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How To Thrive In Challenging Times
The world can be a challenging place, especially nowadays. However, not only can we cope more easily with any personal, national, or global crisis, we can thrive at the same time. Yes, it can be done, and the following spiritual and conscious living suggestions may help you restore balance and personal bliss in these times.
Choose Your Company Carefully
It is essential that, while going through any type of life challenge, you wisely choose whom you interact with. If you were to allow it, certain people will only serve to increase your stress and anxiety, while others might be supportive in a positive way and make you feel uplifted and empowered. So be careful about who you spend your time with, and avoid the energy thieves on social media.
A great way of connecting with the right kind of folk would be to join a support group or like-minded ‘tribe’ consisting of people whose collective objective is to help one another remain positive and maintain a sense of sanity – no matter what might be going on in their personal lives, or in the rest of the world.
Make Time For Daily Meditation
Anyone can meditate, and that includes you! Therefore, if you would like to reduce the harmful effects that stress can bring to bear on your body and mind, particularly during a challenging time, a simple daily meditation practice can be immensely helpful.
Simple Ways To Reduce Your Stress Levels
We all feel the effects of stress in our lives at the moment. This is an especially difficult time in the world, and it is challenging us in ways that we did not expect.
Stress is a feeling of being under way too much pressure. This pressure can come from different aspects of your daily life, such as career challenges, life transitions, relationship conflict, health problems, family issues and financial worries. Whatever the stressors in your life are, they can affect your well-being very negatively.
We all experience stress, but how we handle it affects our lives to various degrees. You might have tried different approaches, but not much has worked. Sometimes the solution is much simpler than one might realize. Here are some positive lifestyle tips to manage your stress levels. Even if you just apply a couple a day, these basic strategies can make a real difference in cultivating a calmer state and greater peace of mind.
Get Enough Sleep
Sleep is so important in so many ways, and so often neglected in our busy lives. Adequate sleep helps us to stay focused, heal is from within, and manage our days so much better.
If you are not sleeping well, or not getting enough sleep, make every effort to resolve this. It is probably the most important thing you can do to reduce your stress levels. I find meditation music or white noise very helpful, and taking short naps during the day are an excellent means to get extra rest.
Prophetic Dreams – A Heads Up From Your Angels
Many of us experience prophetic or psychic dreams, often without even knowing it. What is a prophetic dream? Well, let me share a few prophetic dreams loved ones have shared with me recently.
I had a dream for example, that a family member would rummage through another family member’s basement, looking for items to take without their permission. In my dream I saw myself receiving repeated text alerts urging me to go over there and see for myself what this person was up to. So, I actually got up and went over there, only to discover that the family member in question was indeed there, busy removing several items from the basement!
I also had a dream that there were thieves coming in through my window, only to wake up and find that my neighbors had in fact been robbed during the night. I also had a package stolen from my porch recently, and a security camera nearby captured the person stealing it.
I dreamt of a my grandmother. I was visiting with her and we were in her bedroom, where we had spent a lot of time having chats throughout my teens. Currently on my music playlist there is a song about how our relatives are still with us in everything we do, and live on in our hearts. Lately, whenever I get to that song, it always freezes right on that song – the phone just pauses on its own!
Love Is All You Need
A popular Beatles song was written circa 1967 by John Lennon, as part of the anti-war movement, with a very simplistic set of lyrics about love. “Love is all you need,” proclaims the song. Simple, yet often so elusive to so many of us.
Love is also a “many-splendored thing,” according to the Andy Williams classic. Yet, it is also complex set of emotions, beliefs, and behaviors that we have learned. Either through witnessing, training and personal experiences, which loop back into our behaviors. It is a dynamic process. These beliefs and emotions are then ‘translated’ into feelings. Feelings of attachment, affection, trust, respect, and commitment.
Love is also a topic of discussion, research and vital part of life dating back through all time. Throughout human history priests, philosophers, poets, artists, musicians, and scientists have all contemplated the mysteries and meaning of love.
And love is more than just a feeling between two people. We can have a love for country, nature, freedom, animals, opera music, or cold beer! And anything else that resonates with our heart.
The challenge for many of us in life is the rollercoaster of chasing love. As humans, we seek companionship, community, a sense of purpose. We seek to love and be loved. And we take many actions and steps towards our own definition of love. Yet, it is a dynamic, elusive, ever-changing target – one influenced and even manipulated by the many facets of human desire and emotions. Also, the sometimes harsh realities of life may take away that which we loved so much.
Embracing The Night
At night we should be able to break free from our daytime stresses. After all, we aren’t really expecting someone to send us an email or receive a phone call when we are asleep – theoretically at least.
Nevertheless, far too many of us toss and turn during the night, worrying about the day ahead and possibly making mountains out of molehills along the way. I know I have done this far too many times myself and you, dear reader, probably have done so also? However, you could gain the maximum calming effects of the late hours by considering the following:
Take A Walk
Go for a walk with your friend, just after the sun has set. You do not need to engage in any conversation and do make sure to set your phone to silent mode. Stroll, breathe deeply and take in all the sounds of the night along the way.
Doing this can induce relaxation, even in particularly stressed individuals. What do you hear? Is it frogs, crickets, some nocturnal bird, or even the noise of traffic in the distance? All of this reflects that life is still going on, and making a mental note of these sounds can be very relaxing indeed.
You could also take the opportunity to really explore the natural world at night, as the light of the silvery moon really does show us Mother Nature’s remarkable beauty at this particular time.
Do pay attention to all the smells and sounds the night time brings, take note of the lovely nocturnal animals you see. It will remind you that even on the darkest night, life has not stopped and still has so much beauty and wonder to show you.
Meditation Is Easier Than You Think!
No doubt you’ve heard of the many benefits of meditation, both physical and spiritual. But how does one start a meditation practice? It doesn’t have to be intimidating. According to the Zen master and teacher, Shunryu Suzuki, approaching meditation with a beginner’s mindset is actually ideal.
It’s important to clear up a common misperception about meditation. Meditation is not simply ‘thinking of nothing.’ Rather it is a spiritual process in which we learn to center, breathe, and achieve clarity.
Meditation is practiced by cultures all over the world and does not have to be associated with a specific spiritual tradition or religious belief system. It also does not have to involve sitting passively with a ‘blank mind.’ Rather it can be anything from coloring mandalas, to a walking in nature.
So, how does one begin, if you’re new to the practice? Consider the goals you wish to achieve with meditation: stress reduction, taming your thoughts, physical relief from pain, spiritual growth? Tailor your practice to build toward your personal goals. Remember, it’s a journey and not a destination.
Keeping a meditation journal, as you go along, can be very helpful. The most important thing is consistency. Make meditation a part of your daily routine, and ideally at the same time each day.
Once you have the basics in place, it’s time to begin. Choose a pose or stance which is comfortable, and a space which is calming, private and quiet. If playing comforting music or lighting candles, or incense, relaxes you, then do that!
How To Deal With Ghosts In Your Home
Do you suspect your home may be haunted? If so, don’t panic! The majority of hauntings are generally harmless. However, it is nevertheless imperative that you be able to recognize when spirits are around you, and to know how to engage correctly with them at all times. If you suspect that you are dealing with something more ominous, then it may be advisable to find professional help from paranormal experts in your area. But in most cases there is usually nothing to fear. The following guidelines may useful to you when dealing with typical ghosts in your home
Spirit Spotting
Spirits are often experienced by humans as orbs, flashing lights, shadows, blurs or mists. Complete, full-bodied apparitions, as are often portrayed in the movies, tend to be more rare and less frequently encountered. Yet, this is what most people expect to see, which impairs their very awareness to recognize spiritual contact when it actually happens.
Interestingly, paranormal research suggests that ghosts tend to be more active during the night, rather than the daytime, possibly because there is less electronic disturbance being emitted from household appliances at this time. In fact, electricity is a crucial factor in tracking down ghosts, as a lot of professional paranormal investigators use Electromagnetic Field (EMF) meters to measure spirit activity.
When an electromagnetic current changes or moves, it creates an EMF, and as ghosts are understood to be a form of energy, this energy current interferes with the EMF fields that surround them whenever they move, thus allowing any detecting equipment to ascertain both the spirit’s presence and whereabouts. How exciting is that?