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Temperance – Getting Stress Relief and Creating a Healthy Lifestyle
Joy, temperance, and repose, slam the door on the doctor’s nose. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
If you ever have flooded the engine in your car, the last thing you should do is keep pumping the gas pedal and flood it even more. If you’ve got an itch, a little scratching is divine but to keep digging at it is not. If you find something frustrating and you keep ruminating on it, it will only drive you crazy. Sometimes backing off and giving space to what should work is effective, but overdoing isn’t. A bit of temperance can make a big difference—moderation is a significant key to success and an abundant life.
As uninspiring as it sounds, temperance helps you find harmony between your desires and wants, while creating a balance in your emotional and mental fields. When you can moderate your indulgences you will find equilibrium in your life. Temperance will assist you in trusting your inner guidance and finding the right blend of certainty in your life.
Spiritual Contemplation: Where are you stepping on the gas and flooding your world with insane behaviors that don’t serve you well? Where would backing off with a little more temperance help balance your world and bring more insight in those spaces?
Affirmation: I live with the perfect blend of ideas and action in my life!
Enjoying the Purpose of Life!
Abundance does not come from working ”hard.“ It comes from learning to enjoy the effort of our tasks. Otter on a Rock
Native American traditions teach that wealth is a state of mind no matter what your material status. It’s primarily a state of fulfillment, having enough to be and do what makes our heart sing. Our engagement in life, in our own lives, creates the feeling of wealth. When you enjoy what you have and what you are doing, you are rich beyond measure.
How often are we engaged in things because we think we should be, or need to, at work or in our families? We compromise our integrity, our health, or our true desire, because we think that’s what it takes to succeed, get to the top, or have the wealthy lifestyle we are sold on TV. But this kind of stress burns people out, causes damage to our health, and cynicism or resignation in our hearts. With that going on, it just doesn’t matter how much stuff we own or how many titles and promotions we get.
This idea is captured beautifully in the age-old adage—“It’s not about the destination, it’s about the journey”—and how you are living/walking it. All you have in life is how you spend your time. Does the way you spend your time make you feel like you are fulfilled and wealthy—or stressed and depleted?
Spiritual Contemplation: When you no longer enjoy the tasks before you, should you press on? Do you secretly believe that all your suffering will deserve a reward?
Affirmation: I live my life to the fullest. I enjoy the journey of my life. I enjoy everything I have and do.
Integrity
Real integrity is doing the right thing, knowing that nobody’s going to know whether you did it or not. Oprah Winfrey
Integrity isn’t so much about what you say; it’s more about who you are and what you do. It’s what steers you through life. It establishes your priorities and behavior so when you are morally challenged you know how to respond. It doesn’t matter how spiritual you are; from time to time you will cross a contradictory emotional battle within your soul as to how to be with the question at hand. You have found your edge and soul-stretching moment. You are often confronted with contradictory circumstances between what you want to do and what you know is correct to do. Your integrity brings clarity to these moments.
Integrity will not allow your actions to defy your heart. When you’re coming from a place of deep integrity, your conduct will be congruent with your heart’s desires. Your head won’t be tripping out on your past choices but instead will be free to live with a great sense of inner peace. Your integrity allows you to decide who you will be regardless of the dynamics of your world. Your values are what keep you from living as a split personality between who you want to be and who you are in the world by freeing you to be a whole person aligned in spirit, soul, and action, no matter what comes your way.
Spiritual Contemplation: Are you the same person no matter whom you are with or what the circumstance?
Affirmation: I am living my life from integrity!
Easter – Spring and new beginnings
Eostre, the Saxon goddess for whom Easter was named, later became Ostara who was known as a fertility goddess with a passion for new life. It is said that her presence was felt in the flowering of plants and birth of babies. Her magical companion, the rabbit, a well-recognized rapid reproducer of life, joined her in bringing new life to dying plants while offering eggs which are obvious symbols of fertility. All the symbols used in spring festivals in the past express gratitude for the gift of life and abundance.
The symbolic language of the crucifixion is the death of the old paradigm; resurrection is a leap into a whole new way of thinking. Deepak Chopra
Earlier celebrations were about happiness and life, so how did what we recognize as Easter today change to the consecration of suffering and death? Early observances were about the birth day and preparing for life, not about execution and the alleged afterlife. These festivals don’t require a belief in an event that may or may not have happened, but something that is happening in your life now. Let the holiday lift you in the joyous awakening of new life and its triumphant return over slumbering nature.
Spiritual Contemplation: What’s been slumbering that you feel awakening in your soul? What is it that wants to hatch into a new expression this spring as part of your life expression? Give it some space and a celebration because you’ve been chosen this spring to midwife it into expression.
Affirmation: I align with the awakening life of nature in me as I celebrate rebirth on Easter!
A Mighty Purpose! Happiness is Created through Contributing Your Gifts
The problem with happiness is that it is fleeting and ephemeral. It seems that the more we chase it, the less of it we experience. When I stopped chasing happiness—after failed marriages and a broken career—and turned my attention to my purpose in life, I began to ask questions: “What am I here for? What is my contribution? What is my reason for being?” As I discovered my purpose—with my home and family and through my work—I noticed that I worried less and less about being happy. The more I gave of myself through my gifts and talents through my purpose, the more satisfied I became with my life and myself. Somewhere along the way I discovered a deep, ongoing joy that had nothing to do with whether an event turned out or someone liked me or I had a good time at a party. I realized that this joy was so constant, that I was easily happy most of the time. Happiness had come in on the wings of my purpose in life.
This is the true joy in life, the being used for a purpose recognized by yourself as a mighty one; the being thoroughly worn out before you are thrown on the scrap heap; the being a force of nature instead of a feverish selfish little clod of ailments and grievances complaining that the world will not devote itself to making you happy. George Bernard Shaw
Spiritual Contemplation: Are you chasing happiness? Are you living your purpose? Spend time thinking about what you are doing that causes you to feel satisfied, like making a real contribution. Follow that, and happiness will steal in while you aren’t looking!
Affirmation: My happiness cup overflows when I contribute my gift to the world or my family, my art or my career. I recognize my mighty purpose and move steadily toward it. This brings true joy to my life.
What Is Your Purpose? A Joyous & Abundant Life
I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly. John 10:10
I do not want it written on my tombstone, “She certainly worked hard!” Nor do I want “She answered all her email.” We are not here on this planet just to work hard or to clear our inbox. While our work may be important to us, we are actually here to express service to the Life. We are the place where the Universal Presence pierces the space/time veil so that It may enjoy and express and experience Itself as an individualized self, in addition to the purely undivided oneness Self of its Universal state. This makes us a microcosm of the Macrocosm or the incarnation, the divine sons and daughters, of a Universal Reality.
Our purpose to express and experience Life as us means that we are not here to suffer, toil, or await a future reward in Heaven. Since we are the ONE manifesting as us, EVERYTHING is already available to us. We simply get to pick and choose which portions of that EVERYTHING we want to experience. Therefore we are to have an abundant life, a life that has everything it needs to fully express itself. This is our nature, our birthright, and the very promise made so that we may be to the ONE all that we can fully be.
Spiritual Contemplation: Simply be with the idea that your primary purpose is to BE the ONE as you; that your sense of separation is not bad, it’s just not the truth of who you are. How are you living out your purpose?
Affirmation: I am a place where Spirit is made manifest. My life is for the sheer joy of living!
Scary Stuff – April Fool’s Day
April Fool’s Day even impacts the news! Perhaps known as the original media hoax, the BBC “reported” on April 1, 1957, that Switzerland was experiencing a bumper spaghetti harvest. Viewers called in wanting to know how they could get their own spaghetti plant. According to the online Museum of Hoaxes the BBC responded, “Place a sprig of spaghetti in a tin of tomato sauce and hope for the best.” The Swiss Spaghetti Harvest
Imagine if news reporting was just one big hoax? People easily believed Orson Welles’s War of the Worlds broadcast in 1938. What would happen today if it were reported that the planet is getting healthier; war as an option is outdated; global abundance and health are breaking out all over; and nontoxic renewable free energy is now available to everyone on the planet? What a great April Fool’s Trick that would be! Do you think people would believe these as easily as the negative reports of doom and gloom in the world? Having these headlines bombard the collective consciousness might actually create some competition and bring about good fortune for all people.
In his song “Imagine” John Lennon hoped that the world could become one. Maybe if global unity and peace were heralded in horror and fear-based headlines, they might sell. Maybe people would believe that unity and peace were actually happening, and peace would break out all over. So let the headlines read today—“FLASH: Random Acts of Kindness Breaking Out Globally, Warring Is Over, Soldiers Laying Down Their Guns and Refusing to Fight, The Climate Is Perfect, Government Really Is for the People by the People, Cure for Cancer Found” . . . Now let’s move it from an April Fool’s Day joke to reality!
Spiritual Contemplation: What are some of your dream headlines?
Affirmation: I am a deliverer of the Divine Dream!
Energy of Compassion or Mental Bombing
The energy of compassion is at the heart of bringing peace to every aspect of life.
To work for peace is to uproot war from ourselves and from the hearts of men and women. To prepare for war, to give millions of men and women the opportunity to practice killing day and night in their hearts, is to plant millions of seeds of violence, anger, frustration, and fear that will be passed on for generations to come. Thich Nhat Hanh
What mental bombs do you launch into your world? What less-than-kind energetic expression are you responsible for detonating? Where and with whom do you have an inner battle going on? Do you feel there is a mental or emotional war raging inside of you? Some peace advocates are among some of the angriest people you’ll meet, but if you want peace, you must be peace. Just because you hold it together on the outside and don’t go off on someone doesn’t mean you are an expression of peace. You might have the world fooled but check your blood pressure and see how attuned your body is to your vibrations of consciousness. Then realize the world you walk in is also picking up on and reflecting your vibrational contributions.
Compassion arises from within our heart. Compassion is what will transform the world. Our expressions of caring will still the wars of this world—shipping all the arsenal of this planet to outer space will not. Weapons will just be created again if there is hatred in our hearts. What we focus on is what will materialize in our world, which is why it’s important to have our kids rehearse in their minds and hearts those things that will bless this world and not destroy it or them. What visions would you wish your children to review and practice in their soul?
Spiritual Contemplation: Where are you hurling bombs upon the world? What can you do to stop contributing to the warring energy and replace it with a compassion for the situation at hand?
Affirmation: I bring compassion to my war-torn thoughts!
Be Your True Self – Who You Are Is Enough
Have you ever pondered the deep philosophical question as to why Cinderella’s shoe didn’t disappear when everything else went poof at midnight, including her other shoe? Imagine if she had gone to the party as who she really was; she would never have had to leave in such a panic if she hadn’t been in a disguise to begin with. Life is inviting you to show up as who you are, not who you are pretending to be.
He loves me because I’m me. Cinderella
Cinderella was being her true self until she lost her confidence and ran. It’s after you have touched your dream that a part of you can be scared and a piece of you is left in it. It’s just not very often the dream comes knocking on doors in your neighborhood tracking down the owner of that piece. It might have played out well for Cinderella, but it would serve you better to stop waiting for the lost piece of your dream to find you. Stop using the excuse that you’ve got nothing to wear and you’re too busy. Put on what you’ve got and get going to the party. Life has invited you to come as you are. So stop wishing on a star for some fairy godmother to come along to spruce you up, because who you are is enough to make your dreams come true.
Spiritual Contemplation: What excuses do you tell yourself for not going for your dream? What pieces of you have you left behind in your dream that you are hoping will come find you? What can you do to retrieve that last piece of you so you can be your true self?
Affirmation: Who I am is enough for my dream to come true!
Possible or Impossible, You Decide!
Decide what you want. Believe you can have it. Believe you deserve it and believe it’s possible for you. Jack Canfield
“I can’t,” “I don’t know,” and “I haven’t” are all ways in which we reaffirm our lack and limitation. We have something within, however—the Presence of Spirit as us—that does know, that can, and absolutely has everything needed for an abundant life. We shift our focus from the impossible to the possible by realizing that all we have to do is create the space in our consciousness for a larger idea. The “how” is up to an incredibly powerful and intelligent universal law. We don’t actually have to know how, because It does.
So, the question is, what we are going to decide. Do we decide that this spiritual stuff really works, and that we’re going to step out as if that were actually true? Or do we continue to look for evidence that it hasn’t been true in the past, and therefore it can’t be true for our future? It’s all in what we decide to focus on and speak into reality. To Spirit, everything is possible. We have to decide if that’s true for us, too!
Spiritual Contemplation: How often do I decide to limit myself in ways that keep me from living the abundant life that is my birthright?
Affirmation: All things are possible for me, because all things are possible for Spirit as me!
Breaking free from Karma
Karma, when properly understood, is just the mechanics through which consciousness manifests. Deepak Chopra
People often put such an energetic Whoa! about the probability of breaking free of karma. They believe that when you get on the karmic wheel you’re there for a long time. Yet the chain is being broken all the time. Some people who were on their last borrowed dollar have turned their lives around and are now sitting on top of the world. And what about those people with a terminal illness and only a few months to live who years later are still around telling how they beat their life sentence?
In the spiritual consciousness there is no law of dis-ease and no bondage to cause and its effect. Any time you touch the spiritual consciousness and achieve any sense of freedom, the power of grace enters into the equation. Spiritual realization is what sets you free. It doesn’t matter what the mistake has been, it can all end in a moment when grace touches down. But then, as the saying goes, “Go and sin no more.” If you return to the same old behavior and consciousness that brought the error to you to begin with, you are back on that karmic wheel. But if in the freeing moment of higher realization, you decide to no longer perpetuate what was, then what can be will show up for you.
Spiritual Contemplation: What karmic chain would you like to break free from? If you knew that all you had to do was discontinue the behavior and thinking that got you in a present predicament, would you really let go of them?
Affirmation: I am now free from any perceived chain of Karma!
What is Your Purpose? Who Do You Think You Are?
Sometimes we think that if we could just figure out the purpose Life has for us, we will be rewarded with wealth and fulfillment. We want a sign, preferably a neon arrow, to show us which way to go. But this way of approaching purpose assumes a duality between Spirit and us. From this point of view, God is out there directing and judging us. Then we experience life as a series of lessons and rewards based on whether we think we are, or are not, in line with “God’s Plan for us.”
God has said, “I am to My servant as he thinks I am.” Prophet Muhammad, Hadith Qudsi
God/Life/Spirit is to us, as we think It is. Because It is the impulse of our very life and is already fulfilling Itself simply by being us. It has given us the Universal Laws that are the keys to the Kingdom. Our purpose is to be and express, become and experience LIFE in the unique and precious way that is the way Life shows up AS US. Our purpose is to BE LLIFE AS ME, as the best ME I can be. This means that we seek our innermost talents and strengths, our deepest, truest desires to express and serve, knowing that they come directly from the impulse of Spirit. Spirit is a Unity with us. Life is as close as our heartbeat, as near as our breath, and as present as our hands and voice, as we move out into the world. Every act in alignment with Spirit AS Us fulfills our purpose, and we find ourselves wealthy heirs to the Kingdom of Heaven every day.
Spiritual Contemplation: I am not my job, career, or any role I play. These may be ways in which I express and experience my purpose. I am an incarnation of the Divine Reality; Life’s only plan for me is one of Freedom. The freedom to be ME!
Affirmation: I am free to be me. My purpose is to be the best ME I can be. This is fulfilling Life’s purpose to be Itself in, though, and AS ME!
Reduce stress by Slowing Down and Being Part of Nature
Nature does not hurry, yet everything is accomplished. Lao Tzu
How do you reduce stress when you feel like you are always rushing around in a hurry? Stop and contemplate that nature doesn’t hurry, and yet everything is accomplished season after season. The grass that is supposed to grow, grows and water doesn’t try to flow, it just does. The action is quite effortless when in alignment with the expression of life. This doesn’t mean there aren’t obstacles to move through or around, but there’s a spontaneous ease of appropriate action, something we’d be pretty smart for taking into consideration in our lives.
When the logical, calculating mind is in high gear it can impede the effortless flow of nature’s wisdom. So when life throws you some curveballs and challenges, relax rather than tensing up. When you notice yourself stuck and straining in effort, pause. Go outside, breathe in some fresh air and realize you are not your mind—you are who uses your mind. Nature is not in any kind of hurry, so why are you? Relax. The grass grows, the water flows, and so do you.
Spiritual Contemplation: Where in your life do you feel stress and there appears to be an urgency to get through the challenge? Visualize water coming to a blockage on its path and see the water building up behind the blockage until it effortlessly moves around and over as it continues on its perfectly timed journey. Now take that urgent challenge and visualize it in that flow, effortlessly moving beyond whatever is in your path in perfect timing. Feel yourself destress and go with the flow.
Affirmation: I breathe, relax, and move with the perfect flow and rhythm of life!
Authentic Communication from Your Heart & Soul
Authentic communication has gentleness and clarity. No one likes to feel used or manipulated. It ruins the bond of trust. You connect more by being honest and transparent than calculating and shrewd. When you come from your heart, there is no patronizing or public condemnation, no sarcastic jabs or put-downs. Care enough about people to put them first and really hear what is coming from their heart.
Soul is about authenticity. Soul is about finding the things in your life that are real and pure. John Legend
It doesn’t matter how polished your communication skills are; what makes the difference is how authentic you are. People want to know and feel the real you. You don’t need to be a slick communicator in order to move people—what’s most effective is your authentic expression. It’s said that Richard Branson froze the first time he was asked to give a speech, but despite being scared to death, he was still an effective communicator. Connecting with people is the key to effective communication, and that is done by coming from your heart.
Spiritual Contemplation: Where do you find yourself being a little too caustic and abrasive in your communication with others? How could you back off a bit and become gentler in your authentic expression while still communicating your perspective across?
Affirmation: I come from my heart in authentically communicating with others!
Expand Your Perspective – Cyclopes Aren’t Good for Business
Expanding your perspective is so important for spiritual growth. One day I was driving down the road when from the backseat my son said out of the blue, “Cyclopes aren’t good for business.” Initially I spent my time wondering where that non sequitur came from, then I realized that he is absolutely right. Having a single focus, attempting to resolve all issues the same way, and seeing everything through a single portal of perception, these don’t bring the diversity necessary for dealing with the dynamics of business or life. Difficulties usually can’t be solved all the same way and all at the same time. Line them up, face them, and take one on at a time. You probably already know what’s wrong and more than likely it’s something you don’t want to deal with since it’s a problem.
It ain’t what you don’t know that gets you into trouble. It’s what you know for sure that just ain’t so. Mark Twain
Don’t trick yourself into a false perception of the difficulty, however. An impartial attitude may not always transform the situation, but it will transform you. It will take your single-sightedness off the effects of the situation and reveal the cause. Look at the facts, not just what others tell you. Be willing to engage other people to help create as many answers and resolutions as possible and then implement the best one. Assess what unfolds. You’ll come to see that stepping back and opening both eyes wide with a positive attitude is the best way to move forward through the issues at hand.
Spiritual Contemplation: What issues can’t you see your way through? Step back to gain a broader vision of the scene, line up the challenges, and pick one to address with your higher positive attitude.
Affirmation: My perspective expands at points of challenge & conflict!