spirituality
Gratitude – A Message From My Guides
Sometimes when you are fearful or worried, the last thing you would envision thinking about is gratitude. When you are deep in grief, after the passing of a loved one, being grateful is also not your first thought. When you have lost a job, or have a sick child, the remote idea of gratitude can be the furthest thing from your mind.
However, it is during these times of worry, grief, or fear, that gratitude can be very helpful. If you can focus on even a small success, or a tiny attribute for which you can be grateful, it can make a world of difference to your perspective. Although changing your perspective will not necessarily alter your present circumstance, it can help you cope with your current reality.
Gratitude comes in all shapes and sizes. It can manifest in many forms at any time of the day. It does not have to be something magnificent or worldly, although it certainly can be something momentous, if that is what comes to mind.
Take a few minutes each day to be mindful and appreciative. Your focus can be as simple as having a safe home, or even a nice smile. Or it can be as complex as gradually improving health, or increased financial stability. It might be thoughts of a solid friendship, a dependable baby-sitter, or a full refrigerator. It can involve only yourself, or members of your family. It can encompass your entire neighborhood, your faith, or your workplace.
Make Your Spring Cleaning A Spiritual Cleansing
Although I rent my home, I set aside time each year to spring clean and spiritually cleanse my living space. You may wonder why I invest this time, when I am probably going to pack it all up and relocate soon? Well, I believe the way you treat yourself in your current home will actually help to manifest the joy and happiness in your next home.
Now, spring cleaning conjures up the traditional vision of shaking out rugs, deep cleaning the entire home, and opening all the windows to let the fresh air inside. But, taking the time for a spiritual cleansing, alongside your annual spring cleaning, can let in so much more!
The positive energy from creating a deeper connection to the space around you is actually an investment in not only in your living space, but in yourself. A happy home is a connection to joy and inspiration, and attracts into your life more of what you desire. Putting on hold any and all spiritual connection with your current living arrangement, can actually put on hold your chance to connect with the life you really want.
Clear The Clutter
A highly impactful energy change already begins with clearing out the clutter from your home. Clutter not only blocks your mind and body, but it also blocks energy flow and quite often leaves those living in clutter feeling eternally ‘stuck.’ People who live in cluttered homes often become stuck all areas of their life: emotional, physical, financial and spiritual. Even if you do a little bit at a time, clearing out clutter is the one of the quickest and most positive practical and spiritual changes you can make in your home.
Easy Ways To Manifest What You Need
The belief some people have that manifesting is difficult and complex, or requiring much effort and resources, may stop them from taking action with something they truly need in their life. If you urgently need something special, or just a bit of good luck in your life, there are a few things you can do right now to make that happen.
Visualization
The first method is visualization, which is simple enough. Just relax, close your eyes and imagine how you want a particular situation to go. For instance, you can imagine having a positive conversation with your boss that ends with him realizing you really deserve that vacation right now, or that raise, or even that promotion. Okay, maybe you deserve all of that, but let´s start with just one of those outcomes for now!
The important thing with visualization is to feel as if you already received what you desire – to feel how your body and mind accepts the new reality. If it seems too difficult to accept, this might be part of the reason why you do not have it yet. Therefore, it is important to start practicing deliberate manifesting with those things that you honestly want, and feel are not too difficult for you to accept.
Finish your visualization with a positive statement of intent, such as, “May it be so, or something better for all.” Then open your eyes. This could be done in just a couple of minutes, with some practice.
The Healing Power Of Movement
In my earliest years of life, I was severely shy, fearful of anyone I didn’t know, and acutely anxious of being separated from my mother. Any time we were out, or in the presence of others, I clung to her tightly and hid in silence behind her.
My mom soon received many recommendations to enroll me in dance lessons, to help me come out of my shell. She did, and I emerged. That was my first experience of the healing power of movement.
It continued into my ‘terribly turbulent’ teens, during which ballet became my only safe haven and sanctuary. In the ballet studio I could pour out every feeling. From the barre to the stage, every move was an opportunity to express what I needed to release, and to find the solace I needed.
A decade later, I found myself bedridden with chronic fatigue. Yet, visions of ballet spontaneously continued to dance across the screen of my mind’s eye – almost every moment of every day. I could feel the movement in my body, even though my body was unable to move. I know now it was a premonition of a life-changing return to dance, that ultimately remedied my illness and opened the way to reveal my gift of intuitive healing dance.
The power of movement is a beautiful thing. It can literally shift, shape, and reform energy. Energy itself comes in many forms and functions. Emotion, if you think about it, is energy in motion: e-motion. Everything, including you and I, are an emanation of energy from the Absolute Truth and Personality of Godhead.
The Alcohol Demon
The physical damage caused by alcohol abuse is common knowledge. The long-term effects of alcohol consumption on the liver, pancreas, kidneys, heart, esophagus, and the lining of the stomach can be devastating. And those of us who have shared our lives with alcoholics, know of the damage it can do to relationships, children, families and careers.
But how often do we consider the spiritual implications of alcohol abuse? What really happens to the soul or spirit when we consume alcohol?
Some alcohol-related statistics are quite alarming. For example, it is said that some 700,000 people are in treatment for alcohol abuse every day. And did you know that about 40% of all auto accidents are alcohol-related? It is also estimated that 18 million Americans deal with alcohol-related health problems, and there are an estimated 10 million alcoholics just in this country.
Doing some research, I found an article in the The Costa Rica News titled, The Spiritual Consequences of Alcohol Consumption. The article explains that the English word alcohol originates from the Arabic al-kuhl, which means “body eating spirit.” It is also the origin for the English word ghoul. According to Middle Eastern folklore, a ghoul is an evil demon believed to eat human bodies.
In his book, The Mystery of the Golden Flower, the Gnostic author, Samael Aun Weor writes that alcohol “is in fact a demon or a malefic spirit when it possesses a human being; it is clear and easily demonstrable in its effects from drunkenness, to delirium tremors and madness with forms of paralysis and other hereditary defects passed down through descendants.”