNA strands. How these strands come in is part of your journey.

Let’s say that you have up to six DNA strands. When you get into and beyond the fourth strand of DNA, your journey will become more powerful. When the strands start to vibrate, you will get confused as to whether it is the fourth or the sixth strand that is vibrating, because the strands always come in pairs. Most of you will recognize when your additional strands of DNA start to vibrate, because you will sense that your awareness is changing, getting stronger.

Every spiritualist knows that something is happening inside of you that you can’t understand. I mentioned in my opening statement that sometimes you will forget things. That’s because of what you’re experiencing during the introduction of these new chakras into the chakra system. You are receiving downloads of information you’ve never heard before. If you think that these downloads won’t rupture your thought processes, think again. If you’re vibrating six strands of DNA, you won’t understand what information they are vibrating. You won’t understand what the strands are trying to tell you because your brain can’t handle the information yet. It’s hard to hold onto information that you cannot understand. So, as you receive these downloads, write them down and don’t question them. Carry a book with you, or a little computer or some other device, so you can make notes.

If you think, “Photon breath was calculated at 8.654,” write it down. Later, when you’re going through your journey and you’re thinking something about prana breath being calculated at 8.654, you will say, “Oh, my God, that’s the number I wrote down.”

Not only will your chakras change, but you’ll probably max out at about eight strands of DNA in the physical body. Your body will get whatever it needs to do the journey. Right now, if you have six strands, they probably are not totally involved in your body process. The body is trying to involve them, but it is not succeeding, because you must exercise. Your body needs to be strengthened. Exercise will benefit the activation of the additional DNA strands.

Q: How old is the chakra system and how will we use the new chakras?
KIRAEL: The chakras are the oldest system of your light. You bring this chakra system with you in every lifetime. You don’t hang your chakra system on a hook when you die. The Earth plane is the only place where you can use your chakras. When you came in with your present chakra system, you knew exactly what it was for and what you would do with the different chakras. However, you have no experience with the new chakras, and so you are wondering how you will use them.

Your journey with the new chakras is about your awareness. The new chakras are designed to heighten your awareness. As a rule, the chakras hold more than just the photon energy. They hold everything you’d like to do in this journey. Your chakras are in a constant state of awareness.

You can learn to access the energy in the chakras. Just a couple of days ago I taught some people how to get into one part of the chakra system, this light essence, pick out the particles and open them up. When you feel these particles open, you will see a picture. It might frighten you at first because it’s not part of your world, but the information there will astound you. Right now you’re all thinking, “I’m going to do this. I’m going to do it right now.” Well, we’ll see what happens, but I don’t think you will. It doesn’t matter, because the change will happen anyway.

If you want to know what to do with this new chakra system, be aware of the purple chakra. If you’ve ever had a photo taken of your chakras, you might have seen a purple light. You’ve stored everything about your past lives and your present life in that little globule of purple energy. Tap into that purple light and you will learn something about your new chakras.

Q: Are the chakras inside the body?
KIRAEL: Common sense will tell you that the chakras are not inside the body.
They can’t fit inside the body.

For instance, your current base chakra, which is red and grounds you, is merely connected to your body. It floats up and down. It is located down around your knees sometimes and then up around your mid-waist and so on and so forth.

The three new chakras are outside of you, too, but above your head, above your mind. All three new chakras are working with you all the time now, but you can’t see them and many of you don’t even know they’re there. Your brain might be working to do a certain thing, but you will find that you can’t do it, so you will shake your head every now and then, because it just doesn’t feel right. That’s because your new chakras are working with you to bring in a new awareness.

Q: A lot of lightworkers at this time have money and health issues. What should we be aware of to stay positive, and are these issues related to the new chakras?
KIRAEL: The new chakras do not create these concerns. Money, relationships and health are the three basic subjects with which humans are preoccupied. The new chakras will help to alter your thoughts about these issues. For instance, if you know of someone who is in the throes of illness, the new chakra system will help you remember to stay present. If you think that you are losing this person to the death process and you bemoan his or her loss before it happens, your conscious mind will not go there with you. That means you will be making it all up. You will be caught up in the illusion of something that is not real in the moment. Your new chakra system will make you aware of this.

Take money, for another example. Money is an illusion, a focus of your reality that exists because you believe it does. Money problems exist because you need them. You ask, “What do you mean I need money problems? I don’t want to have money problems.” Well, even in the third dimension, if you really wanted to get past your money problems, you’d get past them. Money is not a fixed object in this dimension. It’s not even a reality. It is a focus of your reality that goes beyond the money itself. You can have money anytime you need it. It’s up to you. You say, “Well, my God, if I can have money, I will have it.” Well, get it if you want it. You can have the money, but you must know what to do to get it. You have to change your thoughts and then do what is necessary. Remember to stay present and the new chakra system will help you refine your thoughts so that you address your money issues from a more in-lightened viewpoint. All your issues – money, health, relationships – will straighten out with a little help from you.

Q: How would I work with these three new chakras to in-lighten, or activate, them more fully?
KIRAEL: Do this exercise: Close your senses down just a little bit, but don’t go to sleep. Close your eyes and do this journey, my friend. See these three chakras about three inches over your head, spaced one inch apart. Draw a prana breath carrying the photon through the three chakras. Carry the energy through the brain, into your mind and then into your Signature Cell, your pineal gland. Then take another breath and let it come down farther through the body and see if you can feel the whooshing sensation that occurs in your body process. If you don’t feel it, try it again. This isn’t a meditation. It is an exercise you can do at any time and any place.

Q: Do the children being born now have the new chakras already in place?
KIRAEL: The new chakras opened up for children born in the last twenty-five years, but newborns and children born in the last four or five years came in with the new chakras in place. They don’t have the bottom chakras, because their whole journey is about awakening to this new level. Their teachers will be in for a real ride.

If you could see the new chakra patterns, you’d realize how beautiful they are and what wonderful things are happening in these children’s systems. You say, “What about the young souls who are getting into this journey right now?” Young souls are coming in, and praying that they can figure this journey out before the Shift happens. It will be difficult for them at best, but that’s another topic for another time.

Q: Many people like to go on pilgrimages to sacred sites, portals and grid lines. Would you comment about that type of spiritual activity and how it relates to the evolution of our chakras?
KIRAEL: One type of these so-called pilgrimages involves hook releases at sacred sites. Matrix hooks are energy that has been placed deep into the earth as a means of keeping this third-dimensional matrix in place. These matrix hooks are found in sacred sites, or have a sacred site attached to them somewhere.

Mt. Fuji, in Japan, is a sacred site, and like all sacred sites, it requires you to open to the magic of your senses to locate the hooks and then decipher the information stored there. The new chakras will help with that endeavor. Many more sacred sites are waiting to be discovered and their information deciphered.

Your new chakras are aligning right now to help with this venture. At some future date, your omni brain will start to vibrate your awareness. When you’re ready to embrace your omni brain, it will be active in your life. You might think you’re being mind-boggled with new information, but don’t be concerned. You need only be conscious of what’s happening.

Q: Lately, I forget important things, and it’s impacting my work. What can I do to feel awake and totally here?
KIRAEL: You have “brain fog.” Do your prana breaths every morning and tell yourself that you’re better today than you were yesterday. You don’t have to know how you’re getting better; you just have to say that you’re getting better and that you can feel it is so. Do this every morning without fail and after about three or four days, you’ll start to feel the difference.

Be aware of what you’re thinking. Your mind is foggy because it’s opening up to all the other levels of consciousness. It’s mind-boggling when you think of the levels of dimensional reality that are coming into your brain that you can’t understand. The new information is coming in through your chakra system and is taking up space in your brain, pressing on your brain.

This whole journey is about you having the courage to change your thoughts. Get up every morning, and, without fail, say, “I feel better today than I did yesterday,” and you’ll feel a little spark and think, “Oh, that worked. It really worked. That’s really great.” The problem is that you probably will not do it every morning. You’ll let it go and then the brain fog will return.

This has to be a lifestyle change. Make this practice part of your daily routine. You can do the same thing when it comes to your night travels in the sleep state. You can say, “I know I will travel in my sleep state and I want to go farther than I’ve ever gone before. I also want to remember where I’ve been.” It will happen, my friend.

This journey of the new chakras is about you coming to this new level of consciousness. I am a master, yet I can’t do this journey of awakening the masses all by myself. I will need help. I can’t reach everybody. You can assist me by learning to channel so that you can bring this information to the world at large. Have the courage to make this journey, stay in truth and move forward. When you’ve taken that first step forward and you stay in truth, you will continue to move forward, but if you say or do something out of alignment with the journey, you will have taken five steps backward. That’s the downside of this journey.

Most humans do something that feels right, or feels good, yet they fail to make it part of their daily living. Somewhere along the way, you stop doing it. This is part of the habitual behavior of your current chakra system and DNA; but that’s another story.

Q: Master Kirael, when I’m traveling in my spirit body during the sleep state, I don’t want to return to my physical body. Will the new chakras change that dynamic?
KIRAEL: The new chakras will help you remember why you’re here, and that will make your return to the body much more pleasant. The truth is, even now you can’t wait to get back over here, because you want to get up and do another day in this dimension. You say, “Oh yeah, well, you’re not having my days. My days are hard.” That may be true, but if you wake up the next morning, you do so only because you want to. So, when you wake up in the morning, and you say, “Oh, God, another rotten day,” that’s not true and it’s a terrible thing to do to yourself. You woke up precisely because you wanted to be here another day.

So, to say anything that detracts from your journey doesn’t serve you. You chose this body to do this journey. Make sure when you return after your night travels that you honor your body by being aware that you not only chose to do the journey, but you chose to do it in that body.

Your evolving chakra system will make you aware of how positive your journey is. Right now, on a deeper level, you know what your journey is about. That’s why, when the Creator said, “I’ve got a space. Does anyone want to go to Earth?” you were first in line. You couldn’t wait to get here. If you died today, you’d immediately be in line, saying, “I’m available, I’m available. I’ll go, I’ll go.” You just don’t remember that you want to return. Your new chakras will help you remember that you do want to return.

In your case, when you go to sleep at night, you leave this level of consciousness and go to another planet, another time zone, another space. You eventually come back into the body process, and when you do, you think, “Oh, my God. This is terrible.” It’s not terrible. You currently find it hard to return to this dimension because you don’t follow through with what you say you’ll do, and that makes this journey unfulfilling. If you say you will do something, do it. That way you’ll not have the slightest problem with returning into this dimension.

You have a great life in the other dimensions. You do great things, yet you’re still working on this third-dimensional journey. So, when you reach the gateway to return to your sleeping body, instead of saying, “Oh, God, I hate this journey,” change that thought. Be happy when you return to the body. When you get up tomorrow morning, just do your journey and enjoy it.

Q: Will the new chakras help me love myself?
KIRAEL: The new chakras will help you know the truth, and only in truth can you love yourself.

If you all learn to love yourselves a little more today than you did yesterday, you’d find a new opening in your DNA that would empower you and your journey. Your new chakras will help you find love for yourself. In the meantime, every day do something that you don’t want to do, but know in your heart you need to do. Leave your job and get a new one. Move out of your apartment and get a new one. Put yourself in the position of having a winning state of consciousness. You’ll be more powerful.

Truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth is a winning state of consciousness. Practicing truth is a matter of trusting. When your trust is in place, you will trust your journey and you will be able to face anything, especially yourself. Your new chakras will help with this, but you will have to do the journey.

No one’s perfect. You have your own journey to work on; yet, whenever others get the chance, they blame their circumstances on you. You’re like a basket for others to dump their troubles into. You have this great big opening above your head and others throw their trash in there because you take it well, and you don’t hold a grudge. Be aware of your own journey. Know your truth, your trust and your passion. If you know your truth, trust and passion, you will know the three C’s (clarity, communication and completion) and the four pillars (prayer, meditation, sleepstate programming and masterminding). Start with truth. Speak the truth and people will stop blaming you for their problems and you will learn to love yourself enough to heal.

You know truth, and you know when you have slipped out of truth. You also know that when that happens, you have to find the truth again. When you’ve been in truth one hundred percent of the time, you won’t have an enemy. That’s the truth. Have the courage to keep trying.

Q: When you asked us to close our eyes, I felt that my chakras were leaning over and I couldn’t find center. How can I create balance while welcoming and embracing the three new chakras?
KIRAEL: Well, I’ll answer your question, but some of you will say, “Wow, that makes sense,” and then you won’t heed what I’ve said. The third dimension is a figment of your imagination. So, if you don’t like what’s going on in your body, you have to go into your mind to change it. You can go to the doctor and get pills, or you can create the balance you’re looking for by changing your thoughts.

You can create the balance by being aware of your imbalance and then saying, “All right. Bring it to center.” Believe me, it will move to center. Instead, you say, “This doesn’t feel right. I’m feeling wobbly.” It doesn’t feel right because it’s not right. Your chakras are adjusting. Know this and encourage them to find the balance.

The new chakras will move into this journey, adjusting constantly until they are aligned. When you feel wobbly, and you say, “Oh, God, I just need that to go away,” eventually it’ll go away.

On the other hand, try saying, “Oh, catch it right there. Now straighten it up.” It will straighten itself out a lot faster. Be aware of your journey and what’s happening to your body with the introduction of these new chakras.

Remember to catch yourself when you’re speaking or thinking out of alignment. You can change anything by being aware of your thoughts and changing them when they don’t serve you. That’s what this journey is all about.

Q: Would you speak about splinters and the easiest way to process them?
KIRAEL: Splinters are downloads of energy from your higher self. You might as well get used to them. Most of you are getting splinters about every five days with the shifting of the chakra system. In the past, five months or even five years could lapse between splinters. For many of you, the splinters that are coming in now may be sticking in your chakras. They will eventually even out in your body. When the higher self says, “All right, you can take two more splinters in your purple chakra,” you have no choice in the matter. You will take on only two splinters at that time. If you had a choice, you’d say, “Give them all to me right now and get it over with,” but that would be too much for your body to handle. Be conscious of your body plan, and make the processing of these splinters smoother by lying down and easing them into your body.

Be aware that you also have aspects that will download their energies into you as splinters. Most of you know that three aspects of yourself exist. Some of these aspects have already gone home and some are leaving as we speak. They want to get out of here so that they can download their energies into you. Let’s suppose you have an aspect of yourself who’s a Buddhist in a little Chinese province, and this aspect is getting ready to experience the death process. It will go back home into your higher self because that’s who it is. Then it will download to you all the knowledge it learned in China. You will know things that you wouldn’t otherwise know. Lie down when this huge splinter of information is downloaded and see if that eases the alignment of this energy in your body.

Q: When we’re going through all these physical changes, how do we know which ones to see a doctor about and which ones to resolve on our own?
KIRAEL: You know when to see a doctor because you will find yourself going to see a doctor. In other words, don’t question your choice; just go, because that’s part of the journey. Do the whole journey and be aware. When you have a sore knee, and you haven’t been able to handle it, go to the doctor. More than likely the doctor will say, “Well, let’s just check it here and-poof-it’s all gone. You’ll say, “What the heck was that? Could it be that simple?” Yes, it could.

The point is that you must go to the doctor when you have the knowingness to do so, emphasis on the word “knowingness.” Don’t get into a mind game about what’s happening. Just do the journey of seeing the doctor as your knowing dictates. It may be six months or six years before you understand spiritually why you had to see this doctor.

The point of the journey is about you having the awareness that you have something that needs healing. If you can’t get it done with some alternative method, then see the doctor. Just be aware that once you get into the medical system, you’ll need to deal with that system.

You know everything and the new chakras will help you remember that. The temporal lobe of the brain is connected into the omni brain and therefore is aware of the new chakras and everything you need to do. So use that energy to determine whether or not you will go to a doctor.

Q: What’s the relationship between the three new chakras, the omni brain, and the sense of freedom that I feel?
KIRAEL: You are becoming aware and now you must know what that awareness is. You have a job here that you do well, but you have to figure out how to get into a new job over here. Understand that you are coming into the next part of this journey. You will be reborn tomorrow morning and each morning after that. This whole journey is about awakening to the awareness that lies within the three chakras.

You’re studying for this new job in the Pleiades. I saw you in a place called Aquillia. You’re studying new information and bringing it over here to this Earth plane to see if you can plug it into this journey. That sense of freedom you feel is the knowing that you are entering this new journey of expansion.

It is important to know what this journey of the three new chakras is all about. It is about your higher awareness. You’re in control of every aspect of your life, your DNA, and your omni and local brains. You’re in control of this entire body process. You’re in control of everything and these three new chakras will awaken you to that fact. Good evening.

I have a tendency to over-schedule and over commit. It comes, I think, from a mistaken belief that given enough time, I really can do everything and be all things for all people. Because I can’t, of course, I end up tired and frazzled and disappointed in myself when I have to cancel things.

A few months ago I realized that I simply had to drop some things from my life to make space for other things to happen. One thing I had to let go of was a monthly group that I hosted at my studio. There was a fair amount of disappointment, of course, as it was a popular meeting. And I felt guilty.

My students were more than gracious. All my feelings of guilt were internally generated. Then, one of my students simply said to me, "You know, Kathryn, no party lasts forever."

The truth in that statement let me release my feelings of guilt. It is true. No party, event, meeting, relationship, job or state of being lasts forever. The universe has a natural cycle of ebbs and flows, and we are a part of that mighty dance. Staying at a party too long disrupts the rhythm of a life. We need to leave parties, graduate from schools and retire from jobs, just as surely as the trees need to release their leaves in autumn.

When I look at what is going on in the economic cycle of our world, I think it is time to leave that party, as well. It has been a lot of fun. We have been spending money like drunken sailors. We came to believe that our houses would always increase in value and our salaries would always get bigger. But the party is winding down.

The good thing about parties is that there is always another one. Here we are in the dawning of a new age. It looks like this party is about simplicity, gentleness and peace. The changes that have been predicted for the time surrounding 2012 are coming true. The catastrophes that were foreseen are not going to be caused by earthquakes or tilting ice caps though (although we will, of course, have some natural disasters).

The changes that will usher in the new age are likely to be more financially based. We will be challenged to find new ways to live. Simpler, quieter ways perhaps. This party will show us how to judge the quality of our lives more on what we do than on what we have.

It will be a difficult adjustment. For years we have been encouraged to spend. Shopping became a hobby rather than a way to get the necessities of life.

At the last Edge Life Expo, my guides spoke to the crowd about the upcoming changes. They stressed that these changes were a good thing. We will learn to cooperate and live in communities. We will learn not to just "get by" but to savor a simpler, more contemplative time. What we lose in things we will gain in time. They suggested that we invest in joy rather than in stocks and bonds.

Whether we like it or not, every party ends. Those of us in the metaphysical community have a huge advantage in this. We have been told of the ending and we have time to prepare for it.

As another new year dawns and we make our resolutions and plans, remember not to stay too long at the party. Another one is being planned that promises to be great fun. See you all there.

When my basement was flooding last spring, I realized that stress management
was as much about purchasing a sump pump as it was about meditation. Stress occurs
for a reason. It shows us where our habits, attitudes and infrastructure are
not working. Spiritual practices help us get grounded and centered so we can
create change from a strong inner space. Sometimes the change that’s needed is
internal, such as finding acceptance or letting go, and sometimes it is external
- challenging us to ACT.

It is becoming easier and easier to find people today who are stressed about money. In a period that traditional commentators call a “recession,” there is a lot of fear around our ability to take care of ourselves. That’s stressful. Yet, not everyone is struggling financially. Many businesses are thriving. The key is to align with the needs of these times and leverage today’s resources to create income.

We live in a time of tremendous systemic change. The next 10 years will show unprecedented chaos and an explosion in consciousness. No one knows what this will look like on the other side. What we do know is this: the current view of financial stability coming from a job at a company is outdated. Instead, find where your greatest skill and the world’s greatest need intersect, and do that. This is where you will find the security that comes from standing in your power and following your destiny. For many, this means offering healing work to the world.

Yet, the stress that comes from a poorly managed healing practice is enough to make anyone choose a different path. Under these conditions, it does not matter how effective your healing services are – and you will be less effective because of the stress you experience, yourself. Experience has shown me that simply concluding that “Spirit will provide” shows naivete, unconsciousness and resistance. The real solution is a solid, smart business structure that is resilient to external forces, stable enough to depend on, and adequate to your needs. Spirit does provide, but you must build a container that is ready to fill.

Multiple Streams of Income

As a self-employed healer, I suggest that you not rely on one-on-one work as your only source of income. An ideal business has several different levels of offering at different prices. Your business should be structured like an upside-down pyramid, with the amount of access to you and the cost increasing as you go down. This is your client funnel.

At the broadest level, offer information to a wide range of people for very little cost. This is the entry point of your client funnel. This kind of public education provides a way for people to get to know your work. A free e-book, chapter from a longer book, educational pamphlet, short series of email lessons, talks over the radio and magazine articles are good examples of this. This level of offering doesn’t have to be free, but it does have to be accessible, relevant, and not take much of your time or attention. Many internet-based practices offer a one-time freebie (such as an e-book) to collect names and email addresses for their mailing list.

I do not advise you to create a weekly or monthly newsletter for free. Subscribers will often sit on these newsletter lists for years, receiving your information without buying from you. This is not helpful to your bottom line.

At the middle level, create a way that you can offer your services to groups of people. This can be in person or over the internet. The ideal group is easy to find. You can go to places where groups are already gathered or gather your own. It may be easier to go to an existing group if your work is relevant to its members.

At the bottom of your funnel are your one-on-one clients. If you build the rest of your funnel properly, these clients will come to you with no effort on your part at all. You’ll be able to choose who to work with, rather than taking anyone who knocks on your door.

Stress reduction, then, can be very practical. Yet, structuring your business is only one aspect of a sustainable practice. You’ll also need to clearly define your niche, the people who are your ideal clients, and also learn the best ways to find them. And you’ll need to transform the inner blockages, expectations and beliefs that will keep you from realizing your destiny. With these aspects in place, you’ll be well on your way to reducing your stress – and manifesting your destiny.

Editor’s note: The following excerpts are from a channeling of The Light Collective with Kathryn Harwig that took place November 8, 2008, at Edge Life Expo.

We are pleased that so many of you heard the call and have taken the time to come and learn and listen about not only 2009, but also about your society changing. What we wish to say to you is that you have entered into this year, next year will be even more important. It is a time where you are going through a cultural change, a societal change. We invited you because you, and we do mean those of you who are here, who are in this room, are an integral part of this change.

For the majority of you, the beginning, the time when you started this change was approximately forty years ago. Do you recall at those times how you felt, and what you desired? Do you understand that in 1968 and 1969 you had visions of a world order, a peaceful society. A community where there was love and where the world was run in a less greedy fashion.

We have spoken to you before of how you create things, and how you manifest in your world. And now that you are under economic stress, you are the creators of this stress. It is part of the plan. Instead of being fearful of the stress that is currently happening, consider that you are beginning a new society, a new way of looking at your world. You will all be taken care of. Your lives will improve.

MONEY

There are many of you, we understand, that are looking at your collection of monies and believing that they are smaller than they were before. This is true and it will continue. In 2009 it would not be wise to put your money in anything that is likely to go down. Your investments will continue to decrease for a time before they are equalized, and before your society creates a new way of doing things. All we are talking about is numbers. Your real investment at this time is to invest in joy. For some time now you have forgotten that money does not equal joy. When you look back at these times, you will not say, "These were bad times." You will say, "These were times when we became whole again, a whole nation, a whole society," and therefore we will give you concrete advice.

This one has told us that humans enjoy concrete advice. At this time there is much fear in your society. Mostly having to do with economic woes, and we understand there are people who have lost their income and their jobs, and their home. These are sad times. You will discover, many of you who have lost these jobs and these homes have lost them because they were not creating joy for you. It is time now perhaps to judge your net worth in a more joyful fashion. Perhaps instead of net worth you might say joy worth, and you will say, "What is my joy worth today?"

TALENT

All of you have talents that you have not considered because you have been too busy becoming one thing. We wish to give you practical advice for 2009. As you prepare, whether or not you need to find a new job, first we would say to you, during these times you would be wise to stay where you are in terms of employment. It is going to continue to be difficult for another year of two.

Perhaps you will become more careful. Analyze your life, and ask "What is it that brings me joy?" and "What is it that I will keep to be joyful?" Also, look at "What is it I have that does not bring me joy?" And "What is it that feels burdensome?" and you will notice because you are powerful manifesters, that the things that are not bringing you joy will oftentimes be taken away from you. And then you will wonder, "Oh. I have lost a job I did not like" or "Oh, I am losing a house that is too large" or "Oh, my husband has left, but we really did not like each other." Things that are not giving you joy will be removed from you because this is how you manifest. When you learn to manifest, you see, you are getting precisely what you ask for. As you analyze what it is that brings you joy, and what it is you simply thought you might need, you will discover that much of what you have is not what you want. This is true whether it is jobs or houses or playthings.

COOPERATION

There is a sense of cooperation and joy coming to your society that will cause you to look at different ways of living together. As you have created this economic difficulty, and you have created this fuel difficulty, you will also then look at your style of living, your style of housing. You will ask yourself, "Is it truly necessary for us all to have one house and a yard and one lawnmower, and so on and so forth. Would it not be wise to have one lawn mower per block? Would it not be wise to live in walking or short distance of where you work, or to work where you live? In your society more and more you will find it joyful to see that you can work where you live or live where you work. One of the changes in your society is that more and more of you will be finding ways to work close to your home, or you will find your home taken from you. Then you will see that this was not a home that worked for you in the first place. If your home is taken from you, if you cannot afford to live in your current home, you will discover that it is because you have manifested a joyful existence, and you are being given a chance to live it in a different fashion.

We see in your society within the next twenty or thirty of your years; there will be far fewer homes, far fewer single homes as you call them, and more community homes. Clusters of homes created around industries. For example, weavers would create a weaving cluster. Then they would cooperate. Perhaps they would need only one loom. They would cooperate around that loom and they could all have single dwelling places. We are not suggesting you will live in dormitories. Your clothing will look different, and your employment will look different.

YOUR TASK

In 2009 you have two assignments. Your first assignment is, no longer will each person have only one job. We assure you that within the next few years all of you will be having three jobs at least. You are looking sad on this because you are thinking, "Three jobs will make me work too hard." But this is incorrect. It is not that you would do three jobs for forty hours each. What we are saying is that if you have three skills, if you have three things that you can do, then if one is taken away from you, you still have two. All of you in this room are capable of doing more than one thing. Perhaps you have not thought, "What are three things that I can do?" If you are employed as a nurse, for example, this is one thing you can do. But then you think and realize you make very good bread. And then as you think further, you also think that you very much enjoy gardening, and then you have three things. If perhaps the next job is suddenly removed from you, you have two other things that you can do. You have no more fear because you know that in your heart these things will be given to you. Then you will say to us "Light Collective, we cannot make enough money to support our lifestyle doing gardening and bread." We will say to you, if you manifest it, you can do just that.

Then perhaps you would have a different lifestyle. You would join the bread coop where each person would bake different kinds of bread, and then one person would have a truck that would deliver it. In your society there is a total lack of cooperation. Many of your large companies will cease to exist. You can be sorry about that if you own stock in large companies. But the goal, if you go back to 1968, was to not have large companies. There will be some large companies, but they will not be as they have been. Your assignment is to consider three things that you can do. Some of you are talented artists or writers, or musicians, and you say "Light Collective, we cannot make money doing this" and we say you do not know that, but perhaps you will be living in a music collective in which not all of you would have to buy your own instruments. There will be a great deal of sharing of resources that will allow you to do things in a fashion you have not imagined.

LONG LIFE

We will speak to you of another development that is happening, but not in 2009. We will give you a large world view so you can understand the changes that are coming next year so you can say to yourself "I will not be fearful of this, for I see the larger picture." There are medical advances that have been made already, and are not being disseminated because it would entirely disrupt your world if you were all to live as long as you could. You are being lied to and not given this truth. But the truth is you could live to approximately 120 years of age. There is that ability in your body, in your DNA. That is your normal life expectancy. You have been told to die sooner, and so you do. Very soon now you will no longer need to do that.

This will completely confuse your society to have so many people living so long. This confuses things like retirement, does it not? For you would be retiring half way through your life, and then you would wonder what you would do. Well of course, you would no longer have to wonder. If you consider that you will live to 120, perhaps it makes it more interesting for you to consider how you will create joy for those periods of time. The primary reason that people die is that they are sad. They are not joyful. Now that you know that you are in charge of your joy you have already taken the primary step to a longer life. Living to 120 years of age is less having to do with what you eat or don’t eat, or how you exercise, or what you weigh. The primary reason people continue to live is that they are joyful and want to live.

If you watch you will see that most people who die young, sometimes have work to do on other planes, they walk out the door to do something else. Some of the small children who die, for example, do not die because they are not joyful, but die because they are invited to help on another dimension and they are being brave soldiers. But oftentimes you die because you are bored. You get to be in your sixties or seventies and you do not believe you have anything left to do. It is wise now in 2009 to think about what you will do for the next sixty of your years, or seventy, or eighty, and to live in joyfulness.

BIG PICTURE

We are painting a picture for you of people living in communities as opposed to houses. A picture in which you have three or four or five jobs in the course of your lifetime, and they can all be very different, some of which you will do at the same time. Most of you will work in a small community where you will also sleep. You will live the way people used to live 100 years ago. You are not going backwards. You believe going backwards is bad. We believe you are returning to how humans are. You have, just in the last few days, made a very important step. You have invited one to lead you who also understands these things, and this is a powerful step. What possible sense does it make for anyone to spend as much money as your country is spending to kill other people? It makes no sense, does it? In the end, you will have far more money in your pocket to do other things for people. This will happen, but we are not saying it will be simple because it is a difficult job to change things overnight.

We are asking for your help. We are enlisting you to be positive when talking about the change. We are asking for you to be joyful and perhaps even to say, "Our stocks are going down, isn’t that lovely?" We are joking, but you understand that it is perhaps lovely that it is just a number and means nothing. You can say, "Yes our stocks are going down, but our life and joy is going up, and this is far more important to us."

You are created of light just as we are, however you do not see it as well as we do. Some of you see auras and other things, do you not? From the time that we looked before to now, your lights have blended with each other. When we see this we are joyful. That is telling us that already you are beginning to form communities. The first community you are forming is here, and it will continue.

A DVD of the entire session of The Light Collective at Edge Life Expo 2008 can be ordered at www.Harwig.com.

I am writing this on the eve of the 2008 elections, knowing that by the time this article is read, the elections will be just a memory. I know who I hope will win. I even know who I predict will win. Whether or not I am right, though, life, by the time you read this, will have changed for our country.

The thing about being a psychic is that people expect me to know more than I really do. Prediction is uncertain at best, especially when it involves global events. Still, it is the end of the year and a few ponderings about 2009 seem called for.

What my guides tell me is that we are thoroughly in the midst of the changes predicted by so many for the years around 2012. They say that the world will not end, but that it will most certainly change dramatically. This is much less likely to be because of earthquakes and other natural disasters (although there will certainly be some of those) than it will be on a financial and security basis. The very core of what we have been led to believe – and our "destiny" – has changed.

At some level, those of us in the United States have been taught that things always increase. Stocks inevitably go up, incomes increase, houses get larger and increase in value, and our children are raised with more expectations and privileges than we had. Even when that does not end up being true in our own lives, some part of us believes that it is our heritage and right.

The prophecy and legacy of 2012 is bringing that into question. My guides tell me that we are being ushered into the dawn of a new Aquarius. It will be a time of "brotherhood and understanding" when resources are more equally shared by all. Isn’t that what we all wanted? Then why is it hurting so much?

I am reminded of the immortal words of John Lennon:

Imagine no possessions
I wonder if you can
No need for greed or hunger
A brotherhood of man
Imagine all the people
Sharing all the world…

You may say I’m a dreamer
But I’m not the only one
I hope someday you’ll join us
And the world will be as one

Hmmm. I remember how touched I was by the words of this song. Then I see how it is now coming into play. And how I am not all that thrilled by losing MY possessions and am having a little bit of hard time with the idea of not being greedy. I guess it was far easier to sing the song than it is to really be willing to share MY stuff and money with the rest of the world.

My guides tell me those of us who have been envisioning world peace and brotherhood have, in fact, materialized much of the global financial "crisis." Our intention-setting has started a new change in the world economy. It hurts a little.

In the years to come, some of us might have less stuff than we used to think we needed. We might have to move to smaller homes that are closer to where we work. Our big cars might be replaced by smaller, more efficient vehicles. Maybe we could share a lawn mower with our neighbors or car pool to save gas.

Nobody, including me, wants to go "backwards" in our financial well-being. But, lots of us wanted to Imagine the world as one. Talk about giving the universe mixed messages. Now is our time to figure out what really is important to us.

We can whine about it (believe me, I am), but we can also look at the bigger picture and smile a little. Enjoy the changes, my friends.

When a relationship breaks down and the person you thought you would spend the rest of your life with suddenly departs, the pain can be quite excruciating. All the old stories – betrayal, humiliation, anger, blame, self-recrimination and simply being alone in a world full of loneliness – come rushing to the surface, all wrapped in a terrible sadness.

Unexpected life changes happen to thousands of people every day, very recently to a friend of mine. So how do you deal with it? How do you recover (if you actually do) – not just from a long-term partner walking out, but from all kinds of equally harrowing traumas?

Any major shattering presents huge challenges. How we respond to them will affect the rest of our lives. Some people sink into the morass of self-pity and resentment; others remain in grief for years and some come to understand this is a vital opportunity to look inwardly to themselves, not in a self-critical way but with compassion and tenderness and they see a way forward that is not dependent on anyone else.

These challenges focus on long-held self-images, such as "I am not enough," "I cannot trust anyone," "Life is unfair" or "I need to be taken care of." Each of these and other images have arisen from deep childhood wounds, and we use them to keep us going, to cope with the multiple pressures of life.

In our adult behavior, we live out the self-image in a defensive way, protecting ourselves from our primary fears by the avoidance of risk, or the inability to connect with people or a dependence on others to save us. There are many variations on this theme and they are all foundations for survival.

Some people constantly seek acknowledgement or approval, while others have a powerful need to be in control. In many cases, we use our talents to help make us feel good about ourselves.

So when a shattering or trauma occurs and a crippling emotional pain arises, the pain (and shame) presents itself right in the face, although its origin is deep inside the wound. My friend David said: "When my wife decided to leave in not the prettiest of circumstances, I was devastated and heart-broken. My whole world changed in an instant."

Although still in deep shock, David began an inward journey, examining his share of responsibility in the collapse of his marriage, realizing how complacency and lethargy had set in – along with anxiety and depression that grew from his early relationship with his mother who had frequently humiliated him and whom he had never been able to please.

"I had spent many years of the marriage trying to compensate for my issues by being over-generous and over-attentive, as if I was still trying to get my mother’s approval. I had been expecting my wife to save me. Even just looking at these and other areas of my life was extremely painful, sometimes terrifying. But I couldn’t turn away from them. I allowed myself to feel it all and go through layer after layer into the depths of the original wounds."

At the same time, David also focused on all his great qualities and gifts – his creativity, open-heartedness, humor, compassion for others and more. In this way he was able to hold both the negative and the positive in a non-dualistic and non-judgemental container, simply allowing it all to be present.

This willingness to surrender to whatever was there enabled him to be with and ride the wave of emotions when the enormity of his sadness and fear threatened to overwhelm. He was able to come back into his center and be in his essence.

"This gave me a different perspective on my life," he said. "I received some remarkable insights that included seeing how I had allowed many areas of my life to stagnate and die – the very basic will to live, to have fun and real pleasure."

A new enthusiasm emerged from all this, albeit tinged with a sadness that was a little more bearable. Only weeks on, David feels much more alive, confident and optimistic about a future without the woman he loves. The life force that had lain dormant, locked away for years in that deep early pain, began to stir again.

It may have been hard for him or anyone to appreciate initially, but there is a great and liberating gift in every trauma or shattering, one that few people are willing to grasp as they lose themselves in their pain. Sometimes we need our lives to be completely shaken before we can even begin to face the challenges that have always been there, but ignored. The key is in knowing how to focus inward into the pain, rather than run from it. This is one of the things we teach at The Barbara Brennan School of Healing.

In my own life, I have gone through surprising, sometimes frightening and painful experiences to come out the other end each time with deeper love and more understanding and acceptance of self and others.

None of us are victims. We are all on a path of self-actualization, a state in which Grace arises of its own accord from deep inside.

What was the most sacred moment you have had in your life?
Sunny Dawn Johnston: The most sacred moment I have had in my life was the day my ex-mother-in-law transcended her body. It was a day I will never forget. The synchronicities of the days events began at 10 a.m. with a phone call. She had no brain activity, was comatose and being taken off life support. The doctors said she would not live five minutes after taking her off support, but they didn’t know the spirit of this lady! I immediately flew from Arizona to California, drove two hours and when I arrived she was still alive… five hours after being disconnected from life support. I knew she would wait for me to be there with her. When I arrived, I climbed into bed with her, held her hands in mine, and could feel the sacredness of those hours. I had 18 more hours with her, a miracle, the doctors said! She waited for me…to give me the gift…the gift of the sacred moment when she took her last breath on earth, and began her journey home. The moment she left, I felt her spirit move through me; my body trembled with an energy I had never felt before. That moment changed who I was and who I would become!

Why are you optimistic about the future of humanity in this time of uncertainty and fear?
SDJ: I am optimistic about the future of humanity because we are in a time of change. Change is happening…people are becoming more aware! It is a beautiful thing to see people moving towards their spirit! I truly believe that humanity is learning that "we must be the change we want to see in the world," just as Gandhi said.

What holistic practice is a part of your life to help you maintain health and wellness and to connect with your spiritual Self?
SDJ: The holistic practice that is part of my everyday life that I use to maintain wellness and connect with my spiritual self is Gratitude. I believe that gratitude allows me to move through things with greater ease and awareness. I know that everything happens for a reason! Therefore, I can look to each situation, see a divine purpose, and be grateful for it.

What single message do you want to share with us from your heart?
SDJ: The message that I want to share with you is that the times have changed. You can no longer close yourself off and hold back – physically or spiritually. You are needed! You are in a changing time…and you have chosen to change this time and to change this time!

You have the gift! You have the knowledge! You have the wisdom! You have the awareness! You have the heart! You have it all within you!

When did it become OK for you to come from a place of fear? When did it become OK to hide who you truly are and all that you have to offer? When did you decide to allow this fear to take over? Love heals…Fear harms!

Are you ready to Love? Are you ready to Live? There has never been a more important time on our planet. Listen now….

Listen closely…. Can you hear that soft, gentle, quiet beat of your heart? The one that tells you that it is safe, that it is time, that all is well, that you are ready.

Now…Listen even more closely… even more closely and you will hear them…The ones that need you…the ones that need you to share…the ones that need your gifts…your wisdom…your awareness. Can you hear them? Your voices are one and the same! This voice is calling you forth! NOW!

Sunny Dawn Johnston will present "CONNECTING WITH YOUR ANGELS" at 10:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 9, tickets $26 now, $29 at door. • She also will present a Post-Show Event: "AN IN-DEPTH JOURNEY TO COMMUNICATING WITH YOUR ANGELS at 9:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m. Monday, Nov. 10, Marquette LaSalle Room, Minneapolis Hilton, tickets $44 now, $49 at door – As a loving and caring Spiritual Teacher, Sunny Dawn Johnston has helped thousands of people across the country find their inner truth. As a national speaker, Sunny’s dynamic methods effectively reach out to help people to help themselves by discovering that the answers are always within. She is a Certified Spiritual Counselor, Certified Medium, Reiki Master/Teacher, Ordained Minister, Hypnotherapist and has created five Guided Meditation CDs. In December 2003, Sunny founded Sunlight Alliance, a spiritual teaching and healing center in Glendale, Ariz. Sunny also volunteers her time as a psychic investigator for the international organization FIND ME. This is a not-for-profit organization of Psychic, Investigative and Canine Search & Rescue (SAR) volunteers working together to provide leads to Law Enforcement and Families of missing persons and homicide. Visit www.sunnydawnjohnston.com

"These times there a-changin’." One of our fellow visionaries, Bob Dylan, wrote this song a few years ago. As most of you know, he grew up in the heart of the Iron Range, a hard, working-class area, where the common man had the privilege to work hard and prosper. Many thought that these types – Dylan, Will Rogers, even Garrison Keillor today – would create chaos with their liberal views. But liberalism, per se, is not the cause of disorder. One only has to look at the chaos that has been created by leaders from all persuasions…in politics, religion and big business.

You may ask, "What does this have to do with Holistic Living and the Edge Life Family?" We remind everyone that creating disorder and chaos is one option. Another is the choice to go within and know that when you make a decision, it is from your inner knowing or from the truth of your soul. It is a matter of listening to your inner guidance.

Many people today seem to believe that the present political system is not serving all the people. They desire change. The establishment will change drastically. Our economic system is failing because of greed and dishonesty. It will naturally change by default. Or, if we are wise, we can participate in consciously creating this change by collaborating with each other and with institutions and world leaders.

The days of skepticism are over. There is no left or right, right or wrong. It is a matter of listening to your inner self or soul. We are very grateful for the peace we have here at home – always within us if we choose to go there.

I founded Edge Life Magazine, Expos and Events to give opportunities to thousands of people to explore the many options available for self-growth, personal enrichment and fulfillment and to find their soul’s purpose – to reach their highest potential as human beings to become better citizens of our beautiful planet. Edge Life Magazine always has sought to inform you about various modalities: meditation, Yoga, numerology, astrology, metaphysics, alternative healing, self-help, spirituality, and many other options to assist you on your path of survival and enrichment.

Enrichment is the cornerstone of the 2008 Edge Life Expo as we present such speakers such as Dr. Norman Shealy, a neurosurgeon and pioneer of alternative healing; Kathryn Harwig, a spiritual guide who is preparing us for 2009 and beyond; Isha, who is showing us the way to peace; George Catlin, giving us a vision of that collaborative change we are seeking; and many other speakers who feed our soul.

And we will receive enrichment from Lisa Williams – appearing October 10 – who offers guidance and support from the other side.

It is our time to be heard. And it is our time to grow into our roles as change agents…to make the future a time of true change, enrichment and, above all, self-knowing. Do the stuff your soul harmonizes with.