Wednesday, October 29, 2014

I feel so used.

How can I serve today? 


There are times in our life when we feel really useful. We may feel everything is going well, we have direction, we have connections, and we are being called upon by others for assistance. These are the times to reflect upon the idea of being used.

Some of us do things out of guilt or obligation. Some of us do things because we believe it would really benefit another. Some of us do things because we really feel we have to make a name for ourselves. If we take a step back and look at ourselves through eyes outside of ourselves, we may find a clear answer to our purpose and place in this world.

Being used, in a Spiritual sense, is remembering that the I AM presence, God, Spirit, is moving through us. We are a beacon, a channel, a direct source from Spirit through to our actions. When we allow God to move through us, rather than making things happen, the actions can come with grace and ease. The idea is to remember throughout our day to continue to ask, "What is moving through me today?" "How can I be of service?" "Use me where I am needed most." These are all statements/ questions that will bring us closer to a realization we seek.

Also, when we understand the way of Spirit moving through us, it is easier to know we are not alone in this world. We have the Universal Consciousness which is working together for our collective good. When we allow Spirit to use us, we not only experience the benefit  to the recipient but the benefit to ourselves.

Today, when we go about our day, ask ourselves, "In what way is Spirit expressing through me today?"

photo: Rodney Brown https://www.flickr.com/photos/rosneybronze/

Sunday, October 26, 2014

More Than You Were Looking For Sunday Service



 With joy I recognize that everything I always wanted is right where I am! I am grateful for the abundance of all good. I am grateful for all the connection in my life. I am especially grateful for the support of my friends in this community.

Friday, October 24, 2014

Why I Do Not eat Onions

When I was a small child growing up in a prairie village in Saskatchewan, I was a curious and empathic child. I was three years old, my older sister was in school, and my brothers were not yet in the picture. I had a great imagination and I liked playing by myself. I liked to twirl and make my skirts float up. I liked to look up at the clouds and imagine that they were goddesses, and animals, and ships. I liked to think about life.

My mom was pickling cucumbers. Onions were involved.

I was playing outside and came tearing into the house for some reason, maybe it was to tell mommy something or ask for a glass of water. Whatever the reason, it was soon gone; one look at my mother and I knew that something was wrong. My mother looked devastated – tears were rolling down her cheeks, her eyes were puffy and red. I imagine I was greatly frightened; my mother from whom I had never seen anything but love (and possibly anger) was crying. I flung my arms around her legs and asked, “What’s wrong mommy?” I imagine my heart was beating rapidly too. Without a confident caring mother, what could a small child depend upon? 
Not Really My Mom

She just wiped her eyes with the back of her hands and explained, “It’s nothing, honey.  It’s just these darn onions!” She thought she had explained the whole thing, by saying it was nothing, but to me, it was not NOTHING, it was EVERYTHING. My provider, protector, and guide was made helpless, driven to tears, by “onions.” Onions must be very bad indeed.

From that day on, during my childhood no-one could get me to eat onions. My mother put them in everything, even fish sticks, and I always knew. She was always trying to trick me to eat them.  Even if I took a bite, I couldn't swallow it.  Onions would stick in my throat
For many years, I just thought I hated onions. When I was in high school, and started understanding that there was a cause for everything, I asked mom if something traumatic happened to me.  Mom told me the story. I thought knowledge would make it better. But still onions stick in my throat. Yes, I know they are good for me. It is ironic that mom was trying to help her child be a less-fussy eater, and I was unconsciously trying to protect my mother from those ”bad” things.

This is a simple example of how beliefs are formed and how they can affect our lives. It is interesting to me that simply understanding that the original belief was incorrect and even knowing the opposite is true, it has been very difficult to change my beliefs.
It is difficult to change beliefs and most of our beliefs, remain underneath the field of awareness and scrutiny. Some of us think that that’s just the way the world is. But God didn't make one kind of vegetable that was bad, regardless of my personal preferences. All creation is part of the oneness that is an expression of the Divine. 
Great chefs everywhere use onions as flavoring. It would be a good thing to change my mind about onions, so that I could have a more enjoyable life. I will continue to expand my awareness of good.

It brings me to the question, what erroneous beliefs do you have that are stopping you from living a sensational life? I don’t like onions, and that is too bad for me. However, I have managed to live quite well just the way I am.

But are there other unexamined beliefs, perhaps also starting with a childhood perceptions, that really are making a difference in my life? It is likely so.

Ernest Holmes wrote: “By far the largest part of our thinking processes are automatic, casting, as it were, the images of their acceptance into the universal Mind which reacts upon them. And thus it is that fear can bring about the condition feared while faith can reverse it.”

So I am determined to look through eyes of good and see good everywhere. I am determined to know that I am an expression of love and that everything in my life has been a response to love’s call. I am determined to use my knowledge to help myself and others. Every memory contains a gift.

Wednesday, October 22, 2014

And now for a little Music Therapy

Tuning into therapy

Recently I joined a Yahoo! group named Mindfulness in Education Network. Being familiar with Yahoo! groups, I was prepared to receive many emails from various members all spreading the word of Mindfulness. One of the members shared an article from the Smithsonian regarding Music Therapy. In the article it references a study conducted where participants were subjected to a favorite song, liked songs, and non-preferred songs. The brain was the focus of this study, and scans were taken while music was heard. What they found was varying brain activity that resulted in certification that Music therapy actually does work.

While I know, from personal experience, the effects of music on myself, I reflected on the music I introduced to those in my own family. When my husband and I married, the music at our reception was slow jazz and standards, none of that wedding "party" music for our celebration. The likes of Diana Krall, Steve Tyrell, Etta James, Harry Connick Jr., etc. were our choices for the reception. During our honeymoon, my husband and I mistakenly took a wrong bag and ended up with only one CD to listen to. It was the perfect CD for the serenely, tropical local. Diana Krall's Love Scenes provided the exact music needed for our memories to be created.

When my children were young, music was a constant. Listening to Baby Einstein music provided them an introduction to classical music that is soothing, memorable and comforting when heard during their growth. Currently, when I have the privilege of driving my daughter and her friend to high school, the station conveniently makes it way to KJAZZ. This is my sneaky way of infiltrating their minds with music other than their preferred teenage music they so enjoy (not that there is anything wrong with that, sometimes). Being of an eclectic music taste, I want to introduce my children to as much music variety as I enjoy. I also know the power of creating memories with music. Interestingly enough, the research article referenced in the Smithsonian article mentions the correlation to favorite music and hippocampi activity, deriving the conclusion that favorite music stimulates memory recalling brain activity instead of memory making brain activity. Music + making a great memory = future memory recall + a pleasurable feeling.

Before my father passed he was in a care facility. When visiting, I brought my ipod touch and placed the external speaker near him to hear the playlist I provided for him. One of the songs I added was Andrea Bocelli's version of Amapola. As my father was in and out of sleep quite often, whenever that particular song came on he would regain his consciousness and sing along with the song while his eyes were still closed. It is such a loving memory I have of my father that whenever I hear this song, whoever is singing it, I have a direct connection with my dad.

Take a listen to Amapola and create a memory for yourself.

Namaste.


Wednesday, October 15, 2014

Thoughts, Feelings, Beliefs, and Emotions



Releasing to make way for spiritual healing. 


The ability to perceive or think differently is more important than the knowledge gained. - David Bohm


In this line of New Thought, Ancient Wisdom thinking, it is interesting when we enter into a relationship that has us puzzled. Unbeknownst to us at the time, we are communicating, voluntarily submitting to energy that we may not feel is in alignment with our "true" beliefs or ways of Being. Is this relationship showing up to teach us something, or are we in the relationship to teach someone else?

In the Joyous Living Journal, today's installment is titled Distribution Value Center. "You are a distribution center for the undifferentiated Life Force. It is directed through every aspect of your thoughts, feelings, beliefs, and emotions. It takes form through your health, relationships, career, finances, and every aspect of the world you live in."

If a relationship is showing up in our lives that is not serving us, it is time to look to our spirit. "..your spirit starts checking out long before your body and world start breaking down." "The yearning of your spirit is stronger than your mind." Healing of our spirit will heal all aspects of our lives. When we take the time to connect with our spirit, our answers come from guidance.

Reevaluating our lives may take courage, it may mean releasing some relationships. Making time to journal through each aspect of health, relationships, career and finances may release some trapped thoughts or emotions that have been on repeat in our beliefs. Much like eating and eliminating the waste products. Thoughts may come into our bodies, produce certain emotions, and become ingrained in our cellular system. If we are not eliminating these thoughts, they may develop into some physical manifestation within our body. Eliminating through writing gives us the opportunity to release those toxic thoughts which have been building up in our bodies. Making a ritual for those writings is another process which can be incorporated. Burning, shredding, or praying over the writings can be a way to finalize the elimination. Sometimes keeping the writings in a journal can be a ritual as well. This is a way to reflect back on the progress made and to be used as a reminder of the courage it took to take this step toward release.

Affirmation: I am courageously reexamining the directives of my distribution center.

Friday, October 10, 2014

The Vow of Prosperity

When you think of someone living spiritually, do you  think of someone living in poverty or someone living in prosperity? Old ideas about money, taught many of us to believe erroneously that it was holy to be poor. Nothing could be further from the truth.
Do you have an idea that a holy man looks like this?
Or could he look like this?
"It is right that we should be successful, for otherwise the Spirit is not expressed. The Divine cannot lack for anything and we should not lack for anything  that makes life worthwhile here on earth."                                                                                                                                   Ernest Holmes
 We have erroneously believed that the Bible says that money is the root of all evil. What it actually says is:

 "For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs."          1 Timothy 6:10

If our purpose, here on earth, is to express the most good that we can, to be more God-like, then that good would include prosperity.

It is time to make a commitment to living well, to living in right relationship to your Source. Since we are made in the image and likeness of God, we need to accept all good as being worthwhile.

Let's write a vow of prosperity. Let's declare that we renounce all lack, all negativity, all separation. We know that God is our Source and only good comes from God. We have more than enough in a Universe made in His Image. It is in Daniel Nahmod's beautiful song.





Sunday, October 5, 2014

Resting in the Abundant Ocean Sunday Service


Resting in the abundant ocean of life, I recognize the magnificence of the Divine. One with the Source of all Creation, I celebrate the infinite good that indwells me, surrounds me and fulfills me. I rest in God and say, "Amen."
 
Resting in the Abundant Ocean Sunday Service
And So It Is! 

Wednesday, October 1, 2014

Who Are We In The World?


Rev. Dr. Kenn Gordon, Spiritual Leader and Rev. Dr. John Waterhouse, President of Centers for Spiritual Living speaking at the 2014 Ministers' Gathering in San Clemente, Ca.

Who Are We In The World?
We Are Centers For Spiritual Living

Meet the President and Spiritual Leader of Centers for Spiritual Living


Rev. Dr. Kenn Gordon, Spiritual Leader
Centers for Spiritual Living
Tonight, Wednesday October 1st, we have a huge treat for our Wednesday's Wisdom service. Rev. Dr. Kenn Gordon, the Spiritual Leader of Centers for Spiritual Living and Rev. Dr. John Waterhouse, the President of Centers for Spiritual Living and Rev. Bob Dean, the Manager of Professional Education will all be speaking. They will be speaking about who we are in the world. It is a great opportunity to hear from the leaders of our teaching who we are.

Plus we have the FAD three -- Dave Friedman, Karyn Allen and Rick Dale playing some music. Music will also be provided by Sunny Daye.

We have been enjoying the company of 200 ministers from all over the world at the Second Annual Ministers Gathering of Centers for Spiritual Living. I am so jazzed to be hosting.

Our volunteers have done amazing job with hospitality, greeting, ushering, etc. Each one deserves a lot of recognition. I am honored and privileged to know you! If you can't come to service tonight, you can catch us on live stream at cslcv.org. Service starts at 7:00 PM but live music will begin at 6:45 PM.

This is the first time we have live streamed a portion of our Ministers Gathering. I am so happy to have been the host.

Rev. Dr. John Waterhouse, President
Centers for Spiritual Living

The Tipping Point




Today is the start of a new month. In the The Joyous Living Journal, October 1st is titled The Tipping Point.  

"The tipping point is that magic moment when an idea, trend, or social behavior crosses a threshold, tips, and spreads like wildfire." -Malcolm Gladwell

The idea from this daily contemplation is that we are all a part of this collective consciousness. Each action, thought, word we create, embody, and believe are connected to the collective whole. Whatever we do individually impacts our collective. If we are living in the space of the unconscious, we are not aware of our impact on this world. We may think we are of little significance to the collective. This couldn't be further from the truth. Each one of us are here in this human existence to create an energy of change. If we are in a space that is not feeling in the space of Love and Freedom, seeking a path for this change will release some of the tension to allow us to breathe a less labored breath. Healing a root cause can eliminate that tension all together. 

"Every time you release anger,forgive, or demonstrate a Spirit-filled, abundant life, which you believe everyone deserves, you are adding to the good for all. Do not doubt your impact on the Whole for one minute!" 


Affirmation: "I affirm that my own growth is in service to the growth and health and well-being of all beings everywhere. I am positively adding to the shift in consciousness toward a healed planet. 

photo sourced from: http://www.wellnessbodytherapy.com/blog/