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Living in Gratitude & My Steps to Conscious Creation

I try to remember to be grateful each day for the blessings I have, and for the blessings I wish to have someday. My favorite book series, Conversations with God, says that the most powerful prayer is saying thank you in advance. I don’t always remember to do that, but as much as I'm able to, I try to practice this high form of gratitude. It’s similar to visualization and to making a vision board – techniques I and some of my friends have had some success with. It is a pretty neat (and powerful) phenomenon when you put it to work in your life.  Form arises from thought. As long as we live in the manifest world of the physical, we create the things we think...

Finding Joy in the Mundane

Most of our lives are taken up by very mundane, even boring, tasks. Some of my more mundane daily tasks include making beds, cleaning up toys, making breakfast, making lunch, commuting to work, doing paperwork, bathtime, and bedtime, to name a few. Sometimes these tasks seem far from my experience of connecting to God, but I know that they are a big way that I can stay present and be of service to the world. Connecting to the divine doesn’t mean we stop participating in our daily lives, we just approach them differently. As the Zen quote goes, "before enlightenment, chop wood, carry water. After enlightenment, chop wood, carry water.” Once we have an experience or knowledge of our oneness to the divine, our outer lives don’t always...

Grace

Grace is a concept I find very comforting. Grace, to me, means love and mercy from God, even when one hasn’t done anything to earn it. It’s just there, and it’s for you, no matter what.Grace is God’s love for you, calling to you and accepting you as you are – warts, imperfections, and all. Grace erases the pain of the past and brings you back into the fold of God’s love, where you have truly always been. Grace is allowing God’s love into your heart and letting it heal you. God doesn’t require you to do anything except be yourself.  Richard Rohr writes about grace in one of his meditations: “Basically, grace is God’s first name, and probably last too. Grace is what God does to keep...

Forgiving Others

Over the weekend an old acquaintance I hadn’t seen in years directed some very hurt feelings towards me. It truly took me aback and made me feel confused and bad about myself. I don’t know what she was upset about, but I do believe it had more to do with her than me. It’s been hard not to relive those moments in my head and feel distressed. I’ve found this to be a good time to practice forgiveness. In these kinds of situations, it’s really easy to hold onto the pain and to judge the person sending out negativity. It was my first, knee-jerk response. Withdrawing and protecting myself is how I got by in life when people were harsh towards me as a child and...

Raising Your Vibration

This is a term that’s thrown around a fair amount in healing communities, and it’s one that I’ve been thinking about lately in my meditations and in my daily life. To me, raising my vibration means becoming more connected to love and to the lighter side of life. When I’ve had a high vibration in my life, everything truly does feel lighter. The clutter in my mind clears and I can breathe easily. Everything feels more joyful and calm and I’m connected to my highest self. It doesn’t have to be hard to raise your vibration. It starts inside of yourself. Here are some of the things that have helped me raise my vibration and experience joy and peace. Of course, like everything, I’m still working...

Caring for Others

“An awakened species sees the Unity of All Life and lives into it. Humans in an unawakened state often deny it or ignore it.” - Conversations with God, Book 4 I’m writing to you the day after the terrorist attacks in New Zealand which killed 49 Muslims. At Mosque. Praying during Friday prayers.  My heart aches for those who lost family members, and for the entire Muslim community.  How can we care for others during these times? I don’t know the best or the right way. I do know that I prayed and felt called to contact my Muslim friend in town and send apologies, love, and to tell her I supported her and her family. Even though I wasn’t...

Experiencing Life through the Heart

When I began my journey towards healing, I didn’t know how I felt about anything. Experiencing childhood trauma, being raised in an intellectual home, and being in a society that valued the mental over the spiritual all combined to help me lose track of my feelings. I became very adept at navigating the world through my mind. That worked well for a while, until it didn’t. It took deep therapy and several breakdowns to help me access my feelings and learn who I was on the inside. It’s very easy to slip back into a purely mental approach to life. When I do that, I get headaches and think too much. I can have racing thoughts that feel hard to control. I try to solve problems...