A Room with a View
by Kim Mickenberg
psychologytoday.com
When you can't get outside, bring nature in to you.
Looking for a natural remedy to help you de-stress, focus, improve your mood, prevent colds, and live longer? Look outside.
Light of My Life
Patients in recovery rooms full of natural light take less pain medication, and, days after surgery, they report lower stress levels. Their hastened healing may be due to sunlight's ability to stimulate serotonin production, which helps regulate mood, sleep, and sex drive. Sunlight also increases vitamin D, which is believed to help prevent many chronic illnesses. And exposure to an hour of morning sunlight each day helps people fall asleep at night by regulating the melatonin cycle.
Nice View
Soaking up the sun isn't the only way to use your window: Don't forget to look out of it from time to time. Research shows that pausing to view scenes of nature actually helps us to refocus our attention, and people who sit near windows are healthier, happier, more tolerant, and more enthusiastic toward work. One study found that prisoners whose cells offered views of nature were sick 24 percent less frequently than others.
Being Green
A little indoor plant life improves the atmosphere literally and figuratively. Raymond De Young, an environmental psychologist at the University of Michigan, believes in the power of plants to bring peace to office politics. "I have one colleague who, whenever she's going into a very important meeting, places a small potted plant on the center of the table. She says it has a really calming effect on everyone around." Research shows that the more plants in an office, the happier the employees. Adding plants to the office does more than promote goodwill; it also promotes health. Plants in the office help reduce complaints of cough, hoarse throat, and fatigue.
Water Your Pet
Pet plants can elicit the same kind of emotional connection that a pet animal does—lowering stress and feelings of loneliness, and extending longevity—sans Rover's shedding and barking. Bonus: Plants thrive in areas with large windows and lots of natural light, so keeping a plant happy and healthy means ensuring your own proximity to a window and sunlight.
Help Nature Help You
It's easy to lose track of the world outside when you're buried in TPS reports. De Young advises sitting near a window and putting a small timer on your desk to remind you to take "microbreaks," a quiet moment or two to "reflect and stare out the window, to bring your mind to a quieter place."
SaturnsLady
Do What You Love to Do
By Jeffrey Hardwick
motivatingmentors.com
If you were guaranteed success doing what you love to do, would you do it? If you said Yes, then why not do it? You will not know unless you do it. Think about that for awhile. How else will you know unless you do it? When I was going to take a step of faith and pursue my dream, my Dad shared this advice with me: You really have nothing to lose. At that moment, I realized I had everything to gain simply by taking that one step of faith.
Doing what you love to do starts with taking that one step of faith. When you do, then you know you are headed in the right direction. You may know only a few people who are doing what they love to do. I am sure the rest are wishing they were living their dreams. You were created to do something you are really good at and would love to do it. You were given dreams and visions for a reason. They were not revealed to you just to know them but to live them. You need to realize that other people are counting on you to make your dreams come true. Your destiny is for others, not just for yourself.
Your destiny has already been place inside of you to be revealed, not to be figured out. Most people waste years and sometimes decades trying to figure out what they are meant to do on this Earth. The truth is, your purpose in life needs to be revealed to you. In other words, you do not create your own destiny.
Most people do not even try to pursue their dreams because of excuses and fears. What about those world changers who overcame those obstacles and fulfilled their destinies? I am sure you have heard stories about people who have stepped out in faith and resources just began to appear. Remember this: All you need to live the life you are meant to live, will appear when you move in that direction. Why? Because all you need already exists. You have weaknesses just like everyone else, but people will come into your life with strengths to overcome your weaknesses.
People are willing to help those with a dream and a purpose. Everyone has a destiny to fulfill. You might be the one who comes along side a world changer. You may be the next world changer. How are we going to meet you if you continue to avoid your destiny? Your destiny was given to you to fulfill, not to avoid.
Imagine doing what you love to do. Do you see yourself doing it? What you see yourself doing on the inside will manifest on the outside. If you really want to do what you love to do, then your thoughts, beliefs, words, actions and attitude must be in agreement. You can be a world changer. You already have the potential to do it. Are you ready to do what you love to do?
The choice is up to you.
SaturnsLady
Therapeutic Touch For Everyday Healing
by Mary Kirby, LMHC
spiritofchange.org
I first learned how to do therapeutic touch with a wonderful group of women who met together weekly for support around issues of loss, grief, trauma and relationships. Not an unusual group in many ways, except that the facilitator taught us all to do therapeutic touch. At the time (six years ago), I thought this was a novel thing to do in a support group. Only a few short years later I understood that not only did the experience of learning a healing modality bring us closer together as a group, but it gave us the gift of realizing that we are all beings of light and energy, and that we could bring about everyday healing experiences in ourselves and those we love through gently "touching" the energy field.
Learning to touch and clear the energy field is a gift that anyone can give to themselves. So many people believe that they will not be able to sense the energy field. Many think that some special talent or ability is required. One of the most wonderful aspects of therapeutic touch is that it is available to everyone. I have taught therapeutic touch for two years now, and my favorite experience with teaching is getting to see the looks of excitement on my students' faces when they sense the energy field for the first time. The first time they dear a classmate's headache or their child's stomach ache, they just light up.
The philosophy behind therapeutic touch is much the same as for many energy work modalities. The idea is that the energy field is the template for our physical, emotional and spiritual well being. When the energy field is blocked or imbalanced, dis-ease in these areas results. When life force is running freely through the energy field and the field is dear and unblocked, then people are able to manifest abundance in their health, emotional and spiritual lives. Interestingly, therapeutic touch has been taught in nursing curriculums for dose to one hundred years and has been pioneered in this country by Delores Kriegger.
Learning therapeutic touch requires learning to sense the energy field and notice areas of imbalance in the field. Providing therapeutic touch to someone requires learning a multi-step process of setting a loving intention that the energy world supports the practitioner and the recipients highest good, "scanning" the energy field for imbalances, sweeping or clearing the energy field, balancing the field, and setting a dosing intention. For those wishing to experience a brief introduction to this work, try the following exercise.
The next time you are feeling stressed, find a quiet spot. Begin by sitting in a comfortable chair. Now place your hands, palms down, a few inches above the middle of the top of your head. Notice what your fingers feel. You may feel a tingling sensation, warmth or a prickliness. If you don't feel anything, ask yourself what color or sound is associated with that' part of your energy, field. Now move your hands in a smooth motion head to toe, palms facing your body, down the front of your body, out past your feet and into tine air in front of you. Then shake them off as if you were shaking off water at the end of the motion. "Sweep" your energy field several more times from the top of your head to out past your toes, shaking off your hands at the end of each motion.
Now place your hands above the middle of the top of your head. What do you feel now? Does it feel cooler, less prickly, less tingling? If you used color or sound, have they changed? Now, check to see how your stress level is. Does your head feel lighter, do you feel more relaxed? If you did not get a change, try a few more sweeps. Check for a change again. Now give your hands a rinse in cool running water to wash off any sticky energy that was picked up while you were clearing your energy field. You are now done, and hopefully feeling more relaxed and centered. Congratulations! You have just completed your first basic therapeutic touch self-treatment!
SaturnsLady
What About Aging?
by Margo Knox
Margoknox.com
The human mind has many fears, near the top and after death must be ageing and the ideas of health and ill health. The truth is that we as human beings age as a natural process of life on planet earth and there has to be an exit mechanism for leaving or passing on.
However when you look at the idea of getting old and some of the accompanying health difficulties that can be faced it is easy to see the degree of societal conditioned thinking that says what this ageing process must look and feel like. And that the process it seems should be uncomfortable.
The fundamental underpinning principle of life is Mind,and we experience Mind as Conscious, Unconscious and Universal. People are programmed from a very young age that they grow old and various things happen to them on this flight path toward the final release of death. However contemplate opening to the Mind of the Universe and the Truth becomes available that there is far more available to us as humans than we ever thought possible. The Mind of the Universe has no concept of death or decay, only Life and infinite abundance, just waiting to be asked for and realized.
This of course flies in the face of much human experience. So is it possible to make the shift to thinking with the freedom of the whole or Universal Mind. Science has accepted the fact that our human body is totally and completely rebuilt every few years every single cell is replaced. Our body is not the one we lived in a few years previously. So how then do people keep diseases for years and have the ageing process be so difficult? The reason is simple, and yet it is the most profound of all.
The usual way for people who are ill is to focus on the ill health and accompanying unhealthy thoughts and therefore impress upon the subconscious mind the continuation of the disease.
If you believe that you are under the control of external forces that act upon you without your permission or maybe you dwell in the past of lost youth or opportunity while waiting for age to take its toll. These expectations will be impressed upon the subconscious mind. By going to doctors or naturopaths with a sickness to get some medicine, you are saying to your subconscious mind I have more faith in this concoction to do the work than my connection to Life Itself. And the subconscious mind will duly oblige and let that be. And the more you trust practitioners or doctors and medicines as an external force, the more the subconscious mind will effectively let you get on with it, whatever you choose that to be.
While taking the assistance of food and medicine to feed the body is of course part of life on planet earth. Take time to realize the Divine Force within. Feel the Energy and Unconditional Love flowing through you and know that you are a Divine channel through which Mind expresses and experiences. This is a conscious shift in attention. Maintain that feeling and knowing of this internal Energy flowing through you and know that as a co-creator of the Universe, you have unlimited powers of creation. This shift in attention will bring forth copious feelings of gratitude. The use of visualization and imagery to see you as perfect and healthy is a useful tool. No matter what appears to be going on. During your day, be vigilant with your mind releasing all unhealthy thoughts in your belief system and catch those that want you to believe that ageing is difficult and inevitable. Act, healthy, think, health and be healthy and you will be as you are.
This is the healing power of forgiveness.
All the Love in The Universe
SaturnsLady
Healing Discomfort
by Joe Hurley
TheDivineHeart.com
“Discomfort is not a problem to be solved, not an enemy to be fought, not a monster to escape from; but instead an energetic relationship within, to be owned with courage and grace, and transformed through total acceptance, divine wisdom, and love.”
Joe Hurley
We all experience discomfort at one point or another in our lives. And many people have been experiencing some intense discomfort lately. In this article, I focus on the subject of healing discomfort.
As an energy sensitive person, I sense disharmony in very acute ways. I sense disharmony both internally within myself and externally within the dynamics around me.
Earlier in life, I became lost in the discomfort I sensed. I became so lost that I adopted an identity of being a victim. Thank goodness those days are gone. Today, I have expanded my consciousness and my identity beyond the role of victim and beyond any role that I choose to play. Today, from an expanded place of consciousness, I have much more freedom and choice with regard to the energy dynamics that I choose to work with, play with, and create.
Today when I sense disharmony and discomfort, I take the time to really face it, sense it, listen to it and learn from it. And then, I shift. Instead of getting stuck in it, I open up to my higher self and I ask for divine wisdom.
Sometimes, I get clear information immediately to help me. Other times I get nothing, but hours later when I am not thinking about it, the wisdom and support that I need to resolve the disharmony comes in to heal the discomfort. In every case, when I ask for divine wisdom and help, I always receive the help that I need.
There are many gifts that come from the higher frequencies of divine awareness. My favorites are the energies of courage, grace, wisdom, and love. These are the tools of lighter consciousness that always come when I ask for help. These are the energies of light that are available to all of us when we choose to open and heal.
We are each beings of light consciousness. When we accept the lighter and higher vibrational parts of our self, we heal, and we begin to create the loving joyful life that we truly desire.
If you are experiencing discomfort right now then turn and look at it directly. Listen to it. Sense it. Feel it. Hear what it saying and know it completely.
Discomfort is communicating to you. Open to this communication. You may not like the dynamic now, but open to the wisdom of the communication and respect the source of your discomfort. Discomfort exists for a reason. As you understand this, you gain the key to healing your discomfort.
If you get confused by your discomfort or lost in your reaction to your discomfort, then remember to open to the wisdom and love of your higher consciousness. And remember to let go of control. Let the clarity and support come in ways never before imagined.
There is an unlimited supply of courage, grace, wisdom, and unconditional love flowing through your fields to help and support you. These energies are free and available to you, right now. These energies are you.
With courage, you can face anything. With divine wisdom, you can become clear in any situation. With grace you can let go and accept unconditional love within any dynamic.
Simply take a moment and ask your divine energies to guide you, inspire you, and heal you. Give permission, open, and receive.
This is your time.
SaturnsLady
Don't Worry, Be Happy. Mostly.
by Douglas Eby
talentdevelop.com
The lyrics of Bobby McFerrin's song include:
"Don't worry. It will soon pass, whatever it is
In your life expect some trouble
But when you worry
You make it double
Don't worry, be happy"
Being happy and positive in general is a preferable stance toward life, better for our health, creativity and longevity, according to many experts.
A recent ABC 20/20 program, The 'Fear Industrial Complex' had numerous examples of how the media "provides the public with no shortage of things to fear. The message is clear: the world is a scary place, and you should be worried."
But as the program explained, so many of those fears are really unfounded. "We often worry about things that... are not very dangerous, but which seem it. And the reason they seem it is because of... the media who show images and tell stories about terrible, terrible things that happen," said Stephen Dubner, co-author of "Freakonomics."
Psychiatrist Judith Orloff, M.D. (author of "Positive Energy") warns, "Fear is the biggest energy thief there is. A master seducer and gigantic source of negative energy, fear shamelessly robs of us of everything good and powerful, preys on our vulnerabilities.
"Many people become mesmerized for a lifetime, letting negative attitudes seize control. Enough! Though some fears are intuitively protective but we can't let the irrational ones bamboozle us." [From her article "Breaking the Trance of Fear"]
In contrast, actor Jim Carrey recently commented in an interview [Los Angeles Times], "I wanted to find out what makes people happy. I thought it was just making them laugh. And that's a fantastic thing, because that does give them temporary freedom from themselves.
"But it's not the answer. The cure is people realizing who they are and that there's nothing they can do on the earth or nothing that can happen here that will add to them or take away from them at all. You need to just relax."
He added, "What can I make out of the Lego set of life? Can I make something fun out of this? It's all about being happy, man."
And phobias, social anxiety, stage fright and other forms of anxiety can be psychologically and creatively corrosive.
Seemingly endowed with endless effervescent glee, Drew Barrymore has been quoted, "You have to fight unhappiness... As much light as I have inside me, there's just as much darkness, I'm afraid. There's a polarity, and I still have demons to work out."
Musician Alanis Morissette thinks "We're taught to be ashamed of confusion, anger, fear and sadness, and to me they're of equal value as happiness, excitement and inspiration."
Temperament is an aspect of all this. In a BBC News article, "The science of happiness," psychologist Martin Seligman, author of the book Authentic Happiness, refers to changing our biological set point of happiness, and says, "The best you can do with positive emotion is you can get people to live at the top of their set range. But you can't take a grouch and make him giggle all the time."
Musician Sting was asked in the documentary "All We Are Saying" if he had to be in pain to write. "I thought so," he replied, "as most of my contemporaries did; you had to be the struggling artist, the tortured, painful, poetic wreck. I tried that for a while, and to a certain extent that was successful. I was 'The King of Pain' after all. I only know that people who are getting into this archetype of the tortured poet end up really torturing themselves to death.
"And I'm thinking, well, I would just like to be happy," he continues. "I'd like to do my work, and be a happy man. I've got enough memories of pain, of dysfunctional living, a reservoir to last me the rest of my life..."
But can anxiety or fear be useful? We aren't only about feeling happy all the time, and some degree of anxiety can benefit us.
AIDS researcher Anthony Fauci, MD commented, "One of the by-products of being a perfectionist and constantly trying to improve myself are sobering feelings of low-grade anxiety and a nagging sense of inadequacy... This anxiety keeps me humble."
In his article "Writers Thrive On Anxiety", Bryan Knight recalls reading a "startling statement": "A writer's fears are never 'conquered.' Nor should they be. When anxious, I'm also sharp: alert, observant, sometimes even witty. Fear energizes me." The quotation is from Ralph Keyes, author of "The Courage to Write."
And psychologist Robert Maurer thinks "Fear is good. As children, fear is a natural part of our lives, but as adults we view fear as a disease. It's not a disease. Children say they are afraid or scared, but adults use the clinical terms anxiety or depression. A writer should not view fear as something bad, but as essentially doing something right."
All of these terms - fear, anxiety, happiness - are highly variable, with many layers and levels. One of the most significant aspects may be in terms of our personal energy economy: having to deal with a disruptive level of anxiety (not simply any level) diverts feeling and thinking energy in self-limiting ways.
So overall, keeping ourselves feeling good, with a positive disposition about ourselves and life, is probably the most healthy and productive way to empower ourselves for achievement.
Teachers on "The Secret DVD" even consider it a metaphysical issue. Joe Vitale says, "It's really important that you feel good, because this feeling good is what goes out as a signal into the universe, and starts to attract more of itself to you. The more you can feel good, the more you will attract the things that help you feel good, and bring you up higher and higher."
SaturnsLady
Your Natural State of Mind
by Amy Biddle
spiritual-healing-secrets.com
Whether we know it consciously or not, one of our deepest longings as human beings is to have inner peace. What do I mean by that? Inner peace is a state of feeling well and at ease, no matter what our circumstances.
Actually, inner peace is our default state of mind: it requires no special circumstance. We may think we want certain events to happen in our lives, but what we really want is the feelings we think those things would bring us - feelings of fulfillment and inner peace…
The truth is that we can have peace within, even if our lives appear to be in a state of turbulence.We may not always feel joyful in the midst of something difficult, but we can cultivate a habit of inner peace.
Yes, inner peace is a habit, not just something that happens to you if you're lucky" it is actually the result of a series of choices that form habits that we cultivate on purpose.
Some of the habits that allow inner peace to grow in you are simply the basic tenets of self-care when you live in a human body. We learn through trial and error that we need a certain amount of sleep each night. We get enough to eat, but we don't intoxicate ourselves with food or drink. We spend a little time alone each day, and a little time reaching out to others.
We find a form of exercise that feels like play, so we don't mind doing it every day. All of these habits cooperate with our physical body to lay the groundwork for the peaceful state of mind that is, deep within, our natural state of being.
There are also mental habits that allow us to enjoy inner peace. The most important of these is to pay attention to how you talk to yourself. Do you go around "awfulizing" over everything that happens? Or do you make the opposite mistake of "minimizing" challenges?
When something is hard, don't tell yourself it's terrible, unless you want it to be terrible! And don't tell yourself it's nothing, because you don't get inner peace by avoiding your truth! Just tell yourself, "This is hard, but I have the power within me to deal with it, and besides, it will pass."
Another good mental habit is to teach yourself calming slogans~ Relax~ One thing at a time! One day at a time! I don't have to prove I'm innocent or right. Maybe I can't, but God can! These and other slogans may sound corny to you, at first~ But when you get in a tight spot, it helps to have something short and sweet that's easy to remember.
Habits like these serve two functions. They keep you from creating waves at the surface of your life, and they help you navigate the waves that others create, so you can still get where you want to go.
With daily practice of these physical and mental habits, you cultivate the inner peace that is your birthright as a spiritual being in a human body.
SaturnsLady
Improve the Energy Inside Your Home
spiritualnow.com
We all can appreciate the beautiful healing energy of spending time in nature, away from civilization. But eventually we have to come home. When we compare the sense of peace and connectedness we feel in nature and to the stress and noise and bustle of city, we know internally that there is a difference. Part of the difference is the energy programmed into the physical objects of these places. Nature in general has more positive energy than our homes or cities.
Reasons Nature's Energy is Positive
• There are less people around in nature, so it is more isolated from people's thoughts. Thoughts are energy. Thought energy attaches to the physical objects near the origin of those thoughts. Negative thought energy creates stronger energy patterns and remains longer than positive thought energy. Worry, fear, and stress last longer than love, peace and happiness.
• Sunlight is a stream of positive energy that washes away any negative energy. It's like pouring cold pure mountain stream water onto a sponge. The sponge is rinsed of anything it has collected. When was the last time you were depressed after a day at the beach.
• Nature is usually filled with plants. Plants give off positive energy. They are alive so they put out a positive vibration, but they don't really think so they don't put out any negative thoughts the way people do. Plants don't' worry about jobs, or bills or relationships.
Before we can start filling our homes with positive energy, we need to remove any accumulation of negative energy. So here is a list of seven simple proven techniques that you can use to remove negative energy from any space:
7 Ways to Remove Negative Energy
1. Salt carpets. This is the simple easiest best way. Simply sprinkle dry table salt on the carpet, wait an hour and then vacuum the up the salt. Use approximately 3 to 6 spoonfuls of salt for a medium size room. Salt crystals have an amazing natural built in-ability to erase the programming of energy. Using salt is like using an eraser on a chalk board. The information on the board is wiped away.
2. Remove clutter. Things like old magazines and dirty clothes can trap a lot of negative energy in your house. Remove old items you no longer need. Keep coffee tables picked up and clean. Put your laundry in a laundry hamper. Wash your dirty dishes and put them away. Negative energy needs objects to hang on to so it can remain around. By keeping your living space picked up, neat and clean,
3. Loud noises. This is the reason the Chinese love fireworks. Loud noises break up energy patterns and allow them to disperse. Mother Nature does the same thing with the noise of thunder storms.
4. Play spiritual music. My favorite is the album Eric Pepin album "Deep Resonating Aums" from the Higher Balance Institute. A close second is the song "God is Real" from Krishna Das on his "Door of Faith" album. Buddhist monks use tingshaws to dissipate unfavorable energy. You can use your stereo with the same effect. Combine this technique with no. 4 and a great pair of speakers for a really deep cleaning.
5. Meditate there. A proper meditation once or twice a day in your living space will broadcast out a powerful positive vibration. A broadcast from a meditative state of mind becomes much more powerful than it would otherwise be, making positive energy more powerful than negative energy. A proper meditation will saturate a space with uplifting energy for several hours.
6. Rearrange the furniture. The Chinese practice the art of Feng shui. Again negative energy needs something to "cling to." Arrange your space with as much wide open space as possible, allowing any negative energy to disperse. But also the act of rearranging will cause this harmful energy to dissipate.
7. Add living plants. Plants add color, life, oxygen and positive energy to your home. All good things to have. But only if you water and maintain them.
SaturnsLady
A True Miracle
It was one of the hottest days of the dry season. We had not seen rain in almost a month. The crops were dying. Cows had stopped giving milk. The creeks and streams were long gone back into the earth. It was a dry season that would bankrupt seven farmers before it was through.
Every day, my husband and his brothers would go about the arduous process of trying to get water to the fields. Lately this process had involved taking a truck to the local water rendering plant and filling it up with water. But severe rationing had cut everyone off. If we didn`t see some rain soon we would lose everything.
It was on this day that I learned the true lesson of sharing and witnessed the only miracle I have seen with my own eyes.
I was in the kitchen making lunch for my husband and his brothers when I saw my six-year old son, Billy, walking toward the woods. He wasn`t walking with the usual carefree abandon of a youth but with a serious purpose. I could only see his back. He was obviously walking with a great effort...trying to be as still as possible.
Minutes after he disappeared into the woods, he came running out again, toward the house. I went back to making sandwiches; thinking that whatever task he had been doing was completed. Moments later, however, he was once again walking in that slow purposeful stride toward the woods. This activity went on for an hour: walk carefully to the woods, run back to the house.
Finally I couldn`t take it any longer and I crept out of the house and followed him on his journey (being very careful not to be seen...as he was obviously doing important work and didn`t need his Mommy checking up on him).
He was cupping both hands in front of him as he walked; being very careful not to spill the water he held in them...maybe two or three tablespoons were held in his tiny hands. I sneaked close as he went into the woods. Branches and thorns slapped his little face but he did not try to avoid them. He had a much higher purpose.
As I leaned in to spy on him, I saw the most amazing site. Several large deer loomed in front of him. Billy walked right up to them. I almost screamed for him to get away. A huge buck with elaborate antlers was dangerously close. But the buck did not threaten him...he didn`t even move as Billy knelt down. And I saw a tiny fawn laying on the ground, obviously suffering from dehydration and heat exhaustion, lift its head with great effort to lap up the water cupped in my beautiful boy`s hand.
When the water was gone, Billy jumped up to run back to the house and I hid behind a tree. I followed him back to the house; to a spigot that we had shut off the water to. Billy opened it all the way up and a small trickle began to creep out. He knelt there, letting the drip drip slowly fill up his makeshift `cup`, as the sun beat down on his little back. And it came clear to me. The trouble he had gotten into for playing with the hose the week before. The lecture he had received about the importance of not wasting water. The reason he didn`t ask me to help him. It took almost twenty minutes for the drops to fill his hands.
When he stood up and began the trek back, I was there in front of him. His little eyes just filled with tears. "I`m not wasting", was all he said. As he began his walk, I joined him... with a small pot of water from the kitchen. I let him tend to the fawn. I stayed away. It was his job. I stood on the edge of the woods watching the most beautiful heart I have ever known working so hard to save another life.
As the tears that rolled down my face began to hit the ground, they were suddenly joined by other drops...and more drops...and more. I looked up at the sky. It was as if God, himself, was weeping with pride. Some will probably say that this was all just a huge coincidence. That miracles don`t really exist. That it was bound to rain sometime. And I can`t argue with that...I`m not going to try. All I can say is that the rain that came that day saved our farm...just like that actions of one little boy saved another.
I don`t know if anyone will read this...but I had to send it out. To honor the memory of my beautiful Billy, who was taken from me much too soon.... But not before showing me the true face of Love, in a little sunburned body.
author unknown
topachievement.com
SaturnsLady
The Man by the Window
Two men, both seriously ill, occupied the same hospital room. One man was allowed to sit up in his bed for an hour each afternoon to help drain the fluid from his lungs. His bed was next to the room’s only window. The other man had to spend all his time flat on his back. The men talked for hours on end. They spoke of their wives and families, their homes, their jobs, their involvement in the military service, where they had been on vacation.
Every afternoon when the man in the bed by the window could sit up, he would pass the time by describing to his roommate all the things he could see outside the window;
The man in the other bed began to live for those one hour periods where his world would be broadened and enlivened by all the activity and color of the world outside.
The window overlooked a park with a lovely lake. Ducks and swans played on the water while children sailed their model boats. Young lovers walked arm in arm amidst flowers of every color and a fine view of the city skyline could be seen in the distance. As the man by the window described all this in exquisite detail, the man on the other side of the room would close his eyes and imagine the picturesque scene. One warm afternoon the man by the window described a parade passing by.
Although the other man couldn’t hear the band - he could see it. In his mind’s eye as the gentleman by the window portrayed it with descriptive words.
Days and weeks passed.
One morning, the day nurse arrived to bring water for their baths only to find the lifeless body of the man by the window, who had died peacefully in his sleep. She was saddened and called the hospital attendants to take the body away.
As soon as it seemed appropriate, the other man asked if he could be moved next to the window. The nurse was happy to make the switch, and after making sure he was comfortable, she left him alone. Slowly, painfully, he propped himself up on one elbow to take his first look at the real world outside. He strained to slowly turn to look out the window beside the bed.
It faced a blank wall.
The man asked the nurse what could have compelled his deceased roommate who had described such wonderful things outside this window.
The nurse responded that the man was blind and could not even see the wall.
She said, "Perhaps he just wanted to encourage you”
Author unknown
SaturnsLady
What The Birds Sing
by Julie Redstone
lightomega.org
The sounds of Creation flood through the morning air, celebrating the daily renewal of life connected with light. The light dawns, and the throats of hundreds of birds open up in joy, acknowledging their participation in the new dawn and in the gracious gift of life. Their response is automatic, embedded in the reflexive nature of the physical mechanism that operates within a bird, allowing the vocal chords to respond instinctively to the increasing light.
With human beings it is otherwise. We have a choice to sing or not to sing. We have a choice to celebrate or not to celebrate. We even have a choice as to whether we take life for granted, including its many small daily gifts of place and circumstance, or whether we see it, too, as part of a process of daily renewal, brought about by the graciousness of spiritual light.
What song would emerge from us if we saw ourselves as birds, drawn to respond to the emergence of a new day, drawn to recognize increasing light when it occurred so that we could not help but open our throats to sing in praise of what is pure gift. We cannot, for the most part, think like this yet, for our minds obscure the spiritual truths that are part of our deeper nature, and these minds tell us that on any given day there are many things to pay attention to, and that when we have time, sometime later on, we will appreciate the sheer grace of the day's dawning.
For this reason, the gift of perpetual renewal of life is one that goes unnoticed by many. And the ways in which life unfolds are not automatically perceived as benevolent or positive, nor are they reflexly perceived as a blessing. In order to make this shift, it would require of us a descent into the deeper part of ourselves, the soul-part that embraces both life and death and sees beyond the immediate concerns of the moment. From that part, we could determine what was really important and unimportant in life, and see, in the presence of our life and of our death, what we might deem valuable.
For we, as human beings, are given the choice to open our throats or to keep them closed, to use our voices in celebration of life, or to ignore the fact that something of great importance and mystery is happening. In the end, as spirit evolves within each human breast and as the deeper truths of self become recalled once again, it will once again be understood that as part of the Oneness of life, we are here to celebrate the light of God which dawns each day, just as the birds do.
And we are here to acknowledge from within our humanity, the sacredness of the daily events of our life, including those that appear to be ordinary. Eventually, we will do this not because we must remember to not take things for granted, but because it is our nature to do so. It is our nature to remember to open our throats and sing.
SaturnsLady
The Courage to Trust
by Chris Bourne
openhandweb.org
Are you able to trust in the creative flow of the universe?
Modern Society encourages to 'be empowered' and so to work towards manifesting our desires in life. Even many spiritual teachings encourage us use the so called 'spiritual laws of the universe' to create the reality we want. It seems to me that this approach lacks trust that the natural underlying flow of consciousness is guiding us to our perfect destiny...
The universe is formed from pure consciousness with one central purpose - for that consciousness to know itself experientially. In order for this to happen, separation of ‘unity consciousness’ was necessary in order for there to be relativity between the parts - I can only know up in the presence of down, hot in the presence of cold etc.
Hence unity consciousness flowed outwards into the ‘separation’
which of course science observes as ‘the big bang’ - although ‘big flow outwards’ might be more appropriate!
But unity consciousness had a problem - its very nature is intangible.
The only way for it to know itself therefore would be to loose itself in something very solid and massive and supposedly real - matter for example. Therefore in loosing itself within matter, unity consciousness experiences first separation in order to know the absolute unity and completeness that it really is.
In my truth, as unity consciousness, we have set ourselves a challenge - could we be in this place of stillness ALL THE TIME? That is the true test of an enlightened state. In other words can we realise who we are in every circumstance both ‘pleasant’ and ‘unpleasant’? When the cold, hard reality of life creeps in, can we still transcend our fears and feel the love born of our innate completeness?
This can be a hard thing to do. How does love for example put food on the table and a roof over our heads?
Good question and one that can be answered within the natural flow of the universe. In the physical universe there is an ever expanding flow outwards to greater separation - in other words ‘disorder’. We observe it in the chaos that man is creating on the planet from selfish needs and wants - many have lost connection to the consciousness unifying us all.
However in quantum space, if you like unity consciousness space, the universe is ‘breathing back in again’. There is a flow back to ever higher levels of harmony. This flow can be heard, felt and observed when we let go of the things we think we want in the physical universe, in other words when the mind and emotions are still. Then we are guided on a pathway providing us all the things we need - not those things we think we want, but the things that help us remember who we are - the only real thing happening in the universe.
Therefore there is no need to effort in the manifestation of things in our lives. If we can simply let go and be in stillness, then we release inner tension, open up inside and our consciousness expands. We become as one with unity consciousness and with that our destined pathway in life. We observe synchronicity and feel a pull through the heart to follow a different course than that of the ego.
"The act of creating is the act of acceptance.
In looking within, we see past the distortions of the ego,
to find what is meant to be.
When we know what is meant to be,
we become as one with the creators will...
the inner most longing of our highest self,
we become an open channel and
infinite potential becomes manifestation through us,
and through us, the infinite circle is complete.
May you have the courage to let go and allow manifestation to happen through your life.
Love and best wishes
Chris
SaturnsLady
The Magickal Crystal Children
By Adrienne Dumas
thefairiesandanglesoraclemagazine.com
The Crystal Children are those born after the Indigo Children. The Crystal Children are much like the Indigo Children, except they are more calm & peaceful. The Indigo Children have a Warrior Spirit and the Crystal Children are more serene. The Crystal Children are here to teach us to live in Harmony. Many of the Crystal Children are born and will be born between 1995-2010.The Crystal Children will work very closely with the Fairy/Elemental Realms. They love the outdoors and feel strongly attracted to the Fairies, Butterflies, Dragonflies, Frogs, etc, and they also love and feel attracted to Rocks & Crystal Gems.
The Crystal Children are natural born healers. Some Crystal Children might even begin to heal people the moment they are born by simply touching someone! Their positive & healing energy is phenomenal and is much needed during this time on our planet. They are here to teach us to live in Harmony, to live our lives based upon Love & Light, and they will also teach us how to heal ourselves and one another. They will show us how Forgiveness can create Miracles, and how we can Manifest anything that we truly desire (which they will learn mostly from the God/Goddess, Ascended Masters, Angels, & Fairies).
Many Crystal Children have been here before (meaning that they have existed on this earth before in other lives), and were High Priests & Priestesses, Wizards, Shamans, Nuns, Monks, and maybe even Saints in their past lives. Many Crystal Children can easily recall their past lives. The Crystal Children are also very artistic. They love to listen to beautiful music, and they love Art, Books, Poetry, & Crafts and as they grow up they will begin to create more beauty in our world with their gifts & talents.
A Crystal Aura: The Crystal children have multi-colored, opalescent Aura’s. Their aura’s highly resemble the pastel hues of a Quartz Crystal. They can also see Angels, Fairies, Deceased Loved Ones, etc. But what makes them a little different from the Indigo’s is that the Crystal Children can easily “read” someone - their aura’s and energy - and they can “see into your soul” simply by looking into your eyes. They tend to stare at people - into their eyes - but they do so in such a way that they are also sending healing vibrations to that person. When someone is in the presence of a Crystal child they naturally feel “lighter” and more peaceful.
SaturnsLady
Health and Spirituality
by Dr. Judith Orloff
drjudithorloff.com.
We are the keepers of our own healing. We are keepers of an intuitive intelligence so powerful it can tell us how to heal. The time has come for each of us to claim it again. Never forget: It is your right to heal. It is your right to look inside yourself for the answers. We are on the vanguard of a health care revolution as profound as civil rights or feminism. All over, I see an uprising fueled by courageous people, demanding that their spiritual and intuitive voices be honored in the healing process. Attitudes are shifting. I meet medical practitioners and patients everywhere who rail against the icy sterility of technological advances alone-no matter how miraculous-when simple kindness, love, and awe for our inner vision is sacrificed.
As a psychiatrist and practicing intuitive, my passion has been to bring spirituality and intuition into mainstream medicine. Then we can choose from the best of both worlds. A palpable connection with a compassionate higher power (whether or not connected with traditional religious beliefs) can help us heal. Intuition is the spiritual language that links us with our hearts, and thus to wellness. I've written my latest book, Dr. Judith Orloff's Guide to Intuitive Healing, (Times Books), to provides concrete tools for everyone to access their inner voice and truest sense of the spiritual. There is a conscious strategy we can take to be joyous and well. It is essential that we develop positive beliefs about healing in addition to a love for the body, an appreciation of the body's subtle energy system (Chinese medical practitioners call it "chi"), and also learn to access inner guidance and listen to dreams. With these tools, we can maintain optimal health or better face any health challenges that arise.
Science and spirituality mix. Over two hundred scientific studies have shown that spirituality is good for your health. In 1995 the Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center found that a major predictor of survival for heart surgery patients was religious faith. A National Institute on Aging study found that geriatric patients were physically healthier and less depressed when they attended regular spiritual services. Research underscores the necessity of not waiting until illness or pain comes to draw on spirituality as a resource for health and healing.
Is there a center in our brain for spiritual experience? Scientists currently associate our spiritual center with a part of the brain called the limbic system. When this area is electrically stimulated, some patients report visions of angels or devils. And brain tumors, which overexcite the limbic system, can trigger enhanced spiritual awareness. What scientists are willing to conclude is that the brain and spirituality are interrelated; if you develop a belief in something greater than yourself, you'll have a better chance of staying healthy longer and healing faster if you become ill.
As a physician, I have a continual sense of awe for the relationship between body and spirit. As your heat opens, so does your intuition. Your intuition will teach you how to see and how to love. It will instill in you a renewed faith to face anything.
SaturnsLady
Closer Than You Think
by Jim Malloy
innerself.ca
Have there ever been times in your life when you needed some guidance?... some direction in life, or a bit of help making a major decision? Where did you turn? To a trusted friend? A family member? An astrologer or psychic? Maybe you found some helpful direction from these sources, or maybe not. Did you ever wish that there was a higher source of wisdom and guidance you could turn to? One that is free from human bias, whose wisdom is absolutely trustworthy? This higher source of guidance does indeed exist, and is closer than you may imagine. It is always available to you.
Each of you has at least one spiritual guide that is "assigned" to you, and stays with you throughout your life to assist you as needed. (This is not the same as your guardian angel.) You also have what is called your Higher Self. Your Higher Self is that part of your consciousness that is one with Spirit, and therefore, always in touch with the Higher Cosmic Wisdom. Your spiritual guide and your Higher Self assure that there are at least two higher sources of guidance available to you.
Now even though this higher guidance is always available to you, when you begin meditating and traveling your spiritual path, an interesting shift occurs. The light of your Inner Spirit begins to shine more brightly, and this light becomes a sort of beacon, signaling those in the higher spiritual realms that your spiritual journey has truly begun. To assure that your journey goes along in harmony with the cosmic plan, you begin to attract various teachers and guides to fill special needs for your soul's growth.
These wise and loving beings, who are present to help you travel your spiritual path, gently and quietly suggest possibilities and positive choices whenever needed. However, this must be done without interfering with your free will. This is very important, because cosmic law dictates that your freedom of choice cannot be taken away. This is especially true here on Planet Earth, where learning to make choices is an essential part of the curriculum. So your guides won't make your decisions for you, or tell you what you "must" do. Rather, they will gently whisper suggestions, and then leave the rest up to you.
This effortless collaboration with your guides is occurring more than you may know. Much of the time when you are making life choices, you are receiving higher guidance. (I'm not referring to mundane choices, such as which kind of breakfast cereal to buy, but choices that have a reasonable impact on your life or the lives of others.) You may not be aware of it, but your guides are there, assisting you.
For example, have you ever been heading somewhere and had a sudden urge to stop at a place that wasn't on your planned itinerary, only to run into an old friend. Perhaps this friend had some information for you -- or vice versa -- that turns out to be quite meaningful. Or perhaps your meeting led to some positive new opportunity for one or both of you. These kinds of synchronicities begin to occur more frequently for those traveling their spiritual path. And what's behind them? It's your spiritual guides whispering gentle suggestions in your ear. This guidance process can be easy and spontaneous... part of the natural dynamic of your life.
Speedbumps on the Path
However, sometimes you may go through periods when it seems as though the choice-making process is a struggle. You may feel confused, ambivalent, or completely clueless. At these times, something is obstructing the clear flow of inner guidance, as well as the clarity of your own thinking process. What causes this? The most common cause is the constricting anxiety that comes from "over-importantizing" decisions... giving too much weight to the outcome.
What often adds to the anxiety, is the notion that there is one right choice, and we have to discover what it is. There is a tendency to feel -- either consciously or unconsciously -- that if we make the right choice, The Universe will smile upon us, doing everything possible to support us. Our road will be smooth and easy. Everything will work out perfectly... the right choice will lead us to nirvana.
But if we make the wrong choice... take the wrong road, we fear that we will encounter countless obstacles, and nothing will work out favorably. Although we may blame "The Universe" for making this road so hard to find, it is generally the anxiety of thinking we must find the one right way that makes it difficult.
Now, sometimes there is one choice that is more in harmony with your soul's plan, and may well lead to greater joy than the other choices. However, when this is the case, The Universe does not obscure it just to see if you can find it. That would serve no positive purpose. On the contrary, it tends to post signs flashing "this way" all around you, and in every corner of your psyche. And if you do happen to choose another route, The Universe does not withhold its unconditionally loving support because of it.
However, quite often there is not just one road that you are meant to take, but several possible roads, leading to several "possible futures" that will all bear fruit in some way. And all will have their joys as well as their challenges. From the higher cosmic perspective, your soul's growth is the top priority, and life is set up so that even the dumbest choices will open a doorway to growth and valuable spiritual lessons.
Follow Your Bliss
If you ask for higher guidance, more often than you may imagine, your guides will encourage you to do what you love, i.e. to follow your heart's desire... your highest ideal. Or as the great mythologist, Joseph Campbell put it, to "follow your bliss". Of course, that excludes anything that will cause anyone any harm. Such choices may catalyze a feeling of elation or excitement within you when you think about them.
On the other hand, there may be occasions when your higher guidance will encourage you to do what's best for all concerned, even if it does not seem so blissful. In such cases, you most likely know what to do already, but may try to ignore it, hoping your guides will get you off the hook with an easier course to take.
When you begin to understand these dynamics of choice and of working with your guides, things tend to lighten up considerably. You begin to feel free of the pressure, and are less likely to over-importantize, and agonize over decisions. Choices start to come more easily... sometimes instantly, sometimes emerging and taking shape gradually. You begin to trust more in your instincts and intuition. And when you aren't all knotted up with anxiety, you are way more receptive to the gentle whisperings of your spiritual guides. So the whole process once again becomes a spontaneous collaboration between you and your higher guidance.
Inviting Higher Guidance
Of course, there may still be occasions when a major life choice is not perfectly clear, and you feel the need for some extra help. At these times, it's best to turn within and ask for higher guidance. In such cases, the same principle holds true... the more you can relax and not get all knotted up with anxiety over the outcome, the easier it is to be receptive to your guides. For these occasions, here's an easy exercise you can do to get in touch with your Higher Self when you need some guidance...
1. Sit comfortably with your eyes closed. Breathe easily and naturally.
2. Imagine yourself in a place where you feel completely comfortable and at peace. It may be somewhere in nature, a room where you feel very comfortable... wherever you feel most at peace.
3. Picture a being of light approaching from a distance. You can see that this being is radiating great peace, love, and wisdom.
4. As he or she reaches you, you realize that it is your Higher Self.
5. Invite your Higher Self to sit with you. Notice how you feel completely at home and at peace in its unconditionally loving presence.
6. Briefly explain the situation to your Higher Self, and ask for his or her guidance.
7. Then you can either sit quietly, waiting for the response... or you can carry on a dialogue with your Higher Self.
You may receive an answer immediately, or after a short time. Your Higher Self may give you an answer in the form of words, symbols, pictures, or just a deep knowing. The answer may be very specific, or it may come in the form of a higher truth, which sheds enough light on the situation to help you choose wisely. If you don't receive an answer while you are sitting, it's ok. You have still begun the guidance process, and that's important. Once you have begun the process, your guidance will most likely find you at a moment when you are not trying to find it.
Guidance from your Higher Self or your spiritual guides should always be gentle, and feel kind, compassionate, and accepting. It should never be a command (except in rare, life-threatening situations requiring instant action). If a guide tells you that you "must" do this or that, it is not your Higher Self or a higher spirit guide. Simply disregard the advice, and ask it to move along.
Remember, you are being gently guided and lovingly cared for at all times. The more you learn to trust this, the easier it will be for your Higher Self and spiritual guides to assist you, and the more harmonious and enjoyable your journey will be.
SaturnsLady
