Welcome to the Lake Tahoe Spiritual Living Center!

Lately I’ve been finding myself hiding in an old familiar hiding place:  it’s a cave of isolation, made with walls of shame and low self esteem.

The reasons for my hiding out there are irrelevant:  we all have times in our lives when we might find ourselves back in that cave.  Or for you, maybe you’ve been there all your life and have yet to emerge.

I emerged a long time ago and discovered all the beauty and joy that life has to offer when I don’t hide behind shame and low self esteem, and since then I’ve made it my mission in life to discover all the tools I can to avoid that cave, and to know how to get out of it when I get there.

So like I said, I’ve been in the cave a while, sometimes without even knowing I was there.  I’m in the middle of experiencing a loss, and the grieving process gets a bit difficult at times.  It is, at times, difficult to know  the difference between grieving and self pity.

I’ve increased my spiritual practices, I’ve acknowledged that I need to be gentle with myself, I’ve gone out of my way to  help others, and yet, still, I am sometimes finding myself in that cave.  This particular loss is a biggie and it is taking everything I know and have to stay out of the cave.  And sometimes I find myself there anyway, with seemingly no path out.

Then the phone rang.

And with that phone call came a request to sing one of my favorite songs at the Celebration Service this Sunday morning at Center for Spiritual Living Carson City.

I don’t sing much, at least not in public, but I can do it when needed.  And this particular song is one of my favorites.  In fact, it is one of my signature songs, one of those I always go to when I need an uplift.  And when I’m in the cave, I sometimes forget that I have this song at my fingertips to lighten my load.

And when the phone rang this morning, I said yes, because I’ve been taught that those kinds of requests don’t really come from people, they come from Spirit, encouraging me to be and do more than I’ve been.  If I say no to those requests I am saying no to Spirit (later on I’ll talk about boundaries, but not here). I said yes even though a part of  me was saying, “NO NO NO!” and throwing out all kinds of excuses why I should say no.  I understand that is the  part of me that sometimes lives from fear, and while I can acknowledge that part is still there, I also know the reasons for its loud refusal and I can respond gently and quietly to its objections, and still say yes.

Then I realized I needed to rehearse.  Even though I know this song by heart, even though I can sing it A Cappella, I need to rehearse.  So I put on my ear piece so I could hear my own voice above the background music, so as to be able to fine tune any sour notes that came through, and Viola!  The magic happened.

I came out of my cave.  As I sang the words, I felt that tingle cover my whole body, I felt that little rush of adrenaline, that little lifting of the load that says, “YES, I can do this!”   The dog howled his accompaniment, and still I sang.  The cats looked at me weird and still I sang.  I danced and sang through the house, feeling every word at a soul level and once again feeling and knowing the truth of who and what I am.

I remembered that I had promised myself I would not hide any more.

I remembered who and what I was.

So I’m going to sing my heart out this Sunday morning, and along with that I’m going to release some more grief and move farther away from that stupid cave.  And I’m going to try and remember that music provides a wonderful path out of the cave.

Here’s some of the words to that song, which was written by Larry Steelman of the Joy Choir, from the Oakland Center for Spiritual Living.

“Today’s a new day for me, to make the best of all given to me.  I look around and I see nothing but all possibilities.  I’ve got a song in my heart, a dance in my feet, a praise ringing out my victories!  And I’ve got joy in the morning, and I’ve got joy in the night.  And there’s joy in the moment, walking in the light.  When I forget to remember all the blessings sent to me, I look back and I see how much good this god has given me.  I’ve got a song in my heart, a dance in my feet, a praise ringing out my victories!  And I’ve got joy in the morning, and I’ve got joy in the night.  And there’s joy in the moment, walking in the light.”

I’m walking in the light today.  I hope you are too.  And if for some reason you aren’t, come sing with  me on Sunday and we’ll walk in the light together!

I am writing this at the end of a very nice Thanksgiving Day, which also happened to fall on my birthday this year.  It is also a very difficult time in my life, with a lot of uncertainty and loss going on right now.  I am exhibiting definite signs of the grief process, with daily crying sessions, as well as some anger, bargaining and acceptance, all stages one goes through in a grief process.

I’ve also been hearing a lot about gratitude this month.  This is normal for November, but to be honest, getting to gratitude has been tough for me lately.  I just want to go and hide under the covers until “Gratitude Month” is over and done with.

But I also know some spiritual truths:  what I give out returns to me, what I think and believe is what I manifest in my life, and when all else fails, service to another human being will allow me to feel better.

So instead of going into self pity on this Thanksgiving/birthday, having some cheese with my whine and generally throwing a very large pity party,  I decided I would be of service, do an extra long spiritual practice, and write some tithe checks.  To put it bluntly, because I was finding it difficult to be in gratitude, in spite of much to be grateful for, I decided to give.  I volunteered to prepare the meal for my family on Thanksgiving.  This year we had Thanksgiving dinner at my dad and step mom’s house, but I knew it would be physically difficult for either of them to prepare the meal.  So I stepped in and did the grunt work, and enjoyed it thoroughly.   It felt good to do that, and I had fun, and it got me out of myself.  It helped.

The spiritual practice is just sort of a given.  I’ve been doing daily spiritual practices for about 20 years, and those practices, more than anything else, have saved my life.  Meditation has lowered my blood  pressure and helped with some other healthy issues, as well as contributed to an overall sense of peace and joy in my life.  Introspection has allowed me to know who and what I am, and to change without regret that which is not longer working for me.  It’s also allowed me to set healthy boundaries in my life, which contributes to an empowering sense of personal responsibility as well as an enlarging of my capacity for compassion.  Study of spiritual literature has deepened my understanding of the God within me, as me and through me, which has also contributed to my sense of joy and empowerment.  Mind/body work has helped me to successfully  deal with some other health issues.

I know first hand the power of spiritual practice, so when life happens in ways that feel more challenging than usual, I do more spiritual practices, not less.

The tithe checks are a big deal.   I’ve always believed the authors who write the abundance books;  they always include at least one chapter on tithing as a road to abundance.  But I’ve never tithed.  I’ve given a lot, of my time and energy and talent.  I’ve volunteered till the cows come home, but I haven’t tithed.  I’ve justified it by saying I simply could not afford it.  I’ve given a little bit of money, but I haven’t tithed.

But the reality is that it takes money to run a church.  I hear people complain all the time about being asked for money at churches.  My response?  Who do you think pays for the rent, the lights, the furniture, the phone?  Do you think the minister should work for free?   Do you think  the person teaching the class should do that for free?  I don’t, yet I still haven’t tithed.

It’s no wonder I’ve had struggles with money.

Then recently a couple of things have happened that have allowed me to get to a place where I was excited to write tithe checks.  First of all, someone tithed to CSL Lake Tahoe.  That felt so wonderful and miraculous, and that money will help immensely with growing this fledgling Center.  Secondly, I went to a service at  CSL Santa Rosa on one of my trips there for school and discovered that they have a program there where they give to local non-profits, and I became excited about doing the same here in Lake Tahoe.  I’ve also spent an hour once a week for about the last six months, working with another Practitioner on abundance.  And probably  most important, after all the study, the repeated instructions to tithe, the teaching of the spiritual  value of the practice, I finally have reached a place where I actually got out the check book and wrote out the checks.

And it feels good.

Giving feels good.  It just does.  And I know that in practicing this spiritual action of giving, I am activating all sorts of powerful laws.  And, in giving, I am already feeling a return to a very comfortable and familiar place for me:  gratitude.

So if you are tired of hearing about gratitude, and perhaps not feeling so grateful, try giving instead, and see how that makes you feel.

Here’s the image for November from the 2012 calendar.  I’m working on the 2013 calendar now!

The quote is from Rev. Jeff Anderson and says, “Life is full of problems.  That is a fantasy.  Life is full of challenging opportunities to deepen our relationship with God.  That is a fact.”

Life was not meant to be lived small.  My motto is sort of a mixed metaphor that goes something like this:  “damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead!  Go for the gusto!”  Yes, movie stuff, commercial lines….it’s amazing where we get our inspiration isn’t it?  That is one of the beautiful things about living a spiritual life, I think.  We can get inspiration from anywhere!  But I digress.

I found myself saying to someone the other day, “If I were in your situation I would be going for it.  I’d be enjoying every moment, living it to the fullest!  Damn the torpedoes, full *&^%$ speed ahead!”  And I realized that I said that not only for her situation, but for mine as well.  Because I have an area in my life in which I’ve been living small.  I’ve been allowing  “what if” and “yeah but” to limit me, to keep firmly shut any doors that might be presenting themselves, because of nonsense like societal pressure and fear.

But I know better.  I just forget sometimes.  I forget that fear is the Great Limitor and faith is the Great Liberator.  I forget that when I go deep within and do my spiritual practices there is no place there for fear.  I forget that I am That Which Is Everywhere.  I forget the deep levels of spirit that I have accessed and used and implemented in my life.  But when I remember, such as when I was in conversation with my friend, all fear dissolves and I realize that what is happening in my life is happening because somewhere along the line I was remembering who I truly was and made a decision to not live small.  What is happening in my life is allowing me to “boldly go where no man has gone before.”  There I go, back into the movie metaphors again, but I couldn’t resist.  I AM going where no one has gone before, and if you have made a decision to live large instead of small, then you are on that journey too.

And what I can tell you about taking such a journey is this:  don’t go without your Light.  That Light brings the comfort, the strength, the knowing and the being that will allow you to successfully navigate.  That Light allows faith to replace fear, it allows confidence to replace low self esteem, it allows knowing to replace doubt.  If you don’t know how to turn on The Light, then that is the first step for you on your journey.

You turn on The Light by many different things, which we at Centers for Spiritual Living call spiritual practices.  Take a class, get a mentor or a coach and implement their suggestions.  Meditation is probably the most valuable spiritual practice you can do, but there are others, like journaling or study.  The point is that if you have committed to a journey in which you don’t know the route, you will need The Light to guide  your way.

But with that Light, there is nowhere you can’t go, nothing you can’t do.  There is no living small when you have turned on The Light.  So, take a class!  Hire a coach!  Find a good book that resonates with where you are spiritually and study it, preferably with a guide.  If you don’t know how to meditate, learn, then do the practice consistently and regularly.  And pretty soon you will find yourself in that sweet delightful place of Knowing and Remembering, and your Light will be shining brightly all the time, and there will be no living small for you, just  full on enjoyment of all of what life has to offer.

I can’t resist it:   “Just Do It.”

First of all, before I launch into my story I have to give credit where credit is due:  I will be patterning this particular post after a style invented by fellow blogger, student and friend, Z, who writes a blog called Life in ZD.  I love the humor in her blogs, and I don’t think I’ll ever be as funny as her, but this hair dryer thing shouted out to do a Life in ZD imitation!

Here is the hair dryer story:

About a year and a half ago I needed to get a new hair dryer.  I was so excited to find a very pretty pink flowered hair dryer that I never even considered investigating what was under the hood.  I just got the dryer because it was pretty.  It was so pretty in fact, that I took a photo of it and posted it on Facebook, telling everyone how excited I was to have an extraordinarily beautiful pretty pink hair dryer.

Here is the hair dryer:

So my hair dryer and I embarked on our new partnership and I quickly discovered this hair dryer did not perform to expectations.  It was either too hot (it actually burned my hair a couple of times) or not hot enough, and it didn’t have enough wind power to dry my hair in a decent period of time.

So, for about a year and a half, I have lived with substandard hair drying.  I really haven’t been happy with my hair for a whole year and a half  (oh, and Annette, if you are reading this, it was totally the hair dryer, not you!).  But I stuck with this hair dryer because it proved my uniqueness don’t you see, and besides, I had other more important things to worry about.

Given that the hair dryer never really worked right, you might be surprised to learn that I grieved when it died last week.  See, I was proud to have a hair dryer no one else had, even if it didn’t work right.  Every morning I would turn that puppy on and marvel that I  had found yet another product that wasn’t your yukky basic black.  I reveled in my uniqueness, even if said uniqueness meant I subjected myself to a series of bad hair days.  I was unique and that was all that mattered!  So when the hair dryer died, it’s as if a part of my uniqueness died with it.  I grieved.

Then I bought a new hair dryer.  This one is white.   It does have a pink stripe, but that isn’t what makes it special.  What makes it special is it works.  It works miraculously, wonderously!  It doesn’t burn my hair, it has more settings than the other one did, and it dries my hair quickly.  And I haven’t had a bad hair day since I got it.  It’s perfect!  And my hair is perfect too!

Now, you may be thinking that this blog is about how far I (and maybe some of you) will go to prove that I am so much more unique than others, but no, that’s not what this blog is about.  This blog is about allowing the wonderful to come into our life.  See, I could have taken my pretty pink hair dryer to my local appliance repair man for repair.  And I would have gone on having a series of bad hair days while furnishing my rut as the unique and one and only owner of the world’s only pink hair dryer.  But I decided to dive into the unknown and buy a new hair dryer.  The unknown can be a scary place to be, and the tendency to stay in the known even if it is less than perfect, even if it is really bad, is strong, simply to avoid that fearful unknown place.  But I’ve learned that the unknown usually isn’t near as scary as I’ve made it out to be, and I also have a very strong spiritual practice which makes it almost fun to go into the unknown.  And with that dive into the unknown, I allowed something new and wonderful to come into my life!

So if you are contemplating whether to stay in the known just because it is comfortable, or because there is some other payoff, consider that jumping into the unknown may open  you up to new and wonderful things you never even dreamed of!

Aspen trees are not singular trees, but part of a large community of trees all descended from the same root system.  However, each tree is unique, and changes colors at it’s own pace, in it’s own time, and may change to a different color than it’s neighbor.

We can learn much from the aspen tree:  We are all part of the same human family, yet free to express our own uniqueness in our own way and at our own pace.   The aspen trees don’t judge each other for being different, nor should we.

Today, take a lesson from the aspen trees:  know yourself and freely allow yourself to express in your own way and time, and do not judge others for doing the same.

Meditation.

Study.

Contemplation.

Journaling.

Visioning.

Those are all spiritual practices, listed in my own personal order of preference.  When I take the time (make the time) to do those on a consistent and persistent basis, I feel happy and content.

When I don’t, I don’t.  It’s that simple.

I must not be doing enough spiritual practices lately, because lately I’ve found myself wondering why on earth so many people absolutely refuse to do these simple things that work.   Lately I’ve seen death, despair, judgement, criticism, blame, anger and worry, and no small amount of fear,  in the lives of the people who have asked me to help them, and in the lives of others who aren’t clients, but are people for whom I care about.  I’ve seen absolute refusal to do any of the inner work that would allow a ray of sunshine to beam into the darkness, dissipating that darkness like a light illuminates a dark room.  I’ve seen absolute insistence on destructive behavior, fixation on outside fixes, immersion in the latest pseudo-scientific fad “guaranteed” to make one feel better.  I don’t think I will ever know why people insist on doing things that don’t work, and on not doing things that do work.  It makes me sad.  So I breathe, I meditate, I study and journal, and I feel better.  And I feel better able to help those around me, because for some reason I have been called to do so, and sometimes it still boggles my mind that I have received this calling.  And I continue to suggest the spiritual practices and inner work necessary to allow people to be happy and content.  Some listen and heed the advice, some don’t.  The ones that don’t experience serious disruptions to their lives, sometimes even death, and when that happens I grieve.  I grieve for all the loss, the waste, the void of a life when it didn’t have to be that way.

And I go to do my own grieving in private, and do my spiritual practices, and get in touch with that Isness that is All, that Essence of Peace and Power and Beauty, and I once again feel at peace, and then I return to the land of the living, refreshed and energized, to try and fulfill my calling once again.

So today I will be spending more time than usual in spiritual practice, and add gratitude to the list with which I began today’s blog, because I have a quiet place to go to commune with my higher self, and because I have the time in which to do it.  And while I am there I will also do some treatments for those whom I know are feeling pain right now.  As well as for myself.  In fact, I think I will close this blog post with a treatment:

I know.  I simply know without doubt that there is only One.  One Power, One Presence, One All, One most magnificent Energy, Light, Beingness.  One All that is the perfect embodiment of Love.  And I also know without doubt that this Love Essence is everywhere present.  In fact, I know that  myself and every other human and every other thing, the Earth itself as well as the galaxies, were created so that this All could experience the physical in all it’s wonder and glory.  I was created so that God could experience the physical, pure and simple.   God is in me, through me, as me.  I am the perfect embodiment of God.  And it is in this embodiment that I  know that Power and feel that Power and experience that Power and use that Power and say with complete conviction and knowingness that I am at peace.  I am happy and I am joyfully fulfilling my calling as a teacher and spiritual leader.  I feel compassion and empathy while at the same time knowing the Truth for those with whom I come into contact.  That Truth is that they are now at complete peace.  They are experiencing all the good that there is to experience.  They are open to the good that is but theirs to claim, and they have claimed it.  They are happy, contented, and joyous as they go about their day to day activities.  They now know beauty.  They now feel peace, joy, happiness, contentment, and are experiencing a lightness to their steps, a smile on their faces, and an enthusiasm in their lives.  It is with the Power that I am that I claim this for them, and for you reading this, and it is with that Power that I release this word, back into the ALL POWER THAT IS, where the work is already done.  And so it is with gratitude that I close this treatment with those wonderful words of completion:  AND SO IT IS!

I saw a post on Facebook the other day.  It created what turned out to be an avalanche of feelings in me:  joy, gratitude, sadness and no small amount of grief.   Here’s the photo:

I first experienced joy because I realized what I was seeing was the advancement of women, that the President’s wife could dress appropriately for traveling and not have to be a Barbie doll to please the populace.  And that is where the gratitude came from as well, gratitude that today, as a woman, I can dress as I please, go where I wish, vote and pretty much do what I want, within the boundaries of the law.  Then I read the comments underneath the photo.  And here is where the sadness and grief came:  not one of the women who commented praised the President’s wife for dressing as the rest of do when traveling.  They all judged her:  they said she didn’t care, that she lacked self respect, and that she was setting a very bad example for young women in this country.

Really?

Oh dear.

I know that it’s an election year.  I also know that this election in particular is characterized by tremendous polarization.  Is it just me, or have the personal attacks and lies and propaganda, from all parties, descended to an all new low?

As a licensed spiritual coach and a ministerial student, I am trained to see the good in everyone and everything.  I do not approach a situation, or a client, or anything else, with a diagnosis of there being something wrong.  I approach it (or at least that is what I strive for) seeing the good, and if I can’t see the good, I first go within and see what within me is preventing me from seeing the good, and then I do my spiritual work to see the good in myself and in others.  I also  know that fear makes people judgmental, and it makes them do and say things they wouldn’t ordinarily do or say.  And I know that there is a lot of fear floating around the consciousness of the populace these days.  So in my spiritual practices I address my own fear, and then do my work  for the fearfulness of society.

So, in the case of Michelle Obama “dressing down” for an airplane flight, I say good for her.  For the people judging her because of the way she dressed for an airplane flight, they are included in my daily spiritual practices.

What does this have to do with spirituality, which is the subject of this blog?  Everything.  Fear keeps us lonely and bereft of the gifts that a connection with Spirit brings, it severs the connection, or prevents it from being formed.  Fear is the giant boogeyman of all things spiritual.  Judgment of another person by what they wear, or the color of their skin, or their gender, or even their sexual preference, is fear based.  All judgment is fear based.  When we judge another, we are saying we are afraid.  Perhaps another person’s sexual preference is somehow threatening to us, or perhaps judging someone else for what they are wearing makes us feel better about ourselves.  Or perhaps judgment allows us to somehow feel secure. I don’t know.  What I do know is that when I negatively judge another, I am the one who feels the pain from that judgement.

These days I am striving for no judgement at all, neither good nor bad.  It simply is.  Like the farmer, whose son brought home horses, broke his leg riding the horses, then didn’t get drafted because he had a broken leg, the farmer, through it all, refused to judge any of those happenings as good or bad, they simply were.

I feel better when I don’t judge.  How about you?

“Fear is excitement without the breath.”  Fritz Pearls

I heard this quote a couple of times last week and it’s been on my mind because it has powerful implications.

Breath does wondrous things to and for us.  A good, deep, mindful breath connects us to that place within where The Force lives.  A diaphragmatic breath can signal the body to move into relaxation in preparation for meditation or yoga.  And yes, when we are feeling fearful we tend to not breathe, or to breathe very shallowly.  Breathing into the fear replaces that fear with something more peaceful, like a peaceful breeze moving fresh air through a meadow, distributing all the beautiful scents of wildflowers, pine trees and meadow grasses.

What if fear really IS  excitement without the breath?  What if we could simply take a deep breath and feel the excitement of life?  Instead of anxiety, anger, sadness or any of the other ways in which fear manifests?

I know that lots of folks don’t recognize fear for what it is.  But it really is true that there are only two states of being:  fear or love.  If you are feeling something negative, it’s fear.  Next time  you find yourself sitting in a puddle of tears, or angry, or anxious, or depressed, or worried…..stop.  Just stop, and take a deep breath.  Take another one.  Keep breathing, deeply, until whatever feeling it is you are having subsides and is replaced by something more positive.  Revel in that new, positive feeling.  Know that the new positive feeling is good and right.  Know it for the excitement that it is, for a new and positive feeling can create a new and exciting situation for you.  Positive thoughts are much more powerful than negative ones, so breath away those negative, fearful thoughts, and allow them to be replaced with beautiful, positive and exciting thoughts.

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Centers for Spiritual Living have Licensed Spiritual Coaches that can teach you how to breathe and replace those fearful thoughts with exciting and more powerful positive thoughts.  Call 530-906-9336 for more information about spiritual coaching in the Lake Tahoe area.

When I was in college, I remember talking to my college advisor and he was saying that all of my classmates were having a party.  I hadn’t been invited, and when I asked why, he said, “it’s because they figured you would be too busy.  You’re always busy!”

I remember at the time thinking, “well, I’m working my way through college but that doesn’t mean I don’t have time for a party!” But he was right, I was working the night of the party, I couldn’t go.

Then, recently, I ran into an old friend who asked me if I was still as busy as I ever was.  She lived with me for a year or so and became the mom I never had:  she did my laundry, cooked for me and cleaned my house.  I loved it!  Missed her and her activities when she left to move into the brand new senior citizen’s center.  We were talking about her cleaning and cooking for me and she said she did it because I was too busy to.

There’s that busy thing again.

So I got to thinking…..which may or may not be a good sign.  But I got to thinking, “how busy is too busy?”  I do a lot:  I’m in a challenging Masters Degree program, I own two businesses and between them, I work full time, although it doesn’t seem that way because my hours are very flexible.  To me it seems like a very reasonable amount of time to work.  Others might perceive me as working too much, because honestly, I usually am working when other people are off.  They don’t see me get to sleep in most week day mornings, nor take a walk with my dog every afternoon, nor go and spend a few hours once or twice during the week to ride a horse.  They don’t see me go out into my yard just to sit in the sunshine for a few minutes every day, to listen to the birds and smell the garden. Yes, I do a lot. Yes, I’m busy.  But am I too busy?

I don’t think so, although some have implied it.  And there is a shadow side of me that tells me that yes, I am indeed too busy.  But really, how busy is too busy?  Isn’t life meant to be lived to the fullest?

I get enough sleep every night.  I meditate every day.  I am in balance, most of the time.  I spend a considerable amount of time “being,” as opposed to “doing.”  I live this way so that I can do better.  I live from the inside out.  And  I live a rich full life with only the limitations that I set on myself.  But yes, it is busy.  It is also wonderfully full and rich and delightful.

Isn’t that the way it is supposed to be?

I guess I’m wondering, do people really have time in their lives when they don’t have something to do?  Isn’t everyone busy?   How busy is too busy?  Perhaps I should have asked my friend that when I spoke with her, maybe I will the next time I see her.

In the meantime, it’s something to think about.  How busy is too busy?  If you are so busy that you are out of balance, stressed out, with stress-caused diseases because of it, perpetually feeling overwhelmed….that’s too busy.  If you never take any time for yourself, to go see a movie, or get a massage, or take a walk, or do something you enjoy doing just for the sheer joy of it, that’s too busy.  If life just seems to be one string of doing one thing after another, a sort of treadmill that you have to keep walking on or you will fall off….that’s too busy.  If you are keeping busy because to stop would mean to feel and lord knows you can’t do that because if you feel you will fall apart…..that’s too busy.

Life wasn’t meant to be a treadmill of busyness.  It is meant to be full and rich, containing an assortment of wonderful things, like a buffet that you can pick and choose what you want from.  And then you can rest when you are full.  If you find that you seem to be just…busy…with no richness, no rewards, no fullness, just busyness, then you might want to rethink some things.  You deserve better.

It might be time to hire a coach to help you make some changes if you think you are too busy.  Or maybe it might be time to incorporate some spiritual practices into your life if you think you are too busy.  It may seem contradictory to sit in the silence for 20 minutes a day when you are so busy, but I guarantee it:  if you take time to do a spiritual practice every day, you will be able to accomplish  much more in your life and feel better doing it.  That’s working from the inside out, and it works very well.