15 Jan

Posted at 10:00h by
Scent of HappinessBack in the 90s, I studied with Robert Kiyosaki, the multimillionaire author of the Rich Dad series of financial advice books. He was “only” worth four million at the time, years before he became much richer and world famous. Robert taught us that the number one thing he attributed his success to was tithing, the practice of giving away ten percent of your money. Even when his business tanked

08 Jan

Posted at 10:00h by
Women of High Spiritual AttainmentToday we are blessed with a plethora of contemporary women spiritual teachers: Marianne Williamson, Pema Chodron, Gangaji, Gurumayi, Ammachi, Sylvia Boorstein and her many Buddhist colleagues. Accredited graduate programs in Women’s Spirituality have opened, and

01 Jan

Posted at 12:42h by
Ego BacklashAnnie hadn’t known it could get this good. Over the weekend, she’d surrendered to the love flowing for herself and everyone else. The workshop had provided a safe environment for participants to let down their guards, their judgments and insecurities and simply be as they are. Annie allowed herself to

25 Dec

Posted at 10:00h by
Discipline of PleasureThe word “discipline” is most often attached to things we don’t want to do. We don’t want to exercise and we don’t want to eat right, and therefore “discipline” seems like a bummer. Our idea of a well-disciplined person is close to that of a military recruit: rigid and tense, running his or her life like clockwork. It can seem that

18 Dec

Posted at 10:00h by
shortcuts_to_mindfulness_yogaIf you want to develop beyond the mainstream, you’ll have to be willing to do beyond what the mainstream does. If you look around at the 70% of Americans who are overweight, you’ll know that you simply cannot eat what everyone else is eating or participate in the health-ruining practices advocated by advertising. If you eat as you have been

11 Dec

Posted at 10:00h by
spiritual therapistMadison is as wide eyed as any child has ever been watching her seedling push its way up out of the Styrofoam cup. Like many kindergarten kids in America, her class has planted apple seeds and is waiting for them to grow. The children tend the plants lined up on the windowsill, learning that they require water, sunlight, and tender loving care. The students are taught about photosynthesis, and the making of chlorophyll. Mostly, they learn

04 Dec

Posted at 10:00h by
Spiritual EmergencyBack when I was studying for my NLP (NeuroLinguistic Programming) Certification, we were taught that if one person can do something well, anyone can figure out their strategy and replicate it for themselves. NLP’ers were busy systematizing all kinds of strategies for excellence: better golf swings, improved eyesight, weight loss, and successful business applications. All fine and good, I thought, but why aren’t we codifying something important, like how to increase levels of compassion?

27 Nov

Posted at 10:00h by
What's All This Talk About CleansingPeople can get really crazy with this stuff, but it does benefit you to cleanse your body from time to time. Body purification processes are good to learn about and practice. The idea is that we all have stuff that has not been completely eliminated clogging up our bodies and our colons and it needs to come out. This blockage is partially due to

20 Nov

Posted at 10:00h by
On Art As Therapy1) At the end of his life, Timothy Leary apologized for having written so many books. The book, he said, is out of date, old technology, and therefore only adds to the pollution of the world. 2) Writing as a Spiritual Practice was the name of a workshop I once attended. The leader was a Zen nun with a severe grey crewcut and three-hour-a-day habit which she executed whether she felt like it or not, unlike me. When you write about painful material from the past,

13 Nov

Posted at 10:00h by
After the InsightAfter an important insight into why you act the way you do, the long process of changing your behavior begins, one action at a time. Most people find it difficult to change without outside support, and if that is you, it doesn’t mean you’re weak or wrong in some way, merely a member of the human race. Here are ten suggestions for finding support: 1. Keep a journal - Writing down your thoughts and feelings while