mindfulness
The Soulful Practice Of Kirtan Chanting
An ancient spiritual practice less known in the West has transformed my spiritual routine in recent years. It is known as kirtan a beautiful form of devotional chanting that originated in ancient India.
The term “kirtan” comes from Sanskrit and means “narrating, reciting, telling, describing” of an idea or story, particularly in a religious context. This enchanting practice weaves together music, meditation, chanting, and a deep sense of spiritual expression.
Kirtan is a central practice in the Bhakti Yoga tradition, which emphasizes love and devotion to a personal deity. It involves the repetitive chanting of mantras and divine names, traditionally in Sanskrit, accompanied by musical instruments such as the harmonium, tabla, and cymbals.
Traditionally, kirtans focus on chanting the names of deities like Krishna, Rama, or Sita. The kirtan leader sings a line and the congregation responds, creating a rhythmic and melodic interplay that is both meditative and invigorating.
While Kirtan remains rooted in its spiritual origins, it has gained global popularity beyond India and the Bhakti tradition. As the practice of yoga has boomed worldwide, kirtan too has seen an immense rise in popularity. It’s a testament to the universal appeal and transformative power of this captivating practice.
Kirtan events and gatherings are known for being welcoming and inclusive, focusing on the shared experience of chanting rather than strict religious adherence. Unlike the typical musical experience in spiritual settings, kirtan invites everyone to participate in a soulful, call-and-response chanting that creates a profound connection to the divine and brings people closer together.
Tarot Forecast July 2024: The Tower
This month’s card is the Tower, which predicts the energies of disruption, revelation, transformation and the breaking down of old structures.
The Tower card is a powerful symbol of sudden upheaval and change. It’s traditionally depicted as a tall tower struck by lightning, representing chaos and upheaval. It represents life throwing us a curveball.
As lightning strikes and flames dismantle the old structure, it forces us to confront our foundations and belief systems. While painful, this destruction can lead to necessary revelations and a chance to rebuild on a stronger foundation. By letting go of what no longer serves you, you open yourself up to new possibilities.
The Tower showing up in a reading, though scary and troubling at first glance, always precedes a period of significant growth. Destruction creates opportunity. Most situations we face are opportunities, even the bad ones. It’s all about the opportunity and how you see it.
Embracing chaos will be the key to clarity and growth this month. This is a time to rebuild and redesign your life in a way that is more in line with your true self.
Approach the month with an open heart and a willingness to let go of what no longer serves you. Whether it’s health, finances, career, relationships or personal growth, the Tower’s influence will lead you to a more liberated and empowered version of yourself. Trust the transformative power of the Tower. Embrace the changes and you will emerge from this month stronger, wiser and more in alignment with your true self.
How To Unlock Your Psychic Potential
Many people believe that only a lucky few possess psychic gifts. The truth is that everyone has the potential to develop one or more psychic abilities.
For example, everyone has moments of premonition – whether it’s predicting a phone call or foreseeing the outcome of an event. These intuitive flashes are not mere coincidences, but evidence of our innate psychic awareness.
While it is true that some people are naturally more gifted or talented due to a variety of factors, including genetic predisposition, environmental influences, and personal experiences, everyone can achieve some level of psychic attunement. Just as we all have different talents and potential in music, art or sports, we also have different levels of psychic sensitivity and strength.
Your natural psychic awareness can manifest in many subtle ways that indicates your latent psychic potential. Typical experiences you may have include:
Empathic Sensitivity: You easily pick up on the emotions of others, even when they aren’t explicitly expressed. This deep sense of empathy allows you to feel what others are feeling and to understand their emotions on a deep level.
Energetic Sensitivity: You are very sensitive to the energy of different places. Certain places can feel particularly comforting or unsettling to you, and you can often sense the history or emotional residue in a space.
Spirituality Is The Key To True Happiness
What really makes us happy in life? It’s definitely not just money and stuff. In my job as a psychic consultant, I talk to all kinds of people, including some really wealthy ones.
The truth is, there’s often something missing in the lives of my most affluent clients. They’re often not any happier than anyone else. In fact, some of them are really unhappy and even depressed!
A lot of people think that success and money guarantee happiness, but that’s just not true. Sure, success can feel good, but it doesn’t lead to lasting happiness.
Financial stability can also reduce stress, but once our basic needs are met, more money and material things don’t add much further value.
It is no secret that many psychic reading requests tend to be about people’s challenges with dating, lack of romance in their lives, dysfunctional relationships, or failing marriages.
But sometimes I talk to people who are happily married or in long-term committed relationships with caring partners. They seem to have the whole package in the relationship department, but they too are sometimes unhappy or unfulfilled. So being in a relationship does not seem to be the key to true and lasting happiness.
Many people also believe true happiness means feeling great all the time, but that’s not how it works. Happiness comes and goes, and it’s normal to feel a range of emotions in our everyday life. No one is perfectly happy all the time, but we can all live more fulfilling lives if we focus on what truly matters.
Spiritual Technology Is No Longer Science Fiction
Many years ago I began receiving messages from Spirit predicting advances in technology that would allow us to reach higher states of consciousness and expand our spiritual awareness.
At that time there was nothing on the market that matched what I was seeing, so some of these psychic impressions did not make complete sense to me, but since then several new technologies have become available to help us explore and understand consciousness and our spiritual nature.
For example, there are now several commercially available devices designed to support meditation practices by providing feedback, guidance, and enhancing the meditative experience. These devices promote relaxation, mindfulness, and deeper states of meditation.
Biofeedback devices can now help users understand and control their physiological responses during meditation, promoting relaxation and mindfulness.
Today, there are also numerous smartphone apps designed specifically to guide meditation sessions, provide mindfulness exercises, and track progress. These apps often include features such as guided meditation sessions, timers, ambient sounds, and progress tracking.
It is like having a personal yogi in the palm of your hand! Even better, that yogi gives you instant feedback on your progress by measuring your results. The apps often have incremental steps on your journey to awakening. So not only can you feel the immediate results, but you can also advance and maintain higher meditative achievements.
Using Essential Oils To Enhance Your Psychic Awareness
Essential oils have many esoteric uses beyond traditional aromatherapy. In fact, many experienced spiritual seekers use essential oils in their daily practices. But what is less well known is that these magical oils can also be used to enhance intuition and promote psychic awareness.
Aromatic substances also help increase focus and clarity during meditation, divination, energy healing, and psychic reading. By engaging the sense of smell, you can more effectively anchor your awareness in the present moment, reduce distractions, and promote a state of mindfulness or psychic attunement to open your channels of intuition. I also feel more attuned to subtle energies and spirit presences when I use aromatherapy in my psychic work.
Essential oils are a wonderful spiritual tool that promote relaxation, mental clarity and emotional balance, which in turn creates a conducive environment for exploring your intuition and inner awareness.
Smell is closely linked to the limbic system in the brain, which is associated with emotions, memories, and instinctual responses. When we encounter a particular scent, it can evoke strong emotional or subconscious reactions. In spiritual practices, certain scents can trigger deep-seated feelings or associations, helping to create a particular mental or emotional state conducive to psychic experiences.
Overall, the power of scent and aroma in spiritual and esoteric practices is multifaceted, involving a combination of sensory, psychological, cultural, and symbolic factors. Aromas serve as powerful tools for creating sacred spaces, enhancing psychic experiences, and facilitating inner transformation through their profound influence on the mind, body, and spirit.
Yoga Can Unlock Your Psychic Potential
Yoga has long been celebrated for its profound effects on physical vitality, mental health and spiritual growth. However, its benefits extend beyond physical well-being and mental clarity, as yoga is also a powerful practice for developing heightened intuition and psychic abilities.
First and foremost, yoga promotes the mind-body connection. Through physical postures (asanas), breath control (pranayama) and meditation, practitioners learn to synchronise body, mind and spirit. It promotes mindfulness and present-moment awareness.
The ajna chakra, or third eye, is associated with intuition and psychic abilities. Certain yoga practices, such as trataka (candle gazing) or meditation focused on the space between the eyebrows, activates and balances the third eye.
This heightened focus and awareness strengthens our mental faculties and intuitive awareness. Regular meditation practice cultivates a peaceful, centred mind and deepens awareness of our inner being and our connection to universal consciousness.
Yoga also reduces stress by calming the nervous system and promoting relaxation. A clearer, stress-free mind facilitates access to intuitive insights.
In addition, yoga promotes the flow of energy within the mind-body by focusing on the energy centres known as chakras, which are located along the spine. By practising yoga, we balance and activate these chakras, allowing energy to flow more freely.