How Do Rituals Make Our Lives Meaningful and Spiritual?

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Meaningful Spiritual RitualsRituals add meaning and spirituality to our lives, by serving as a bridge between our outer and inner worlds, between the profane and the sacred, and between the ordinary and the extraordinary.

“Rituals are tools that give us the freedom to take responsibility for the direction and purpose of our lives,” says Abigail Brenner, M.D., author of Transitions: How Women Embrace Change and Celebrate Life. “Our task is to seize and shape this freedom — conscious1y, deliberately, and joyfully.

Here, Dr Brenner describes how rituals help us enhance and celebrate our lives — especially when we’re going through major life or work changes! To learn more about thriving during a transition, read Transitions: How Women Embrace Change and Celebrate Life.

And, here are several ways rituals enhance our lives… Continue reading ‘How Do Rituals Make Our Lives Meaningful and Spiritual?’ »

What Should I Give Up for Lent? How to Declutter in 40 Days

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If you’re wondering what to give up for Lent, this idea can help cleanse you spiritually and organize you physically. Here’s how to declutter your home in 40 days – in preparation for Easter. This guest post is from Elizabeth Kathryn Gerold-Miller – a spiritual blogger and write-at-home mother.

Before her tips, a quip:

“Eliminate physical clutter.  More importantly, eliminate spiritual clutter.”  ~Terri Guillemets

No matter what religion you practice, you can go through a period of materialistic and spiritual cleansing (whether or not it’s Lent!). Anyone can follow these tips to clear their home of 40 cubic feet of clutter in 40 days. After the initial push, you might actually yourself enjoying the ritual.

To learn more about the 40 days of Lent, read He Is Risen: Reflections on Easter and the Forty Days of Lent.

And here are several tips on decluttering for Lent…

Continue reading ‘What Should I Give Up for Lent? How to Declutter in 40 Days’ »

Are You Spiritually Healthy? 4 Signs of Spiritual Health

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How do you know if you are spiritually healthy? I sometimes wonder how healthy I am, so I did some digging. These signs of spiritual health aren’t the only signs of a spiritually healthy person — and I’d be grateful if you shared your own ideas in the comments sections below!

Here’s what one spiritual guru says about being a healthy person:

“The secret of health for both mind and body is not to mourn for the past, not to worry about the future, or not to anticipate troubles, but to live in the present moment wisely and earnestly.” ~ Buddha.

It’s all about mindfulness, my friend. If you’re like me and you struggle to stay “in the moment”, you may find The Art of Mindful Living: How to Bring Love, Compassion, and Inner Peace into Your Daily Life helpful.

And, here are a few signs of a spiritually healthy person… Continue reading ‘Are You Spiritually Healthy? 4 Signs of Spiritual Health’ »

Develop a Positive Attitude with Gratitude

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You can easily develop a positive attitude with gratitude. Appreciating what’s going well in your life instead of complaining about what’s going wrong, will lighten and brighten your mood as well as broaden your life perspective.

What we focus on grows in our awareness. If we only pay attention to the problems, irritations and frustrations of life, this is all we’ll see. When we appreciate the little things along with the bigger pleasures, we attract more of this into our life.

“He is a wise man who does not grieve for the things which he has not, but rejoices for those which he has.” ~ Epictetus

If you’d like to be inspired by a heartwarming story of how a man turned his life of misery into one of peace and joy, read 365 Thank Yous: The Year a Simple Act of Daily Gratitude Changed My Life by John Kralik. And for tips on how to change your attitude into one of gratitude, read on.

Continue reading ‘Develop a Positive Attitude with Gratitude’ »

Finding Inner Peace – 6 Ways to Be More Peaceful

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Finding inner peace isn’t just about prayer and mediation – though praying and meditating helps! These ways to be more peaceful are practical, easy, and effective tips for calming your heart, mind, and soul…which leads to peace.

“There is a criterion by which you can judge whether the thoughts you are thinking and the things you are doing are right for you,” says The Peace Pilgrim. “That criterion is, Have they brought you inner peace? If they have not, there is something wrong with them…so keep trying.”

Finding inner peace doesn’t just happen once — and poof! You’re suddenly a peaceful person! Rather, being more peaceful is a constant choice you must make, perhaps every hour or even every half hour. The following ways to be more peaceful with the people and events in your life are inspired by You’ll See It When You Believe It: The Way to Your Personal Transformationby Wayne Dyer.

Continue reading ‘Finding Inner Peace – 6 Ways to Be More Peaceful’ »

Spiritual Growth and Signs of Spiritually Evolved People

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Spiritual growth is an ongoing process. But what makes some people more spiritually evolved than others? Is it the number of lifetimes they’ve lived on the planet? The amount of good deeds and service they’ve performed? Or the hours spent in meditation and prayer?

Even the definition of a spiritually evolved being may vary from person to person. In my view, it’s someone who is fully conscious; someone who knows they are a spiritual being, one with God, Creator, or the Source of all life. It’s not about what they do, but who they are.

A spiritually awake person sees beyond illusions, duality, and fear. They view life from their spiritual eyes and have compassion for those who don’t. Jesus Christ, Buddha, and Lao Tzu are examples of spiritually awakened beings.

The majority of us living on the planet at this time are not this evolved, but we’re all in a process of spiritual growth, whether we know it or not. Those of us who want to speed up this process can do so with awareness and intention.

Michael Bernard Beckwith suggests that, “just as a seed needs the proper soil, water, and nutrients to grow into its perfect expression, so are we to nourish the soil of our consciousness in order to evolve into our soul’s ever-expanding potential.” He includes 7 signs of spiritually evolved people in his transformative book, Spiritual Liberation: Fulfilling Your Soul’s Potential. I’ve summarized them below. Continue reading ‘Spiritual Growth and Signs of Spiritually Evolved People’ »

Allow Abundance and Prosperity to Flow into Your Life

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When you allow abundance and prosperity to flow into your life you experience a spiritual state of ease and joy. The illusion of scarcity slips away. The duality of “have” versus “have not” is transcended. And the reality that we are each a part of God with the power to create and manifest whatever we want in our lives is revealed.

The only thing that prevents us from living an abundant life is our limited perspective. People have been programmed over centuries to believe in lack, struggle and suffering. As we release false beliefs and open our eyes to the truth, we see that abundance is our birthright.

I was blessed to receive John Randolph Price’s The Abundance Book; a pocket sized book filled with spiritual truths and a 40 day prosperity plan. Reading statements in it such as “God is lavish, unfailing Abundance, the rich omnipresent substance of the Universe. This all-providing Source of infinite prosperity is individualized as me – the Reality of me,” helped me to release limiting beliefs and see life in a whole new light.

I’ve found that maintaining an abundant attitude is an ongoing process. It goes against the grain of society and to truly embody it takes time and practice. I’ve offered tips below to help you shift your perspective. Continue reading ‘Allow Abundance and Prosperity to Flow into Your Life’ »

How to Know if You’re an Empath

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One way to know if you’re an empath is to reflect on how many times people have accused you of being too sensitive. Emapths are highly empathic and sensitive to the energy, emotions and suffering of others.

According to Yvonne Perry, “as spirit or energy, we are all empathic to some degree, but some people have the uncanny ability to feel energy more easily and intensely than the average person.”

Being an empath has its pros and cons. Knowing how another person is feeling and what they are experiencing is a great skill to have as a counselor, coach, or therapist of any kind. It’s also a quality that many people are drawn to in friends.

On the downside, being highly empathic can be overwhelming. Feeling an array of emotions that don’t belong to you, taking on other people’s problems, and feeling compelled to help others solve their problems is downright exhausting and sometimes debilitating.

In Yvonne Perry’s book Whose Stuff Is This?: Finding Freedom from the Negative Thoughts, Feelings, and Energy of Those Around You, she offers a comprehensive explanation of what it’s like to be an empath along with a variety of solutions for protecting yourself from other people’s energy so you can live a normal, balanced life. But first, read on to find out if you are an empath. Continue reading ‘How to Know if You’re an Empath’ »

Why and How Do I Pray? Reasons for Prayer, and Prayer Tips

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The answer to your “Why and how do I pray?” question may be different than mine! But, these reasons for prayer – and these prayer tips – can help you figure out why you pray, which may strengthen your relationship with God.

Above all else, prayer allows us to tap into God Himself…

“Through appreciation of the wisdom of the past, through prayer, and most of all, through deep meditation, we can become one with the inner silence that is a part of God,” writes Jeffrey Moses in Oneness: Great Principles Shared by All Religions.

Becoming one with God is why some people pray…but what does that mean? What are the consequences or side effects of getting closer to the “inner silence that is a part of God”? How do you develop a better relationship with God? If you struggle with the whys, hows, and whens of prayer, you may find How to Pray When You Don’t Know What to Say: More Than 40 Ways to Approach God helpful.

And, here are a few thoughts on a prayer-filled life… Continue reading ‘Why and How Do I Pray? Reasons for Prayer, and Prayer Tips’ »

How to be Joyful and Find Inner Happiness

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Nothing can dampen your mood when you know how to be joyful and find inner happiness – no matter what the circumstance. When you carry a light of joy within it shines on difficult situations and challenging people, making them seem easy and benign.

And there’s no need to wait for something special to happen or for someone else to treat you in a certain way in order to be happy. True joy and happiness come from within. As Thich Nhat Hanh said, “Sometimes your joy is the source of your smile, but sometimes your smile can be the source of your joy.”

So rather than give your power away to external events, situations or people, use the power of your mind, body and soul to ignite your inner joy. I’ve offered several tips below on this, but for a deeper exploration read Happy for No Reason: 7 Steps to Being Happy from the Inside Out by best selling author, Marci Shimoff. Continue reading ‘How to be Joyful and Find Inner Happiness’ »