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Spiritual realizations within the church

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Sometimes all that's needed to shift our reality is a little wisdom, spoken to us with gentleness and a pure heart. I came across this powerful Lakota prayer a few days ago and wanted to share it with you. I hope it helps you on your path. I know it did for me.

Lakota Prayer

Great Mystery,

teach me how to trust

my heart,

my mind,

my intuition,

my inner knowing,

the senses of my body,

the blessings of my spirit.

Teach me to trust these things

so that I may enter my Sacred Space

and love beyond my fear,

and thus Walk in Balance

with the passing of each glorious Sun.

According to certain traditions, the Sacred Space is the space between exhalation and inhalation. To Walk in Balance is to have Heaven (spirituality) and Earth (physicality) in harmony.

At the core of this timeless wisdom is the word "trust". When did we stop trusting ourselves? When did we start giving that trust, that power, away?

In many ways the healing path is a process of reestablishing that trust with the infinite that resides within us, just waiting to be activated.

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What Women Need to Know About Men

by Wendy Newman

Many women yearn to feel more appreciated, understood, and closer to the men in their lives, whether it's with their romantic partners, professional relationships, or family members. The truth is, men and women listen, process, and speak in very different ways. And, knowing how to identify and navigate these differences is the key to successful communications. In this insightful 13-day course, taught by relationship expert Wendy Newman, you'll receive valuable mindfulness techniques, fun social experiments, and constructive dialogues to discover and practice the critical words and phrases that create more productive conversations with all men in any situation. By the end of this journey, you'll become fluent in the male language in order to nurture and broaden your connections with them, and them with you

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Relish Your Joy

You may feel happy and fun-loving today, which may make you feel like entertaining and socializing with others. Your mood may be due to your joy for being alive, appreciation for everything that life currently offers you, and a desire to share this joy with other people. Perhaps today you can simply try to relish the bliss you feel. As you go about your day, you might want to imagine that you have a light in the center of your body that continually glows with the warmth of your delight. You could also picture passing this light on to others as you come in contact with them. You may find that this visualization helps you not only stay in a good mood throughout the day but also lifts the spirits of those around you.

Savoring our good spirits allows us to spread our joy to other people. We often notice that our moods can affect others, particularly when we feel down. But the times when we feel elated with our lives are the most important occasions on which we should share our feelings. By seeing that we all have a bright light inside of us that we can extend to others, we spread our sense of joy. We begin to realize that we are all interconnected and that our emotions and reactions affect each other on a subtle level. Sharing our joy spreads happiness to the people in our lives. By delighting in your feelings today, you will create pleasure in the lives of others

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Your Relationship Role

You may experience challenges with your relationships today, which could leave you feeling frustrated with other people and ready to withdraw from the world. The solitude and comfort of home might provide you with a place to heal and reevaluate your recent interactions. Perhaps today you can work on assessing your relationships. You might try to sit quietly for a few moments and reflect upon the demanding people in your life. Try thinking about what it is about them that tests your patience and then ask yourself what role you play in your relationship. You can look at your part from their perspective and see what you can do to change the nature of your communications. You may find that by understanding your own actions, any tension in your relationships could lessen as a result.

Giving ourselves time to ponder the ways in which we are responsible for our relationship challenges allows us to positively affect our interactions. It can be easy to hold others accountable for the strains we feel in our relationships and deal with our discomfort by sequestering ourselves away. However, we can only truly deal with our problems by consciously reflecting upon our actions. This can be difficult, as it means that we have to let go of our pride. However, we begin to understand that it is our responsibility to initiate compromise and that our relationships will grow only if we make the initial step toward facing our challenges. By recognizing what your part is in your relationships today, you will experience healthier interactions

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Communicating With Wisdom

Today you could find that you are feeling pragmatic about your relationships. Because you may be interacting with no expectations or agenda, you may notice that you have a greater chance to grow in your relationships as a result. This opportunity for growth could also provide you with a great chance to work on listening to others with an open heart. Perhaps you can practice listening to someone without thinking about what you are going to say next. Take the time to understand what is being said to you and then wait for your inner guidance to provide you with the right words to say in response. By listening with and speaking from the heart today, you will show others that you are completely engaged in your interactions.

When you take the time listen with your heart when engaging fully with others, you are creating space for open and mature communication. During conversations, we often think about our responses while the other person is still talking. By focusing on what the other person is saying while suspending judgment and opinions, you are actually listening with a more rational and compassionate ear. This, in turn, allows you to understand others more deeply. By really hearing others when they speak to you today, you will find that you have an amazing opportunity to deepen your ability to relate to others in a more profound way

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Finding Your Next Step in Life

It is when you are willing to listen to yourself and be fearless, that figuring out your next step becomes easy.

Our lives are made up of a complex network of pathways that we can use to move from one phase of life to the next. For some of us, our paths are wide, smooth, and clearly marked. Many people, however, find that they have a difficult time figuring out where they need to go next. Determining which "next step" will land you on the most direct route to fulfillment and the realization of your life purpose may not seem easy.  

There are many ways to discover what the next step on your life path should be. If you are someone who seeks to satisfy your soul, it is vital that you make this inquiry. Often, your inner voice will counsel you that it's time for a change, and it is very important to trust yourself because only you know what is best for you. Personal growth always results when you let yourself expand beyond the farthest borders of what your life has been so far. When figuring out what your next step will be, you may want to review your life experiences. The choices you've made and the dreams you've held onto can give you an idea of what you don't want to do anymore and what you might like to do next. It is also a good idea to think about creative ways you can use your skills and satisfy your passions. Visualizing your perfect future and making a list of ways to manifest that future can help you choose a logical next step that's in harmony with your desires. Meditation, journal writing, taking a class, and other creative activities may inspire you and provide insight regarding the next step in life that will bring you the most satisfaction.

It is when you are willing to listen to yourself and be fearless that figuring out your next step becomes easy. Beneath the fear and hesitation and uncertainty lies your inner knowing that always knows which step you need to take next. If you can allow the taking of your next step to be as easy as putting one foot in front of the next, you'll notice that your next step is always the one that is right in front of you. All you have to do is put one foot forward and on the ground. 

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Willingness to Feel

When we are resisting something based on a limited understanding, we must then open ourselves to willingness.

There are times when we may find ourselves struggling or even fighting with our thoughts and emotions. We may feel that something must be done in a certain way or not at all, or there may be some other situation that feels absolutely black and white. But life is not this way -- it's the way we are looking at our experiences that is causing the turmoil within us. When we become aware that the struggle we are having is with ourselves, we can turn our attention to the source in order to solve the problem, but we must be being willing to look where we need to and feel emotions that may make us uncomfortable at first. Then we can choose to really open ourselves to understanding all the options we can imagine. We are likely to discover that we are resisting something based on a limited understanding, and we must then open ourselves to willingness. 

When we are willing to look at all the possibilities, we also become willing to accept that there is room for more than we can imagine. We can release ourselves from the grip we had on our emotions and stop limiting ourselves. We may have been unwilling to experience feeling loss, confusion, fear, or even joy for some reason or another, but when we realize that our understanding was limited we allow space for the universe to move in our lives. 

Opening ourselves to willingness may feel like we are surrendering or abandoning all that we believed. But at the same time it is an act of power and courage because it is a conscious choice we make about how to apply our personal will. Being willing is to be in a state of willing something into creation. It is at once allowing ourselves to be while also choosing to direct our energy in a focused way. It is being and doing from a place of openness, where we can work with the universe rather than resist it. It is an open hand rather than one that is clenched into a fist. When we make a step toward willingness, we open ourselves to truth, possibility, and the movement of the wise universe in and through our lives.

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When I run after what I think I want, my days are a furnace of

stress and anxiety; if I sit in my own place of patience, what I need

flows to me, and without pain. From this I understand that what

I want also wants me, is looking for me and attracting me. There

is a great secret here for anyone who can grasp it.

—RUMI

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Worth

Your worth is not a product of your intelligence, your talent, your looks, or how much you have accomplished.

Though much of who and what we are changes as we journey through life, our inherent worth remains constant. While the term self-worth is often used interchangeably with self-esteem, the two qualities are inherently different. Self-esteem is the measure of how you feel about yourself at a given moment in time. Your worth, however, is not a product of your intelligence, your talent, your looks, your good works, or how much you have accomplished. Rather it is an immeasurable and unchanging manifestation of your eternal and infinite oneness with the universe. It represents the cornerstone of the dual foundations of optimism and self-belief. Your worth cannot be taken from you or damaged by life's rigors, yet it can easily be forgotten or even actively ignored. By regularly acknowledging your self-worth, you can ensure that you never forget what an important, beloved, and special part of the universe you are.

You are born worthy -- your worth is intertwined with your very being. Your concept of your own self-worth is thus reinforced by your actions. Each time you endeavor to appreciate yourself, treat yourself kindly, define your personal boundaries, be proactive in seeing that your needs are met, and broaden your horizons, you express your recognition of your innate value. During those periods when you have lost sight of your worth, you will likely feel mired in depression, insecurity, and a lack of confidence. You'll pursue a counterfeit worth based on judgment rather than the beauty that resides within. When you feel worthy, however, you will accept yourself without hesitation. It is your worth as an individual who is simultaneously interconnected with all living beings that allows you to be happy, confident, and motivated. Because your conception of your worth is not based on the fulfillment of expectations, you'll see your mistakes and failures as just another part of life's journey.

Human beings are very much like drops of water in an endless ocean. Our worth comes from our role as distinct individuals as well as our role as an integral part of something larger than ourselves. Simply awakening to this concept can help you rediscover the copious and awe-inspiring worth within each and every one of us.

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Angels are powerful thought forms that help to hold the world together. They are the thoughts of synthesis, connection, and repair. To call on the angels is to move our attention to a higher, more creative direction, to invoke the structures of a more enlightened worldview.

- Marianne Williamson,

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Daily Om

Breaking Family Cycles

Breaking your family patterns may be the most important work you do and the most challenging.

It is easy to believe that in leaving our childhood homes and embarking upon the journey of adulthood, we have effectively removed ourselves from harmful and self-perpetuating familial patterns. In looking closely at ourselves, however, we may discover that our behaviors and beliefs are still those that were impressed upon us during our youth by our parents, grandparents, and the generations that preceded them. We may find ourselves unconsciously perpetuating cycles of the previous generations, such as fear of having enough, not showing affection, and secrecy patterns. Yet the transmission of negative patterns from one generation to the next is not inevitable. It is possible to become the endpoint at which negative family cycles that have thrived for generations are exhausted and can exert their influence no longer. Breaking the pattern is a matter of overcoming those values imprinted upon us long ago in order to replace them with pure love, tolerance, and conscious awareness. 

Even if you have struggled with the cumulative effects of family cycles that were an expression of established modes of living and a reflection of the strife your ancestors were forced to endure, you can still liberate yourself from the effects of your family history. The will to divest yourself of old, dark forms of familial energy and carry forth a new loving energy may come in the form of an epiphany. You may one day simply realize that certain aspects of your early life have negatively affected your health, happiness, and ability to evolve as an individual. Or you may find that in order to transcend long-standing patterns of limiting beliefs, irrational behavior, and emotional stiltedness, you have to question your values and earnestly examine how your family has impacted your personality. Only when you understand how family cycles have influenced you can you gain freedom from those cycles.

In order to truly change, you must give yourself permission to change. Breaking family patterns is in no way an act of defiance or betrayal. It is important that you trust yourself implicitly when determining the behaviors and beliefs that will help you overwrite the generation-based cyclical value system that limited your individual potential. Many people are on the earth at this time to break family cycles, for all of you are true pioneers. In breaking negative family cycles, you will discover that your ability to express your feelings and needs grows exponentially and that you will embark upon a journey toward greater well-being that can positively impact generations to come. 

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TODAY’S VIVEKANANDA QUOTE

If we hold the ideal that a human being is a body and has a soul, we will lay all the stress on the body. If you ask why we live, you will be told that it is to enjoy the senses, to enjoy possessions and wealth. We cannot dream of anything beyond even if we are told of it; our idea of a future life would be a continuation of this enjoyment. We are very sorry that it cannot continue all the time here, but we have to depart; and we think that somehow or other we will go to some place where the same thing will be renewed. We will have the same enjoyments, the same senses, only heightened and strengthened. We want to worship God, because God is the means to attain this end. The goal of our lives is enjoyment of sense objects, and we come to know there is a Being who can give us a very long lease of these enjoyments, and that is why we worship God.

Addresses on Bhakti Yoga: The First Steps (New York: December 16, 1895). Complete Works, 4. 12-13. What this means is that the story will be radically different if our ideal is that a human being is primarily a soul, and has a body.

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