The power of retreat
Taking a time-out from our regular day-to-day lives is essential. I find that I need to unplug and take time away at least quarterly. For years I have longed to go away to a health spa recently I mentioned this to a friend who shares my passion for healthy, intentional living. Soon we were planning for a long weekend of raw food, juicing, walking, yoga and relaxation at the Oregon Coast.

The beauty of raw, organic plant foods

Raw or living foods are regarded by many as the most beautifying and nutritious to consume because many vitamins, enzymes and other live, beneficial constituents are destroyed by the heat of cooking.

Contrary to what most of us are taught, a plant-based diet can provide all of the essential vitamins, minerals and amino acids required for optimum health. Many raw foodists are attracted to the lifestyle because it makes one feel, as Celedra put it, “like you are vibrating with the planet”.

Mindfulness, vitality, and connection
My friend and I stocked up at the co-op before we left Portland and over the 72-hour weekend we ate nothing but fresh, raw, organic foods. We made up our own recipes and relied on some from Jennifer Cornbleet’s book Raw Food Made Easy for 1 or 2 People.

My taste buds came alive and the earthy-juicy-sweetness of the fruits, vegetables, nuts and seeds that we ate were so satisfying! We both noted that we needed and wanted to eat less food than we’d expected. Not only do raw plant foods taste better, I find that I can really feel the nutrients assimilating into my body, like puzzle pieces clicking into place – instant vitality!

Ongoing rewards
When a retreat is over the challenge is to sustain the fresh perspectives we attain while away.  The gifts of this weekend are many; perhaps most notably I’ve returned home with a heightened appreciation for the intricate perfection of nature and continued mindfulness about what and when to eat.

Touchstones of the Sacred would love to hear from any raw food enthusiasts! How does raw food impact your body, mind and spirit for the better? Do you feel closer to the divine or your truest essence through a raw lifestyle?

The Stone Boy and other stories (1996)
By Thich Nhat Hanh
Parallax Press

Published in 1996, The Stone Boy remains a perennial favorite of mine, written by Zen master and teacher, Thich Nhat Hahn. He is a master storyteller and poet, and this collection of short fictional stories explores the universal themes of love and compassion, against a backdrop of Vietnamese culture and his own spiritual experiences. I personally appreciate being introduced to another culture, and particularly when the author is able to show how the thread of human connection transcends the visible world. These stories are infused with cathartic wisdom that permeates your soul, and showers you with sparks of inner awakening to the sacredness of all life. If words define our reality, this clustering of words articulates a mindful and luminous world of interconnection.

“Dreams are today’s answers to tomorrow’s questions.” – Edward Cayce

Dreams are defined as an imaginary mindscape during sleep, fantasy, vision, reverie. We all experience dreams in one way or another, whether we are conscious of them or not. They offer us hope, insight, and pleasure. Alternately, dreams may also awaken trepidation and confusion. At the least, these moments of rumination are thought provoking and attention-grabbing. They might also, with deeper consideration, be mind maps for problem solving, affirmed synchronicity or the foretelling of future events – all powerful learning tools.

Other cultures value the dream life as much or more as the waking state. Native Americans consider their dream world sacred as do the Australian Aboriginals, who for centuries have respected dream time as a means of guidance and wisdom. Carl Jung believed they were windows into the unconscious offering insight into the self,  healing and personal growth. Dreams may be psychological in nature, offering a metaphor as a means of deciphering an issue at hand. Intuitive dreaming guides and confirms what we are aware of on a deeper level. Precognitive dreams, perhaps less frequent, predict events that will occur in ours or someone else’s life.

In Second Sight, Judith Orloff  clinical psychiatrist and intuitive,  recounts numerous studies of clients who have used their dreams as an avenue for restoring themselves. If we pay attention to them, dreams can be powerful guideposts when making choices  about relationship, career or health. This requires an intention to look at them consistently. Going to sleep at night with a question and opening to the possibility of answers or direction is a good way to begin. Notice when you wake the images, feelings and words you witnessed. Keeping a dream journal is helpful also; you may ultimately find patterns or themes in your night travels.

For me personally, dreams have been therapeutic and transformative. Nightmares have been openings to letting go of the outdated, difficult events of my life. Inspired and artistic nocturnal viewings have offered me insight into my creative side –food for thought and development as I traverse a crossroad. Other times we may “meet”  people we know and love, or others with whom we are working out problems. “Dreams are illustrations –from the  book your soul is writing about you.” In a place where we spend precious many hours, why not avail ourselves of this gift? Use the dream world to light your path, open your heart and discover.

Dying Was the Best Thing That Ever Happened to Me (2006)
By William E. Hablitzel, MD
Sunshine Ridge Publishing

This book is a rare gift that reminds us of our divine grace on the path of life. A gem of heartwarming wisdom about the beauty and courage of the human spirit, you will want to share this book with your friends and enemies alike. Taboos around death in the Western world might make us want to shy away from any book title with the word “dying” in it: be assured that this book is about life and living fully, even—and especially—in the face of the inevitable.

Sooner or later, each person in the book realizes that the healing in dying, or in life circumstances in which we metaphorically die, comes from one life-affirming choice: to fully embrace each moment that life offers. We are touched by these people’s fragility and their strength, for we’re not simply reading stories, we are being included in intimate and life-changing moments. That some of the people in these stories are dying (and eventually pass) from their condition is not a failure for physician or patient; it is, for both, their greatest inspiration for living.

Dying was the Best Thing that Ever Happened to Me baptizes readers in a well of profound heart wisdom that is deeper than any one person or single act. Each story spills like a waterfall into our own heart of wholeness, reminding us that we too are here now because we have said yes to life.

Please join me tomorrow for the final book in this series.

Lakshmi, Hindu goddess of wealth & prosperity

The word abundance comes from the Latin word for “overflowing” and indeed the word carries with it the energy of a boundless, rushing spring creek and the ultimate joy of a heart brimming with love and compassion. At its root the word refers to a state of prosperity in all aspects of life including our material, spiritual, and emotional situations and outlooks.

For many of us it is difficult to tap into this state of grace. Whether we are tired from working and parenting, or are in the throes of searching our souls, a state of mental, emotional and spiritual abundance soothes a worried heart and assures us that what is, is enough, and that with time, patience and intention, more of what we need and desire is surely forthcoming.

Abundance is also a powerfully magnetic state of mind that draws to us the tools, resources, opportunities and connections needed to actualize our intention. A simple and highly effective method for cultivating abundance is the use of affirmations. My favorite abundance affirmations are:

Abundance is flowing to me from expected and unexpected sources.

and

My natural state is abundance and joy.

I began using the first mantra during a particularly harrowing period of financial uncertainty. Within days I noticed a shift in how I felt. I began to expect good things to come my way. This opened the door to being able to see solutions when before there was only doubt and dead-ends. Even before more money started to come in I felt a sense of possibility and certainty that the tide had turned.

The second affirmation is chanted as a mantra and corresponds to my jade, garnet and carnelian mala.  The energy of those rich and regally hued stones align us with prosperity and success while supporting motivation to ensure we proactively seek our dreams and goals.

An affirmation or mantra soon becomes an anchor for our attention, a touchstone that we may return to as often as needed. The mantra triumphs over fearful, doubtful and ultimately destructive thoughts that keep us from experiencing abundance; and with consistent practice and intention, the seeds of a coming harvest are sown.

Spiritual Tools for Conscious Living

When contemplating  which books to highlight for this final installment of Spiritual Tools for Conscious Living, I realized something I hadn’t previously identified. While there are valuable and profound books that offer systems, teachers, and tools toward awakening and the process of enlightenment (what I call applied spirituality), it is the storytelling books that I was drawn to. Inquiring within about the differences, I realized that more profound than the differences is the presence of a common theme regardless of the path illuminated: it is only through the heart that we can have a spiritual experience.

The Institute of Heartmath states, “When you feel genuine hope, care, and compassion, your heart is sending harmonious and coherent signals to the brain/mind, replacing feelings of separation with a sense of connection. The heart and brain are aligned and in sync.” Spiritual storytelling evokes this range of feelings, activating these coherent signals—and we have a direct experience of connection, and to our own spiritual essence.

Join me over the next week as I explore three books whose stories greatly impacted my spirit. Following is book 1 of 3.

Bridge Between Worlds: Extraordinary Experiences That Changed Lives (2009)
By Dan Millman and Doug Childers
New World Library

This is a compilation of 40 true-life stories of dramatic and miraculous events that permanently and profoundly changed the lives of their authors. They are stories of healing miracles, out-of-body realms, redemption, letting go, perseverance of faith, angelic intervention, and transformation in many unexpected guises—each offering an expanded vision of reality that opens us to the possibility of something beyond the ordinary.

Each story invokes the mysterious and the miraculous: while reading we are connected to a higher vibration that is both us, and not us, but is in sync with our spiritual essence. Vicariously it is our miracle, our mystery, and our life that is changed, just by reading these accounts. They are food for the heart-mind.

Since I missed the original version of this book, published in 1999 as Divine Interventions, I thoroughly savored reading this for the first time. However, some things are worth reading (and publishing) over and again.

This morning I woke from one of those brilliant, emotionally indelible dreams that you know really mean something. I was following the most enchanting music and my heart was light and joyful yet grounded in confidence. The music had grabbed my very soul and I found myself effortlessly moving to its source. I entered a whitewashed stone building and made my descent to an auditorium where the enchanting orchestra played. Down and around the corners of my subconscious. The music continues to guide me and I am in effortless, essential pursuit. I’ve got my ticket and I enter the auditorium.

This dream has sparked a reflection upon the last two difficult years leading up to this point, where now the certainty that I am on my own true path is a great source of peace, even in the face of life’s endless uncertainties. Having set my intention, I am making my dreams come true.

It is with tremendous gratitude that I look back on many months of darkness, stillness, waiting, listening and watching in the belly of the beast. Grieving for the life I wasn’t yet positioned to fully embody and overwhelmed by the sense of being in the wrong life, enough was enough and I simply began with focusing my intention. This simple yet extremely powerful step – making a choice – began to build momentum, and in less than a year my entire life had been completely transformed.

While we may at first have absolutely no idea how we will emerge from the darkness or cross the chasm that seemingly separates us from the life of our dreams, consciously choosing what we want and setting our intention is the foundation.

Maybe for now (if you are in that frustrating, confusing darkness) all you can do is endure your present situation and hold onto those intentions like precious seeds, waiting for the warmth and light of spring to bring them to blossom. But remind yourself of them daily, hourly even. Soon you will find those seeds gaining strength, and perhaps a bit like a celestial song, drawing you toward your vision.

“If you open yourself to insight, you are at one with insight and you can use it completely.” – Tao te Ching

Do you often having difficulty making a decision, vacillating between one outcome or another? Even when one road seems the likely way to travel, the one decision most practical, sometimes we are still inundated with numerous responses rolling around in our minds. We remain unclear about what our highest good is. Oftentimes we rely solely on mental and intellectual faculties of decision making, and ignore possibly the more accurate weather vane of what is the best choice  to our life questions.  The power of intuition is at our beckon call if only we listen, if only we take the time to hear as well as  see the signs around us.

Remember the voice that told you to turn right; there was a parking space? Or when you knew who was on the phone as it rang? What about that morning  you woke up with a resolution to an idea you’d been pondering? All those nudges, hunches, aha! moments are what I call intuition. An instinctual, creative mechanism held deep inside us all which arises sometimes in moments of stillness when we seek to know. Other times,  a word, warning or picture  just appears  out of nowhere (now here).

It’s been said intuition is similar to a muscle; it needs to be exercised. Part of that work means believing in the inner voice, asking for its assistance regularly. Taking 5 minutes in the morning before preparing your day’s itinerary, breathing deeply and listening to what your intuition has to say is exercise. Another voice may begin a stream of objectives for the day or a “get going” demand. Hearing the innate wisdom -intuition- will take practice. Remember, any muscle doesn’t gain mass overnight.  Attention given to this “muscle” of intuition –while chopping vegetables, before opening your books to study, after tucking in children at night, as you close your own eyes at day’s end– is all exercise. It will pay off too. Solutions will arise from nowhere, the unknown will become known, surprises will grace your life by what has been referred to as our sixth sense: intuition.

“Intuition is a spiritual faculty and does not explain, but simply points the way.” – Florence Scovel Shinn

Being ungrounded is like trying to walk in shoes that are too big: feet sliding around trying to hold on and stay centered to keep moving. Being ungrounded feels fluttery and weak, with anxious electric sparks throughout my body. It’s the tension of held breath, willing myself to think/feel/be different. Ungrounded, I do not fully inhabit myself! And it’s very difficult to receive guidance, whether it is wisdom from within or simply being present for the spontaneous lessons the universe bestows in ordinary moments.

As someone with a persistently busy mind and a tendency toward anxiety, I have found that the practice of mantra recitation using a gemstone mala to be especially calming and rejuvenating. One of the mantras I use is I am grounded, guided, and confident. While gently rolling each bead of the mala in my fingers, I recite the mantra 108 times, or more until I feel my energy begin to center and flow a little more smoothly.

The mala I use with this particular mantra is made of Smoky Quartz and Garnet beads. The inherent properties of these two stones increase the power of my practice and I visualize the stones’ healing energy being drawn into me as I touch each bead, one by one.

Smoky Quartz is the stone for grounding and connection to the earth. Because it releases negative energies from the mind and body, more energy is available for joy as well as for endurance and creativity, especially in business and organization. As a busy entrepreneur, this quality is especially helpful to me. The grounding nature of  smoky quartz promotes presence and calmness in the moment.

Garnet is a stone of health and energy. Garnet is regarded as a stone of purity and truth and is a symbol of love and compassion. Garnet is also lucky stone for love and success and is known to increase self-esteem or alleviate depression by moving energy (chi) throughout the body and dissolving emotional blockages.

After 21 days of consistent practice I felt my feet more firmly on the ground and a steady breath easier to come by. It also seemed as if  life wasn’t quite so relentlessly on fast forward, and this allowed me to more carefully evaluate what was before me and make decisions from a grounded, guided, and confident perspective.

The Great Field: Soul at Play in a Conscious Universe
By John James, PhD
West Grinstead Publications

The Great Field is a hopeful evolutionary story about the place of the human soul within a vast, energetic universe. Far from being new, it is a perpetual story that we already know, but one that continually evolves as consciousness changes and the human story unfolds. The author presents an absorbing and original investigation into a unified theory: the Great Field. He describes it as a limitless field of energy from which everything has been created and within which everything exists. As a transpersonal psychotherapist, James’ intention is to explore the power of the personal field of energy we call “soul,” within this immense domain.

In the latter half of the book the author draws from twenty years of therapeutic practice to describe his experiences of working with clients from this paradigm: therapy becomes “transformation,” and healing occurs in the deeper fields of vibration that form our psyche. Accepting and experiencing what lives beyond the physical senses can “help to clarify all creation and give meaning to the conflicts that so damages our species,” James optimistically concludes. Writing with an innovative synthesis of scientific evidence, cultural wisdom, spiritual truth, and therapeutic data, The Great Field pioneers an original vision of human potential.