Love, Serve, and Remember was inspired by the words of Maharaji when he told his pupil, Ram Dass to… “Just love everyone, serve everyone, and remember God.”

Watch Love, Serve, and Remember by John Astin and feel at peace as you listen to John’s soothing vocals.

How we perceive the world affects how we live our lives. So, why not live life as an optimist?

Watch Learned Optimism, a video featuring lifestyle expert Lissa Coffey to find out how!

There is an energetic field that each one of us creates by means of our thoughts and attitudes. You can use this force clearly and deliberately to create the life you truly want to live.

Watch The Law of Attraction - Particles and Waves with Dr. Harry Morgan Moses to find out how!

Creative Inspiration comes from the wisdom of the universe… to which we are all connected. It can come at any time, wherever we are. It is available to all of us when we are ready and willing to accept it. Watch this video featuring Lissa Coffey for more.

Is that the way you think of yourself when you look in the mirror first thing in the morning? I invite you to do so. It will change your day.

Does it seem presumptuous or arrogant or …? For many of us, we were brought up to think we did not count for much. I remember one of my mother’s seemingly favorite questions being “Who do you think you are, young lady?” You might have a similar memory.

I know there is great freedom, prosperity and joy waiting for you on the other side of any question of your divine nature. Once you can accept this right down to your toes, life changes. I know because I experienced it and you will, too.

We measure ourselves against others, or, we’ve been taught to. Perhaps you’ve already overcome that obstacle. It’s a big mistake. I remember hearing the story of Albert Schweitzer, the amazing medical missionary, who was asked late in life if he was afraid of dying. He was reported to have said,

“I’m not afraid of dying. I’m a little afraid of St. Peter’s questions, though.”

“How so?” said the reporter.

“I’m not afraid of St. Peter asking me why I wasn’t Albert Einstein. That’s easy. I’m afraid he might ask me why I wasn’t Albert Schweitzer.”

Think about that! We are supposed to be us, not someone else, not someone else’s idea of who we are supposed to be. We are here to make our unique contribution, not anyone else’s. That’s truly the “opportunity of a lifetime!” We have a lifetime to step up and be fully expressing who we are, yet many people keep themselves so busy they avoid finding out.

Recently, I’ve been struck by the number of people who tell me they are so busy they are exhausted. They are usually a little taken aback when I ask them why they choose that. There they were, all ready to tell me their tale of constant activity and pressure and I’m not ready to hear. In fact, I’m not even very willing to hear because they are the ones keeping themselves so busy. The world is not doing it no matter how much they would like me to think so.

Does that sound a little tough to you? It will if you cannot see that you are choosing what you do, say and think every moment and be responsible for it. There is no one running after you with a pitchfork prodding you on…unless you allow them to. There is no one deciding what you think…unless you allow them to. There is no one making any decisions in your life but you. You are choosing your life just as it is. If you are not experiencing joy, delight, love and prosperity, change your thinking.

DARLING, YOU’RE DIVINE. Remembering that, would you treat yourself differently? I hope so. Would your interests, attention and expectations change? I think so.

Are you willing to accept the absolute best in your life? Are you expecting to? That’s the key. When you know you are divinely connected, everything is possible…everything good.

If you have taken my four-week teleseminar program, Midas Thinking, you’ll know that there is a way to move towards accepting the best for yourself in every way. Once you change your perspective and your consciousness about that, life is forever changed. You know one of my favorite sayings is “Once you are conscious you were unconscious, you can never be unconscious again!” That’s the truth.

Become a Midas Thinker! Seek, see, select and savor the riches and richness of life. You are that richness right here and now.

DARLING, YOU’RE DIVINE!

Dr. Rhoberta Shaler is the Founder of Spiritual Living Network a social networking site that provides a safe place to discuss spiritual matters and find support for your spiritual journey. The site brings you practical, inspiring articles, tips and quotes to help you to live the spiritual principles you hold dear. At SpiritualLivingNetwork.com meet amazing, spiritually-minded people worldwide for real-time chats, forums, articles—and you can even have your own blog!

“To fall into a habit is to begin to cease to be.” ~ Miguel De Unamuno

A close friend I’ve known since we were both youngsters called me to announce that he and his long-time, live-in partner were going to call it quits and go their separate ways. “We just cause each other pain and sorrow. We are not good for each other and I have no love for her in my heart whatsoever,” he declared. I remained silent and listened to his story regarding the latest dispute that triggered his decision—this time. After about three minutes, I reminded him that this was the exact same story I had heard many times in the past ten years so I was already intimately familiar with all the details. He chuckled, stopped talking, and took a deep breath and I knew he understood immediately that I was not trying to be intentionally cruel or unsupportive. I was simply calling him on his ongoing habit: an addiction to a toxic relationship.

In the past ten years, he and his partner had created a relationship where, as unfulfilling and painful as it had become, it was easier to stay in it, developing a tolerance and numbness to the toxic emotions each felt toward the other (and themselves) than to break the habit they had become to each other. This got me thinking about how we all are subject to developing habits that can become toxic and addictive if we are not conscious and aware of what we are creating. Staying stuck in a habit or addiction is the ultimate form of immediate gratification because the behavior creates a diversion which redirects the flow of creative life force away from our true feelings where we would be forced to deal with them and into mindless activities that often result in unproductive lifestyles, unhealthy bodies, and relationships filled with sadness, pain, and suffering. It does not have to be that way.

A part of us dies when any negative habit becomes a mindless activity, especially when we continue to do it because it’s easier (or less painful) than leaning into the discomfort of change. In the process, we unconsciously become a little more numb to life. It’s as if we are sending a very subtle message to the universe that we are not really interested in being fully engaged in being alive. Any negative habit is simply the creative energy of life seeking fullness of expression, albeit in a misguided manner. We lack the awareness that negative thoughts repeated over and over again, day after day, year after year become ingrained in our unconscious mind where they lay below our field of awareness taking on a life of their own. This is the fertile soil in which habits grow into addictions. It dose not necessarily have to be in the area of human relationships either: It could be with habits we have formed in our relationships with work, food, sex, or any other substance or behavior. Regardless of where it shows up in our lives, the energy that drives most negative habits and addictions is the need to avoid dealing with how we really feel about ourselves and life in the present moment. As an example: While some people may feel as dead in their job as my friend does in his relationship, in a strange way, it is safe and comfortable living in the security of conditions that don’t demand change, growth, or risk in the present moment. Again, fertile soil for habit energy to establish itself in its many subtle ways.

Habits tend to suck us into unconscious living patterns and that is not how we were meant to live. You were not given life to be an unconscious helpless victim of your habits, nor were you meant to suffer and simply endure an unrewarding life. Each of us has the responsibility to be a fully conscious, continually evolving being, and to have dominion over our egoic mind rather than be enslaved by it. To be a fully conscious being means one has to make conscious choices. In other words, if you believe you are stuck in the energy of an undesirable habit, in order to set yourself free you first have to own the fact that you have actually given your power to the undesirable habit. At some point in time that was a choice you made. Perhaps now is the time to choose another way. You can choose to take your power back.

Where do you start? Waking up from the dream of powerlessness and remembering to remember the sacred being you really are is the first step. You are no less than pure potential having a variety of experiences in the human condition. Habit energy doesn’t stand a chance when you think and act from the awareness of your connectedness to Life, Infinite Intelligence, the Universe, your Higher Power, God or whatever else you might choose to call it. Aligning with your true source of power will help dissolve the negative habit energy you may have developed over the years and set you free. How can this be so? Practicing the presence of Spirit in the present moment always sets you free from the past in much the same manner that the higher vibration of love sets you free from the lower vibration of fear, or the manner in which the radiance of light will set you free from the apparent bondage of darkness.

Choose today to step out of the shadow and into the light and live fully on purpose. Be a witness to those moments when habit energy arises and then call your power back. Remember, habit energy has no life of its own–only the life you have given it. Remember that “Negative Habits Hobble Your Happiness” and take responsibility for yourself and the thoughts you think…and then watch what happens as you intentionally partner with life. Your habit energy is transformed into happy energy. Now that’s a nice groove in which to “be”.

About The Author:

Dr. Dennis Merritt Jones (also known as Dr. D)  has been teaching metaphysics for almost a quarter of a century. He founded the Center for Spiritual Living in Simi Valley, CA and is the author of the book “The Art of Being: 101 Ways to Transform Your Life”. Be sure to visit DennisMerrittJones.com where you can Download his FREE ebook “The Seven Be-Attitudes” and get a FREE six-week study guide for his book “The Art of Being”.

The mystic finds the eye of the needle and enters into the realization of the Kingdom of Heaven within.

What Is Mysticism?

More and more people have been asking me lately “What do you mean by the word mystic?” There seems to be quite a lot of blurry, confused notions and outright misconceptions about the word. And yet, it is perhaps one of the most important words pointing toward a fundamental truth about who we are at the soul of matter. Mysticism is about how we can come to live within the fullness of our true nature.

In a very real sense, because mysticism concerns the essence of life, it is audacious to even try and define it. Words are insufficient, often in the way of understanding. That to which the word “mysticism” refers, is a quality of presence that is quite literally beyond and before any words. Still, and like others, I feel compelled to try and come as close as I can to pointing toward something that speaks of our original nature. I beg pardon in advance for the terrible insufficiency of language and the limits of my own mere glimpses into these realms of an endless sacred mystery. Still, let me try.

A mystic is one who, above all else in life, desires to know, not in the intellectual sense of knowing, the deepest truth of existence. A mystic is one who senses more to life than making a living or being of service in the world although these things are both necessary and good. The mystic, however, is looking beyond an exclusive or preoccupied focus on these survival or self-actualization to something more. He is looking to discover the deepest truth of our being as incarnate souls; to understand our greatest potential as reflections of God; to realize our wholeness within the ground of all. The primary interest in life for the mystic is to discover truth, to know God, to see into mans whole nature. The mystic sees all of life as an abundant opportunity to discover, realize, and express the Divine.

Mysticism springs from an insatiable curiosity for understanding the essential questions of life: matters of God, creation, the infinite and the human potential for knowing truth. The mystic is in reality the ultimate scientist who, looking beyond the apparent or obvious in all matters, asks, “Is this that I am seeing reality or the illusions that stem from fear?” “What existed before this sense of reality?” “What existed before my mental constructs, my beliefs, my self identity?” “Who is this that observes and is self-reflecting?” “What is at life’s very source?”

Mysticism: Why it’s so often misunderstood

Mysticism is terrifically misunderstood by mainstream culture. It always has been. Many people incorrectly think mysticism is some kind of odd occult or a mystic someone who studies magic or renounces life and goes off to live in a cave. Nothing could be further from the truth.

The reason this has often been confused though is not so surprising. The mystic is one who undergoes a radical shift in conscious understanding and that often looks, sounds, or seems very mysterious to our accustomed ways of thinking and being.

The mystic consciously enters into the sacred journey that all the world’s great religions speak of in various ways. Some call it becoming awakened, enlightened, or born again. It is an inner journey that requires a deconstruction of the conditioned illusions of separation so that the true freedom of living can emerge. It is the true meaning of being born anew. It is the process and realization of letting die our stale and conditioned habits and beliefs so that we may live in the fullness of each new moment of creation. It is the understanding that conditioned patterns, belief systems, and memory are not living, but dead moments already. It is the realization that true living can only be lived in a freedom that moves with the current of creation, forever open to each moment teaming with new potential.

To let go the illusions of ego identity and stand naked before our true original nature, often requires a removing of oneself from typical ways of living and thinking at least for a time. In the sacred literature, this is often referred to as entering the wilderness, facing the dark night of the soul, annihilation of the ego, or dying to oneself to be born again. It is a process of fundamental transformation of conscious understanding that the mystic takes on. The journey it takes to successfully deconstruct the layers of conditioning that block true awareness, and what emerges from this inner journey of realization or awakening can often look and sound very mysterious, if not down right confusing, to the uninitiated and linear mind. But in truth it is the deepest meaning upon which all the world’s great religions have their original foundation. It is the journey to discovering and experiencing direct relationship with/as God or the source of all creation. It is each individual soul coming to directly know itself within the divine. It is the fulfillment of our purpose, “I and my father are one.”

Great Mystical Teachers of the Present and Past

Throughout all of history, mystics have been our way showers, those who go before, those who see beyond, those who seem to so often speak in riddles. They are those who have “lifted the veil” of worldly illusion to experience a deeper truth and wisdom of Being. The mystic is not so much concerned with survival as with coming to realize the full potential of being. The mystic is seeking direct realization of truth even within a dynamic of evolving mystery. The mystic finds the eye of the needle and enters into the realization of the kingdom of heaven within.

Every religion the world over, both of the east and west, orthodox and liberal has at its origin the way-showing wisdom of one or more great mystics. Indeed, all the men and women throughout recorded history who have had the greatest spiritual integrity and direct authority are rightly called mystics: Jesus of Nazareth was a true mystic, as was Gandhi, Meister Eckhart, Teresa of Avila, St. John of the Cross, William James, Thomas Merton, Sri Aurobindo, Sri Ramakrisna, Lao-tse, Shankara, Vivikananda, Abraham, Job, Carl Jung to name a mere few. There are scores more of men and women poets and artists.

Commonality amongst the World’s Mystics

If you study the life of past mystics you’ll find they share several things in common:

First, they all speak of an induction or of a need to learn/realize a new level of understanding. They all speak of a fundamental shift in consciousness be it called awakening, realization, divination, or being born again.

Second they all tell of making a journey into and through a despair process of being “undone” as the precursor to this fundamental shift in consciousness, be it through experiencing 40 days and nights in the wilderness, starving under the boddhi tree, facing the dark night of the soul, or the hero’s journey. There is a journey of metamorphosis that all mystics have undergone in some way.

Third, it is an inner journey that must be taken up and navigated alone. This is a hallmark of the mystic’s realization: The reason the journey must be alone is because that which must be faced, seen, and surrendered in order that something new can emerge, is only possible through sustaining the fear and despair process of being alone and meeting the ultimate and fundamental fear of “non-being” and annihilation.

Fourth, they all seem to realize the frustration of being misunderstood by those who have not yet been through the awakening journey — “those who have ears to hear, let him hear.” A great deal of the mystical writings are devoted almost exclusively to the fact that fundamental spiritual truth cannot be understood by the intellect nor correctly put into words. Forever, the great spiritual teachers have tried through the insufficiency of words to point toward that which can ever and only be experienced and known on a level that is before and beyond the mind. This is something unfathomable to those who have not yet had this breakthrough revelation - and particularly so in our contemporary culture that has become so overly reliant and blinded by the limiting paradigm of the scientific method that forever reduces our understanding of intelligence to that which is sensory, measurable and linear in nature. Life isn’t only or always linear. In fact it rarely is, except in man-made constructions and habituated uses of the mind.

The Mysterious Language of God

There is literally a new language/understanding that accompanies spiritual realization. The same old words now have entirely different, deeper layers of meaning and significance within the framework of spiritual realization. In fact no words can encompass that which has been realized. That is why when the words of our world’s great mystics are heard through the common language of those who have not yet made the mystic’s journey, they are invariably misconstrued and misused. That is why Jesus was crucified. It is why we have “religious wars.” And it is why we have so much religious politic and prejudice corrupting a universal truth that one has to enter into alone.

That is why we see so many people, wrongly, trying to “practice” their way into spiritual realization with all sorts of dogma, belief systems, religious structures, postures, and prayers. The reason these things don’t work is because the need to grasp something, the very mechanism of the mind that needs to hold on to anything for its salvation, is the very thing that has to be let go of!

It’s an odd sort of reverse psychology with a double twist. The path to spiritual realization is completely antithetical to what anyone would call a path at all. It is always the subtle paradoxical opposite of what one tries to see, know, find, understand. That is why so much of it sounds like riddles. That is why I say it is a fundamentally different language. That’s as close as I can come to pointing toward finding your way. Realize that we’re talking about developing an ear for a completely foreign language. Start listening into the unfamiliar, the unclear, the uncomfortable, the not-knowing. Start living in not-knowing anything, not any thing! From there, the new language of knowing emerges like one of those 3-d picture puzzles where the image is embedded within and is more than the dots.

Listen in a new way, and not so much for new things…. a key.

The word mystic at its root stands for that which cannot be named, that which is forever before the naming, source. The word also hints at the path to spiritual realization, that is, to become capable of going into a terrain that is beyond the mind before the naming, separate from any belief, any identification or security, and opens through a sense of awe for the great mystery.

The Call to Remember

The mystic is really anybody who seeks to experience above all else, the direct expression of God/Source/Being in one’s life. He or she is anyone with the deep desire and courage necessary to look - and see - beyond the obvious conditioning of our manufactured world view; to see beyond the illusions of our self-created identities, and find what lies forever before and all around us, as the One that is All. The path is one of surrendering all that we currently hold on to as belief, identity and intellect. What emerges is the full expression of being within the language of love.

Forever is the dance of awakening to find Love, here, in the eternal moment of living.

About the Author:

Ronda LaRue is an emerging spiritual author/mentor living in Ojai, California, USA.

Ronda works from a novel and contemporary approach to the ancient tradition of one-on-one sacred apprenticeship for facilitating radical transformation., healing wholeness, and direct Self-Realization. Her book “Remembering Who You Really Are”, is a contemporary classic on the journey to true self Realization and Wholeness. (available from Amazon.com) See more about her private retreat programs at OjaiSoulArts.com or order her book at RondaLaRue.com

“Life sucks!” We often hear this from people. Do they really mean that? Would they prefer death, then? Likely not. What they are complaining about are the circumstances of life. Clearly,life and circumstances are very different things, yet, most folks fail to make the distinction.

The good news: we can make the distinction. Certainly, sometimes, life is painful, difficult and complicated as my partner, Charles, frequently points out. There is no Pollyanna lens that can change that. Where our power lies is in focusing on what we do want rather than wallowing in what we don’t! We are in charge of what we think about, talk about and do. That’s the truth.

There is a very good reason that I wrote the book, What You Pay Attention to Expands. Because it is true. It is not that we do not recognize when less than wonderful things are happening to us. It’s not that we live in a box and pretend the world is not going on around us and it’s often not pretty. That’s easy to acknowledge. The big question is: What are you going to do with what you see, hear, sense, feel and think? What are you doing WITH it? You decide. You choose. You determine.

Your life is not your circumstances. Working with a coaching client recently, I knew she desperately wanted me to sympathize with her helplessness in the face of her job loss and simultaneous end of her relationship of five years. You might be thinking that would be the natural thing to do, after all neither of those things are pleasant experiences to walk through. At first, they even may seem insurmountable.

The world is an awful place.

How could they do that to me?

How could he be so callous, rude, mean & thoughtless?

How am I going to make a living?

I’ll be a homeless bag lady in no time.

Nobody loves me. I’m going out to eat worms.

Why?

Because life sucks!

Familiar with the script? It is a downward spiral into a waiting abyss and all she could do was wail, rail and curtail any thoughts of an improved future. Sure, a little wallow at the beginning was acceptable. Get the anger out. Say out loud what you would have preferred saying to both the employer and the
boyfriend. Cry some. Yell some. Make those horrible noises that come from deep places. And, give yourself a time limit for all that gnashing of teeth, an hour, a day, a week tops!

“These were events, remember, not a lifestyle. These are circumstances, not who you are. You are bigger than this. You are wise, expansive and able to see beyond today,” I told her. Her first response, “Yeah, but…..” We have to get beyond our yeah-but’s…and fast!

There’s a little issue here: when seemingly nasty, unprovoked events happen–of course, little ol’ us had nothing to do with these events, right?–we run often to the very people who will sympathize and join with us in our indignation that folks treated us badly. We want people to catastrophize with us, join in the chorus of “Ain’t it awful? and He done me wrong.” Some folks in my client’s situation would go straight to the most dramatic person they knew so they could count on the biggest reaction. They would make a meal of this degradation for weeks!

Now, there is a big difference between sympathy and empathy.

…Sympathy: a relationship in which whatever affects one person

…similarly affects the other.

That’s not so useful to engage in. Instead of one person in despair,

we now have two or more!

…Empathy: the action of understanding, being aware of, being

…sensitve to the feelings, thoughts and experience of

…another person.

That could be more useful. I can see you in the pit. I remember how it felt when I was in that pit. I’m not jumping in to wallow with you. That’s empathy. Big difference.

A Course in Miracles says that whoever is most sane is responsible for the relationship. If we both jump into the pit and writhe around, who’s sane? Who will hold the sanity? Who will know the truth and the course towards a broader, more expansive understanding of what life can be? Steer away from drama. Engaging though it is, it is an amazing energy drain with absolutely no useful purpose.

Your life is NOT your circumstances. You decide how to respond to circumstances and create the life you most want and value. What will you do to remember this?

About the Author:

Rhoberta Shaler, PhD, has helped thousands to see life differently. Through many years as a transpersonal psychologist, she has assisted people in all phases of life from those facing death and despair to those seeking solutions to the practical problems of living.

Dr. Shaler connects people with their authentic selves, their purpose and values, and provides insights and inspiration to overcome the challenges of personal, family and business life. With her and with the programs she offers, they uncover the deep parts of themselves that make life meaningful, rich and satisfying. To learn more, visit: http://www.Rhoberta.com and join http://www.SpiritualLivingNetwork.com It’s free.

“We recognize that every form—from the smallest quantum unit to the largest universal structure—is engendered within the Wholeness of Spirit, and that “in spite of all appearances” and behind such images as disease and dysfunction, Spiritual Perfection dwells. Such realization reveals to our consciousness a more perfect state of being for ourselves and others.”
~ Stephanie Sorensen ~ The Sacred Continuum

One of the greatest quagmires in which new students of metaphysics seem to get caught up, lies in the mistaken idea that wholeness is a condition that is manifest after everything in one’s life is perfect. The greater Truth is that everything already is Perfect, in spite of those times when our five senses might report to us a different reality. No doubt, this can be hard to embrace when we are enmeshed in a painful physical or emotional condition that is privately screaming in our inner ear: “There’s something missing here.” For most of us, from this state of consciousness, what we believe is missing is “Wholeness”. We have mistaken Wholeness to be a human condition which we will one day arrive at where there will be; no pain; no challenges; no disease; no dysfunction, and, no dark nights of the soul—a place where there is nothing but peace, love, light and pleasure.

As we mature spiritually we learn it doesn’t mean that at all. These are ALL conditions that come as part of the human experience. As long as we dwell in these earthly garments of flesh and bone we will be subject to the human condition. Every master teacher I have ever studied has had to contend with the aforementioned challenges. What did they know that we have yet to learn? I recall, forever etched in the walls of my mind, the words from one of my mentors, the late Dr. Fletcher Harding: “Wholeness is a state of Being, not a condition.” Being, is another word for God’s Presence, manifesting in our experience NOW, irrespective of what it may look like to the world. The great teacher Jesus was saying the same thing when he admonished us to “Judge not according to appearances, but judge ye with righteous judgment.” Righteous judgment is simply seeing the Truth at the center of all conditions; God is still there.

One of my greatest teachers of this “Principle of Wholeness” was an individual by the name of Jolane Dickey. For nearly twenty years, Jolane was a member of the church I pastored. She made her transition this past week after many, many years of living with Multiple Sclerosis. Her passing is being deeply grieved by many. My greatest memories of her are centered on the fact that she refused to be defined by her condition. Yes, she suffered greatly at the physical level but she never lost sight of the fact that she knew she was more than her condition and she proved it by showing up in life in very colorful ways. She refused to “drop out” and surrender to the label of victim. There was never any doubt when Jolane was in church because she always sat in her wheelchair in the very front row and on many occasion, with great passion in her voice “assisted” me in delivering my lessons. She was a sassy lady who squeezed the essence out of every moment because she deeply appreciated the precious gift of life. There was no identity crisis with Jolane–she knew who she was, and, perhaps equally importantly, she knew who she wasn’t. She was very clear that she was not her body. While her body slowly gave in to the condition, her spirit, mind and heart never did. Because she understood that her wholeness was not determined by the experience she was having, she became an incredible source of inspiration to the entire congregation and many others in the community. Her sense of wholeness came from a deep remembrance of her oneness with Source, God. She understood that God is not defined by or as any condition. By choosing to live with a sense of Wholeness she made a difference in the lives of those who witnessed her life. Over the years as I beheld Jolane (along with her amazing spouse Frank, who never saw her as less than perfectly whole) moving through her journey with such extraordinary courage and grace she became one of my heroes. You could say she always has been and always shall be a hero of Wholeness.

Spiritual Perfection is an inherent part of each of us and It is never diminished by conditions. With an awareness of this Truth comes a wholeness of Spirit; it enables us to accept the moment at hand as perfect, just the way it is, knowing that nothing is ever missing in God’s Presence. Our job is to cease judging by appearances and start knowing the Truth. Will knowing the Truth automatically change or “fix” that which we have previously labeled as imperfect? Understanding the power of an affirmative mind, it may, but even if it doesn’t, it won’t really matter because we will have ceased judging ourselves, as well as others, as anything less than Whole just the way we are. Wholeness is a natural part of the Sacred Continuum—that journey of Spirit navigating Its way through the human experience as you and me. This is the journey that unfailingly takes us to the place we never really left, which is our oneness with the All.

About The Author:

Dr. Dennis Merritt Jones (also known as Dr. D)  has been teaching metaphysics for almost a quarter of a century. He founded the Center for Spiritual Living in Simi Valley, CA and is the author of the book “The Art of Being: 101 Ways to Transform Your Life”. Be sure to visit DennisMerrittJones.com where you can Download his FREE ebook “The Seven Be-Attitudes” and get a FREE six-week study guide for his book “The Art of Being”.

If you have, you know the benefits of surrounding yourself with these types of resources on a regular basis… You know that the more positive and uplifting people, places, and things you surround yourself with… The more you feel good about yourself, your life, and the world around you.

Think over the past week and pay attention to the type of media you consumed. Did you find yourself watching the nightly news… where you were informed of just about every bad thing that happened in the world that day?

Did you find yourself listening to negative talk radio or watching violent television programs… programs that have no inherent value aside from being a bit entertaining… but totally suck your attention and leave you feeling worse than you did before?

It is important to think about the kind of sensory input you are surrounding yourself with to determine whether or not it is really serving your life in a positive way. Maybe rather than watching that violent program, you would be better served by going for a walk outside. Perhaps rather than listening to negative talk radio on your way to work, your spirit might be fed by an inspiring audio lecture to listen to.

On a related note, here is a Recommended Relevant Resource (RRR) that may be of use to you if you are interested in a more positive kind of talk radio…

Recommended Relevant Resource (RRR):

One resource that I have found very useful is a website called Hay House Radio.

Hay House Radio is a 24-hour free Internet radio station where you can listen to the weekly audio programs of Hay House authors like Dr. Wayne Dyer, Debbie Ford, Caroline Myss, Joan Borysenko, Sonia Choquette and others.

For a modest fee, you can also join the Hay House Wisdom Community where you get access to all past programming, which you can download to your MP3 player or burn on to a CD to listen to on your way to work or while you’re out for a walk.

So, think about the type of input you’re receiving and realize the way it is affecting your life. Surround yourself with positive influences, feed your spirit and expose yourself to the wisdom of wonderful teachers. And most of all, realize how blessed you are to be walking this earth and sharing your gifts