This Week's Inspirations - Page 26

Overcome Half-Empty Consciousness

We are all familiar with the metaphorical story of two people looking at the same glass and one perceiving it as half-full while the other sees it as half-empty. As much as we’ve heard this, it’s still a valuable exercise to really observe our minds and notice whether we are engaged in half-full or half-empty thinking. People will refer to themselves as being of one type or the other as if it was a permanent characteristic, but we are all capable of shifting into a half-full consciousness if we simply make the effort.

Jul 6, 2023

Creating Sacred Ceremony

Life’s journeys may sometimes take us away from our families and friends, but there are many ways to stay connected. Aside from making use of the technology available, we can create simple ceremonies using nature to connect our hearts across the miles.

Jul 5, 2023

Free Yourself to Be Happy

We all want to be the kind of people who are happy for others when they experience success or a cause for celebration in their lives, but it isn’t always easy. Sometimes powerful, dark feelings come when decorum dictates we should be feeling the opposite; instead of reaching out and celebrating our loved one, we feel the rising up of our own pain. This pain may arise because we feel jealous about someone having something we don’t. It may arise because our friend’s success will lead to us losing them in some way. Or it can arise for reasons we don’t yet understand. The important thing is not to brush it under the rug but to take it seriously and look at it; suppressing it will only make it worse. At the same time, we need to be sure to find a way to congratulate our friends and celebrate their successes as if they were our own.

Jul 4, 2023

Unlock Your Inner Magic

We all know inspiration when we feel it. It is a force that enlivens us and activates us to do something — we might dance, sing, paint the house, or envision a new career. We might call an old friend or plan a trip abroad. Whatever the case, doing what we do from a place of inspiration makes all things seem possible. Inspiration sometimes comes out of nowhere, landing unexpectedly in the midst of your life and lifting you out of your habitual mind and into a higher level of seeing. However, we can be more intentional with our relationship with inspiration than just waiting for it to come to us. There are many ways to cultivate its presence, from journaling to scrapbooking to visiting with a particularly interesting friend. Finding what inspires you and consciously cultivating it will give you access to new ways of thinking and energy you didn’t know you had.

Jul 3, 2023

Doing for Others

When we feel bad, often our first instinct is to isolate ourselves and focus on what’s upsetting us. Sometimes we really do need some downtime, but many times the best way to get out of the blues quickly is to turn our attention to other people. In being of service to others, paradoxically, we often find answers to our own questions and solutions to our own problems. We also end up feeling more connected to the people around us, as well as empowered by the experience of helping someone.

Jun 30, 2023

Shifting Into Gratitude

We all know what it’s like to finally get something we want only to find ourselves feeling as if we don’t deserve it. Whether it’s a car, a new job, or a date with someone wonderful, we suddenly feel as if we are not up to it. Something in us wants to reject this gift from the universe, perhaps because it requires that we think of ourselves in a new way or makes us question why we should have something that others don’t have. If these feelings of unworthiness are not consciously acknowledged, they can lead us to sabotage ourselves. Perhaps the best way to avoid rejection and sabotage is to simply shift into a state of gratitude, bypassing the question of worthiness altogether.

Jun 29, 2023

Moon Gardens

In the height of summertime's heat, we drift outdoors at dusk to refresh ourselves in the temperate air of evening. Cricket song and the glow of fireflies come together with ever-lengthening shadows to create a natural symphony of overlapping sensations that invigorates the body and gladdens the soul. As the sun sets, the vivid colors of most flowers and leaves fade, becoming a dull gray, but moon gardens provide us with a space to appreciate Mother Nature's bounty long after the light of day has retreated. Designed to be enjoyed from dusk until dark, these gardens serve as a perfect complement to silvery moonlight, mild summer nights, and the spirit of rejuvenation.

Jun 28, 2023

Dumbing Ourselves Down

The ability to go into any social situation and sense the level of consciousness in it is a gift. It enables us to move considerately through the world. However, there is a difference between shifting our energy to accommodate people and dumbing ourselves down to a regrettable degree. Sometimes, when we get into a particular social situation, we may feel pressure to play it small in order to fit in. Perhaps everyone is drinking or smoking excessively, engaging in gossipy small talk, or complaining bitterly about politics. It is one thing to notice this and modify our expectations and another thing entirely to join in.

Jun 27, 2023

10 Steps to Making Change Easier

1. Begin by making small changes or break up large-scale changes into more manageable increments. This can make you feel better about handling the changes you are about to make, while making you more comfortable with change in general.

Jun 26, 2023

Intuit Your Home's Decor

When we decide the time has come to change the look or feel of our personal spaces, it is the spaces themselves that can provide us with the most useful guidance. Working with a single room allows us to unearth the innate potential of the space and also better understand how we want to relate to it. To be conscious of the possibilities of a space, we need to listen to, look at, and bond with that space in a deep and personal way. Just as no two people are alike, no two rooms, however similar, are identical. The more we know about the spaces we wish to change, the better equipped we are to make them both beautiful and functional.

Jun 23, 2023

Cooperation

Cooperation — working together toward a common goal for the benefit of all involved — seems simple. But amazingly it can be quite challenging, even when we have so many successful examples all around us. Society is based upon the concept of cooperation, but finding a balance that ensures the good of all members is difficult. In nature, symbiotic relationships form between unlikely allies — a bee and a flower, a bird and a rhinoceros, small fish and sharks — yet nature also shows us instances of constant competition in which only the strongest survive. Given the choice, it seems most people would choose the more peaceful path of cooperation. Intellectually, we know that together we can create something greater than what we can do alone, but cooperation still seems to be one of the greatest challenges people face. We don’t always agree on how goals can be reached. Our priorities or our methods may be different, but in the end, cooperation offers the best chance for success.

Jun 22, 2023

We Are All Connected

There are times when we may feel disconnected from the world. It can seem like our actions are of no major consequence, and we may feel like we exist in a vacuum. Yet the truth is that our simplest thought or action — the decisions we make each day and how we see and relate to the world — can be incredibly significant and have a profound impact on the lives of those around us, as well as the world at large. The earth and everything on it is bound by an invisible connection — people, animals, plants, the air, the water, the soil. Insignificant actions on your part, whether positive or negative, can have an impact on people and the environment even if they seem separate from you. Staying conscious of the connection between all things can help you think of your choices and your life in terms of the broader effect you may be creating.

Jun 21, 2023

Discover More - Page 26

Energetic Sweeping

In some of our lives, sweeping has become an activity performed without much thought. In many cases, sweeping is a lost art, replaced by the noisy, efficient vacuum cleaner. But in several cultures and religions, sweeping the front and back porch every morning is regarded as an important cleansing ritual that prepares the ground for new energy on every level -- physically, spiritually, emotionally, and mentally. It is often employed to sanctify a space and prepare it for a ceremony. This seemingly simple action has the power to clear away the old and make space for the new. It stirs up the energy in a place, clearing out the astral buildup that is the natural by-product of the presence of humans.

Nov 16, 2022

The Status Quo

When our lives are going well, and sometimes even when they aren’t, we may find ourselves feeling very attached to the status quo of our existence -- life as we know it. It is a very human tendency to resist change as though it were possible to simply decide not to do it, or have it in our lives. But change will come and the status quo will go, sooner or later, with our consent or without it. We may find at the end of the day that we feel considerably more empowered when we find the courage to ally ourselves with the universal force of change, rather than working against it.

Nov 15, 2022

Doing Our Best Work

In the great symphony of life, we all have important parts to play. While some people are best suited to be conductors or soloists, their contributions would be diminished considerably without the individual musicians that lend their artistry to the fullness of an orchestra. The magical accents of the percussion section might sound random and out of place without the music they accompany. But any one member of an orchestra, doing less than their best at their particular part, can destroy the harmony of the whole piece, such is their importance. So although we may not receive the same amount or quality of attention as another, all of our contributions are valuable and integral to the success of the whole.

Nov 11, 2022

Saying Yes to the Universe

The hardest thing about saying yes to the universe is that it means accepting everything life puts in front of us. Most of us have a habit of going through our days saying no to the things we don’t like and yes to the things we do, and yet, everything we encounter is our life. We may be afraid that if we say yes to the things we don’t like, we will be stuck with them forever, but really, it is only through acknowledging the existence of what’s not working for us that we can begin the process of change. So saying yes doesn’t mean indiscriminately accepting things that don’t work for us. It means conversing with the universe, and starting the conversation with a very powerful word -- yes.

Nov 14, 2022

Creating Community

Since the modern Western lifestyle can isolate us from one another, it is often difficult to forge meaningful connections. Self-protection and mistrust prevent us from reaching out to neighbors and peers, and we consequently feel like we don’t truly belong anywhere. Yet creating community can be as simple as reaching out within our own neighborhoods. To form the bonds that eventually solidify into long-lasting friendships, we must first be willing to rise above the walls of suspicion and doubt dividing us from the individuals who inhabit our neighborhood, block, or our building. We are taught from childhood to fear those we do not know, but community is as much a part of survival as safety. When we take a proactive approach, we can harmoniously unite our neighbors and build a network of support that contributes to the well-being of all involved.

Nov 10, 2022

Let It Roll off Our Back

One of the most difficult challenges in life is learning not to take things to heart and hold on to it. Especially when we’re younger, or if we’re very sensitive, we take so much of what comes our way to heart. This can be overwhelming and unproductive if it throws us off balance on a regular basis. When we are feeling criticized or attacked from all directions, it becomes very difficult for us to recover ourselves so that we can continue to speak and act our truth. This is when we would do well to remember the old saying about letting certain things roll off us, like water off a duck’s back.

Nov 8, 2022

No Going Back

There are times when we feel that we are spinning our wheels in the mud in terms of our spiritual progress. This can be especially true following a period of major growth in which we feel as if we’ve gained a lot of ground. In fact, this is the way growth goes -- periods of intense forward movement give way to periods of what seems like stagnation. In those moments when we feel discouraged, it’s helpful to remember that we don’t ever really go backward. It may be that we are at a standstill because there is a new obstacle in our paths, or a new layer to get through, but the hard work we have done cannot be undone.

Nov 7, 2022