spiritual practice
Everything Happens For A Reason
Challenges, setbacks and disappointments are inevitable in life. Sometimes it can even feel like the entire universe is conspiring against us!
But this perspective is an illusion born of our human experience. Spirit doesn’t desire our failure or suffering. Instead, it seeks to lead us to joy, abundance, and fulfillment.
Many of us, however, fall into the habit of blaming God, Spirit, the Universe, or others for the hardships we face. But to truly grow, we must change this mindset. Instead of dwelling on blame, it’s important to examine the lessons hidden in each challenge. By asking why these situations arose and what we can learn from them, we transform pain into wisdom and setbacks into stepping stones.
Consider the heartache of losing a long-term partner. You may have built a life together – marriage, children, shared dreams – only to wake up one day to abandonment. Questions arise: Why did this happen? What could I have done differently?
It’s important to realize that in most cases these events are not your fault. Free will governs each person’s choices. While her decision to leave may hurt you deeply, it is a reflection of her own path, not your worth. Self-doubt often creeps in, especially for women, as thoughts of inadequacy arise. But self-esteem cannot come from others-it must come from within.
Instead of focusing on what you could have done, consider this: their departure may have been necessary for your growth. Spirit often removes people from our lives to make room for greater blessings. In hindsight, you may realize that staying with that person would have hindered your potential or delayed the arrival of something better.
Inner Journey To The Mystical Isle Of Avalon
Sometimes when the pressures and demands of modern life become too much, I retreat to one of my favorite places in the universe: the mythical island of Avalon.
This legendary island of Celtic mythology is steeped in legends of healing, psychic learning, sacred crafting, and the life and times of King Arthur. Its name translates as “Isle of Apples,” emphasizing its association with fertility, abundance, and otherworldly beauty.
In folklore, Avalon, or Insula Avallonis, was a sanctuary of deep spiritual and psychic knowledge and was known as a training ground for pagan priestesses dedicated to the Great Mother Goddess. These women dedicated their lives to spirituality, honing their skills in clairvoyance, herbalism, weaving, and deep devotion to the Divine Feminine.
But Avalon was not only a sanctuary for women. Men were also an integral part of its story. Merlin the magician is inextricably linked to the history of the island, having trained the young Arthur there for his kingship.
Avalon is also entwined with many other tales woven through the lives of King Arthur, Guinevere, Morgan le Fay, Merlin, Nimue (the Lady of the Lake), and others. Legend also has it that King Arthur was brought to Avalon by his half-sister, Morgan le Fay, to heal after being badly wounded in battle.
The question of whether Avalon really existed straddles the line between myth and reality. Some historians and researchers speculate that Avalon may be based on a real place. Glastonbury, England, is often associated with Avalon because of its mystical aura and ties to Arthurian legend.
Spiritual Self-Care For The Sensitive Soul
For those of us who are highly sensitive, including psychics, mediums, healers, and empaths, practicing consistent spiritual self-care is essential to maintaining our overall well-being.
If you identify with this group and neglect the daily maintenance of your energetic health and spiritual hygiene, you leave yourself vulnerable. This can manifest as emotional, mental, and even physical health problems. The good news? You can safeguard your well-being with a dedicated spiritual self-care routine.
Spiritual self-care is about nurturing your inner being and maintaining healthy energy flow and balance. It includes practices that support your spiritual well-being and ensure that you stay grounded, centered, and connected to your higher self and the universe.
Regular spiritual self-care is also a matter of health. Research strongly supports the positive effects of spirituality on our overall health. Studies show that spiritually active people tend to live longer and enjoy better mental and physical health. For example, spirituality has been shown to correlate with a reduced risk of Alzheimer’s disease and cognitive decline.
Spirituality is associated with better mental health, including lower levels of depression and anxiety. Studies show that spiritual activities promote positive emotions such as hope, forgiveness, and gratitude, which contribute to resilience to stress and emotional challenges. It also promotes healthier lifestyles, including reduced substance use and better stress management.
Forgiving Yourself Is A Spiritual Necessity
Self-forgiveness is more than just a mental health recommendation – it is a spiritual necessity. It is vital for the spiritually aware person to release guilt, self-blame, and self-criticism, because forgiving oneself is crucial to both personal well-being and spiritual progress. It allows for healing, growth, and the ability to live a more fulfilling and harmonious life.
Failure to forgive ourselves can have profound personal and spiritual side effects. Carrying guilt and self-blame leads to chronic emotional distress and contributes to anxiety, depression, and low self-esteem. Over time, this can manifest itself in physical symptoms such as headaches, fatigue, or even chronic illness.
A lack of self-forgiveness undermines self-worth and hinders personal growth and development. Difficulty forgiving yourself also strains your relationships with others, as it can lead to withdrawal, defensiveness, or projecting negativity onto those around you. Without forgiveness, our negative feelings toward ourselves can fester and damage even our most cherished relationships with our loved ones and friends.
Holding onto guilt and self-blame blocks the flow of positive energy through the chakras and hinders spiritual well-being. For example, guilt often stagnates in the solar plexus chakra, affecting one’s sense of personal power. Self-forgiveness is essential for clearing such blockages in the energy field.
Forgiveness is also essential to achieving inner peace and harmony. Without it, one can experience constant inner turmoil and restlessness. When we hold onto guilt, shame, or self-blame, parts of our spiritual essence or inner divinity are suppressed or disconnected. It causes separation from one’s spiritual path or a sense of disconnection from spirit and the divine.
Ask Spirit For Patience This Holiday Season
The holidays are supposed to be a time of joy, togetherness, and celebration. But for some of us, it can also be a time of tension, distress, and intense emotions.
Instead of being a time of gratitude, love, and connection, for some of us the holidays mark the resurfacing of old family conflicts, unresolved tensions, and the weight of others’ overwhelming expectations or criticisms.
These challenges often lead to frustration, sadness, anger, or feelings of being overwhelmed, turning what should be a time of love and belonging into one that underscores where our relationships with loved ones are most strained.
At this point, asking spirit or your higher power to help you cultivate the virtue of patience becomes a powerful way to stay grounded and centered.
Patience isn’t just about enduring difficult moments; it’s about being aware of those moments and choosing to respond with grace and dignity rather than impulsively. When tensions rise — perhaps during a family dinner where conversations may become heated or awkward — it is easy to fall back on old patterns and habitual responses. Asking for spiritual support and protection in these moments, however, can provide a higher perspective and an empowered response.
Whether it’s through a silent prayer, a few deep breaths, whispering your favorite mantra, or simply making a conscious call for help in your mind, spiritual presence can help you pause, step back, ground and center, and approach the situation calmly and with more compassion — for yourself and others.
Cultivating A Thriving Garden Of The Mind
Your mind is like a fertile garden, constantly nurturing and cultivating the seeds of thought you plant each day. Every waking moment your ideas, beliefs, and perceptions take hold and gradually grow into the mental landscape that ultimately shapes your reality.
If you could take a walk through your “mind garden,” what would you find? Would you see sturdy, thriving trees of faith, hope, and positivity, their roots deeply nourishing the soil of your thoughts? Perhaps vibrant, radiant flowers of joy, abundance and well-being brightening the landscape?
Or would you find brittle branches of lost dreams and dry, withered remnants of unfulfilled hopes? Perhaps the creeping weeds of negativity and doubt smothering your true potential, casting shadows over your hopes and ideals?
I actually do this visualization sometimes as part of my morning meditation practice. I imagine walking through my inner garden, tending to my thoughts and beliefs, nurturing them with faith and positivity, fertilizing those that are flourishing, and pulling out the weeds of doubt, fear, or negativity that had somehow taken root and are no longer serving my highest good.
I also ask for divine guidance, calling on God, my guides and loved ones in spirit to help me recognize innate talents and growth opportunities that I might have overlooked or neglected. Perhaps there are hidden seeds within me that still need to be planted or nurtured. With intention, I also visualize planting new seeds of goodness, self-empowerment, and spiritual expansion.
Master Your Dream Experiences With Lucid Dreaming
Sometimes we experience dreams so graphically that they blur the line between fantasy and reality. We’ve all had those amazingly vivid dreams of winning the lottery, flying over a city, or meeting a beloved celebrity, only to wake up and wonder for a moment, “Did it really happen?
These dreams leave us longing to relive them, to feel the thrill of those amazing moments again. The good news is, it is possible! We can control our dreams, shape the narrative, and bend reality as we sleep through lucid dreaming-a practice that allows you to shape and control your dreams.
By practicing lucid dreaming, you unlock and enjoy a whole new dimension of your subconscious mind and the astral realm.
Lucid dreaming occurs when you become consciously aware that you’re dreaming while still in the dream. This awareness opens up a potential playground where the usual laws of physics are suspended, allowing you to create, manipulate, and explore any dream scenario you desire. Unlike typical dreams, where events unfold outside of your control, lucid dreaming puts the dreamer in the driver’s seat.
Lucid dreaming techniques tap into your brain’s natural creative processes, allowing you to influence the storyline, environment, and even the people in your dream world. Scientific studies have shown that lucid dreaming is a real phenomenon and not just an abstract concept or superstition. Research has also demonstrated that lucid dreaming can be cultivated through various techniques, and it has been studied extensively in the fields of psychology and neuroscience.