spiritual practice
Finding Inner Peace
Internal peace sometimes eludes many of us. We have busy lives, moving at a fast pace. Some days it feels like we cannot even gather our thoughts in the midst of our obligations. I am sure you already know that you should take some time to relax, and find moments for yourself. You should definitely do this. Having leisure time is important for a healthy life, as much as good diet and exercise.
But this article aims at those times in which the tide is high, and there is no real time to fully stop… at least no more than for a few minutes. What to do in such circumstances? These are a few simple tested ideas that people use in sports, acting, and even public speaking, to improve both their ease and their performance.
Breathing
Stay with your breathing. Stop paying attention to your thoughts and just focus on your breath. Do not try to control or slow it down, just feel it coming in and out. If you can, become especially aware of the moment when it changes from inspiration to expiration, and vice versa. This will bring a feeling of openness and clarity.
Visualization
Sit for a moment and visualize a white light in your heart. See this light grow with each breath, until you are inside a white light bubble. Now this is the important part: allow your body, your whole body, to dissolve in this white light for just a minute or two. After that allow the white light to recede into your heart. This releases a lot of tension from the body and clears the mind.
Meditation Is Much Easier Than You Think!
Meditation is one of the best things a person can do for their spiritual, emotional, mental, and physical health. The National Institute for Health, as well as the Mayo Clinic have published articles on their websites touting the well-researched benefits of this ancient spiritual practice.
All the major religions practice some form of meditation. However, meditation itself is not just a religious practice. The good news is, if you practice religion, meditation is a tool you can use. If you are non-religious, meditation is also a tool you can use.
So, why don’t more people meditate? Because they have a misconception about what meditation is, and how to do it. Many people think meditation means sitting in a lotus position while chanting, and not having a thought at all in your mind. While sitting in a lotus position and chanting is one way to meditate, it is not the only way. Furthermore, having no thoughts in your mind at all for an extended period is in fact not possible.
Meditation is about relaxation, attention, and focus. It is about recognizing the smallness that we and our problems are in the grand scheme of things, and conversely, remembering the infinite greatness that is our energetic being, as well as the Infinite Greatness we are a part of. This can be done in many ways.
Deepen Your Meditation With Crystals And Stones
I recently expanded my meditation practice to include the use of crystals and stones. This is a great way to connect with a specific intention or personal growth goal.
I found that the more I practice meditating with crystals, the more I can experience a higher frequency energy, as well as deeper states of meditation. I find that setting intentions while meditating with crystals and stones every morning, enhances and magnifies my results.
To introduce crystals to your spiritual practice, I recommend you start with Quartz and Selenite crystals.
Quartz crystal brings clarity of mind and can help you be more focused and clear about your wishes and desires for the future. Quartz also amplifies the energy of any other crystal, making it ideal for any meditation.
Selenite crystal is beneficial for meditation because it clears the mind and promotes relaxation. Selenite facilitates the release of negative energy and blockages, and enables calm energy to flow through your body.
Other types of crystals can also be useful in meditation, as long as long as they have healing properties or resonating energies that are in line with what you hope to achieve during your meditation.
Home Cleansing Ritual
Doing a cleansing, purifying and sealing ritual will refresh your personal space, infusing it with restorative vibrations and a spiritual aura. You can use this ritual any time you feel the energy in your house is dimming, or to bless a new home or office. It will raise the levels of your own well-being, as well as your surroundings.
Supplies
- 3 white candles
- Cinnamon incense
- 1/4 cup whole cloves
- 4 cups water
- Sage or sweet grass smudge stick (or sage incense)
- Quartz crystals – one for each room in your house
- Sea salt
- Small bowls or dishes – one for each room in your house
Preparation
Gather the cloves, cinnamon incense, smudge stick, quartz crystals, bowls, and candles, and place it your kitchen. Wear white when performing this ritual and play soothing classical, or instrumental music. Center yourself with a prayer or short meditation to set the mood before you begin.
Living A Spiritual Life
What does it mean to live a spiritual life? Well, everyone is actually living a spiritual life, whether they know it or not. Just the fact that one is incarnated in this lifetime means you are a soul who came here to learn and evolve – some consciously, some not.
To be spiritually aware or awakened means you are conscious, but not necessarily superior to anyone else. It simply means that you are highly conscious and maybe even metaphysically gifted. This does not ensure, however, that you are living at your full potential, or that you don’t have a secret life, such as, but not limited to, abusing substances, including food, to get ‘high.’ Neither does it guarantee that you are not lacking in integrity, or hiding your true emotions to appear more successful or enlightened.
Some of the most incredible people I have met were very ordinary people, while some of the most devious and fake people I have met are considered leaders and icons. Just like being a priest, school counselor or daycare worker is no guarantee that you are not a pedophile, declaring yourself to be spiritually awakened, a religious devotee, a yoga expert, or a gifted psychic medium, does not guarantee that you have integrity or ethics. Claiming a title or label is simply that: claiming a title. It is much like some used car sales people making their claims regarding reliability!
Easy Manifesting Ritual For Today’s New Moon
Today’s New Moon offers a great opportunity to invite new growth and fresh opportunity into your life. The New Moon is a time of rising power and an ideal time for new beginnings and manifesting your desires. This is the perfect moment to set your intention for a new love, a new job, a new home, or any new project you may have been planning.
The phases of the Moon do not imply that the Moon changes in any way. It is the relative position of the Earth and the Moon that changes, creating a variety of angles in which we receive the sunlight reflected off the surface of the moon.
A full lunar cycle is approximately 29 days. The moon ‘grows’ from New Moon and gets ‘bigger,’ until it reaches a Full Moon, after which it recedes again. The eight Moon Phases in order are New moon, Waxing Crescent, First Quarter, Waxing Gibbous, Full moon, Waning Gibbous, Third Quarter, and finally Waxing Crescent.
The lunar cycle does not fully coincide with a calendar month. Some months may have two New Moons, while others only one. When there are two New Moons in the same months, the second one is called a Black Moon and it occur about every 32 months. The New Moon is considered, in most spiritual traditions, the start of the lunar cycle.
An Accelerated Path
Many people come to me after years, sometimes decades, of trying everything else: Astrology, Numerology, Genetics, Past Life Regression, therapy, and so on. Years of being understood, validated, affirmed, and being told narratives regarding why they are the way they are, did not bring them all the answers.
There is worth in all of the above practices, both in Psychology and Spirituality, or Metaphysics. However, growth requires challenge, and we are now in a ‘feel good’ culture, where if anyone gets upset, there is the potential of backlash, or even a lawsuit.
In the 1960s there was an amazing education role play called Brown Eyes, developed by an elementary school teacher. You can look up the video online, as well as the reunion footage years later with the kids, who are now adults. The game created a scenario in which children, and later also adults, were able to experience the profound effects of discrimination, prejudice and racism.
However, teachers were eventually sued for doing this role play in class, because of the emotional upset caused by the experience. Of course, the role play was not upsetting to the minority children who experienced the discrimination and prejudice all the time in their daily lives.