Welcome to the Lake Tahoe Spiritual Living Center!

I was wrapping up my daily spiritual practice this morning, I had finished my meditation and was contemplating the beautiful newly formed icicles outside my window and thinking that perhaps I would get to photograph icicles this winter after all.  It had been one of my winter goals, but we haven’t had enough of a winter to form any icicles and I thought maybe I’d have to wait till next year.  But there are some beautiful icicles out there now!  Anyway, as I was contemplating that, letting my mind run loose instead of controlling it as I do during meditation, I realized that I had had a revelation.

What the revelation is is not important..well, it is to me, but it’s personal, and what I want to share for you is the process to get to the revelation, not the revelation itself.

You ever have a time in your life when something is bugging you?  Well, something’s been bugging me.  It’s a biggie.  All wrapped up with self esteem and limitations and all sorts of stuff.  Meanwhile, I’ve been reading “The Big Leap” by Gay Hendricks, in which he talks about the upper limits in our lives.  Those limitations we have in our lives that prevent us from being totally successful, or that create drama and havoc in our lives if do achieve success.  I call it my own personal glass ceiling.

I haven’t picked up the book in a few weeks, but Hendricks’ principles have been rolling around in my consciousness.  I love consciousness, it’s a wonderful thing.  You turn loose some thoughts in there and then go about your life and BINGO…..something happens.  Well, I’ve been thinking about Hendricks’ principles on an almost subconscious level as I’ve been going about my life.  And meanwhile, while thinking about my own personal glass ceiling, there’s been some stuff going on in my life that has been bugging me.  And I’m not sure why it’s bugging me, because it really doesn’t have a lot to do with me.  But I’m having to work to remain at peace with myself and with others.  I don’t like it when that happens.  It bugs me.  So I’m having a chat with one of my mentors yesterday and I’m venting and I know that she isn’t going to tell me to do anything, or give me any advice, because that is not her job, but she’s a good listener and all of a sudden I say something that stops me in my tracks.

It was the revelation.

The giant light bulb of awareness that made me realize just exactly where my self imposed glass ceiling is, just what my belief is that prevents me from achieving greater success.

I didn’t totally realize it at the time when I said it.  I knew I had said something profound and important to me, and as she was giving me support and reassurance, I was thinking.  “Hmmmm,” I said to myself, “there is something important about that.”  So we hung up the phone and I went about my business, and later on that night I allowed the statement to come back into my consciousness and thought about it some more, and this morning I wrote about it.

And I realized that I had, in my musings and in allowing the material in Hendricks’ book to rummage around in my consciousness, unearthed a deep seated belief that I had held my entire life.  And that now that I had unearthed and exposed it to the light of day, it could no longer exist.

See, here’s the deal, the bottom line:  whatever your beliefs are, whether you are aware of them or not, those beliefs create the reality in your life.  Those beliefs manifest into form.  Helping people unearth their beliefs and change them is a big part of what I do as a Practitioner and Coach.  So unearthing a belief is a big deal.  It’s a life changing revelation.

They say that awareness is over half the battle, and that has been my experience. I am aware now, and now it simply remains for me to replace that old belief with a new one.

So in a nutshell, here’s the process:

1.  Do spiritual practices, consistently and persistently.   Nothing, and I mean nothing, in your life with change until you change the inside, and that is done with spiritual practices.

2.  Read stuff.  I don’t much care what it is, but explore, seek, search, find.  Whatever calls to you, that’s what you need to be reading.  Don’t question it.  And if you aren’t a reader, take a workshop, or a class, or go to one of the book studies that are held at CSLCC or CSLLT.

3.  Explore where the limitations are in your life, without blame.  That means you don’t get to blame them and you don’t get to blame you.

4.  Talk about it.  I’m lucky, I’ve got a mentors and Practitioners and fellow students at my beck and call, all I have to do is pick up the phone.  They answer, we talk and I feel better.  There is something about talking about it that gets it out into the light of day, and sometimes in the conversation, as what happened to me yesterday, something will come out of your mouth that totally surprises you.

5.  Once you discover what the limitations are, and the beliefs behind them are, change the beliefs.  You can do this by replacing the old ones with new ones.  Affirmations are good for this.  You may need to get some help.  This is what Practitioners and Coaches are for.

6.  Do your spiritual practices, consistently and persistently.

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Private coaching is available over the phone or in person.  Call 530-906-9336 for more information.

Weekly meditation and discussion group is held every Monday night from 5 to 7 pm at Center for Spiritual Living Lake Tahoe.  Call 530-906-9336 for more information.

First of all, notice the logo?  You may have seen something similar, for there are Centers with this logo all over the world, except instead of saying Lake Tahoe underneath “Center for Spiritual Living” it says whatever city the Center is located in, so you might have Center for Spiritual Living Carson City, or Center for Spiritual Living Santa Rosa, for example.

What’s cool about this is that until last month I didn’t have the proper okee dokees to fly that particular logo, but now I am happy and proud to say that the Lake Tahoe Spiritual Living Center is now a formally approved Teaching Chapter with Centers for Spiritual Living!

This is exciting news for me, and for you it means more classes, plus now your donations are tax deductible!

As a Teaching Chapter with the Centers for Spiritual Living, we meet once weekly.  I’ve decided to hold our once weekly meeting on Monday Evenings.

You may  not be able to read the fine print, so here’s what we are doing:  Each Monday night, from now until we see fit to change it (which could be years), we will meet.  The first part of each meeting will have meditation instruction, a different type of meditation each week.  The second part of the meeting will be discussion, and currently the topic is based on the book, “Living Deeply, the Art and Science of Transformation in Everyday Life.”  This is an awesome book that will allow you to do just what it says:  transform your life.  This particular book has written exercises at the end of each chapter, so the last part of the meeting, at least for now, will be spent doing the written exercises.

So, gather you meditation cushion if you have one, bring your journal if you have one (I have journals for sale), and show up on Monday night at 5 pm (until 7 pm).

Cost is a tax deductible suggested Love Offering of $10.  I will also have books available for purchase.  Want more information?  Call 530-906-9336.

See you there!

Starting a new adventure is…well, it’s adventurous! 

First of all, there’s the excitement:  how cool, I’m doing something new, this is going to be great, it’s going to open all sorts of doors, I’m going to learn lots of stuff, meet new people! 

Then there’s the second guessing, those times when the committee starts in and says things like:  Yeah, right, uhuh.  This is going to be a dud, what on earth do you think you are doing?  No one is going to come to your party, it’s just like it was when you were a kid, you gave parties and no one came.

But right thinking prevails (and if it doesn’t, I want to have a chat with you) and the excitement returns.

So, last night we had our first ever book study at the Lake Tahoe Spiritual Living Center, and it exceeded my expectations. 

I’ve done book studies before, they are always rewarding, always fun, always well worth the effort, and this one was no different.  (it’s not  the book study that’s new, it’s doing it in the LTSLC that’s new!)  True, not everyone who said they were going to come, came.  But I was surprised by who did come, and it was perfect.  And I know that most of the people who initially said they wanted to come will come sooner or later.  It takes a while to get in the swing of things when something like this gets started.  I will be there, week after week, ready to talk about this and other wonderful books with whomever shows up. 

We had an awesome discussion, and as is the case with every book study I’ve ever conducted, we solved some world problems while we were at it (in this case we solved global warming and acid rain.  You had to be there to know how we got from a book on Choices to global warming and acid rain) got clarification on why we make the choices we make (for example, I now have a better idea of why I’m going to ministerial school), and got to celebrate some choices that turned out well.  And I know some folks are already thinking about future choices

This is a fun book that we are studying: easy to read, with profound insights.

So the message for you, dear reader, is this:  whenever you start a new adventure, there will probably be some doubts, some second guessing.  I think this might be normal.  But I also think that it is our job to acknowledge those negative thoughts, then replace them with more positive thoughts, and move on with intention to what we want to do.  With intention and a clear focus on positive thoughts, you cannot go wrong.

I know my book study will grow, they always do.  I know some people will come and go, as they do, and some will stay the duration.  And those that stay will benefit great rewards, and I will get a bonus of getting to know those people on an intimate level, as well as getting to share with them the insights and the revelations that come about as a result of discussing what we’ve read in the book.

So, if you are one of the people who wanted to come and didn’t, for whatever reason, that’s ok.  You are welcome to come whenever you can!  That’s the beauty of book studies:  you can come and go, it’s not like a class.  Although I will suggest that you will get more out of it if you come regularly.

Here’s the particulars:

Sunday nights, from 6:30 to 8:30 pm at the Lake Tahoe Spiritual Living Center.

Suggested love offering of $10

Current book is Choices that Change Lives by Hal Urban.  We have books for  you to purchase at the Center.

For more info, call me, Karen, at 530-906-9336, or send me an email at Karen@laketahoespirituallivingcenter.com

I am proud to announce the creation of an ongoing  book study group at the LTSLC!  We will be studying a different book each month, the book for April will be Choices That Change Lives: 15 Ways to Find More Purpose, Meaning, and Joy By Hal Urban.  Here’s a blurb from Amazon:

Hal Urban, author of the much-loved bestsellers Life’s Greatest Lessons and Positive Words, Powerful Results, gives us his third book of inspirational and practical wisdom on leading a more meaningful and more joyful life. With Choices That Change Lives, Hal reminds us that our lives are the result of our choices and the most important choices we make become our character traits, the ones that lead to fulfillment and peace of mind. He illuminates fifteen character traits that help us more fully develop our capacity to live rich and rewarding lives. He assures us that it’s never too late to change, to break the chains of self-defeating attitudes and habits, and challenges us to dig a little deeper — to grow in such qualities as humility, patience, empathy, and courage — and to renew ourselves daily.

It sounds like a great choice!  I can tell you that I facilitate a book study  group in Carson City on Tuesday nights at the CSLCC and it has become a very powerful group.  We talk about much more than the book!  Because it’s a study group and not a class, there is no homework (other than to read the book) and very little committment, just show up to reap the benefits of participating in the discussion!

Here’s the particulars:  Sunday nights, 6:30 to 8:30 pm, Lake Tahoe Spiritual Living Center, 3665 Tamarack in South Lake Tahoe.  Suggested love offering is $10 per group.  We will have books for sale at the first meeting.  Please let me know if you plan to attend so we can order enough books. 

This will be facilitated by myself and the two other Practitioners at the Lake:  Brenda Heldoorn and David Beecher.  We are quite a team, you won’t want to miss this one!

We are now in the Law of Attraction chapter in our Science of Mind book study.  Last night we studied the section called Attracting Friends.  It talks about love.  Then I go to my email box this morning, and two of the three inspirational emails I get every day are also talking about love.  Not only that, but one of them quotes the very paragraph that we read last night!  I was going to write about something else this morning, but I’ll save that for another day.  Obviously love is to be the topic this morning!  I’m going to also quote the entire paragraph from the textbook, because once again Ernest Holmes was on a roll when he wrote this one!

“One of the first things to do, is to love everybody.  If you have not done this, begin to do so at once.  There is always more good than bad in people, and seeing the good tends to bring it forth.  Love is the grandest healing and drawing power on earth.  It is the very reason for our being. and explains why it is that people should have something or someone to love.  The life that has not loved has not lived, it is still dead.  Love is the sole impulse for creation, and the man who does not have love as the greatest incentive in his life has never developed the real creative instinct.  No one can swing out in to the Universal without love, for the whole Universe is based upon it.”

Well, I think that just about says it all.  Love is healing, love is powerful, and without, we are basically dead.  So, what or whom do you love today?  Express that, show it, revel in it, feel it!  Enjoy it!  Experience the awesome power that love provides!

Ok, I’m calm now, relatively.  I also want to say a bit about this book study group we’ve got going on.  We’ve been meeting for quite some time.  There are about nine of us, we meet on Tuesday nights at the Center for Spiritual Living in Carson City, from 7 to 9 pm.  This group is powerful.  It’s so powerful that last night we decided that one of our members, Jim, was going to stand up in front of the entire membership soon and let them know what we’ve been up to, because we’ve been experiencing demonstrations in this group like crazy.  It didn’t start out that way, but we’ve sort of evolved from just a book study group into something much more.  The best part about it is that you can join us!  We would love to have you!  It’s a book study, not a class, so you can jump on in anytime.  As one of our other members said, she likes it because there are no assignments, no homework, no committment, no grades, no structure.  She comes because she likes it.

Anyway, here’s some of the things that have happened to the members of our group in the last few months.  One won a $10,000 jackpot.  Another decided to reactivate her real estate license because her clients wouldn’t stop pestering her for help with buying or selling homes.  Another got the home of her dreams, a veritable castle, for much less money than it was worth.  Another got a new liver.  I started my studies in the Masters Degree program at Holmes Institute.  Another has come to terms with some issues that were limiting her in her life.  We are going, as a group, to see Michael Beckwith when he comes to Reno in a couple of weeks, and decided last night that not only are we going to do dinner before the talk, but aferwards we might get a suite at a hotel in Reno and do a pajama party!  The only male of the group is really liking that one!  I know though, that he would love it if more men came to the group.

I’m only saying all this because if you live in Carson City (or Reno, or Tahoe, or Minden/Gardnerville), and you enjoy my blogs, you might want to come check it out.  This is a great way to see what this New Thought stuff is all about, to investigate the Centers for Spiritual Living.  Everything I write here is the same message that Centers for Spiritual Living all over the world carry, and if you are looking for a spiritual community, you’ve found it here.  Attendance is on a love offering basis, and we sometimes bring goodies to share.  Last night it was homemade (from scratch) cinnamon buns.

So, here’s the info once again:  Tuesday nights, from 7 to 9, at the Center for Spiritual Living in Carson City, which is in the Frontier Plaza, on the corner of Winnie Lane and North Carson Street.  We’re in the corner of the shopping center.  We can provide a book if you don’t yet have your own.  It’s the Science of Mind textbook, and we can also sell you one from our bookstore if you decide you want to stick around and join in on our miracles! 

I hope to see you there!

We had a grand time in the book study last night, as usual.

For those of you who aren’t familiar, every Tuesday night, at the Center for Spiritual Living in Carson City (1927 North Carson, in the Frontier Plaza on the corner of Winnie Lane and North Carson Stree) from 7 pm till 9 pm, I facilitate a book study.  We are studying the Science of Mind textbook, which was written by the founder of the Centers for Spiritual Living, Ernest Holmes.

Holmes was a prolific writer and a visionary in every sense of the word.  He envisioned a day when all of us would be for something and against nothing.  He saw the relationship between science and spirituality and formed an organization that today spans the globe, with thousands of centers all over the world.  I am proud to be a licensed Practitioner in that organization, and also proud to be a ministerial student.

Anyway, the textbook is a bit hard to read and understand, so we decided to form a study group.  It’s been about a year now, and we are up to page 268.  In two hours we solve all the world’s problems, as well as our own.  The conversation is likely to drift a bit.  Last night we talked about gambling, religion and physical health.  Most of that was in context of what we read.

You are welcome to drop in anytime.  Because it’s a book study and not a class, there is no catching up to do, no homework, no committments and cost is a love offering.  Just bring your book, because you’ll want to highlight stuff or write things in it.  But if you don’t have a book, we can loan you one from the bookstore, and you can even buy a copy there if you want!

At the Spiritual Living Center in Carson City (http://www.cslcc.org/) on Tuesday I am starting a book study.  This was requested by some folks and I believe in recieving what is asked for, so here we go!

We will be studying the Science of Mind textbook from 7 pm to 9 pm every Tuesday, at least through the summer months.  If you are at all curious about what the Centers for Spiritual Living are all about (http://www.unitedcentersforspiritualliving.org/) then this might be a good way for you to find out.  This is a group, not a class, which means you can show up when you feel like it.  You won’t get graded and it is being offered on a love offering basis.  The Science of Mind textbook is really the foundation of the entire New Thought movement, all the authors you’ve heard of write of the same stuff:  Wayne Dyer, Deepak Chopra, Marianne Williamson, Abraham, the list goes on and on.  If you’ve read any of those books and found it struck a chord within you, then you will enjoy this study group.

We are going to start with the foreward, which is written by Jean Houston, Ph.D, and then move into the first chapter, called The Thing Itself.  If you plan to come to the group, get yourself a highlighter.  Read the foreward and first chapter and highlight anything that jumps out at you.  It could jump at you because you identify strongly with it, or think it’s a bunch of nonsense, or because you don’t understand it.  It doesn’t matter, if it jumps at you, highlight it.  At the group, I am going to be asking you what you highlighted and why, and we will discuss it.  We might get through one page in a night, or we might get through an entire chapter.  There will be very little structure in this group, just fun and sharing of thoughts!

The Carson City Center for Spiritual Living is located at 675 Fairview Drive, Suite 218.  If you have any questions contact me.  I hope to see you there!