intention
Now Is The Time To Invest In Yourself
Throughout our childhood, we receive advice from family and teachers on how we should succeed in life. Study hard. Get good grades. Go to college for a quality career. Get married and have a family. Buy the dream home. Financial success and prosperity. Provide for your family. Send your kids to college. Become proud grandparents.
In reality, our real life experiences can throw us major curve balls, and impact what we envision as our dream future. In the same vein, life experiences create magnificent opportunities. Well-meaning guidance and suggestions from family and friends is beneficial. It is to be part of our consideration. It can give us goals, and affirm what we know about ourselves.
Careers can include being of service. A social worker, doctor, nurse, lawyer, first-responder, accountant, veterinarian, military, waitperson. A career in science. A researcher, chemist, biologist, architect, engineering. A career in entertainment. An artist, musician, dancer, playwright, author, actor, composer.
The career you choose is, however, to be one that nurture’s your heart as a priority. It should give you a feeling of passion and purpose, rather than financial security. Financial security is a goal one needs to have a degree of focus upon. We do need money to pay our bills, to support our family and lifestyle, to finance our dreams. Money being ‘the root of all evil’ is a fallacy. Money is a form of energy exchange. It has no judgment. It can influence or impede financial security. It is what you do with it that matters. But financial security is often temporary and based on your decisions and emotions.
Enter into your career choice with enthusiasm, passion, and a zest for knowledge. It may turn out that your career changes as you grow older. Jobs will definitely change through the years. You may be an individual who says, “Money does not matter or drive me.” This is a learned, mental paradigm picked up from your upbringing and childhood environment. Change it. Start thinking of how you can use financial security to benefit others.
The Transmutation Power of Crystals and Stones
The beneficial powers of gemstones and crystals is well-known in the psychic and metaphysical community. Many of us use them in our daily spiritual work. One of the most amazing things crystals and stones do for us is to transmute energy, that is to say, change negative energies into powerful healing.
Let’s take a closer look at some of the more popular crystals and stones and their individual energy properties. Remember, if you choose to use any of these crystals in your daily practice, their energies can be combined, depending on your individual needs.
Rose Quartz
Shades of pink, milky or opaque
Represents the planet Venus, and the signs of Taurus and Libra.
Not surprisingly, given its connection to Venus, this stone contains energies of universal and healing love. Many practitioners use it to increase levels of compassion for others, or before and after a session for grounding.
Rose quartz will help us to rid ourselves of fear, anger, jealously, or aggressiveness. It can also help us in a journey to let go of loved ones we have lost.
Change Your Life With Mantras And Affirmations
We live in difficult and uncertain times, and happiness often seems elusive. It is possible, however, through training your mind, to ‘flip a switch’ to activate feelings of joy and happiness with just a few words. This is known as affirmations and mantras.
The two concepts are somewhat similar or related. Mantras are short words or phrases used in meditation in order to create focus, peace and calm, as in the practice of Zen. Affirmations are positive statements of intention that are repeated frequently to create new neural pathways, thought patterns and energy frequencies.
It’s easy to incorporate these two techniques into your daily spiritual practice.
Mantras
If you already meditate, you may choose a traditional mantra, such as Ananda (the Sanskrit word for bliss) or Ohm (the primordial, sacred sound of all creation). You could also choose another mantra that has special meaning for you, or even create your own.
As you engage in meditation, pay special attention to your breath as you focus on you mantra, either spoken aloud, or silently in your mind. Let all negativity go as you exhale. Repeat this process for 10 to 20 minutes each day, preferably in the same place, without any outside distractions. This way your mind begins to associate your mantra with feelings of calm and serenity.
Replace The Naysaying With Faith, Courage And Hope
The world has come to a standstill, as we navigate through the COVID-19 pandemic. Many of us are in still shock that a microscopic virus could pose such an exponential risk that it is now altering our entire way of living.
Some of us have also become paralyzed with fear, overwhelmed with thoughts of how our lives might be forever altered. I too have had my moments, when I have felt that the latest news headline was just one too many!
I have heard a lot of deep concern from people in recent weeks, especially over health, safety and economic outcomes. I have been advised by well-meaning friends, for example, not to make any major life changes and to put on hold significant endeavors, because the economy might not ever recover. I was even warned by a well-meaning neighbor not to venture out too far from home, because of the threat of getting hurt and needing to be transported to the nearest emergency room, where I could then contract COVID-19 and possibly never recover.
Unfortunately, we do live in a world that tends to replaces the concept of hope with just the opposite. Therefore, with the best of intentions, these naysayers have chosen to focus only on gloom and doom. I don’t mean to dismiss the tragedies some of us might be witnessing up close, or from afar, as they are very real and deeply painful. But I am also making a huge effort to hold on to hope.
For example, when people suggest that there won’t be a cure for the virus, I remind them that our collective health is in the custody of the Divine and that life will continue to thrive on this planet, under the protection of Spirit. Without any doubt, I believe there will be a cure for Covid-19, whether via a scientific breakthrough or herd immunity.
Tomorrow Will Worry About Itself
Scrolling through my Facebook feed today, I noticed a link to an article titled, “Hell Is Coming.” It featured a graph for the stock market plummeting deeply into the red. Obviously, I did not read the article – the picture and title said enough!
I am sure you have also been noticing an increase in negative messages on social media platforms and in the mainstream news. As a spiritually aware person, I don’t see any intrinsic value in this kind of negative speculation.
Yes, we all must deal with the circumstances that we are currently facing in our world, and it is important to effectively process our feelings along the way. However, when it comes to speculation, there is no difference between a positive speculation and a negative speculation. They are both fantasies conjured in the minds of others, spreading through our adoption of it.
According to some self-proclaimed ‘experts’ the sky is currently falling! Fortunately, I have never taken much stock in conspiracy theories and doomsday soothsayers.
It is true that we are going through a time of unprecedented change, and we are facing challenges that we have never faced before. But, that dramatic article could have easily read, “A Cure For Covid-19 Is Coming” or “This Is A Great Time To Invest In Affordable Stocks.” Why is it that we don’t see many opinions about best-case-scenarios out there?