By Giulietta M. Spudich (Windhorse Publications)

Mindfulness is a hot topic these days. From watching one’s breath in three-minute ‘breathing spaces’ amidst a busy day, to experiencing deep meditation and high levels of awareness on silent meditation retreats, there are many levels of practice. Mindfulness practices cover many applications, from stress reduction, a way of working with pain, a memory-enhancer and/or a path to insight and awakening.

Buddhist scholar and meditator Bhikkhu Anālayo begins his newest book, Satipaṭṭhāna Meditation: A Practice Guide, with this very topic.

‘Here, I think it is first of all important to acknowledge that there are various notions of mindfulness. Diverse understandings of this quality can be found not only among several Buddhist traditions, but also among those involved with its clinical employment. In what follows, I will present my own understanding of one of these constructs of mindfulness, namely the way satiis described and reflected in the early Buddhist discourses. Throughout this book, I use “mindfulness” and “awareness” as interchangeable translations for sati.’ – Anālayo in Chapter 1

Bhikkhu Anālayo is a monk and a faculty member at the Barre Centre for Buddhist studies in Massachusetts. His expertise is early Buddhist studies, and he has explored the Satipaṭṭhānasutta for over a decade. This sutta is an early Buddhist teaching that offers a clear foundation of mindfulness.

In the Foreword, Joseph Goldstein, author of Insight Meditation: The Practice of Freedom, describes the book as a clear map towards insight:

‘An eminently pragmatic discussion of how to put these teachings into practice. Anālayo has developed a simple and straightforward map of practice instructions encompassing all four satipaṭṭhānas, which build upon one another in a coherent and comprehensive path leading to the final goal.’

Satipaṭṭhāna Meditation: A Practice Guide is aimed at existing meditators on a path towards insight rather than those looking for a quick three-minute ‘breathing space’. This book is now available from Windhorse Publications in paperback and eBook formats, and from other online retailers and bookstores worldwide.

For each of the seven contemplations covered in this book there are audio recordings by Anālayo with guided meditation instructions, freely available here.

By Jakeb Brock

Jesus once said, “A tree is recognized by its fruit.” (Matthew 12:33). What this means is that for human beings, despite occasional efforts at concealment, our inward state of consciousness produces an outward demonstration that does not lie. Applying this principle to the present condition of our world, we can then deduce that the collective consciousness of man has up until this time been anything but enlightened.

Though there are as many varying states of consciousness as there are individuals, as a collective unit mankind has throughout this age demonstrated one state most dominantly. This consistent spiritual indicator has produced a world of strife and suffering. The Bible alludes to this in the story of the Garden of Eden, wherein Adam makes the choice to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. This tree symbolizes an intellectually-based dualistic state of consciousness, in which every perceived slice of reality is countered and balanced by its opposite. Thus man has become obsessed with his own mental activity and judgement and divided in his inner constitution.

Spiritually speaking, this Adamic state of consciousness is dark and lifeless. That is why Adam was warned that he would surely die. Little did he understand, however, that not only would he die but all his descendants after him would suffer the same fate. It might be said then that through this one man’s choice, not only was the quality of the collective consciousness determined, but also death became an inescapable aspect of human life.

Somewhat perplexingly, the Adamic state of consciousness has retained its dominance over human society for the past 6,000 years. This is in spite of its consistently negative demonstration of suffering and death. But the fact that it has prevailed all this time is by no means indicative of its immutability. Not only can man’s dominant state of consciousness change; it must and it will. This is because spiritual consciousness, whether in its individual or collective expressions, is evolutionary in nature.

What this means is that in order for the collective consciousness of humanity to have remained stuck in its dark Adamic holding pattern for all this time it has required a proactive resistance to consciousness evolution. In other words, for us to not have evolved further on the scale of enlightenment is an aberration. Had we ourselves not resisted the evolutionary impulses within us, we would have naturally moved into greater light long ago. This has been revealed to a select group of individuals throughout this age who have sought and developed greater spiritual light in their own lives. What they discovered is that the resistance of the collective human entity is implanted within all men through psychological conditioning beginning at birth and that before an individual can come into greater light that innate built-in resistance must be faced and overcome. This is what Jesus, indubitably the greatest Way Shower of spiritual enlightenment, meant when he said, “I have overcome the world.” (John 16:33). First, as an individual, Jesus had to overcome the resistance implanted within him through human birth. Only then could he become our Way Shower, leading the way for us to do the same.

The question then arises: why has there been this age-long resistance to consciousness evolution at work in the human scene? This is a complex question to be sure. It is easy to point the finger of blame at some of our more prominent historical figures that have sought to perpetuate the status quo at all costs. But this accomplishes little. Suffice it to say then that the fact that we have resisted spiritual evolution as a whole and have come to employ psychological conditioning to ensure that each new generation would remain stuck is somehow indicative of our lack of overall readiness. In other words, we have not yet evolved as a collective entity, because we simply have not been ready.

But all this is beginning to change at long last. The hard ground of our resistance to spiritual light is breaking up. This is happening without any effort on our part. It is happening because its time has come. For several decades the Western World had a great fear of an Eastern hierarchal political system called Communism. Then suddenly after the hierarchy that had conceived and perpetuated that ideology had grown weak and corrupt, the Berlin Wall came tumbling down, and just like that Soviet Communism became a thing of the past. Those in the Western democracies did nothing to make this happen. Rather it happened because its time had come. So it is that our world has become ripe and ready at last to move up to the next rung on the ladder of spiritual consciousness evolution – not because of anything we have done but rather because its time has come.

True, many enlightened individuals have seen this day coming and have labored among us to hasten its arrival. But rarely did their labors bear fruit among their contemporaries. Rather these servants of mankind had been relegated to the role of the seed planters. Through the teaching of enlightened spiritual truth they planted seeds in the collective human consciousness – seeds that are only now beginning to come to fruition.

What all this points to is the arising of a new enlightened collective consciousness among the peoples of the Earth. This transition of consciousness has been so long in the making and is so overdue that it will surely usher in a day of unparalleled peace and prosperity. The prophet Isaiah referred to the coming of this day when he wrote: “They will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not take up sword against nation, nor will they train for war anymore … The wolf will live with the lamb, the leopard will lie down with the goat, the calf and the yearling together; and a little child will lead them.” (Isaiah 2:4, 11:6).

Of course, this new consciousness is not new in the purely existential sense. It has existed as an alternative state of consciousness since the day Adam made his choice in the Garden of Eden, as Jesus and all the other enlightened spiritual masters have attested to. But for us as a collective entity it will not only be new; it will be revolutionary.

Thus the time of the new consciousness – the consciousness that Jesus was moving in and which our world has been waiting and yearning for – has come at last. For those who are arriving at spiritual enlightenment through the revelations inherent in the Christian faith, this day might well be viewed as the ultimate fruition of the Gospel. The seeds that Jesus planted 2,000 years ago have finally broken down the collective resistance to the light of truth. A new day is dawning for mankind in the same way that it was a new day for the configuration of nations after the Berlin Wall came down. But this dawning of the new consciousness is of far greater portent and scope than the fall of Communism. As the New Testament prophesizes concerning the second coming of the Christ, “He will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven.” (Acts 1:11) – that is, as human consciousness imbued with the power and light of truth.

Jakeb Brock is the author of The New Consciousness: What Our World Needs Most. For more information and to order a copy of his book please visit www.ournewconsciousness.com

Clint Eastwood is a praised champion of heartwarming cinema and powerful messages, and his 2010 Hereafter does not fall short either. While critics and reviewers wanted to “see” a dramatic display of the afterlife, Eastwood played more with metaphors, symbols, and delicate layers of intertextuality, gently including them in the narrative and thus telling a compelling story, notabout the afterlife per se, but more about what it means to people. Let’s learn more about it today, shall we?

The Afterlife Debate – An Eastwood Perspective

The afterlife was and still is in the limelight these days, with writers and directors taking a shot at the Unexplainable. Movies such as What Dreams May Come, A Matter of Life and Death, or Heaven Can Wait managed to offer both compelling stories and spiritual intricacies to ponder upon in our quests for introspection. Hereafter wanted to be an eerie, bold, problematic, and strange foray into what life and death, heaven or hell mean for each of us – and in this regard, it succeeded.

The movie has a crowd of detractors saying that the entire afterlife concept received a “basic cable” treatment. No special effects, no out worldly imagery, etc. They all considered Eastwood’s views on the matter vague and unsophisticated.

Other critics, nevertheless, saw more than just a movie with blockbuster potential weaved together with spiritual, philosophical, and psychological themes.

An Introspective, not inflammatory view on the Afterlife

Rolling Stone’s film critic, Peter Travers, saw this movie as a personal spiritual journey for the famed actor and director. A visionary in his own right, Eastwood did not bet this movie on the “shock factor” card, offering viewers a spectacular take on the afterlife.

Just as Travers suggested, when people take a glimpse of the other side, they feel both the terror of the unknown, the relief of their beliefs, the sense of wonder and surprise, a child’s curiosity, and an adult’s sense of regret. Such powerful feelings and their display on the silver screen do not need a Michael Bay’s approach to them, but sensitivity and a gentleness few directors can manage. Eastwood did not tap into sensitive matters, religious bias, or whatever criticism of spirituality is trendy these days.

What he offered was a haunting experience for each of the characters he followed dispassionately, in tune with their wonders and fears. He let the characters have their own experiences, live their moments without interfering in their journeys.

Moviegoers may have wanted action scenes and striking visuals, but instead,they got blurry figures, blue filters, and bright lights. While this display of the world beyond the veil did upset the majority, many appreciated little details that made the story so compelling and the message so luminous.

The Metaphors and Symbols of Hope

We aresure many said “That’s it? That is the afterlife? Disappointing!” when gazing upon the blurry figures. But few have seen the metaphor hidden by the Dicken’s Dream painting. The psychic (Matt Damon) considers the afterlife to bea meeting with people from his life, all clad in light, with each person stepping out of the shadows to communicate with him. The Dicken’s Dream painting depicts the famous author dreaming about all the book characters he brought to life.

In association, you can consider that Clint Eastwood sees the afterlife as a beautiful dream, a natural effect of sleeping, and a place where you meet all those you loved during your earthly life. What if the afterlife is a place of infinite joy where all the essential characters in your life’s story gather to meet you and accompany you onto your new path?

Another scene of importance is the cooking class one. The psychic and his partner take a more sensual route on describing how foods smell and taste while blindfolded. However, they remain unable to name the foods they so enjoy.

Besides being a graceful and sensual moment in the movie, we find it to be another example of how Clint Eastwood perceives the afterlife. We are blind, incapable to name it, see it, give it dimension, and color, and shape; but we are indeed conscious of its existence. Its otherworldly reality is in our grasp, but it remains closed to us, inexpressible, hidden still.

The hazy, dreamlike depiction of the narrative, while bothering for some, is indeed worthy of a re-watch to catch the symbols and grasp the connections.

Since Clint Eastwood never said he would show us how “the real” afterlife looks like, reveal us a truth keeping humanity on the edge of its seat since the first ray of light shone upon our world, expecting him to offer definitive explanations and visuals is far-fetched. Eastwood never promised us proof of Heaven (that is for Dr. Eben Alexander III), but he delivered us a lesson about how wonderful life truly is.

What he offers us is a personal challenge and a reason more to search our hearts. Maybe, for once, we do not wonder whether there is an afterlife after all, but whether we loved and had been loved by enough people to wait for us on the other side and reveal their secrets to us.

About the author: Erik Winther is a passionate blogger from Southern California and the creator of Netflixguides.com, a site made to help all TV and movie enthusiasts keep up with the latest shows coming on Netflix.

Q&A with Paul Fitzgerald and Elizabeth Gould, authors of The Voice. For more information please visit www.grailwerk.com. The Voice is available here.

Why did you write the novel, The Voice? How is this book related to the script that Oliver Stone hired you to write?

We started out as a husband and wife journalist team. In 1981 we gained access to Afghanistan through diplomatic channels at the UN following the expulsion of 1135 western journalists one month after the Soviet invasion. What we discovered there was in sharp contrast to the “official” narrative playing on the evening news. Following our story for the CBS, we produced a PBS documentary and returned to Afghanistan for ABC Nightline. To our dismay, after seven years we were so frustrated with our inability to affect the “official” narrative, we began to look at what motivated us to take on this story in the first place. That led to an experience through dreams and synchronicities that was so powerful it triggered a shift in our consciousness and we decided to write scripts.

Authors Paul Fitzgerald and Elizabeth Gould with Oliver Stone at his office in Los Angeles.

That’s when we saw Oliver Stone’s 1991 film, JFK. It was Oliver’s decision to include secret society elements with deeper motives that resonated with us. In our research into the Norman invasion of Ireland in 1170, an enterprise largely run by Paul’s Fitzgerald family, we had discovered historical reasons why members of some secret societies might have wanted to kill JFK as retribution for past “crimes” in the modern era.

The Voice was to be our novelized attempt to lay out those motives when our ten year old daughter Alissa told us about her dream where she was visited by Paul’s deceased father accompanied by a man wearing a Scottish plaid suit with bell-bottom trousers and a matching hat. The man told Alissa he was 800 years old. We decided Alissa’s dream was a sign to look more deeply into Paul’s personal family history. Paul already knew his Fitzgerald family had come to Ireland as mercenaries 800 years ago and wondered if this dream could be a mystical connection to his own past.

We then developed The Voice research paper with the hope that Oliver would become interested in our Fitzgerald narrative too, but he wanted the Afghanistan story instead. As we began the research for the script, we came upon a book written by an ex-CIA agent about British efforts in Afghanistan in the 19th century. In the book was a photo of an American who’d played a prominent role. To our shock he was dressed wearing a Scottish plaid suit with bell-bottomed trousers and a matching turban. Alissa confirmed that day when she came home from school that Alexander Gardner, an Irish-American mercenary wearing a clan uniform of his own design, was the man from her dream two years earlier.

When Oliver asked us to connect the esoteric background from The Voice with the fact-based Afghanistan script we found ourselves thinking and dreaming about merging the past, present and future. In writing the script, the Peter Larkin character (the CBS News editor who hired us in 1981) emerged as a tragic archetype: an angry, wounded Vietnam veteran who was determined to twist the Afghanistan story to get back at the Soviets for what he believed they did to him in Vietnam. His part was demanding towards us, but in The Voice novel Larkin’s character had matured as a victim of his own propaganda. Through that narrative the character of Alissa, as Paul’s daughter, resolves the conflict between Larkin and Paul. The weaving back and forth of the screenplay and the novel had become a way of understanding the multi-dimensional.

Now we’ll jump forward to our home outside Boston, the afternoon of December 23, 2011. Our daughter Alissa tells us her friend from San Francisco is coming to our holiday party with her father.  When she tells us their last name is Larkin, Liz mentions that the only Larkin we’d ever met was Peter Larkin, who worked at CBS News, was wounded in Vietnam and hired us to go to Afghanistan in 1981. Alissa tells us he retired from CBS and still suffers from shrapnel wounds acquired in Vietnam.

Having the man who launched us into our 30 year saga, walk through the front door of our home that evening was beyond surreal. It was as if a dream had materialized before our eyes. How that came to be is connected to a series of synchronicities and dreams that goes back to 1981 when Peter hired us to go to Kabul for CBS. It then expands into the script for Oliver and the novel which both feature a character that embodies our encounters with Peter. The novelized encounter between Paul and Peter through Alissa (which had been foreshadowed in The Voice in 2001) had been delivered right into our home. The reality of the script we tried to write for Oliver 20 years ago had written its self. It was an astonishing Alpha and omega moment produced by our two daughters that unexpectedly completed a journey begun 30 years ago between two competing storytellers.

We finally had a way to explain how dreams, synchronicities and intuition towards action weave a fabric of reality over time that was not possible before Peter’s arrival. We titled our writing –the weaving together of the threads of a mythological storyline with the chronological timeline through history – as Archeo-mythology (the personalized, historical, archeology of digging into our own subconscious).

2. Can you give us specific examples of synchronicity and intuition that has played a role in your lives and in The Voice?

Example 1–During a trip to Ireland in 1997 to research the history behind our novel about the Fitzgerald history and their role in the Norman invasion of Ireland in 1169, we discovered Newgrange, the fifty five hundred year old UNESCO World Heritage Site north of Dublin. As we stepped off the plane at Dublin Airport, a baggage assistant (upon seeing our luggage) asked Paul who the Fitzgerald was. He was a Fitzgerald too and by serendipity his father had come from the same little village that Paul’s grandfather had come from. He then directed us to visit Newgrange telling us that if we did nothing else when in Ireland we must go there. We had never heard of Newgrange until that moment. But within the week we arrived at the mansion on the river Boyne and were swept away by its Neolithic technological majesty.  According to Masonic lore, Newgrange’s unique history and mythology is central to the biblical Enoch, grandfather of Noah, who is found in all three Abrahamic religions. The structure is central to pre-Christian Irish mythology having been built by the Dagda, the father of the Tuatha de Danaan, who was known as the Good Father, for his role as a benefactor to all the people. According to Joseph Campbell “…the Grail has been identified with the Dagda’s caldron of plenty, the begging bowl of the Buddha in which four bowls, from four quarters were united, the Kaaba of the Great Mosque of Mecca, and the ultimate talismanic symbol of some sort of Gnostic-Manichaean rite of spiritual initiation, practiced possibly by the Knights Templar.”  We came to see the shining quartz-clad Newgrange as a mythological beacon from the mysterious past that was anchored in the present. It reconnected us to our original motivation to write the novel and Newgrange became an important part of The Voice.

Example 2–In a nutshell, The Voice is a semi-autobiographical historical novel in which the primary character, Paul Fitzgerald, realizes his fulfillment at the dawn of the 21st century. In our writing we had created a mythic character known as the Black Knight which had been inspired by a dream. It is the Black Knight, Paul’s alter ego and mythical guide, who calls to him in his dreams to revisit the past as a Geraldine to remember his deeper purpose. 

On a visit to Ireland, years after we had created the Black Knight character, we were surprised to meet Desmond Fitzgerald, the Knight of Glin and discover that Desmond was the actual Black Knight of our Fitzgerald family.

 3. How did your spiritual growth change the way you view reality now?

Our work as mystical investigators for over 30 years had led us to a startling realization about how the metaphysical dimension of thoughts and dreams infused itself into our physical reality. With no background in physics we found a connection to explain our thesis in string theory. It was when we read an interview with theoretical physicist Juan Maldacena we recognized that the language he used to describe string theory had intriguing similarities to our theories about the right brain/left brain schism. Maldacena has been credited with solving the inconsistencies between quantum physics and the theory of relativity by creating a ‘mathematical Rosetta stone,  a  ‘duality’, that allowed them [scientists] to translate back and forth between the two languages, and solve problems in one model that seemed intractable in the other and vice versa.” Maldacena’s success suggested to us that the dilemma between those who are rigidly biased towards rational thinking versus those who are rigidly biased towards metaphysical thinking display the same kind of irreconcilable clash that his theory resolved. Since he resolved the tension between general relativity and quantum mechanics, we decided it might be possible to build a more substantial thought bridge that could explain how dreams become real through synchronicities that eventually DO infuse into our personal lives in actual concrete ways. We incorporated our esoteric experience into a geo-political analysis of Afghanistan in a talk that laid out those steps and can be viewed here: Afghanistan and Mystical Imperialism .

4.What sort of spiritual or psychological growth do you believe readers will experience as they read your book?

We developed a narrative creation process that resulted from our work first as investigative journalists focusing on the geopolitical and then using the same investigative journalists approach, we focused on the mystical. We consider The Voice to be the “proof,” in the scientific sense, of the validity of our process.

The novel, including the preface and epilogue, takes the reader through every step of our experience. Although it reads like a multidimensional action thriller, which reaches back to Medieval Ireland, the core of our work is about regaining control of our personal narrative and to recover our authentic selves from all of the competing narratives we are surrounded by, especially by the MSM. Technology attempts to seduce us away from what is genuinely new; but when we take back the authority over our own state of mind, the mind control can’t work anymore. As the big narrative collapses all around us, we need not get lost in the collapse but can instead realize that the power lies in being the authors of our own narrative. It’s a genuinely positive message for people who are exhausted by the endlessly negative environment in which we are surrounded. Simply put, it’s about snatching victory from the jaws of defeat by ending the mentality of revenge and retribution.

An inspiring response about our process: “The interview touched me on so many levels. What struck me the most is that your concepts are just as valuable on a personal level rather than trying to deal with geopolitical issues that are so difficult to figure out and drive us crazy.

Your ideas about accepting the limits of what you could do to affect the macro narrative by focusing on the personal where you have real power aligns with my experience regarding alcoholism.  To reclaim my own narrative, it required me to do what you lay out, such as; taking a STAND, owning your narrative and having a RIGHT and a RESPONSIBILITY to do so. Most important, you are explaining what YOU did when confronted with your own limitations affecting the macro narrative.

Alcoholics Anonymous became a spiritual pillar that I drew upon after drinking destructively since I was about 18 years old. Some of your themes are right at the core of AA’s message. And what is interesting is that the medical community admits that AA is the only long-term treatment for addressing alcoholism.

At some point in the recovery process the alcoholic has to TAKE A STAND and control his narrative by understanding what is controllable in the first place. You mention that retribution is a CHILD-LIKE way of dealing with a serious problem and that goes for many other destructive emotions and acts. I came to understand through this experience that finding and controlling my own narrative can feel like a spiritual experiences – it can be a healing, redemptive and life-changing process. When you said that people play a ROLE instead of developing their own identity, “There’s no one home” is a great way to describe role players. One final thought- the mystical/spiritual is really a major part of curing maladies like alcoholism.  Carl Jung wrote a letter to AA founder Bill Wilson giving his opinion on the root problem of alcoholics. Jung wrote Wilson because Jung had tried to cure an alcoholic named Rowland H. for two years using all types of psychoanalysis – to no avail. Jung thought he now knew why he failed — after seeing AA’s success

January 30, 1961 

Dear Mr. Wilson,

Your letter has been very welcome indeed.

I had no news from Rowland H. anymore and often wondered what has been his fate. Our conversation which he has adequately reported to you had an aspect of which he did not know. The reason that I could not tell him everything was that those days I had to be exceedingly careful of what I said. I had found out that I was misunderstood in every possible way. Thus I was very careful when I talked to Rowland H. But what I really thought about was the result of many experiences with men of his kind.

His [Rowland H.’s] craving for alcohol was the equivalent, on a low level, of the spiritual thirst of our being for wholeness, expressed in medieval language: the union with God.

How could one formulate such an insight in a language that is not misunderstood in our days?

The only right and legitimate way to such an experience is that it happens to you in reality and it can only happen to you when you walk on a path which leads you to higher understanding.You might be led to that goal by an act of grace or through a personal and honest contact with friends, or through a higher education of the mind beyond the confines of mere rationalism.I see from your letter that Rowland H. has chosen the second way, which was, under the circumstances, obviously the best one.

I am strongly convinced that the evil principle prevailing in this world leads the unrecognized spiritual need into perdition, if it is not counteracted either by real religious insight or by the protective wall of human community. An ordinary man, not protected by an action from above and isolated in society, cannot resist the power of evil, which is called very aptly the Devil. But the use of such words arouses so many mistakes that one can only keep aloof from them as much as possible.

These are the reasons why I could not give a full and sufficient explanation to Rowland H., but I am risking it with you because I conclude from your very decent and honest letter that you have acquired a point of view above the misleading platitudes one usually hears about alcoholism.   You see, “alcohol” in Latin is “spiritus” and you use the same word for the highest religious experience as well as for the most depraving poison. The helpful formula therefore is: spiritus contra spiritum.

Thanking you again for your kind letter                               

I remain  Yours

sincerely C. G. Jung”

Q: Where Peace resides…a brilliantly captured musical masterpiece. Explain your process of writing and how you have changed over time to create such divinely inspired words.

A: I love this song! It came through in record time, almost as though it was channelled. I wrote it in about 3 hours, lyrics and music. When a song comes together like this, I know from experience that it has a lot of staying power. More and more, and especially with many of the songs on ‘I AM’, I was able to connect to and create a space where all I had to do was ‘download’ the songs that seemed to already be right there… I remember reading about Michelangelo’s creative process. He said ‘I saw the angel in the marble and carved until I set him free’. Sometimes it’s the same for me with song writing. I hear the song in the ethers and I sit in front of the blank page until it comes to life as I hear it through the ears of soul.

Q: You, my friend, are breaking trail into a new musical genre of spiritual expansion, and for me it has been such an honour watching you move further into alignment with your soul. What has been some of the biggest challenges you faced during this transformation? 

A: The biggest challenge I’ve faced (and still do!) is to surrender to the process, to let go of the familiar that my rational mind clings to and to surrender to the unknown that my heart craves. My challenge is to push less, and to allow more, to quiet my mind so that I can hear the voice of my soul more clearly.  I’ve always been one to plan ahead… My mind has always been very active, very ‘bossy’! (Lol) It’s not always easy to break that pattern, but it feels so good when I do.

Q: I Am is quite the bold statement! Tell us what these words, Album, and song lyrics mean specifically to you and your journey.

A: ‘I AM’ means quite a bit for me, it’s the ultimate affirmation song. I really do believe that we are living in such amazing times where spiritual expansion is possible, both individually and collectively. This song speaks of my faith in us, in our human evolution, in our capacity to evolve and to attain a higher consciousness. The song also stems from a belief that history is no longer ‘repeating’, and it’s so exciting!  We are at the tipping point where more people believe in this than not. We are rewriting old stories, the ones that have been repeating for many lives.

It IS time to be bold, to rewrite our own individual and collective stories, the ones we have been reliving for centuries. We’ve been there, we’ve done that; it’s time to move into other aspects of ourselves, to redefine and experience ourselves differently and ultimately, to remember who we truly are.

Q: They say every song has a story.  What single from your new album has had the biggest impact on your own story?

A: Well, probably the song ‘I AM’ for the simple reason that it encompasses every level of that expansion that many people are going through at present. ‘I Am’ is like a spiritual coming out in a way, and hopefully it strikes a chord in people to empower them in their own journeys.

Q: Your songs are obviously inspirational to many. Tell us your aspirations, hopes, and purpose for those your songs reach?

A: My aspirations and my hopes for those who hear my music are that they be inspired and empowered. I don’t much see the purpose in bringing people down anymore, so I hope my music gives people a little boost and engages them to discover their own soul purpose, whatever that may be. I hope, ultimately, that it helps raise the vibration.

Q: Faith is clearly a part of your music. What does that look like in your own life and world?

A: When I was young, faith was very much attached to religion where I was taught to have faith in something outside of myself. Then I discovered that if I had faith in myself, I could have faith in everything and everyone around me. Someone very dear to me once told me that the only thing God cannot give us is ‘faith’. I always took this to heart and strived to cultivate faith from the inside out. For me, faith is something you nurture, it’s the cornerstone of my drive as an artist and a songwriter.

Just as courage is not the absence of fear, faith is not the absence of doubt. Faith grows in response to doubt. For me, doubt and faith are strangely intertwined, divinely intertwined, really! Every time I have a bout of doubt, it only serves to deepen my faith.

This is one of the more difficult and sensitive articles I have written, but my hope is that it may help you find some peace or an adaptive response if you have gone through a traumatic experience…

If you have gone through a traumatic experience, then you have experienced something that is extremely difficult and may have symptoms of PTSD. Symptoms of PTSD include:

1. Intrusive thoughts, memories, flashbacks or nightmares about the traumatic experience

2. Avoidance of internal and external reminders of the traumatic experience

3. Negative thoughts and emotions related to the traumatic experience such as believing the
traumatic experience was your fault and feelings of guilt, shame, anxiety, or depression related those thoughts or beliefs

4. Hyper-vigilance such as constantly feeling like you are on guard, difficulty sleeping, trouble concentrating, and feeling like you are being threatened by something

These symptoms can make life especially difficult and anxiety-provoking. People with PTSD often say they just want to be alone to avoid any thoughts or reminders of their trauma. Additionally, when they are out in public, they try to avoid large crowds. Sometimes, they may get easily startled if they hear an unexpected noise. Additionally, they often have trouble regulating their emotions and even maintaining relationships because they are constantly on guard for a potential threat. Some of them even stop going out to eat at their favorite restaurant because the anxiety associated with being around so many strangers in an environment they can not control is too much for them to bear. These symptoms are also caused by changes in the brains of people with PTSD that make people with PTSD hypersensitive to external and internal stimuli.

One of the treatments that psychologists provide to people who have PTSD is prolonged exposure. In essence prolonged exposure slowly and gradually exposes people who have PTSD to their triggers for anxiety and or avoidance to help them eventually become desensitized to the trigger and experience less anxiety. For example, if someone with PTSD can not go out to eat at a restaurant that reminds them of their trauma, then he or she might first drive to the parking lot of that restaurant with a friend and sit in their car of the parking lot for a few minutes. Then, the following week, he or she might walk around the parking lot without going into the restaurant. Next, the person might walk in the restaurant, but not sit down. Over time, the person can gradually increase their exposure to the restaurant or whatever the trigger is for their trauma and experience a decrease in their anxiety which allows them to enjoy their lives
more fully.

To a lesser degree, even if you do not have PTSD, I believe there is a lot to learn from prolonged exposure. Essentially, it allows a person to gradually expand their comfort zone and take on challenges that were once avoided because they were considered too anxiety provoking such as possibly going on a date, starting a new job, expanding your social skills, or simply taking on more challenges in your life with less anxiety and avoidance.

What happens psychologically and physiologically is that we slowly begin to habituate to our (at one time anxiety-provoking) circumstances and get used to them. A comparison is when you jump into a pool or lake with cold water. When you first jump in, the water feels very cold and uncomfortable, but eventually, your body gets used to the temperature of the water. Imagine if we apply this to all areas of our life. How can we expand our comfort zone and take on more challenges with less anxiety? I believe one way is to start small and work our way up to bigger challenges. For example, maybe the idea of starting a romantic relationship or working a new job seems too anxiety provoking because it is a reminder of a past relationship or job that did not work out well. Instead of jumping in head first and trying to go on a date first, maybe you could try to make eye contact or small talk with the person who serves you coffee or
cashier or go on a networking meeting. Then, you can gradually expand your comfort with social interactions and relationships to help decrease your anxiety. This idea of habituating and expanding our comfort zone can be applied to any area of your life.

So, I would ask you, what are you feeling anxious, hesitant, or avoidant about that you KNOW is something you should do to help you move forward to your happiness, dreams, or success? Then, I would encourage you to take one small action or step to expand your comfort zone in that area and over time you can gradually move towards bigger and bigger actions to your ultimate goal.

Still, part of recovering from a trauma is accepting that it will always likely have some effect on you. Simply knowing that your past trauma may be connected to any current anxiety you are experiencing can help you develop self-compassion and kindness for yourself. This in turn can help you become more at peace with yourself and then take more focused actions that increase the likelihood of achieving your future goals.

Our minds and bodies have a unique and essential link called the mind-body connection. It means that what we think, believe, feel, and even our general attitude can all have an impact (either positive or negative) on our physical well-being. As well as this, how we look after our physical body through our diet, exercise, even our posture, can have a similar impact on our mental health. If you are feeling unwell either spiritually, mentally, or physically, then these useful mind-body therapies may be able to help you heal. Remember, though, seeing your doctor if symptoms persist is always an important thing to do. 

1. Acupuncture

Acupuncture is the practice of inserting extremely fine needles into strategic parts of the body. These are called acupuncture points. Although the science behind acupuncture is still relatively unknown, it is thought that the needles stimulate muscles and nerves, forcing them to release painkilling chemicals. Acupuncture comes from the belief that your ‘qi’ (your life energy) can become blocked due to negative thinking. As well as stimulating the body’s natural pain relievers, acupuncture is thought to be able to unblock your life energy, creating more positivity in your mind, which is said to speed up the healing process. Some people use acupuncture to alleviate chronic pain, and others use it for the symptoms of anxiety and depression.

2. Meditation

Meditation is about quieting your mind so that you are no longer thinking of anything at all and allowing your mind and body to rejuvenate in this quiet, peaceful state. You will feel calm and rested. Being able to meditate can help to reduce the symptoms of stress, for example, because you are no longer focusing on the problems that are causing your mind and body pain, it is easier to come up with solutions for them. You will be looking at them more objectively when you do start to think of them again. Many people fit meditation into their daily routines because it makes them feel better and happier, allowing them to be as stress-free as possible.

3. Mindfulness

Mindfulness is often linked to meditation because the two can be practiced together, but they are different techniques in reality. Mindfulness is the practice of just being and living in the moment and becoming more aware of your thoughts and feelings. Understanding those thoughts and feelings can help you to be more relaxed and calm in life, giving you a better ability to respond to the events that are unfolding around you. It is wonderful for your mental and physical health because the calmer you are and the more able you are to deal with what is happening, the less stress you are placed under.

It can be challenging to become mindful at first, especially if you live a particularly hectic life. However, the more you try it, the easier it will get, and the more you will get out of it too.

4. Hypnosis

Hypnosis and hypnotherapy are interesting concepts. The process involves putting you into a very relaxed state so that you can access your subconscious. It means that your beliefs and feelings can be utilized to heal your mind and even your body in some cases. Hypnosis helps you to change behaviors such as bad habits, for example. Remember, when you are hypnotized, you are still in complete control, and you will never be able to do anything you wouldn’t want to do. To find out more about hypnosis, take a look at this website. Hypnosis can help with phobias, stress, addiction, anxiety, anger problems, and much more.

5. Yoga

Yoga is a spiritual and physical practice that helps you to feel calmer and to understand your body and mind more. It offers training on posture and exercises, and can also be used as part of your meditation techniques to help make your mind clearer. If you want to understand yourself better and have more self-awareness, yoga is an excellent way to do it and is recommended by many healers (both traditional and more spiritual and holistic) as a way of de-stressing. As it is low impact exercise, it is also excellent for those with slight mobility issues.

There are dozens of different types of yoga, which means you should easily be able to find the version that suits you and your needs the best. There is Hatha yoga which is all about creating different shapes with your body, Bikram which is practiced in a hot room, and Iyengar which requires those partaking to wear straps and blocks to help their balance. The best way to find out which type of yoga is the one that will help you the most is to try some trial classes with a professional instructor.

6. Homeopathy

Homeopathy is the practice of using naturally occurring substances to treat both mental and physical conditions. These substances are watered down to very low levels because this way there is less chance of any side effects occurring. Another reason for this dilution is that in homeopathy it is believed that the more water is mixed with the natural substance, the more effective it will be.

Although many people who try homeopathy do say that their stress levels are reduced and that they feel less anxious afterward, the medical profession is still skeptical. Studies have shown that in some cases a placebo works just as effectively as the homeopathic medicine itself. However, even if this is the case, it does show how powerful the mind is in relation to keeping the body healthy. Simply believing that medicine is being taken can be enough to make the person feel much healthier.

7. Reiki

Reiki is a Japanese type of mind-body therapy. It requires the practitioner to lay their hands on their patient in order to increase the flow of the life force within the body. It is thought that when this life force is low or flowing slowly, we begin to feel unwell. Reiki is believed to quicken the flow to make us feel healthy again. The practitioner will lay their hands on various parts of the body such as the head, shoulders, feet, and stomach in order to restore the life force. Whether this is exactly how it works or not is often the subject of much debate, but what can’t be denied is the feeling of peace and calm that the patient feels when there are undergoing Reiki. It is certainly a great de-stressor, and when the mind is less stressed, the body is healthier.

8. Reflexology

Reflexology is similar to Reiki in that it requires an expert practitioner to touch various parts of their patient’s body. However, it differs in that the reflexology practitioner also needs to exert a small amount of pressure; not as much as would happen in a massage, but enough that the patient can feel it. The idea behind reflexology is that every part of the body is connected to the rest through the central nervous system. By applying gentle pressure to specific points on the feet, hands, ears, and even face, other parts of the body can be healed and feel healthier.

9. Aromatherapy

Essential oils are extracted from natural plants and are used in the process of aromatherapy in order to aid healing. Many people enjoy this particular mind-body therapy as it is so relaxing and pleasant. The essential oils can be used to bring a specific scent to a room where the patient can lie undisturbed (this is an ideal time to also practice meditation, for example), or they can be used in massage. You might choose to add a few drops to a warm bath and relax that way or rub aromatherapy cream into your skin.

Aromatherapy is a versatile mind-body therapy that can either be done by a professional or at home, depending on the way you want to use the oils. Many patients find that they are able to sleep better, that their mood is improved, and that they generally feel more relaxed. Some even find that general aches and pains lessen.

10. Massage

When you think of massage, you might at first think only of the physical aspect. It is ideal for muscle injuries, and many sportspeople use it to bring them back to fitness after an injury such as a muscle strain.However, massage is also fantastic for the mind since it is found to be so relaxing and it enables the person being massaged to block out many negative thoughts and feelings and simply focus on the massage itself.In this way, it can be the perfect accompaniment to meditation and mindfulness amongst other things.

Depending on what you want to get out of your massage, there are different techniques to try. Some of the most popular include Indian head massage, hot stone massage, aromatherapy massage, and Shiatsu which is linked to acupuncture but uses the hands rather than needles.

Conclusion

The mind is a mysterious thing, and there is still so much we don’t know about it that new information is being discovered all the time. However, the link between the mind and the body when it comes to healing is clear, and for many people, using these mind-body therapies can certainly help.

1.What is 3100 RUN AND BECOME about and why did you make it?

3100 Run and Become is a global exploration of running that focuses on the world’s longest race, the Self-Transcendence 3100 Miler, which requires people to average 60 miles a day within the 52 day window. The course is a ½ mile loop bordering a high school in NYC. That’s right – 60 miles a day around a sidewalk loop, and in the heat of the New York summer. Why do it? To answer that question, we went to cultures around the world that have prized running as a tool for transformation for millennia. We take the viewer to the Kalahari Desert, to the mountains of Japan and to the Navajo Nation in Arizona to reveal the spiritual truth that running can and does make us more spiritually attuned beings.

In the Kalahari, for example, Bushmen have been hunting on foot for over 125,000 years, chasing animals to exhaustion over 2 full days. Their persistence hunting practice is a window into how ancient humans survived before the advent of tools – we used our feet. But were we simply another type of animal chasing prey? The Bushmen would say “no”. They feel that running was not merely a way to fill a belly, but a means to access the higher power of both Nature and the Heavens.

When we traveled to the Navajo Nation, the same truth was reflected. To them and many Native Americans, running is a form of prayer. We use our feet to pray to Mother Earth as we breath in Father Sky. Running is a teacher and also a pure celebration of life. It’s what makes us physical beings, true – it ensures our survival. But running, to the Navajo, is what ensures our spiritual progress.

I wanted to make this film as a visual representation of why we run. The film isn’t just for runners, however. Running is just a metaphor to frame the narrative of our main character, a diminutive paperboy from Finland who is attempting to run the 3100 Mile Race. The film uncovers his physical and spiritual challenges and shows how running indeed makes him a wiser, more enlightened being.

2 Tell us a little about 3100 Mile Race. Is it really 3100 miles? If so, how long does it take to complete and where do people run it.  How many people start and how many people finish…What is training like for it?

The Self-Transcendence 3100 Mile Race is the longest officially certified running race in the world. It is in fact 3,100 miles, although most finishers probably run an additional 10 or 20 miles. They’re doing laps of a loop that’s measured to the thousandth of a mile if one ran the straightest line. But the 3100 is also on a sidewalk, so runners invariably have to run around other pedestrians adding a few extra steps per lap. But those extra steps add up over the 5000+ laps runners do.

Runners have 52 days to complete the race. The course is open 18 hours a day, from 6 am until midnight. The Race was founded in 1997 by Indian Spiritual Teacher Sri Chinmoy to challenge our conception of impossibility. Since then, nearly 14 people attempt the race each year with about ½ completing it. Most people train their minds as intently as their bodies. Folks put in 100-150 miles of slow running and walking each week, but they really focus on attitude. Problems on the course are minimized if one has a cheerful attitude. In that way, training becomes a spiritual practice in and of itself.

3. How can running become a sacred activity?

Running is inherently sacred. We should ask ourselves why it might not feel that way. Prayer can be repetitious. Prayer can be full of desire rather than being selfless. Similarly, our attitude toward running frames the experiences we will have. If we trust running to deliver us experiences of transformation, it will do so – that’s what humans have used running for across millennia. If we open ourselves to Nature and to the energies of the earth, if our breath is the “music” rather than the MP3 player, and if we really learn to open our hearts and emotions as we run, the effect can be instant and profound. We should ask ourselves “why we run” and focus on those reasons each and every run.

4. How would you respond to someone who says that this activity is just too much and “overkill”?

On the savannah, early humans ran hundreds of miles in pursuit of game. In non-agrarian cultures, which all humans were until 10,000 years ago, many civilizations were nomadic. Our bodies are built to move long distances, whether we enjoy doing so or not.

I would have agreed that the 3,100 might be considered as damaging. And that’s true of a lot of extreme activities. But, again, I see people coming back to do the 3100 over and over and over. It clearly wasn’t debilitating. But why do folks repeat this incredible feat? People mention that the sense of personal transformation is so profound that they long for the experience again and again. There is physical pain, but the immense spiritual joy that people feel during and after the race keeps them coming back.

 5. What did you learn about yourself as you made the film?

Frankly, I realized how transformative running can actually be. I considered myself a runner but at the same time, I saw competition as the purpose of running. Now, I realize that Self-Transcendence is the purpose – that each run can add to our life experience; that each run can give me insight into my own human condition; and it works. I find that each time I run, I have a flash of inspiration or an insight into something I’ve been pondering or something totally random, yet relevant to my life. Running seems to open my mind to the truth in a way I never realized it could.

6. What sort of impact are you hoping this film has on other people?

In a hyper-politicized era, it’s hard, if not impossible, to feel any sense of unity. And I don’t think there will ever been unity of perception or ideology. Yet, when I run, I never consider the political, religious, educational, or ethnic backgrounds of anyone I see running. On the trails or the roads, we all have the same tools: our feet, our breath and our heart.

There are very few activities on earth that instantly take us away from prejudices or pre-conceived notions of identity – and running is one of them.

Not everyone needs to be a runner to enjoy this film. But I do hope that people see how something as simple as running can be such a great unifier and I hope this realization inspires them to find similar unifying forces in their own lives.

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For more information on the film, please visit its website at https://3100film.com

When you think of your dream career, do you imagine yourself on a stage being applauded by thousands of people? Perhaps you’re singing, dancing, acting, or doing something else. Maybe your dream career is being behind the camera, creating films, producing music, writing for magazines, or even just working in an industry you’ve loved for years! Dream careers are different for different people, but there’s something you should know: no matter what your dream career is, it’s totally within your reach. It’s never too late to start working towards it either!

Here, we’re going to talk about what you can do to attract your dream career like magic. You read that right: Like magic! Read on to learn more…

Be Really Specific About What You Want

If you want to attract or manifest your dream career, you’re going to need to be really specific about what you want. Now, it’s important you don’t limit yourself when coming up with the specifics. For example, you may think you want a role in a particular company, but once you’re putting the work in, a role in an even better company could come along. You need to be open to ‘this or something better’. However, you can come up with the sort of environment you want to work in, the company culture, days off, pay, what you’ll be doing day to day, and more. Remember, specific but don’t limit yourself.

Visualize Yourself In Your New Role

Now you have a good idea of where you want to work and what that will entail, spend some time each day visualizing yourself in your new role. You could spend around 10 minutes in the morning and 10 minutes at night. The key to getting it right is to use all of the details you’ve figured out to set a scene in your head, but don’t watch yourself like you’re in a movie. You need to be in the movie. What do you see, smell, and hear? What are you feeling? Getting the feelings right is really important. Many people swear by visualization, as your brain cannot tell the difference between what is real and what is imagined. When you begin to feel like you’re living out this new dream reality of yours, you will begin to notice massive changes in your life. Perhaps your band will get a call from Coran Capshaw, you’ll find a job advertisement that you know is meant for you, or you’ll receive an audition that looks like it was written for you.

Come Up With A Series Of Baby Steps That Will Help You

Baby steps are all it takes to reach a goal, so break this down into baby steps. You can’t always just wait until opportunity comes knocking, so you will need to take some inspired action to get on your way.

Always Keep Your Thoughts Emotions Positive

It can be tough to stay positive all the time, so stay mindful and change your thoughts if you notice you’re not thinking along the right lines. Your thoughts are important, but your emotions are even more important. Your thoughts directly impact your emotions, so focus on them both!

Be Consistent

Finally, consistency will help you to attract your dream career!

Looking through the spiritual eye, the universe is the divine manifested. In every stone, in every tree, in every beating heart, there is the signature of a common creation. Birth and death are mere thresholds in an inter-dimensional journey. Self-discovery is the unlearning of fear and acceptance of love. You wouldn’t know what tremendous potential you hold if you don’t know how to peer deep within your Self, and this looking, this turning of the gaze inwards is yoga. The soul’s awakening to bondage and its attempt to assert itself, this is the process of spiritual life. When in all sentience you know you are not your body and you are not even the mind that is the beginning of true self-realization, the beginning of yoga.

Available in different formats, known in various labels as according to distinct practicing styles, the thousand year’s old mind-body and spiritual discipline is actually just one thing. Yoga is one consolidated worldview, which is essentially a spiritual worldview. If you are thinking spiritual and lost in confusion as to whether the movement-centric Hatha lessons will do it or the more delphic Kundalini style, it’s only the styles being split over.

Here is a primer to the two most important yoga styles of huge spiritual connotations:

Jivamukti Yoga

 This sub-school of yoga is centered upon earth-life and promotes the yoga or connection of compassion for all living beings. The Jivamukti method centers one spiritually so that she can overcome ignorance of and negative passions directed at other living forms. The instincts of jealousy, gluttony, selfishness, or any kind of angst towards other individuals or other beings find release through this special yogic discipline.

Dismantling the notion that humans are an alpha species with special privileges over other children of god that can be exploited to the ends of mankind, Jivamukti establishes non-violence, empathy, and compassion.

The five spiritual tenets of Jivamukti Yoga are as follows–

1. Ahimsa- Embracing non-violence as a way of life. Following sustainable means, culturing compassion and connectedness with animals and plant life, advocating animal rights and veganism.
2. Bhakti- Understanding self-realization as the goal of prolonged yoga practices and submission to a personal God. Mantra chanting, worship, and observances as methods of intensifying bhakti or devotion.
3. Dhyana- Meditation, in order to connect with the universal self beyond the mask of flesh and blood and the constant chatterings of a deviated mind.
4. Nada- Finding spiritual guidance within a field of vibrancy or knowing the primal sound body. Deep listening with sanskrit mantra, music, conscious utterance, and silence.
5. Shastra- Detailed study and learning from ancient yogic texts. An intellectual and scholarly pursuit of yoga.

Kundalini Yoga

Yogi Bhajan, the revered grand master of yoga has explained our metaphysical structure as per Kundalini in details in one of his lectures from June 1970.

We have eight centers of God consciousness in the body, he says. The lowest rung is at the rectum, the next is situated along the sex organs of males and females. The one above is at the heart center, elevating us from our animal natures. The origin of love, compassion, and service is at this center, Yogi Bhajan says. The next high center is at the Throat. When consciousness resides here, truth becomes his nature. There is no place for deception and disillusionment. The energy body can rise further up, above the two eyes. At the level of the “third eye”, all knowledge of past, present, and future is known. Finally, there is the seventh Chakra, at the crown of the head. When your consciousness reaches this sublime level, your personality and ego become one with the Universal.

The asana and meditation of the Kundalini school are designed to raise one’s consciousness from the base to higher up.

Learn the effects of circulating energy through the different chakras:

Muladhara or Root Chakra– The feeling of individuality is enforced, of having a separate body, a separate personality, and a separate connection of your spirit with existence.

Swadhisthana or the Second Chakra- The origination of pleasure and the drive to procreate begin here.

Manipura or the Third Chakra- This is the power center, the source of digestive fire and regulating forces affecting our general psychological and physical health.

Anahata or the Heart Chakra- It is the seat of love, appreciation for nature, compassion, and empathy. Transpassing energy through here is the key to having emotional balance.

Vishuddhi or the Fifth Chakra- Consciousness at Vishuddhi purifies sense perceptions and lets one come to terms with the light and dark aspects of life.

Ajna or the Third Eye- One gain command over subtle body systems.

Sahasrara Chakra- Consciousness held at this chakra signifies complete realization of the Truth, reaching a realm beyond mundane human awareness.

Go all out spiritually driven, following these lines of yoga now!

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Author Bio- Manmohan Singh is a passionate Yogi, Yoga Teacher and a Traveler in India. He provides  Yoga teacher training in Nepal,Yoga teacher training in Thailand and India. He loves writing and reading the books related to yoga, health, nature and the Himalayas. His strong connection with Yoga and the Himalayas has made him organize yoga, meditation and Ayurveda tours, and retreats in the Himalayas.

• 1. Can taking pictures change your life?

It certainly has changed mine—for the better, in many ways. This is what drives my commitment to teaching and writing. An active engagement with photography can help us become more authentic and find our highly unique vision or voice. It can assist the growth of our awareness by becoming more attuned to ourselves and others simultaneously, with a greater connection to nature and the world itself. And finally, the camera offers a highly satisfying means of creative expression and a potent, timely tool for communicating with others and expressing our passions, commitments, and concerns.

2. How can photography become not only a creative outlet, but a means of growth — even a spiritual discipline?

Photography asks us to look deep within and to look outward toward the world simultaneously in order to find our points of connection. To what subjects in the world do we find resonance? Photographs can reveal many aspects of ourselves that may be hidden from conscious view. In this sense, it is a journey of self-discovery. The camera also teaches us to look at others with respect, empathy, and compassion—and helps us understand the realities of others and the sometimes joyful, sometimes tragic conditions of the world itself.

Even as adults, many people do not know how they see. They have never examined their own seeing. Is our seeing a reflection of our own self or does our vision uncover aspects of the world itself—or both? By the second or third photography class, a trained teacher can know who made which images that are being viewed. There is a certain orientation to subject matter, a unique way of handling color and form, and distinctive shapes or compositions that make one’s images unique and personal.

And of course, one of the greatest gifts the camera offers is to learn to see what is—not what we want it to be or think it should be, but, in writer James Agee’s words, the cruel radiance of what is. I personally believe we need this more than ever in our divisive and highly partisan society.

As a spiritual discipline, photography leads us closer to ourselves and engages our most noble energies that connect us more deeply with others and to life itself. Creativity can help us discover our natural wisdom and engender wholeness of spirit and a synergy between mind, body, feelings, and intuition. 

3. Zen tradition teaches that at every moment in our lives, we have a choice. We can be present to the moment and all that it contains, or we can stay in our distracted, often self-centered state of being. How can you use your camera to get closer to Zen?

What do we wish for? Do we want to be present to the moment: to ourselves, others, and the world itself in equal measure? Or, are we content being distracted by shiny devices that steal our attention and fragment our state of being? Zen Camera teaches us to use our shiny, smart devices in the service of our humanity and a means of expanding our awareness.

With a camera in our hand, we can’t help but become more conscious of the world around us. The camera offers a means of deep engagement. I have always resisted the word “shooting” as a metaphor for photography. It seems so random and even violent. And I become annoyed watching people with cameras take one or two pictures here, and then quickly move on to the next subject, and so on. For me, to extend the metaphor of shooting, this feels like a drive-by shooting. The camera can be exploitive if we only take from the world.

The other possibility is to stick around for a little while, use the camera to spend time, get to know the subject, and become deeply attentive to your surroundings. By offering your genuine attention through a camera, you are giving people a nourishing gift. My first photography teacher once said to me: “After you take the picture you set out to take, now is the time to begin exploring the subject.” Try different angles and points of view, ask questions (verbally or visually), and open to new ways of seeing. What if I try this or that; what will happen if I move forward or move back, or include more or less in the frame? My advice is: Don’t seek immediate answers or trust your first solution. Stay with the subject until it feels known and respected through the lens—until you find resonance.

4. Can a picture you take be a self-portrait, even if you aren’t in the image?

All photographs are both mirrors and windows. The way we see the world is a reflection of ourselves: our values, beliefs, worldview,and many aspects of our identity. Richard Avedon, the great portrait photographer, once said: “My photographs are more about me that they are about the people I photograph.” In addition to our point of view toward whatever subject matter we photograph, our manner of handling the visual elements of the photograph—form, color, and shape—are highly personal, individual, and unique.

On a deeper level, most photographs contain signs, symbols, and metaphors that underlie the literal representation. Depending on one’s self-awareness, much of this metaphoric content arises mostly from the unconscious and can be deeply revealing. Psychologists believe that somewhere between 75-85% of our mind is unconscious and that the rational brain is often unaware of the deeper contents of the mind. That deeper content of the mind is often revealed through images and art. Regrettably, in our society and in our educational system, we have lost sight of the resonant language of metaphor, myth, and symbol.In my experience, the unconscious content found in photographers’ work is highly revealing.

Of course, most photographs are also windows. They represent something in the exterior world. The dialectic between seeing the world for what it is, and seeing the world based on who you are, often forms the very content of a photographer’s work.

5. Going from selfies to self-reflection — how is this possible?  

I think selfies represent a healthy and natural impulse: to affirm one’s identity and seek validation from others. However, the question is one of degree. If every photograph you take is a selfie and that is all you are concerned with, it can lead to narcissism and an unhealthy self-involvement that excludes concern for others, compassion, and empathy. In the same way the Beatles once sang, “can’t buy me love,” our carefully posed selfies cannot fill the empty places within—no matter how hard we try. Counting likes on Instagram or Facebook is not equivalent to the earned satisfaction of accomplishment and personal triumph.

Something happens on the path toward maturity for healthy people. We stop giving our primary attention to the ego self and begin to focus on the reality and needs of others, and of society itself. The camera provides a path back into the world and it offers a means for genuine self-exploration.

Here, we begin to focus on the deeper aspects of self and our connections with the world. Seeing the self and witnessing the other simultaneously form the great power of photography. Every photograph is of something in the world and every photograph is a self-portrait. With a camera, we can grapple with the more complex aspects of our identity beyond appearance: race, ethnicity, psychological dynamics, heredity and conditioning, sexuality, gender, economic status, and many other factors that contribute to our unique individuality. As a powerful alternative to selfies, try making images that show who you are without using yourself as the subject. Use allusion, metaphor, concept, mirroring—and find resonance. Seek your inner reflection in the outer world. Self-portrayal through images that reveal your unique background, character, and circumstances—not just your appearance—is one of the great aims of art. It is a means of active self-investigation.

6. You experienced the loss of your right, dominant eye in an impact injury at the age of thirty-three. Talk about this irony: you are a one-eyed photographer who writes about and teaches how to “see” with a camera.

As a photographer, losing an eye was the most painful trauma that I have ever experienced. Over time, it also become a profound awakening. Like the Zen master’s stick, the injury served to eviscerate my ego and open me to a deeper perspective. I became fascinated with the journey of learning to see again, this time as a mature adult. Our initial foray with vision begins at birth and our process of learning to see as a young child is intimately tied to the nature of socialization and the learning of language. For most people, vision is unconscious, automatic, and largely taken for granted.

I no longer take vision for granted and feel privileged to have the opportunity to relearn vision and its deep connection to awareness. To answer your question simply, I lost an eye so that I may learn to see.

Interested readers can look up my essay, Awakening Sight, originally published in Parabola magazine and currently online through the Daily Good website. In this essay, I chronicle the process of losing and eye and the awakening of vision.

7. Photographs have become the universal language of the digital age, in which cameras, especially those in smartphones, have revolutionized the way we approach the world and communicate with people. Is the cell phone camera a substitute for direct experience, or can it be employed to heighten our interaction with the world and others? 

This is an excellent question and forms the heart of Zen Camera. The essential key for all forms of photography is observation. Direct perception in the present moment—of self and other—is a form of learning and knowing and cannot be substituted by mediated perceptions found in entertainment, books, websites, blogs, and other people’s images. Mindful looking implies self-observation and looking outward simultaneously to awaken to our own genuine points of connection with the world. A moment of seeing with a camera connects our inner states directly with the realities of life beyond our eyes. We are led inward and outward simultaneously.

From Zen Camera: “The quality and simplicity of the cameras and the global reach of pictures are breathtaking. Today’s tools (or toys) are seriously intoxicating.Cameras and digital technologies hold profound value for communication, new lifestyle options, and both individual and cultural development. But with great potential comes great danger. We see this playing out today for many in what can only be called an addiction to the internet, in excessive texting, and in treating perception as the mere processing of the bits of information transmitted through electronic screens. Look up has become the new slogan for the digital age. What happens when humans no longer stretch their minds? As people allow themselves to freely indulge in comfort and consumerism, what happens to the development of their minds? As people accept dumbing down and the erosion of their attention spans, what effects will be carried by conditioning and genetics to future generations?

“We need to take responsibility, I believe, for using technology to serve and develop our humanity. When texting or interacting online, you can use these activities as powerful reminders to come inside and enter the body. In Zen-like fashion, you endeavor to merely witness yourself here, now, in this moment and engaged in a state of being awake to your own distraction. Nothing matters as much as the seeing of it. There needn’t be any judgment, just awareness. Over time you’ll come to appreciate the power of the tools in your hand as something that can be placed in the service of your humanity, not your ego. You can find a relationship to the tools and not merely be pulled into their orbit.”

We can work to strengthen the capacity for our attention by acts of conscious resistance. Put the phone down, resist looking at it for periods of time, and place the phone on airplane mode while exploring the world through the phone’s marvelous camera. Have the courage and fortitude to witness your many distractions and strive to bring the wandering mind back to the present moment.

8. What are the six lessons in ZEN CAMERA?

Zen Camera begins with an Introduction that chronicles my own experience and background as a photographer and photography teacher. The first chapter, titled Basic Principles and Methods, offers a foundation for learning photography and expanding one’s awareness through a camera. I ask people to photograph regularly and keep their creative flow alive by keeping a “Daily Record” of one’s visual impressions though the lens. The next two sections in the first chapter are titled, the “Frame of No-Mind” and “Daily Observation.”

We then move into the six lessons. I will offer them here without comment. I think the chapter titles well reveal the content of each lesson:

1. Observation
2. Awareness
3. Identity
4. Practice
5. Mastery
6. Presence

The book closes with a final chapter, titled Photography and Awakening, the Terrors and Pleasures of Digital Life. Here I provide context and dimension to the six lessons. This chapter is divided into three sections: “The Illusion of Separateness,” “Digital Life and Zen Practice,” and finally, “Photography in the Twenty-First Century.”

9. You encourage readers to TMP (Take More Pictures) and explore their world with a Zen attitude of “not knowing.”  What does this mean?

My first photography teacher asked us what I have come to understand as a profound question. In response to the world through a camera, in response to another person, and in grappling with forming an opinion or point of view, he would always ask: And what else? Everything has multiple angles and dimensions. Our first impression is often based on our preconceptions and our subjective opinions, and rarely gets to the heart of the matter. The first pictures we take of a subject are often superficial, clichéd, and lack resonance or “presence.”

By spending time, by taking enough images to really engage the subject, and by staying open—attempting to suspend knee-jerk opinion and immediate judgment—our pictures gain power and insight through a process of discovery and interaction. In teaching photography during the film era, statistically the greater number of strong images were found on frame #36, at the very end of the roll of film after engaging the subject intensely.

Photography is a powerful form of inquiry. It helps us understand the nature of the world, and the nature of our self. But the moment we think we know something or have an arrogant sense of self-righteous understanding, we close off all further learning and discovery.

A woman in Hong Kong once exclaimed to me, “Oh, you are an American! What I find interesting about you Americans is that you believe in your own opinions. How can you ever see or learn anything new?”

10. Can anyone learn to be visually literate?

Yes, of course, but it takes education and practice. We live in a society in which visual communication is rapidly growing in importance. Most everyone in the developed world now uses a camera and carries it daily. The social media platforms such as Instagram and Facebook have a global reach. Lazlo Moholy-Nagy, head of the Bauhaus school in the United States said in 1934: “The illiterate of the future will be ignorant of the pen and camera alike.”

Photography is a language. Like any other form of communication, it has its own grammar, syntax, principles, and evolving history. Photography shares much with other forms of expression that revolve around the visual language. When I look at someone’s images for the first time, I can tell immediately if they are conversant and educated in visual communication.

If you want to communicate effectively with images, I have one clear word of advice: learn the visual language. Read books or study websites that teach the principles of design. Learn about the expressive language of color, shape, form, line, volume, perspective, and composition. Savor light, and learn to use it as a means of expression. Study the cultural and social representation found in image content and learn to decode meaning. Either do personal research or take a class. Make it fun, but go deep. Be patient and allow your sensibilities to evolve. Find the work that resonates for you and study what moves others. Over time, develop a sense of keen discrimination.

Zen Camera was written with this purpose in mind; to provide a teaching in photography to the legions of cell phone camera users who might find benefit in an education in the visual language. I strongly believe that every high school or first-year college requirement should include a class in visual culture or visual communication. We learn to write, to form sentences, and employ grammar, why not the same with images?

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 ABOUT THE AUTHOR

DAVID ULRICH is a professor and co-director of Pacific New Media Foundation in Honolulu, Hawai‘i. and is an active photographer and writer whose work has been published in numerous books and journals including Aperture, Mānoa, and Sierra Club publications. Ulrich’s photographs have been exhibited internationally in more than 75 one-person and group exhibitions. He blogs about creativity and consciousness at theslenderthread.org, and is a consulting editor for Parabola magazine. Visit creativeguide.com. He teaches frequent classes and workshops, and is an active photographer and writer whose work has been published in numerous books and journals including Aperture, Mānoa, and Sierra Club publications. Ulrich’s photographs have been exhibited internationally in more than 75 one-person and group exhibitions. He blogs about creativity and consciousness at theslenderthread.org, and is a consulting editor for Parabola magazine. Visit creativeguide.com.

Pregnancy is both a physical and spiritual experience to go through. For both parents alike, it changes a lot about how they conduct themselves, their experiences, and even their relationships. You need to prepare both your body and mind tohave a successful and smooth pregnancy, and even takes steps afterwardso that you can give your child the best shot at great health throughout their life.

For the best experience possible, follow both this spiritual and medical guide, because it is only when the two come together can a healthy baby be born.

Spiritual

Spiritual and wellness go hand in hand. In fact, they are so closely related that theycan be seenas the same thing to different people. Either way, by taking care of your spirit, you improve your mental and emotional health. Thisis key, especially in the first trimester when chronic stress could hamper your baby’s brain development. Everything you do affects how they grow, so you need to do all you can to live and be your healthiest self.

Reduce Stress

Reducing stress takes time and commitment. If you don’t, however, it could affect your body through the amniotic fluid that your body produces. You don’t want this, your baby doesn’t want it, and you don’t need to go through this. Just start taking the right steps today to reduce your stress at the source, so that you can instead enjoy the glowing period of pregnancy.

Medical

When it comes to pregnancy youwant to follow your doctor’s advice. There is so much about your body that boils down to science and even chemistry. A happy mother does absolutelymake a happy baby, but if you are regularly taking medication that has been proven to severely harm a developing fetus,there is little your happiness can do to stop it. Your doctor will know best as to what habits and medications you should stop taking.

What to Stop Taking

Anti-depressants and other harsh medications that do wonders for you can severely impact a fetus. You need to be honest about all the substances you are taking so that your doctor can work out alternatives for you to take during your pregnancy.

What to Start Taking

There are also many vitamins and nutrients that you should start taking when pregnant. One of the most famous of these is folic acid. Try to get these vitamins in fresh food where possible, but where you cannot a supplement will suffice.

How to Further Protect Your Baby’s Health

It takes a lot of effort to watch what you eat, say calm, and exercise safely for the sake of your baby’s development. You are rewarded for your efforts by having asuccessful birth, but there is actually another step you can take to help your childstay healthy for decades. All you need to do is contact a stem cell bank and organize with them so that you can store your baby’s cord blood and tissue after birth. Then they can benefit from treatments based on their own genes.

Healthy living is key to good development, but even factors like stress and how the mother feels can affect your baby’s health. That is why you need to care for your spirit as well as your bodyso that your child can come into the world as healthy as possible.

By Joseph Rain, Author of The Unfinished Book About Who We Are.

Death happens to all of us. Nothing is required. One simply sits back and waits. Maybe see a film or two in the meantime and feed our body and mind with anything that comes to hand. Easy.

But living, I mean truly living, well that takes courage. There are challenges to conquer, obstacles to overcome, places to visit and people to communicate with. And there is joy and pain, laughter and sadness, celebration and mourning. And we’re constantly being tested, questioned, confirmed and overruled, and this demands courage. Such a pain.

But above all, to truly live, requires that we face our greatest enemy, the SELF, our Ego. I mean, who am I? Who are you? Does anybody truly know? How can I be who I am, when I don’t actually understand the subject I’m discussing? Why do I feel what I feel and why do I do what I do? OK, so I have a brain, but who’s in charge? The Self? But who or what is this so-called Self?

The closest I come to a reasonable answer is that the Self is essentially a “flow of awareness.” But who’s directing the flow? Who is there to guide me, be me, and take responsibility when things go wrong? This is a never-ending circle of me chasing the Self.

Now you see why living is so scary and why it demands so much courage. They say the final frontier is out there, in the stars, but really, it’s right here and it requires that we go within and face the Self. This means facing truth, reality, the many temptations, the ugly sides, denying the wrong and pursuing the so-called “right.” I mean, it’s so much easier to just ignore the Self and simply concentrate on others, on everything out there. That’s fun and you always get to blame someone else.

So why bother taking the hard way? Why looking within? Why do the heroic stuff?

Here’s how I see it. It took nature billions of years to put together this spectacular show we call life and all the amazing stuff surrounding us. I mean, a circle is pretty cool and so is the DNA, and all the planets and galaxies and stuff out there. But there is more: there is a purpose to these things. Namely, a circle and planets are round for the same reason our DNK and galaxies are spiral; these are very EFFICIENT shapes. Yet, why would nature bother with efficiency?

To make things more complicated, nature didn’t stop at efficiency. It went on and produced intelligent, self-aware beings. We’re not just aware, we’re aware of being aware and this necessarily raises the question of RESPONSIBILITY (response-ability), our ability to intentionally respond to situations. This puts us in charge of reality and gives us the power not only to co-create what happens in the world, but also to investigate our meaning and purpose. How cool is that? Or, should I say, how scary is that?

But, why? Why bother with all this?

Because as intelligent, self-aware beings we are designed for GROWTH. It’s as simple as that. Why growth? Because growth is just very efficient. We either grow or decline, these are the only 2 options on the table. And consciousness inherently seeks growth, expansion! Growth requires that we seek out and implement the most responsible and efficient solutions. In simple terms, we want to IMPROVE and this requires right action. Right action in turn leads to growth, while bad action leads to decline.

From this it naturally follows, that good people are also strong people, courageous people. Because bad stuff is easy, it often needs no doing, while good stuff takes planning, responsibility, and action for the greater good of the world. In short, it takes guts! Most of all, there is so much beauty and pleasure when we make things right! Ultimately, all we want is to FEEL GOOD.

Just think about it. Living should never be about doing wrong because life itself most probably came to be when Nature took “right action.” Otherwise, I reason, there simply would be no life. There simply would be no-thing.

So, try it out. Follow the truth of the Self. Let go of your expectations and attachments and simply be “Who You Truly Are.” The real You. Stop dying and start living. Take the wiggly path, for it’s such a spectacular journey. Go on, have some fun!

Why did you leave your job as Executive Director of the Hyams Foundation to become a spiritual healer? How difficult was this decision?

My career was at its zenith, but after several years of being helped by healers both in Santa Fe and Boston, I found myself offering healing energy to people who became injured or ill while at work or at social events. On a meditation journey to Egypt in 1989, I had an experience in the sarcophagus in the Great Pyramid of Giza that told me it was time to move on. Any doubt that I had in making the final decision was overridden by the power of the call and the confidence it gave me.

Why did you write When Spirit Calls?

One day, I was talking with a friend about my future as a healer. She said I couldn’t know where I was going because I didn’t know where I had been. “Write about six or eight of your spiritual experiences,” she suggested. “Just for yourself.” The “six or eight pages” she suggested turned into When Spirit Calls, which I hope will help readers in their own healing and inspire them to seek their own paths.

Was it a positive experience being one of the subjects in the Pulitzer prize winning book, Common Ground: A Turbulent Decade in the lives of Three American Families? 

At first, I had nightmares. I didn’t want the author, Tony Lukas, to expose my guilt about leaving our beloved inner city neighborhood for the suburbs in the midst of a crime wave, fights with the city bureaucracy and the threat to our sons’ already integrated school. At the same time, I was pulled by a desire to make a contribution to the understanding of the complex urban problems we had experienced firsthand.

Tony became a friend, and telling him our story helped heal my wounds. By the time Common Ground was published in 1985, I was ready for TV interviews.  The contribution I had hoped to make continues to this day, when Common Ground is still taught in classrooms.

How do you think the United States has progressed, racially, since those times—the late sixties and seventies?

Common Ground explores issues of both race and class, and in both areas, we appear to have more division than ever. The income gap between rich and poor continues to grow, and we have so much violence that we have to be reminded that “Black Lives Matter.” At the same time, serious discussions of race have deepened from “How can we be more tolerant?” into “How have we ourselves contributed to structural racism?” While I have some black friends who feel like they have a “target on their backs,” others see this time as an opportunity for healing. The question is—which path will we take?

There’s a lot of divisiveness in today’s political landscape.  How do you think we can become more united?

By bringing our divisions to the surface, we have an opportunity to heal enabling us to create something new. We need to learn how to talk, listen and act from our hearts, grounded in love and respect.  Doing this will become easier as we seek out ways to experience inner peace and that which binds us all together, the common ground of universal consciousness.

What did you learn about the medical establishment, and its limitations, during the days of your terrible back pain?

My back became my teacher, leading me to new discoveries about pain and illness. The medical establishment is great at so many things. But in focusing entirely on the physical, it misses the role that emotions or spiritual transformation may play.

I need my M.D. when surgery is required or in certain medical emergencies. I need my naturopathic doctor to interpret and treat the emotional/spiritual elements of any illness for the healing of both body and soul.

What did you learn and experience traveling to different countries?

In China, I learned about acupuncture and healing with herbs, and discovered a destroyed temple that felt so familiar I thought I must have been there in another life. In Israel, I had an encounter with Christ at his tomb. In Egypt, I meditated at temples along the Nile, helped a woman who was losing her life-force, participated in ceremonies for healing the planet and received life-changing guidance for my life. In India, I spent several weeks at an ashram, where I learned more deeply about “seeing God in each other,” had inner experiences of unity and was freed of long-lingering back pain.

How critical to your spiritual awakening was the trip to the Giza Pyramids?  

My experience in the sarcophagus of the Great Pyramid of Giza was the immediate catalyst for committing myself to a new and only vaguely imagined path. It was a life-changing moment of surrender to the call of spirit and commitment to spiritual service.

What kinds of experiences opened you up spiritually?

As a teenager I was blessed to listen to mystic and theologian Rev. Howard Thurman preach every Sunday. After a rift in my marriage, I realized I had to find me, and when my son was a difficult teenager, I knew I had to let go. When struggling with back pain, I discovered the power of meditation, affirmations and acupuncture.

My spiritual life opened up dramatically when I released the pain of past lives with a Santa Fe healer, met an Indian guru, had an encounter with Jesus in Israel, meditated at the temples along the Nile, lay in a sarcophagus in the Great Pyramid of Giza and prayed on Valentine’s day at the top of Mt. Sinai. Spending 3 weeks at an ashram in India helped me to let go of emotional baggage I no longer needed, dive deeper into experiences of oneness and to heal the pain in my back.

For you, is helping people spiritually on a par with your previous time spent in helping the poor?

Yes. I began to understand that conditions would change only when people learned to share freely and support one another without fear of losing something themselves. I knew that someday I would leave the foundation to help people move through their fears and discover their spiritual connection with each other—just as I would have to learn to do that myself.

Were there those who were skeptical when you explained how you had healing gifts?

Yes, people are often skeptical to this day. But it’s interesting what has happened when people need help.  One skeptical lawyer friend became ill with the flu while we were on a ski weekend. I offered to give him an acupressure treatment through his shirt, while he sat in front of the fire with his friends. The next day he was back on the slopes and offered to go on the Today Show with me!

How did your family and friends react during your transformation into a healer?

At first, my law professor husband was skeptical of my seeing healers and a guru, and was afraid I would leave him to go my own way. But then, he had his own past life and other healing experiences—even with me! By the time I made the decision, he said I was “blessed” to have heard the call. My father advised me not to leave the foundation. My staff at work would ask me to help them when they had headaches or kidney stones. Healing physical ailments was just the first stage in my learning. When I announced that I was leaving the foundation my colleagues were shocked. But some of them became my clients!

Do you have any particular mentors? How did they help you in your odyssey?

Howard Thurman, grandson of a slave, mystic and spiritual mentor to Martin Luther King and other civil rights activists, was my childhood minister and family friend. Many others helped me in my journey, including Chris Griscom at the Light Institute in New Mexico, Barbara Gluck of the Global Light Network, Episcopal priest Rev. Spencer Rice, spiritual counselor Deborah Mangelus, and, more recently my naturopathic doctor, Jacqueline Yang.

Do you believe that our emotional, intuitive, and spiritual side is just as important as our rational thoughts?

Yes, it is important that the rational be balanced with the emotional, intuitive and spiritual. Intuition, if grounded in love and respect, can often be more “correct” than a rational approach. I have had so many experiences where I took a step that others didn’t think rational – like leaving the foundation, or waiting a day to make a critical decision—but that was absolutely the right thing for me.

If someone doesn’t necessarily consider themselves spiritual or religious, do you believe what you learned can still be helpful?

My experience can help readers understand that there may be many dimensions to their illness or pain —or to the obstacles in their family or work lives— beyond what they now understand.  At the same time, they can see how the growth in my spiritual life paralleled my successes at the foundation. And perhaps they can be inspired by how forgiveness in my marriage forged a lasting relationship that is a treasure beyond measure.

What is the message you want readers to take away from your story?

Our world is in a time of chaotic transition. Yet, as the title When Spirit Calls suggests, there is a spiritual force in the universe that is ready to guide us if we can only listen and have the courage to follow. That spirit may speak through our emotional and physical pain, as well as the events of our everyday lives. And it can lead us on a path toward inner and outer peace and to understanding the power of love and the underlying unity of all.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Since leaving her position as Executive Director of the Hyams Foundation in Boston, Joan Diver has offered healing to seekers, led contemplative and healing church ministries, partnered with her husband, Colin, in his roles as Dean of Penn Law School and President of Reed College, and been an advisor to an upcoming film on the life and wisdom of Howard Thurman. She and Colin now live in Boston where they are still considered celebrities for their story in the Pulitzer Prize-winning book, Common Ground, which was made into a TV Mini Series. Joan, a Wheaton College, MA graduate, has also been featured in People Magazine, The New York Times, Boston Globe, Boston Magazine, Christian Science Monitor, The Philadelphia Inquirer, and on CBS TV. When Spirit Calls is her first book.

Are you in touch with your spiritual side at all? If the honest answer to that question is no, you’re not alone. Many people ignore this side of themselves or don’t even realize that they need to nurture it. But there are many ways to approach this, and there’s a way for everyone no matter what you might think. So here are some easy and clear ways to engage with your spiritual side better than ever.

Listen to Your Gut Instincts More

The first thing you can do if you want to get in touch with your spiritual side is listen to your gut instincts more often. When you do this, you will benefit because it’ll make it possible for you to trust yourself and become more independent in your life. That’s a big part of this whole process because you have to feel comfortable with yourself and your own judgement if you want to progress.

Try Meditation

Meditation is definitely a good idea because it’s all about clearing your thoughts and focusing on peace and tranquility. The only thing you should be paying attention to during meditation is your breathing. It can help you to find inner peace like you’ve never experience before and that can be truly revelatory for you, so be sure to give this some thought.

Create the Right Ambient Atmosphere in Your Home

The right kind of atmosphere in your home will help you to feel better able to connect with your spiritual side if you haven’t done this for a while. An ambient atmosphere is always best and it’s what you should be aiming for. You can light candles and ensure there’s the right scents in the home that help you feel relaxed. It doesn’t take much to get this right.

Learn More About Yoga

Yoga is another great way to relax and feel at peace with yourself, which can only be positive for you. Get yourself the right equipment and a yoga bracelet before you get started. It can be a good way for you to start the day and begin things in a positive frame of mind, so give it a try. You might be surprised by how much it an actually do for you.

Find the Right Guidance if You Need It

There’s nothing wrong with getting some help and guidance when you need it. If you want to talk to someone or talk to a religious representative about your spiritual needs and how this might connect to your religious, don’t be afraid to reach out. The right guidance can really help you to achieve what you want to. You don’t have to go it alone.

When you get in touch with your spiritual side and pay more attention to that part of your personality, you will start to feel a whole lot more fulfilled in life. That’s got to be a good thing, so start putting into practice some of the tips and ideas you’ve learned about above right away.

There is no doubt that in today’s society most people are living pretty busy lives. The idea of free-time or downtime can often feel like some distant concept that will never quite be within your reach. Working multiple jobs, dealing with work and personal commitments, carting the kids from one activity to the next, and just always being on the go can seem like the norm.

The fact that more people than ever before are feeling stressed out isn’t just a notion. Statistics show this increase is fact. The amount of people who suffer from anxiety, depression, and stress has grown and, unfortunately, serious issues like mental illness are on the rise.

So, what can you do to stop the cycle? How can you start to bring a little relaxation and peacefulness back into your life and ensure it stays a priority? It can be difficult to know what steps to take and what will be effective, which is why this guide can prove to be so helpful.

Learn to Focus on One Thing at a Time

A great place to get started in your quest to bring relaxation into your life is to learn how to focus on only one activity, errand, chore, or engagement at once. When you are trying to juggle a bunch of things at the same time, nothing will get your full attention, and it can leave you feeling scattered.

For example, let’s say you are in the middle of playing with the kids, but your mind is busy thinking about that presentation at work tomorrow. Are you really giving the kids your full attention? Probably not, which then means you’re not living in the moment and allowing yourself to be your best at that moment. In order to give an activity, a task, or a person your absolute best, you need to give your absolute fullest. The whole concept of “living in the moment” is something that holds a lot of weight and substance.

Find Activities that You Can Enjoy on Your Own and With Others

Part of being able to relax means that you will sometimes want to do an activity on your own, and then other times you’ll want to be with others and engage with them. Having a list of activities that you enjoy on your own, as well as others, is another great step.

As far as your solo activities go, these are things you can do that you know relax your mind and body, can help you to take that break mentally, and can be either quick little things or longer activities. Perhaps vaping is something that you find brings instant relaxation to your body. This is something you can do in a variety of places and doesn’t take up a big chunk of your time. Thanks to the variety of e-liquid flavors that are available at places such as Vape In The Box, there’s a good chance you can find one that suits your current mood.

As for activities you can enjoy with others, this can include things like watching a TV show or movie together, playing a board game, taking a walk through the neighborhood, sharing a meal together, etc. It doesn’t have to be anything big or elaborate; the focus is on the fact you are with someone else, or with multiple people, sharing an activity together.

Regular Daily Exercise Can Make All the Difference in the World

If you’re the type that sees the words “regular daily exercise” and you instantly start cringing because you don’t have the time, don’t enjoy working out, or don’t have the desire to join a gym, it’s time to re-program how you view exercise. Sure, exercise can be seen in the traditional way, which means joining a gym and hitting it up for an hour or more each and every day, but it can also mean other things.

Regular daily exercise means you are doing an activity that gets your heart rate elevated, and that you do for at least 30 consecutive minutes. What this means is that all kinds of things can count as regular daily exercise. Things like taking the dog for a walk, gardening, house chores, taking a dance class, going for a hike in the woods, playing hide and seek with the kids, and so forth. It’s all about getting into the habit of getting your body up and moving on a daily basis.

Exercise is not only good for your physical well-being; it is also a proven stress-reliever. It can work to better your mood and increase your self-confidence. It will increase the amount of endorphins (the feel-good neurotransmitters) that your body is creating, and it can be as powerful as meditation from a stress-relief stand-point. If you’ve had a really tough day at work, try going for a brisk walk or jog when you get home and you’ll be amazed at how that can clear your mind.

Be Mindful of What You Eat

Obviously, you want to be sure you are eating a well-balanced diet that consists of all the necessary vitamins, minerals, nutrients, and calories your body needs, but outside of that, there are also a number of foods that have been shown to help with stress relief.

Here are some of the best foods you can grab when you’re feeling stressed out and overwhelmed.

• Green leafy vegetables such as spinach are able to produce dopamine, which is a pleasure-inducing chemical in the brain.
• Bananas and avocados can help to lower blood pressure, which can spike when you are feeling stressed.
• Turkey breast can create a sense of calmness and happiness, which before bedtime can really help you to sleep better as well.
• Fatty fish such as tuna, sardines, and salmon can help you feel calm and serene.

Relaxation Isn’t Impossible to Come By

As you rush around from one activity, task, and commitment to the next telling yourself that you will just never be able to relax, it’s important to understand that it is possible, no matter how busy you may be. It’s all about finding tips and techniques that work for you and that you get into the habit of using on a daily basis.

Margaret Winslow is a field geologist with over thirty years experience in Central America, South America, and the Caribbean. Her fascination with donkeys in rural areas evolved into a quest to fulfill a long-forgotten childhood dream of owning one. She holds a PhD in geological sciences from Columbia University. Her National Geographic–funded fieldwork on earthquake hazards and archaeological settlement patterns in Alaska and Chile is featured in the award-winning PBS series “Fire on the Rim.” She is professor emerita of earth sciences at the City College of New York and resides in the lower Hudson Valley. Her donkey, Caleb, boards nearby with fifty horses and ponies, where he continues to steal the show every day. During the holiday season Winslow is frequently asked, “Could my church borrow your donkey for a nativity show?”

Caleb is much in demand and is a huge draw at local charity horse shows and races, as well as churches and libraries. He receives typing assistance from his owner and can be reached through www.MargaretWinslow.com

Why did you decide to get a donkey? 

As a geologist and a professor at an urban university, I found myself at a crossroads at the start of the new millennium. After thirty years of fieldwork in South America, Alaska, and the Caribbean, numerous back injuries had taken their toll. I was looking for the perfect animal companion to help navigate the next phase of my life. Most people would choose a cat or dog. I chose a donkey.

Why a donkey?

Every Christmas, starting at age five, I had pestered my parents to buy me the “Genuine Mexican Burro” that was advertised in the Sears catalog. The brown -and -white drawing featured a small shaggy pony-size animal with rabbit ears. The first time I turned to the page and saw the burro’s huge dark eyes gazing shyly toward the viewer, I was mesmerized. I felt an intense yearning that was impossible to describe. For several years I begged my parents to get me this donkey until, finally, under the tree one Christmas morning, I found a large gray stuffed donkey. I later became horse-crazy and took riding lessons, until at age twenty, I was thrown and injured, which resulted in a decades-long avoidance of horses.

I first came across live donkeys decades later while working as a field geologist in the Dominican Republic. The comical ears brought back memories of that long-ago Sears ad and their playfulness with each other in the harsh environment fascinated me. Moreover, their steadfastness in the face of harsh working conditions captured my heart.

But that only partly explains why I became the owner — or should I say unwitting wrangler and straight man — of a seven-hundred-pound donkey.

When I returned home from the field in the spring of 2001, I found several donkey -and -mule organizations and magazines. According to the rapidly growing pile of books and articles I acquired, donkeys were steadfast and safe to ride. But other adjectives that experts used to describe these un-showy animals — affectionate, playful, smart, undervalued — struck a chord deep within me.

In what ways has your donkey changed your life? Your life’s outlook?

Caleb challenged me to accept his true nature — and helped me rediscover my own. First, he showed me that he was not a wannabe horse. Soon, though, he made it clear that he was a unique individual—with his own ideas and a wicked sense of humor— even when compared to other donkeys.

By forcing me to constantly reassess what I was trying to do with him, at the same time that I was reassessing my career frustrations, I began to see how much alike we were deep inside. Tenacious, somewhat single-minded, yet shy of direct confrontation. Yearning for affection, but never submissive. Wanting to achieve our goals, yet not go along with the herd.

Why did you decide to write a book about your donkey?

I had written two previous books about misadventures on the path to becoming a geologist while working in Chile during the Pinochet dictatorship. I had written about my experiences since childhood.

About ten years ago I regaled friends with anecdotes about my donkey, Caleb. They encouraged me to write the stories down. I wrote the first story —about when Caleb and I showed up at a very traditional hunter pace (cross-country race), in Mexican garb, thinking that it was a Halloween costume event. Two weeks later I was diagnosed with Stage III breast cancer. Throughout surgery and cancer treatments, I wrote stories to comfort myself and to entertain my fellow patients.

What do you mean when you write that Caleb serves as both a mirror and a foil in your life?

With rose-colored glasses firmly in place, I convinced myself that the side of me that had always felt underestimated as a woman in a largely male profession — the outwardly docile but tenacious striver — would resonate with a donkey’s spirit. That was the mirror part.

As Caleb seemed to take pride in opposing every single one of my goals for him, we matched tenacity with tenacity. Another mirror, actually, but at the time I thought of him as my foil. Thwarting every effort of this lifelong achiever seemed to be his goal.

What do you mean when you wrote: “like the medieval court jester, donkeys speak truth to power?”

In the medieval court, the only person who could make fun of the king was the court jester. Jesting evolved in Europe to a fine art of providing social commentary or even criticism hidden beneath the disguise of entertainment.

I first made that connection with Caleb from his blithe indifference to training commands and sometimes outright refusals to obey, even when doing so would seem to be to his own benefit. He would refuse until the trainer quit in disgust (this is the source of another myth about donkeys: that they are stupid) and then do the pattern perfectly. Several trainers gave up in disgust and despair over Caleb’s antics, yet he is kind and willing, and very affectionate when people respect him.

Why didn’t you buy a horse?

One of the factors that decided me: unlike horses that bolt and throw their riders when frightened, donkeys, I learned, freeze and stand their ground.

How are donkeys different from horses?

Aside from the genetic differences—they are separate species which result in differences in appearance—their original habitats played a major factor in their social structure and behavior.

Horses are herd animals. They evolved on the open grasslands of central Asia where there was no natural protection from predators. They developed speed as a survival tactic. They place the survival of the group over that of the individual. Individual horses submit to a herd leader. If faced with a predator, they will form a tight group and then flee.

Donkeys are semi-solitary, somewhat like deer. They evolved in the desert of North Africa where they had to graze over a large areas, often alone. When attacked they stand up for themselves.

How does this affect their personalities and relationships with humans?

Horses will seek out and submit to an alpha. Through intimidation and punishment-reward techniques, humans appoint themselves the leader. Almost all horses will submit to what is still called “breaking.” A broken-in horse is submissive.

Donkeys don’t seek out an alpha. They have to be independent and solve their own problems in the wild. That is why a donkey will never truly submit to a human or to another donkey and explains their reputation as “stubborn,” impossible to train, etc.

Through positive reinforcement and ample time, however, they will accept a human as a buddy.

What exactly is a mule, and how is it different from a donkey? (This question always comes up as mules are donkey-horse hybrids and many people can’t tell them apart from donkeys.)

Horses and donkeys are two separate species. If a male donkey (jack) mates with a female horse (mare), the offspring is called a mule. The reverse cross, a female donkey with a male horse, is called a hinny. As interspecies hybrids, the offspring are sterile.

The mule acquires the larger size, speed, and coat color (usually) of the mare, but the ears and independent personality of the donkey. They are bred because of increased muscle mass for their size, and great heat tolerance, traits they inherit from the donkey sire. “Stubborn as a mule” comes from the donkey side of the family.

Are donkeys stubborn?

When donkey owners are asked whether donkeys are stubborn, we insist that they are not. “Oh, no. Not at all! Circumspect, independent-thinkers, problem solvers who need time to decide if a command is worth following, but never, never stubborn.” Then we try not to smile.

If a person wants to ride, which is better: a horse, mule, or donkey?

There are far fewer donkeys in the US, fewer yet have been trained for saddle riding. Working with a donkey requires a LOT of patience. The expression goes: if you’re in a hurry, the donkey will take all day. That’s not to say that a well-trained donkey can’t become a faithful trail animal or perform in a ring. The critical word is: trust. Your donkey must trust you before he will obey. Otherwise, you’ll never find the gas pedal or get him to turn despite whips or other aids. Most trainers don’t understand them and will refuse to work with them.

On the other hand, a donkey won’t run away with his rider, or throw him off if frightened. He’s also slower than a horse and prefers to walk or trot over faster gaits. If safety is a primary concern, donkeys are safer than horses.

How does Smart Ass compare with other books about animals?

Of the many hundred books about dogs and cats, there are far fewer written  — with the exception of horse books — about large farm animals. In recent years, many unusual pet/ animal companion books have appeared that feature more unusual pets.

Smart Ass started out as a collection of favorite stories about the “donkey that wouldn’t”, but as I wrote, an inner story emerged. Why was someone who was raised in the suburbs and working in NYC attracted to such an unusual animal? And why and when did curiosity about donkeys interest turn into a quest?

I had to look deep inside to find the answers. Some of the factors: my tenacity, tendency to avoid confrontation, fear of failure once I took on a new challenge, are explored in the book.

Excerpted from The Golden Sequence: A Manual for Reclaiming Our Humanity by Jonni Pollard (BenBella Books; November 2018)

When we think of grace, we might think of the pristine flow of a swan gliding across a still lake, or the poised elegance of a ballerina effortlessly twirling on a pointed toe. Another way of thinking about grace is as the blessing of the divine, or as receiving the grace of God. These examples are both relevant to how I think of grace as a Way of Wisdom. However, I want to reflect on grace less as an external quality and more as a power within us to elevate everyone we come into contact with. And that has very little to do with pirouettes!

From the perspective of wisdom, grace is the embodiment of knowing who we are. Grace is the ease with which we can be ourselves when we do not need the world to be a particular way for us to feel powerful and connected. It is the quiet confidence generated by giving our full attention to the present moment. Grace is the antidote to neediness and desperation. Grace is the willingness to unconditionally remain open to being connected in the moment to ourselves and those around us. It’s the act of making ourselves available to connect with loving curiosity whenever an opportunity presents itself. In a state of grace, we feel embodied and authentic, elevated, and comfortable to open and connect.

I remember being at a party in LA a few years back. I had just landed and was jet-lagged, so I lacked my usual enthusiasm and chirpiness. This party was a real scene. There were a lot of celebrities—and a lot of people wanting to be friends with those celebrities. There was a very awkward vibe. The room was full of people talking, but no one was really connecting. Eyes darted around the room mid-conversation, as if guests were already scouting out whom to talk to next. The air of desperation was inescapable, so after a few brief conversations with people who were nice but incapable of being present, I decided to call it a night. Just as I was about to leave, a very famous actress walked through the door. I was taken by her presence. I thought at first it may have been because I was a little starstruck—who am I kidding? I definitely was. But what captivated me was the aura of grace that she had. She smiled, and it was like there was a spotlight on her.

I watched her walk through the party, and everyone else was equally transfixed. I decided to stay and observe her for a while to understand what it was that caused the effect she had on the room. It couldn’t be just because she was beautiful and famous; there were other beautiful, famous people there, and they seemed like daisies next to a rose. I watched how she glided from group to group, meeting new people. I watched how she effortlessly quelled the nervousness of the people meeting her for the first time. With the sweetness of her smile and her sincerity of attention, their nerves seemed to just evaporate. She completely engaged everyone she spoke to and made each of them feel as though they were someone worthy of her attention. As she continued around the room, she left a wake of “wow” behind her. Bit by bit, in the space of about half an hour, this one woman completely changed the vibe of that party.

She was the embodiment of grace, elevating everyone she encountered and making them feel comfortable with themselves by simply listening and engaging. She gave everyone at the party what they thought they wanted from her, and then she gave them what she knew they needed: validation. Most importantly, through her attention and openness, she expressed that she was also benefiting from each exchange and was deeply appreciative of the other person’s presence.

It was clear to me that she was sincere because of the effect she had on the room. You can’t fake sincerity. She was masterful in creating the kind of space that she wanted to spend the evening in. She knew she had this power, and she used it like a goddess. This is the extraordinary power of grace that I am talking about, and it is a power we all possess.

When we embody grace, we live free of rigid attachments to outcomes or ideas about who we think we are. This freedom is generated by the connection we establish in our heart. This connection to our self gives us a real-time intuitive news feed about our capability to contribute. That insight gives us the power to navigate any circumstance we may find ourselves in. We experience insecurity generally because we are dependent on certain circumstances to feel good and confident. Grace is the power to not have to wait until the vibe changes to feel comfortable. Grace is the power that creates that comfort-causing vibe through authentic, heartfelt connection.

In the state of grace, insecurity falls away and is replaced with confidence—the confidence of knowing that what we are is dynamic in the presence of loving curiosity, seeking to connect, grow, and belong. When we embody grace, we naturally find ourselves adapting to whomever or whatever it is we are interacting with. In this mode, we naturally seek out our commonalities, which sparks connection.

A Practical Exercise in Grace

Recall a time when you were in a social situation where you felt uncomfortable, awkward, or perhaps either not as important as everyone else or far more important than everyone else. Maybe you even felt a little desperate for people to see you in a particular light. We have all had moments where the vibe of a social situation has made us feel like we needed to be something other than what we naturally are in our relaxed state. Allow this memory to come into your awareness and connect with the feelings of that moment as best you can. Then, I want you to consider the very likely reality that almost everyone else in the room was feeling something similar.

Remember someone you were talking to, and observe how they, too, might have been stuck in their head and concerned about how they may have appeared to you. Ask yourself, “What can I do in this moment to make this person feel more at ease with themselves—and with me? What question can I ask them that will enable to them to express more of who they are, instead of trying to be someone else they think they need to be?” Allow this scenario to play out and imagine a powerful, deep connection forming between you both. The next time you are in a social situation where you feel inadequate or judged, remember that chances are everyone else is feeling the same way. Embody grace by giving your warm, kind, loving attention to whomever you are connecting with and create the opportunity for connection. Don’t wait for it to happen.

About the Author:

Jonni Pollard is the author of The Golden Sequence: A Manual for Reclaiming Our Humanity (BenBella Books; November 2018). He is best known for bringing meditation to the mainstream through his organization, 1 Giant Mind and its Learn to Meditate smartphone app. As one of the top rated meditation apps, 1 Giant Mind has taught hundreds of thousands of people worldwide how to meditate for free. He is also recognized for leading mass meditations at some of the world’s biggest lifestyle events and festivals (Wanderlust, Lightning in a Bottle, The Big Quiet). Jonni also teaches private meditation and personal development for entrepreneurs, CEOs, celebrities, political leaders and wellness experts across yoga and meditation. Born and raised in Australia, Jonni also has lived in Los Angeles and India, and now currently resides in New York City. For more information, please visit http://www.jonnipollard.com and follow Jonni on Facebook and Instagram

How did you come up with the core theme of your book that enlightenment is easy?

After being healed by a Reiki master in 2001, I dedicated myself to learning as much as I could about esotericism and healing, with the goal of understanding the mechanisms through which I had healed. I dived into the catalogues of publishers like Hay House and Sounds True, reading a wide range of books on self-development and spirituality. I found my own spiritual teachers who initiated me in the techniques of reiki and channeling. I also fell in love with yoga and became a yoga teacher.

As a side job to my main profession in finance, I eventually offered spiritual coaching for clients which included channeling and energy work. I noticed that like the reiki master who healed me, I could also connect people to a frequency of love and joy and help them heal.

I saw in my sessions that behind each person is a subtle force who wants to exist as him or her. It chooses every detail of you from your parents, to your physique, to the town you were born in. I call that force the soul.

One thread in The Easy Way to Enlightenment is the exploration of the simple idea that you are here because your soul desires to exist as you. You are its chosen one. I observe in clients and myself, that when we try on this idea and wear it, we enlighten ourselves. Knowing that we are wanted and loved frees us from the need for parental and social approval. Giving ourselves permission to exist in happiness no matter what is an expression of enlightenment.

If enlightenment is easy, does that mean you consider yourself enlightened?

I consider myself to be a more enlightened version of myself than I was 2, 12 or 20 years ago. I share the story in my book of my journey through infertility that ended in two miscarriages. I knew that if I did not enlighten myself, the pain of my loss would destroy me. Even though depression paralyzed me, I learned from working with clients that we all possessed the power of a seedling to crack through pavement and reach the light of the sun. I held the vision that I could break through to the light on the other side of my suffering. I worked with the idea that my soul wants me to exist. Affirming that my life has meaning with our without children gave me the strength to heal.

The Easy Way to Enlightenment offers a clear path to understand that your individual existence is meaningful to your soul. You are loved whether your parents, kids or partner love you or not, whether you have money, a house, a career or not. Whether you have been a victim or a perpetrator, your soul reaches out to you with unconditional love.

Typically we believe that enlightenment is only for a few, but in our own way, we are already enlightened. Every time we act lovingly to ourselves or another, we bring more light into the world. I am asking people on the modern spiritual path to let go of what they think enlightenment should be and to acknowledge how they have enlightened themselves already.

You dedicate an entire lesson to loving the planet. What does the Earth have to do with enlightenment?

I like to imagine what my soul would think and feel looking down at planet earth. What is so compelling about this place that it would make a nonphysical entity like a soul choose to come here? When we step on the spiritual path, we may encounter ideas like past-lives and karma. Some teachings tell us that we continue to incarnate until we work off our karma and become enlightened. But what if our soul also incarnates because it wants to experience this magnificent planet through our body and five senses?

We all know that an easy way to lift our energy after a tough day is to take a walk outside. Most people love to travel to the beach, to the forest or the mountains to relax and recharge. Intuitively we know that nature is healing and enlightening.

After the 2016 presidential election, my heart grew heavy. I asked myself what specifically upset me about the new government. In meditation I saw my fear that more nature would be destroyed and exploited. As we open to our soul, our love for Mother Earth grows with the consequence that her suffering becomes ours. I offer exercises in the book to acknowledge our pain from loving Mother Earth and heal it so that we can take positive action on her behalf without anger.

What do you want readers to take away from your writing?

As I dived into healing traditions from around the world, I began a notice a common thread between Eastern and Western thought as well as between coaching and esotericism that nobody was talking about. As I structured the book, I saw the commonalities across seemingly unrelated practices – for example my channeling teacher in Germany taught me the same world view that I later learned when studying the yoga philosophy of Kashmir Shaivism. My heart desired a modern approach to enlightenment that is inclusive and not bound to a particular tradition, so I created one. I synthesize these commonalities into one simple framework I call the enlightenment architecture. I now work with this simple model myself to reconnect to my soul, the Mother Earth and myself. I learned that I can honor all of my teachers, yet don’t have to consider myself a follower of one particular system.

There are millions of people around the world who have become better versions of themselves through self-development and spiritual practices, yet discredit their achievement because they have not reached what they believe to be the ultimate state of enlightenment. I want to give the readers an outlook for the future: I ask the readers to share what they are learning with the world to create a global shift in consciousness.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Leigh Ann Kittell is a life coach, yoga teacher, and intuitive empath with an unquenchable curiosity about how to transcend the challenges of everyday life through self-development and modern spiritual practices. After a miraculous encounter with a Reiki master, Leigh Ann dedicated herself to learning as much as she could about esotericism and healing, with the goal of understanding the mechanisms through which she had healed, and how she could help others do the same. Leigh Ann teaches and works with individuals and groups internationally, sharing practices on connecting with higher forms of guidance, and helping people sense and develop a relationship with their soul. Born and raised in the United States, Leigh Ann has lived in Europe for the last twenty years, giving her a unique, global perspective on modern spirituality. She is a Martha Beck Certified Life Coach and brings more than two decades of research to her fresh approach to the topic of enlightenment.

This article was original published here and reprinted with permission.

Soft skills and emotional intelligence are quickly climbing the ranks of important and sought-after abilities across industries. Technology and business practices continue to evolve so quickly that set skills take a backseat to the ability to constantly learn new ones. As a result, businesses are placing an increased emphasis on fluid intelligence and other soft skills that people demonstrate.

From teamwork to curiosity to work ethic to empathy, today’s most qualified candidate is better at reading a room than reading a textbook.

The latest round of research proposes that some of these skills can perhaps be taught, or at least fostered, from an early age and through far more specific educational programs than previously thought.

In particular, social-emotional learning is an emerging trend that’s enjoying as much popularity with large companies as it is with small experimental schools. Here’s why.

What is Social-Emotional Learning?

 This new term is defined by the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL) as“the process through which children and adults acquire and effectively apply the knowledge, attitudes, and skills necessary to understand and manage emotions, set and achieve positive goals, feel and show empathy for others, establish and maintain positive relationships, and make responsible decisions.”

What were once thought to be secondary skills that people either did or didn’t develop are now perceived as teachable tools for success. They are also seen as contributors to a healthier educational climate and improved across-the-board academic success.

Social-emotional learning (SEL) uses broad social and psychological techniques to enable students to solve problems, manage emotions and communicate well–all skills that translate directly to lifelong success at home, in the office and everywhere in between.

CASELoutlines the primary skills being taught and refined in SEL programs:

Relationship skills: The ability to create healthy, meaningful relationships with a variety of individuals from varying backgrounds.

Self-management:The ability to control emotions, thoughts, and behaviors in the numerous situations a person encounters throughout their life.

Self-awareness: The ability to understand personal emotions and thoughts, and how they lead to particular behaviors.

Social awareness:The ability to see a situation from the perspective of someone else and empathize with that person, including people from different cultures and backgrounds.

Responsible decision-making: The ability to make healthy decisions about behavior and social interactions based on ethics, safety concerns, and social norms.

Educators believe there are ways to introduce these concepts in the classroom environment from the earliest stages, thus encouraging emotional learning through a social context.

Social-emotional learning focuses on practicing skills associated with emotional quotient (EQ) just as much as traditional educational programs focus on intelligence quotient (IQ). It turns out, both are critically important for well-adjusted and successful personal and professional lives.

Teaching Social-Emotional Intelligence To Children

An increasing number of classrooms are experimenting with SEL programs integrated into existing curriculum. This includes discussing personal struggles with students as well as crowdsourcing ways to deal with them before acting out practice scenarios to drive the point home.

Students might share an upsetting or edifying incident from their home lives, where other students will indicate if they have had similar experiences and, if so, how they handled it and whether it led to a successful outcome.

Teachers facilitate these discussions much the same way they might use Socratic dialogue in a later-stage literature or philosophy class. By asking open-ended questions and encouraging participation, there is an inherent social component that both allows students to absorb the spectrum of similar and different experiences as well as feel called to participate, both key moments for SEL growth.

Educators and researchers have known for years that emotions can help or hinder a student’s ability to learn and perform well in an academic setting. Recently, an aggregate of 213 different studies showed that students who received SEL-oriented education had achievement scores that averaged 11 percentile points higher than those who did not.

Instead of making school an isolated destination for learning, modern educators recognize the complex relationship between home life, social life and education. It’s often impossible for adults to focus well when they’re worried about outside factors. The same is true for children.

The ability to process, handle and overcome various personal life difficulties is imperative for children as they navigate their foundational years. And how they learn to act in these situations can have a lasting impact on their ability to cope with stressors, communicate with coworkers and succeed in today’s increasingly complex professional environments.

How Social-Emotional Learning Prepares Successful Professionals

Employers expect a lot of different roles and tasks from their current employees, and that is only growing more true as we look toward the future. Forbes and The Harvard Business Review regularly cite emotional intelligence and modern leadership techniques as key traits that employers search for in candidates. They also note that these characteristics are scarce in many applicant pools.

Multiple studies have found that focusing on social and emotional skills is correlated with graduation rates, academic success, career success, mental health and citizen engagement. In short, there is scientific proof that learning as much about good social and emotional behavior as you do about reading, writing and arithmetic is directly beneficial to virtually every aspect of the human experience.

The World Economic Forum studied current and future Top 10 Skills cited as most desirable by employers across the globe. In the 2015 study, ‘Emotional Intelligence’ did not crack the Top 10. The future survey indicates that by 2020, Emotional Intelligence will be the number 6 most important and in-demand trait employers look for.

Creativity, which sat at number 10 in 2015 will ascend to number 3 by 2020. These facts highlight the growing trend toward emotionally-intelligent and creative thinkers in the workforce.

Times Are Changing

Traditional taskmasters and rigid thinkers, once thought to be the ideal employee, are falling from favor as new thinking recognizes the importance of flexible and compassionate thinkers in our rapidly-evolving world.

Employers have also learned that there is a relatively large disconnect between on-paper achievements and real-world problem-solving, decision-making and communication skills. As workplace satisfaction, collaboration and mental health continue to rank near the top of employee and employer goals, social-emotional learning will continue its rise into the spotlight.