Tag: Happiness

When the World Tests Your Love, Let Your Love Be a Testament to the World

These words came to me, as many have over the years, in the wee hours of the morning, unbidden, but certainly welcome. I have learned that when I am a receptive channel, all manner of messages pours through. Many years ago, in meditation, I heard echoes of ‘by divine design’. I asked, “What does that mean?” God replied, “You’ll know.” Turns out that it became the name of my multi-faceted business which includes writing, speaking, interfaith ministry, counseling, coaching and editing. It is based on the idea that we are co-creators with Spirit and in that partnership, we can design…

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Be Inspired By Your Life

We often look for inspiration outside of ourselves – from gurus, celebrities, Oprah, the Royal Family, the Pope, those who are unreachable. Inspiration has always been right in front of you and inside of you. The sun rises and sets every day without interruption and rarely do we take time to notice. What is the point? Inspiration is all around us. Today, you are where you are because you have absorbed inspiration along the way. Your third-grade teacher, your mother, a beautiful flower, the tree that you planted in your backyard, a pet, or the kids playing in the street…

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Every FEEEEEEEEEling Is a Choice

Do you see life as filled with challenges?  Problems?  Obstacles?  What if you believe that only because you have been wired and programmed to believe that by your parents, schools, friends, teachers, clergy, etc?  What if you wake up and realize that when you are fully conscious and present and living in the moment for the moment you begin to discover that you can choose every feeeeeeeeeeling? Would you intentionally walk around feeeeeeeeeeeeling problems and choosing sadness and seeing obstacles and problems? I woke up about a decade ago.  I realized that life just IS. There are no good things…

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How to Love Your Body

Amidst all the DOING don’t bypass BEING. There is no rush. There is no need to try to fix anything in this moment. Take a deep breath. Take a second to feel your body. Lean into YOU. Fall in love with the girl you see in the mirror. She is a friend, a lover, a sister, a daughter, a woman. She is all that and more. Your body is just a container of all these special things, the things you cannot see in your reflection. Always remember you have a body. Remember before your body gets loud and you have…

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Sink Deeply into Bliss

Sometimes life is hard but it can still be filled with joy and happiness. You may not always get what you think you want, but when you grow older and look back on your life, you will see that you got what you needed. The pieces will begin to slip together in an awe-inspiring manner. While we all strive to find happiness, we must also accept that there is a natural ebb and flow to it and that when we experience hard times, those trials allow us to experience more profound joy. We cannot have one without the other, so…

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The Amazing Power of Gratitude

More and more, gratitude is being acknowledged as an amazing power for good and healing in many different areas of existence –from medicine and positive psychology to gardening and education. It is absolutely impossible, I repeat, impossible, to entertain a deep feeling of gratitude and the least trace of negativity. They totally exclude each other just as light annihilates darkness. Have you ever seen a candle of darkness (??!!) extinguish light? But the smallest candle will bring light to the deepest underground cavern. Such is the power of gratitude to your heart and soul. My daily bedside book – I…

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Find Your Momentum

Momentum. If you're like me, the word itself gives you a feeling of movement, of freedom, of possibility. And if you find momentum to be foundational to your existence, you may also be an Entrepreneurial Personality Type (EPT). EPTs are momentum-based beings, meaning they have a mental, physical and chemical response to momentum, or the sensation of moving forward. Conversely, EPTs also have negative responses to constraint, or anything hindering their ability to move forward. Constraints of any kind adversely affect their emotional states and their understanding of where they fit in the world. When I talk to entrepreneurs about…

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Americans Hate Their Jobs? Shocking!

I recently came across a headline that read “Americans Hate Their Jobs.” And at one time, I was one of them. And because of that, every time I give a talk on the importance of purpose in our life and work, I always talk about engagement, or better yet, the lack of engagement in the workplace today. Did you know that approximately 70% of employees are disengaged in their jobs? Nearly 20% poison the workplace. And this results in $550 billion annually in lost productivity. In other words, employers would be better off paying these people to stay home. The…

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How to Achieve Ultimate Success

The ultimate success has nothing to do with money... Or career. It's not the car you drive. The size of your home. The gold and diamonds you collected. The ultimate success has nothing to do with material accomplishment and gain. It has nothing to do with anything outside of you. The ultimate success is to feel joy exactly where you are right now. No matter what your external life looks like. No matter your situation. The ultimate joy is to be complete and whole in this very moment. No matter who you are or where you are or why you…

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Honoring Your Process and Your “Bothers”

As a perpetual spiritual student and seeker of ultimate joy, I often find myself stuck in a web of conflict. Self-imposed and created, of course. After contemplation and mind games I play with myself to manage my emotions and implement my "schooling," I am left confused, frustrated and no happier than when I began. I persist in hopes of finding a way, "the" way, to relinquish bad feelings and resume feel-good living. There's something about the spiritual path of evolution that can make one feel "bad" for having thoughts and emotions that are anything less than happy or positive or hopeful…

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Milestones… or Memories?

I've observed a theme throughout life, as I reached adolescence and beyond.  This "theme" or pattern probably begins in our 20s, and I've observed it happen time and again to people in their 30s, 40s and 50s.  Though I have yet to personally hear of this experience from someone in their 60s or older, I am most positive it must occur to them, as well.  I am pretty confident it has the potential to make its way into every stage of our life. So what is this pattern, exactly? It is... milestones.  As we approach any new chapter - in particular, birthdays -…

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How You can Find Healing that Lasts

How would your life change if you trusted that your challenges are a part of your journey home – back to yourself and back to Life – instead of feeling that your challenges are here because you have done something wrong or you are being punished or God fell asleep on the job? What would happen if your illness, your difficult relationship, your demanding boss, your compulsions, and maybe even your troublesome dog were showing up in your life to help you heal? The healing you long for comes when you discover how to play the warmer, warmer/colder, colder game. Remember that…

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In This Moment You Are A Perfect You

Where did you learn what a perfect body looks like? Where did you learn what is beautiful? Where did you learn what is ugly? How old were you when you came to these conclusions? We were walking down the street in Paris several years ago to find ourselves taken by a body image considered to be "beautiful." We were looking at the street lamps in front of the Paris Opera House. Built in the mid-1800's, those lamps are supported by statues of naked women. These castings done in the Neo-Baroque style are curvy with rounded bellies and by today's standards…

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How to Enjoy Your Life Rather than Worry About It

Once upon a time, a man was walking through the jungle. Sensing a presence, the man looked over his shoulder and saw a tiger slinking through the foliage, following him. Quickening his pace, the fellow followed the path he was on until he reached a cliff. Looking back once again, he saw the tiger was still there and coming closer. Standing with his toes over the edge, the man noticed that there was a vine running down the cliff face and he swung out onto the vine in order to escape the tiger. Just as he quickly lowered himself down,…

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Solving the Mystery of Letting Go

Sometimes the greatest truths are laid right before our eyes, in the simplest of things, and yet we just can't see them. Take for instance our own hands: what a miracle they are. If we consider for even a moment all they are capable of doing, it's evident that a great wisdom sits hidden behind their incomparable design. But, with this thought in mind, permit me to add one other to help us see another part of their special purpose that lies "hidden" in plain sight. What good would our hands be to us or, for that matter, to the…

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Ask a Luminary

How Can I Control My Emotions?

"I know that I create my own reality with my thoughts, but sometimes when I'm sad I can't seem to change my thoughts - even when I want to. How to I start to take control of my life?" ~ Evelyn, Jacksonville, FL Dear Evelyn, There was a time I felt the same way you did. But a family member I trusted "SNAPPED" me out of it. Soon I realized that the sadness I was feeling was just an emotion I was internalizing. In other words, I was investing too much time into feeling sad until I clearly saw that…

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Ask a Luminary

Can Meditation Make Me Happier?

"I find the world to be filled with sadness, and sometimes, I honestly don't want to be here. I've tried anti-depressants but I don't like the side effects. I'd like to take control of my life and change my attitude, but I don't know where to start. Any suggestions?" ~ John, Boulder, CO Dear John, First, you’re right to have stopped taking the anti-depressants. They do cause unwelcome side effects and they do nothing to get to the root of depression. My answer to this question might surprise you somewhat, but firstly I’d advise looking at ways you can give…

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Sunset over the Ocean

To Have More Happiness, Eat Peas and Grapes! Part 2

Welcome back.  I trust that you have explored holding the energy of Ease and that you’re finding it serves your feelings of happiness to do so. Let’s continue with how being in Ease helps you experience Peace. Ease is the surface layer of this deeper inner state. Peace is your State of Being beyond resistance. A place we all strive to get, and yet, there’s only one place to go to arrive there. Peace is within the Essence of you, the inner state of allowing and trust, the space of unequivocal knowing that everything is exquisitely right, that all is…

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