"Compassion and love are not mere luxuries...they constitute non-violence in action." - Dalai Lama Compassion and love are our greatest pathways to inner peace and our true source of happiness. This past week, I had the blessed opportunity to hear the Dalai Lama speak on non-violence at a Summit of Nobel Peace Laureates at Loyola University. Although hearing him speak has been a lifelong dream of mine, it wasn't about checking this experience off my bucket list. On the contrary, it is about being in alignment with the universal principles of compassion, love and inner peace and practicing them in everyday life. What this experience revealed … [Read more...]
Are We There Yet? Spiritual Growth as a Lifelong Journey
There are times when we feel that we are spinning our wheels, going backwards, or stuck in terms of our personal/spiritual growth. How can it be that we work so hard on our spiritual development only to uncover deeper pockets pain in our hearts? Why is it, when we think we have finally cleared our "stuff," we find more subtle layers of patterns revealed to us? This begs the question so many of us want to know: Are we There Yet? and If not, When? However, we must realize that spiritual transformation requires a commitment for the long haul-constant personal evolution over a lifetime. Our spiritual transformation is not a goal that can be … [Read more...]
Disengaging From Negative People
Many people who we come into contact with everyday have difficulty being accountable for own lives. Rather than take responsibility for their choices, they often become defensive, blame others, and/or play mind games trying to protect their own ego. People stuck in these toxic patterns can deplete our energies, drain our resources and are destructive to our lives. When we interact or are in relationship with them, we think we have to play the same games to defend or protect ourselves, yet this only leads to deeper confusion, more conflict, and erodes our true sense of ourselves.The best way to detach from people who engage in such negativity … [Read more...]
Transforming Loss into Love
"Earth has one angel less and heaven one more, since yesterday." - Nathaniel HawthorneDespite the deep pain it elicits, loss teaches us about the delicate balance, intensity, and richness of life. We cannot experience the pain of loss without first having experienced the joys associated with what has been lost. In the movie Shadowlands, poet Joy Gresham, in speaking about her impending death to author C. S. Lewis, expresses, "The greater the love, the deeper the sorrow and the longer it will take to work through it. That's the deal." Simply, As I embrace the untimely death of my beloved soul dog, Cammi, I feel both a great love and a … [Read more...]
Finding Peace in Turmoil
Life presents us with the opportunity to find peace in turmoil every day. In such moments, we can feel anxious, unprepared, and even a sense of futility when faced with an unexpected situation. We may be struggling with work, financial, health or relationship issues, feeling fatigue, energy drains and disappointment. This is when we have to first recognize the opportunity in front of us to let go of our expectations and "go with the flow." By trusting ourselves and our inner power, we can remain open to this positive flow of energy and move through any challenge with grace, ease and responsiveness. First, it's important that we accept any … [Read more...]
The Art of Loving Begins with Ourselves
"Those that go searching for love only manifest their own lovelessness, and the loveless never find love, only the loving find love, and they never have to seek it." - D. H. Lawrence As psychoanalyst and philosopher Eric Fromm states in The Art of Loving, "What matters in relation to love is the faith in one's own love; in its ability to produce love in others. We are only capable of knowing and caring for the other if we are also capable of understanding, caring, and knowing ourselves." In other words, the most powerful way to attract and experience great love, is to embody it. Being in relationship with another person requires us to … [Read more...]
Love Yourself-Love Your Life
When someone says, "I love my life," what's the first thought you have? Do you feel happy for this person and think, "Yes, I love my life too." Or do you feel envious and think, "What's wrong with my life?" The feeling that comes up is a barometer to how much you love yourself and your life. Because when you truly love yourself and your life, you trust that there is enough love, success, joy and abundance to go around. So how do you love yourself and your life when right now you feel depressed, defeated or uninspired? Before you get out of bed in the morning begin your day with gratitude. If you can't think of anything, then start by … [Read more...]
Developing Deeper Levels of Intimacy
Most of us desire deeper levels of intimacy with ourselves and our loved ones. Such meaningful relationships and intimate interactions begin with feeling "safe" enough to to freely and openly share our fears and insecurities. Opening up to another person and allowing ourselves to be vulnerable helps us establish the intimate connection we desire. We can let down our guard and the barriers that surround our hearts by establishing absolute trust in ourselves and our connection with source. This creates a foundation for an intimate relationship with another. Trust fosters full self-expression uninhibited by insecurity and opens us to heart to … [Read more...]
Creating Energetic Boundaries in Our Relationships
Creating healthy energetic boundaries is key to producing a positive flow of energy in our relationships. At heart, all our relationships are energetic exchanges—opportunities to become a conduit for life force energy. When energetic boundaries are in place, the resulting flow is growth promoting, first for ourselves and then for others. Without such boundaries, however, we can easily exhaust ourselves of energy or inadvertently take on the unwanted energies of others, outcomes that impede our growth and damage our relationships. Establishing energetic boundaries with those we love is not easy, because we are especially sensitive to the … [Read more...]
Giving Ourselves Permission to Be
Giving ourselves permission to "be" requires us to let go of our preconceived notions, mindsets and beliefs of how we should live and choose to follow our heart. Remember, when we had twenty minutes for recess? The bell would ring, and for those twenty precious minutes, time stood still and the universe of possibility opened up to us. As children, we yielded to this freedom of spirit knowing that nothing else really mattered. However, as adults, many of us feel resigned, overwhelmed, and even tired from the challenging pace of endless to do lists and tasks that require our time and attention. As difficult as it is to take time to be, we must … [Read more...]
