Diet Mind Spirit

The Spiritual Gifts of Travel: The Best of Travelers’ Tales

October 24th, 2008 cate

In this lively collection from an array of accomplished writers, readers meet an old woman who imparts an invaluable midnight message on a Greek island; brothers who heal old family wounds in Ireland; and travelers who awaken to the mystery of their souls in such disparate places as St. Peter’s in Rome and a dusty road in India. Contributors include Phil Cousineau, Kim Chernin, David Yeadon, Don George, and Jan Morris. The Spiritual Gifts of Travel reveals the myriad ways that travel renews the spirit. “The tales ring clear and loud with the universal need to travel the road toward self.” — Francesca de Grandis, author of Be a Goddess!

Read more about: The Spiritual Gifts of Travel: The Best of Travelers’ Tales

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Yo-Yo Ma and Bach

August 10th, 2008 cate

There’s nothing more heavenly than combining two of the most brilliant and creative minds that ever existed. Yo Yo Ma is one of my very favorite cellists, and Bach, well, is Bach! You know, J.S.? If you’re not familiar with Bach or Yo Yo for that matter, check it out. You will probably become a fan of both. This is pure joy.

Listen to samples of this CD now

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Start Your Own Drumming Circle!

August 9th, 2008 cate

What is a Drumming Circle?
It’s a musical gathering. However, it is much more than just the instruments and people beating on drums; it is also the shared experience of the drummers. The drums and drumming take the group to its final destination, a place where everyone has a voice and is empowered to use it, and where the creative spirit is shared by everyone in the circle.

Why take part in a Drumming Circle?
Drumming is a vehicle to express as well as to feel. It is exercise, nurturing, social support, bonding and spirituality, to intellectual stimulation, heightened understanding and enhanced capacity to cope with life’s challenges, the benefits of recreational music-making extend far beyond music. This type of music making ultimately affords unparalleled creative expression that unites and heals our bodies, minds and spirits.

Start Your Own Drumming Circle
World-renowned author offers tips to run a successful drum circle. As the popularity for drum circles continues to grow, the need for facilitators increases as well. Written by the foremost authority in this field, Arthur Hull offers his insights, plans and practical strategies to become a facilitator – regardless of your musical background or expertise. This can be used by social workers, store owners, human resource managers, church leaders, camp leaders, nursing home activity coordinators – for anyone who wants to unify a group that will enjoy the benefits of participating in this simple activity. It’s about leadership and communication. The book covers dozens of exercises, instrument suggestions, facilitator’s shorthand, interviews with successful facilitators, and even marketing tips on how to promote and expand your events. This is the complete rhythm event facilitation handbook from the expert.

Start a Drumming Circle Now

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Do Angels Roam Our World? Lorna Byrne Has No Doubt They Do

July 17th, 2008 cate

Angels In My Hair is the autobiography of a modern day mystic, an Irish woman with powers of the saints of old.

When she was a child, people thought Lorna was retarded because she did not seem to be focussing on the world around her. Lorna remembers seeing not just the world around her but seeing equally vividly angels and spirits. For many years she assumed everyone saw the same.

As Lorna tells the story of her life, growing up in a poor family, later working in Dublin, marrying and experiencing family tragedy, the reader meets, as she did, the creatures from the spirit worlds who also inhabit our own – mostly angels of an astonishing beauty and variety – including the prophet Elijah and an Archangel- but also the spirits of people who have died.

Today, it is not only the sick and troubled who come to visit Lorna, looking for healing and consolation, but theologians of different faiths and the head of a religious order in Rome are asking her for guidance too.

This remarkable document is the testimony of a woman who sees things at the far end of the spectrum, beyond the range of our everyday experience.

More about Angels in my Hair

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10 Ways to Change The World by Gandhi

May 14th, 2008 cate

From the positivityblog:

1. Change yourself.

“You must be the change you want to see in the world.”

“As human beings, our greatness lies not so much in being able to remake the world – that is the myth of the atomic age – as in being able to remake ourselves.”

If you change yourself you will change your world. If you change how you think then you will change how you feel and what actions you take. And so the world around you will change. Not only because you are now viewing your environment through new lenses of thoughts and emotions but also because the change within can allow you to take action in ways you wouldn’t have – or maybe even have thought about – while stuck in your old thought patterns.

And the problem with changing your outer world without changing yourself is that you will still be you when you reach that change you have strived for. You will still have your flaws, anger, negativity, self-sabotaging tendencies etc. intact.

And so in this new situation you will still not find what you hoped for since your mind is still seeping with that negative stuff. And if you get more without having some insight into and distance from your ego it may grow more powerful. Since your ego loves to divide things, to find enemies and to create separation it may start to try to create even more problems and conflicts in your life and world.

2. You are in control.

“Nobody can hurt me without my permission.”

What you feel and how you react to something is always up to you. There may be a “normal” or a common way to react to different things. But that’s mostly just all it is.

You can choose your own thoughts, reactions and emotions to pretty much everything. You don’t have to freak out, overreact of even react in a negative way. Perhaps not every time or instantly. Sometimes a knee-jerk reaction just goes off. Or an old thought habit kicks in.

And as you realize that no-one outside of yourself can actually control how you feel you can start to incorporate this thinking into your daily life and develop it as a thought habit. A habit that you can grow stronger and stronger over time. Doing this makes life a whole lot easier and more pleasurable.

3. Forgive and let it go.

“The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong.”

“An eye for eye only ends up making the whole world blind.”

Fighting evil with evil won’t help anyone. And as said in the previous tip, you always choose how to react to something. When you can incorporate such a thought habit more and more into your life then you can react in a way that is more useful to you and others.

You realize that forgiving and letting go of the past will do you and the people in your world a great service. And spending your time in some negative memory won’t help you after you have learned the lessons you can learn from that experience. You’ll probably just cause yourself more suffering and paralyze yourself from taking action in this present moment.

If you don’t forgive then you let the past and another person to control how you feel. By forgiving you release yourself from those bonds. And then you can focus totally on, for instance, the next point.

4. Without action you aren’t going anywhere.

“An ounce of practice is worth more than tons of preaching.”

Without taking action very little will be done. However, taking action can be hard and difficult. There can be much inner resistance.

And so you may resort to preaching, as Gandhi says. Or reading and studying endlessly. And feeling like you are moving forward. But getting little or no practical results in real life.

So, to really get where you want to go and to really understand yourself and your world you need to practice. Books can mostly just bring you knowledge. You have to take action and translate that knowledge into results and understanding.

You can check out a few effective tips to overcome this problem in How to Take More Action: 9 Powerful Tips. Or you can move on to the next point for more on the best tip for taking more action that I have found so far.

5. Take care of this moment.

“I do not want to foresee the future. I am concerned with taking care of the present. God has given me no control over the moment following.”

The best way that I have found to overcome the inner resistance that often stops us from taking action is to stay in the present as much as possible and to be accepting.

Why? Well, when you are in the present moment you don’t worry about the next moment that you can’t control anyway. And the resistance to action that comes from you imagining negative future consequences – or reflecting on past failures – of your actions loses its power. And so it becomes easier to both take action and to keep your focus on this moment and perform better.

Have a look at 8 Ways to Return to the Present Moment for tips on how quickly step into the now. And remember that reconnecting with and staying in the now is a mental habit – a sort of muscle – that you grow. Over time it becomes more powerful and makes it easier to slip into the present moment.

6. Everyone is…

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