Welcome to the Lake Tahoe Spiritual Living Center!

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.

Today is Mother’s Day and even though my mother moved on to the next plane of existence fourteen years ago, I still think of her and the lessons I learned from her when days like Mother’s day roll around.

My mom was a, shall we say….ahem….colorful character.  She liked fast cars and faster men, in an age when such a thing was REALLY frowned upon.  She also liked the lifestyle that went with fast cars and fast men.  Some say I had an abnormal childhood because of who and what she was, but I never compared my childhood with others, so I didn’t see it as abnormal. I never doubted my mother’s love for me, even if it was expressed in unconditional ways.  Our relationship was rocky, and there were years when I did not speak to her and years when I lost my respect for her.  She was never really a traditional mother figure for me, but she was, still, my mother.  At the end, I had done my work and loved her and honored her place as mother in my life.  At the end, forgiveness was complete for me.  I continue to be grateful for what my mother taught me, so here is some motherly wisdom for you.

1.  Always tip the cab driver, because you never know when he’s going to sit at your table.  Back then this had a practical aspect:  she was a waitress and I ended up being a waitress for many years while putting myself through college.  Today I know this wisdom is another  way of voicing a basic spiritual truth:  we receive what we put out, do unto others as you would have them do unto you.

2.  Don’t let anyone tell you you can’t do something because you’re a girl.  My mother was a feminist from the get go, she didn’t believe in women not being able to do anything they wanted because they were women.  She illustrated this by becoming a very good amateur race car driver, she raced Porsches.  She taught me to drive, and owning a Porsche Targa convertible is on my bucket list, that’s a legacy from my mom (my dad prefers British cars…just sayin’).  Today I see what she voiced back then as another version of the concepts of non-duality and non-separation.  Just as Spirit is not separate from us, neither are we separate from other humans by virtue of our gender, race or any other perceived difference.  To this day I really don’t much care for all women retreats, or for anything that excludes because of gender or race.

3.  Forgiveness gives the person doing the forgiving the relief, not the forgiven.  My mom wasn’t the only one who taught me this, but she was the one who taught me it was important to forgive before they move on to the next plane of existence.  Forgiving to someone you can’t consciously communicate with is, at least for me, unsatisfactory.  Somehow, when she was getting ready to move on, I knew this, even though I hadn’t yet even begun my Practitioner training, and made sure that nothing was left unsaid before she went.  I also made sure that I did everything humanly possible to be there for her and be a good daughter to her in those last months.  This entailed many trips to Fallbrook, CA, where she was living at the time.  I would work my weekends as a wedding photographer,  then go to see her for a day or three during the week, then fly back home to Tahoe and do it all over again.  During my times with her I would sleep on the floor in her bedroom (no room for a cot, and it was too painful for her to share the bed) because she didn’t want to be alone, and I would spend the days with her watching TV together, or talking, or reminiscing.   I am so grateful for that experience!

4.  Downshift and slow down coming into a curve, then speed up coming out of it, and hug the corners.  This is standard race car driver speak, and she taught me well.  I’m sure my  mother never meant any of the stuff she taught me to be metaphors for life, but that’s what I’ve done with these lessons.  The metaphor here?  We all experience curves in life, those times when the path we are on becomes a bit tougher to negotiate.  This is the time to slow down a bit and be gentle with ourselves.  The slower gentler pace will make it easier to negotiate the curve, and when we begin to come out of the curve we can speed up a bit if we like.  And just as there will always be curves, the curves will also always straighten up.

5.  My mom also taught me some lessons that I’ve had to unlearn.  The biggest one was “don’t rely on anyone for anything.”   I don’t know why she felt she couldn’t rely on anyone, but I do know that the people in our lives are mirrors for ourselves.   All that color and character did make her a bit unreliable in certain situations, so it is no surprise that she attracted unreliable people into her life.  My journey has first been to make myself reliable, and then to know that others are reliable too.  And in order to rely on others, I’ve had to have a certain amount of trust.  Guess what?  I had to trust myself first before I could trust others.  I still have to consciously remind myself that I can ask for help, and it is always rewarding when I do.

I am so grateful for the lessons my mom taught me. I would not be the person I am today if it weren’t for her influence, and I like that person.  Today is a day when many are celebrating their moms.  If you’re mom is alive, spend some time with her and tell her how grateful you are for her influence in your life.  And if you can’t do that, just wish her a Happy Mother’s Day and make it a goal to be able,  by next Mother’s Day, to be grateful for her and to express that gratitude to her.  You will be glad you did.

Sometimes living inside one’s own head is akin to walking  in a dangerous neighborhood.    Alone.   In the dark.

It’s difficult sometimes to look on the bright side, make a gratitude list, do the next indicated right thing, meditate, connect with Spirit, journal about positive stuff, help another, or even get out of bed when life just doesn’t seem to be cooperating.

And I don’t know about you, but if life isn’t cooperating, I venture even deeper into that dangerous neighborhood, comparing my insides to other people’s outsides and going to that old familiar place of low self esteem, and even wallowing in self pity:  laying in bed in a fetal position, hiding under the covers, crying my eyes out.

Ever been there?

Sometimes even chocolate doesn’t help.

I admit that sometimes it is necessary to blow off a bit of steam and have a pity party.  Someone once told me that it helped to give herself a specific period of time to do the pity party thing.  She gave herself an hour, or maybe a day,  no more, and then moved on.  So if you are in a low point, allow that pity party….for a little while.  Then move on.

While it may seem like too much work to make a gratitude list and actually FEEL the gratitude for the things on the list, I can tell you that this tool is particularly valuable during low times.  While wallowing in self pity may sometimes seem like comfortable place to be, it is true what Jerry and Esther Hicks say about vibration:  we set up that low vibration and then attract more of that into our lives.  It is critical to go to a place of gratitude during those times when life seems bleak.

It is also extremely important to not walk the journey alone.  Reach out, pick up the phone, call people, visit, do social stuff.  Invite someone over for dinner, or cook a casserole for someone who isn’t feeling well physically.  Bake cookies for the local firehouse.

Another helpful tool is to take action.  One of my favorite sayings is “responsible acts build self esteem.”  If you are wallowing in self pity, the best way to feel better about yourself is to do something positive and productive.  And don’t beat yourself up because it isn’t enough.

And above all, here’s what I know about life and Spirit and manifestation:  We only receive that which we are capable of receiving.  Life, Spirit and things move through us, as us.  If we want more or better or whatever, we first need to BE that which we want.  When we BE, then Spirit can move in and through and as us.  Then it seems as if magically things begin to turn around.  It really isn’t magic though, it is simply ancient spiritual laws in action.

So if things aren’t going so well, apply those spiritual laws and then watch them work to co-create with you wonder and beauty and majesty and great things in your life.

I hope you don’t get tired of hearing me talk about the Integration Conference.  There was enough wisdom there to write a book!  I couldn’t take notes fast enough, and to be honest, I don’t even have anything in my notes about The Third Way, although when Kathy Hearn, the Spiritual Leader of Centers for Spiritual Living talked about it, it was another one of those moments for me.  I had lots of those moments:  Ahas, gratitude, tears of joy, laughter, release, spiritual awakenings in the form of shifts in being, awareness and perception.  The entire week was like going to a Celebration Service, over and over again.

Ok, back to The Third Way.  It is not my phrase.  I don’t even know if it’s Kathy Hearn’s phrase, but she is who I heard it from first, so I’m giving her credit for it.

It refers to a different way of looking at things.  It’s not your way, my way or the highway, it’s another way of finding common ground upon which we can build a future.  Hearn was talking about our two organizations coming together, but this stuff can be applied to our personal relationships too.

How many times has a relationship been destroyed in your life because someone took a my way or the highway stance?  What if there could be another way to do things?  What if, together, you could remember the power of Love, and the power of two or more people gathered together with a common goal and common wishes, and forget the little stuff, the details, and just go with Love and find The Third Way.  Or create The Third Way?

If it can be done with 500 people, it can be done with two, and it can be done with other sized groups.

It can be done by forgetting the past.  I’m am still loving the quote I put in yesterday’s blog:  “When you condemn what was, you cannot create was wants to be.”  It can be, admittedly, a process to get to a place where you are done telling the story of the past.  This is where life coaches come in handy.  Or, you can simply decide to stop telling that story.  Just be done with it.

Once you are done with the story, you are ready to be in the now.  The now is where the power is.  It is where the Love is.  In the case of our group of 500 people, all together in one room voting on amendments, we had an agreement:  if anyone at anytime issued a call for prayer, we stopped what we were doing and did just that.  We did this several times, and each time it happened, I remembered what it was all about.  It was about Love, and allowing that Third Way to come into being, and remembering that my old way of thinking no longer served me so well.

I have a perfect example of that, and I am sorry to say that I did not come to this realization until after the conference was over.  We had an amendment on the floor about youth.  The amendment was very poorly written, and very difficult to understand.  The youth in the room saw a vote against it as a vote against them.  Some others, myself included, saw the amendment as poorly written.  I am not against youth, in fact I have realized that they play a very important part in our lives and in our Centers.  Their newness, their freshness, their openness and enthusiasm is needed and very much welcomed.  But I voted against the amendment because of how it was written.  It passed anyway.  Later I realized that I was not thinking in terms of the Third Way during that vote.  I was still in my old thinking, that the amendment was confusing and poorly written, and needed to be redone.  Later, I realized, “so what?”  The time to pass the amendment was at the Conference, not later.  Amendments can always be changed.  I don’t know why I lapsed into old thinking during that particular vote, when I was in the Third Way for the rest of it.  Perhaps I was tired.  But I’m glad I was able to see later, upon reflection, that I was not thinking in terms of the Third Way when I voted the way I did.

All I know is it was a good lesson for me.  A lesson that says it’s ok to let go of the details.  What is the right thing to do, no matter what?  No matter what the consequences, no matter if some of the details need reworking?  And what is it in me that likes to hang onto ways of doing things and justifying them with details?  How much of that kind of thinking keeps me stuck?  Is there anything in this lesson that you can use to get unstuck?  To move forward in a spirit of Love?

How can you apply the lesson of the Third Way in your life today?  Are you a part of a group that is stuck in a story?  Or maybe there is a relationship in your life that you can view differently?  Or maybe there is a situation in your own life in which you can be open to ways of being and doing that never occurred to you before, and allow that Third Way to operate in your life.

I’d love to hear your Third Way stories!

It’s the eve of Christmas eve.  Do you know where your peace is?

I’m getting  a lot of reports of stress so let’s destress a bit shall we?

Try asking yourself:  How important is it?  How important is it that the next task you have set for yourself get done?  Wouldn’t it be more important to use this time to spend with family and friends?

It seems to me that Christmas is about family and friends.  It’s about honoring them with the gift of your love, your friendship, your well wishes and maybe some of your time.  The physical gifts, well, that stuff comes and goes.  How important is it?

Christmas, if you are not a religious person, can also be a time of introspection, a time of preparing for the coming year.  Almost everyone has extra time off work during this time; spend some time in contemplation and journaling about your intentions for the next year.

Metaphorically and spiritually, Christmas is about beginnings.  A new season begins around this time.  It’s the time when the days are short, the nights are long, and things seem to settle down a bit, at least after Christmas is over. There is a purpose for this:  through out the ages humans and other living critters have used winter as a time of rest and rejuvenation and preparation for what is to come in the spring, when they then get active once again and plant, prepare, and position themselves for a successful summer.

So today, in preparation for a day in which almost the entire country takes a day off and celebrates, stop and take a deep breath.  Stop and appreciate the beauty of the season:  the lights, the colors, the energy of giving and gratitude.  Stop the hustle and bustle, or at least slow it down a bit, and enjoy.

I hope you have the most WONDERFUL Christmas ever!

Twas the night before Thanksgiving, all the through the house, it was eerily quiet, as the pipes had frozen (I know it doesn’t rhyme, work with me here).  There followed a sleepless night,  with me wondering, “how am I going to cook, when will I be able to take a shower, and oh my god, how much are they gonna charge me to come out on Thanksgiving day to thaw the pipes, and will they even be available?”

So I wait till 8 am, and call my guys:  Lake Tahoe Plumbing and Heating.  Not only did they answer the phone, but they said they could have a guy out “midday.”

So I’m thinking, noon he will be here, meantime I have to get the bird in the oven and just do the best I can.  I’m discouraged, because it’s slow this month and I’m going to have to use my birthday money to unthaw the pipes.  I’m also a bit angry, frustrated, pretty much the gamut of negative emotions.  I know that this is not good, so I embark on a mission to turn those emotions around.  I go into my yard and park my hiney on a mound of snow (I’m wearing my waterproof powder pants) and turn my face to the sun and meditate until I get back to that place of gratitude and peace I know and love so well.

Then I decide, since I can’t shower and can’t clean, I might as well get started on the snow labyrinth I’ve been wanting to dig, so I did.

Steve, the owner of Lake Tahoe Plumbing and Heating, calls me about 12:15 and says, “I’m sending Pete over to unthaw your pipes.”  I thanked him profusely, so full of gratitude that they were even willing to come out on Thanksgiving Day.  Turns out Pete was missing out on Thanksgiving dinner with his family, and I offered to make him a plate if they didn’t save him any food.  All he had to do was come back anytime after 3 and I’d fix him a plate.

Anyway, the pipes were unthawed in about 5 minutes, as is usually the case.  I don’t know how they do that, all I know is they do it, they do it well, and I’m grateful.

So when Pete was done, I took a deep breath and asked him how much money he wanted, he said nothing.  Steve had told him not to charge me.

My first point of this long diatribe is that Lake Tahoe Plumbing and Heating is the BOMB!  They’ve always been the BOMB!  I’ve owned my house for almost 15 years and in that time they have fixed heaters, toilets, frozen pipes and replaced a sewer line.  They have ALWAYS been there when they said, they have ALWAYS done a great job, and the guys that come out to the house have ALWAYS gone out of their way to make sure they didn’t leave a mess.

If you ever have any plumbing or heating needs in Lake Tahoe, please call Lake Tahoe Plumbing and Heating.

My other point is about gratitude:  I’m usually a pretty upbeat person and gratitude, although sometimes I have to work to get there, like I did yesterday morning, is a very powerful spiritual tool.  One can always find something to be grateful for.  What we place our attention on grows, and yesterday I turned my thoughts away from the troubles and towards the good stuff, and even more good stuff came.

So I send this story of gratitude out to all of you, hoping you had a wonderful Thanksgiving, and wishing you lots of things on your gratitude list!  And don’t forget to call Lake Tahoe Plumbing and Heating if you need any plumbing or heating work done!

It’s the day before Thanksgiving, do you know where your gratitude list is?

Thanksgiving is a perfect time to reinforce the very powerful principle of gratitude.  What we focus on expands, so it makes sense to focus on things for which we are grateful, instead of the opposite.  Even if you have suffered some setbacks this year, think of  how you can perceive things differently. How can you make lemonade out of lemons?  Being grateful sets very powerful laws in motion, laws for your good.

If you don’t have a gratitude list, start one today.  Add at least one item to the list every day for 66 days.  Why 66?  I did some research and while it’s not conclusive, it is one of the lengths of time mentioned that will firmly establish a habit in your life.  And if you can have a habit of gratitude, you be in the flow to create more of that for which you are grateful.

Some days you might find it difficult to find something for which to be grateful.  Find something.  It doesn’t have to be big, it can be perforated toilet paper if you can’t come up with anything else.

So take some time on this day before Thanksgiving, amidst the shopping and preparing for the big meal,  and remember to be grateful.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Money, Metaphysics and the Meaning of Life starts this week!  I’m so excited!  The roster has exceeded my expectations and I am so grateful for the opportunity to be able to teach and learn with such a great group of people.   The Lake Tahoe class is just about where I want it to be for everyone to get the maximum benefit! And the Carson City class presented some pleasant surprises with the registration of people I never thought would be interested (a great illustration of how I limit myself in my own life by the way!)!  We are going to have eight weeks of fun, learning, growing and spiritual awakenings, that’s for sure!  If you think you might want to take the class, you can still register, but call me today!  My number is at the bottom of this post.

For the benefit of those of you who are not taking the class, I’ve been writing about some of the concepts which will be presented in the class.  The basic foundation from which all other ideas stem  is one of the divine flow that comes from within.  What is it?  How do we enlarge this flow?  How do we connect with it?  How do we go within?  What on earth does that mean?  All of the daily readings in the Abundance Book are centered around this theme, and in doing them every day I’ve been thinking a lot about this concept, and today I read a section in Spiritual Economics that helped to tie everything together.

In our society, most of us are conditioned to think that the money we earn comes from outside things like jobs and investments.  But the reality is that jobs and investments are only manifestations of our consciousness, our way of thinking.  It is really the Consciousness of the Divine within each and every one of us that creates the jobs, and it is our attitude about our jobs and our lives that determines all of our outside circumstances.

Do you go to work determined to do the best job you can, even if all you are doing is putting together widgets?  Do you go to work determined to not only do the best job you can, but to figure out ways to grow in that job, and do things perhaps a bit differently?  When I was a kid, I worked as a waitress in a coffee shop.  I had progressed from a bus girl, but I really didn’t know how to be a good waitress.  And back then all I could do was complain about the bad tippers in the restaurant.  There was a lady there who had been a waitress for years, and she took me under her wing.  She taught me that being a waitress was about much more than slinging hash.  It was about remembering how people took their coffee, and preparing it for them as soon as they walked through the door, so it was ready at their seat by the time they got there.  She taught me that taking the extra step to heat the dinner rolls would make their dinner much more enjoyable.  She taught me that paying attention to the customers and making their dining experience a special thing would not only earn me better tips, but would make my job a whole lot more pleasurable.  I don’t know if she realized that she was teaching me about divine consciousness back then.  I certainly did not see it that way.  But I grew to love my job while I was a waitress, it became fun.  I came to take a personal interest in my customers, and like my waitress mentor, soon had a base of customers that would come into the restaurant to sit at my station and enjoy their meal with me.   Today I still use the principles she taught me, as they are applicable in any job.

I still work with the public, and I do not think it is an accident that when I forget about Divine Consciousness and come from a place of fear and lack, that is what I experience in my job.  When I come from a place of serving my clients as best I can, with imagination and gratitude, not only do I enjoy my job more, but I earn more money!

You might be in a job where you enter  numbers into a computer, or empty the garbage.  You may think that there would be no opportunity for imagination or growth in your job.  If so, I urge you to change your thinking, for it is in the changing of our thinking that we change the circumstances of our lives.  Explore ways in which you can enlarge your consciousness.  Think about how you can come from the Divine Flow within you, instead of expecting something outside of you to provide you with sustenance.  Even if all you are doing is emptying the garbage, think about how you do that.  Do you make a mess while doing it, or do you perhaps think about the part you are playing in keeping things clean and neat?  Could there be a better way of doing it?  Maybe you could use scented trash can liners?  Do you “whistle while you work?”  Is there a way you can be a source of happiness for  your co-workers?  Are you a part of a team, or do you consider yourself a loner in your job?

These are the kinds of principles that apply no matter what.  It doesn’t matter where you are a waitress or a sanitary engineer or the president of a large corporation.  The same Consciousness applies.  Develop that Consciousness, and watch your life prosper!

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Karen Linsley, RScP, is a licensed Spiritual Coach and current Ministerial Student at Holmes Institute.  She will be teaching Money, Metaphysics and the Meaning of Life on Wednesday nights in Carson City (for 8 weeks beginning October 13) and on Thursdays (beginning October 14) in Lake Tahoe.  For more information, email her at karen@laketahoespirituallivingcenter.com



One of the concepts we will be discussing in Money, Metaphysics and the Meaning of Life is gratitude.  But, as Eric Butterworth explains in the book we will be using, Spiritual Economics, gratitude really does us no good if we are coming from a place of lack.

To illustrate:  are you truly grateful for your job?  Or do you complain about it?  “I’m grateful I even have a job, but I sure wish I didn’t have to work these hours!”  or “I’m grateful for the work, but this is grunt work, I should be doing something better.”    Statements like these come from a place of lack, a place of pessimism.  Coming from this place, placing your attention on the bad hours or the grunt work, for example, will simply ensure that you have more of the same.  Instead, place your attention on the good things about your job:  “I love being off work when everyone else is working, because I can go to the beach and have it to myself!”  Always get the view from the top, look on the bright side, find the silver lining in the cloud.  I’m not saying you should simply settle and never strive to better yourself, I’m saying to simply be grateful for what you have while working towards your goals.

There is a story that I periodically hear about, and I may get some of the details wrong, but it illustrates perfectly about getting the view from the top.  There were two little boys, and for their birthday they were placed in a room full of horse manure.  One of the little boys was an eternal optimist, the other one was a pessimist.  As you can imagine, the pessimist drew to him circumstances  that were less than ideal.  On the other hand, the optimist was always grateful, and drew to him wonderful things.  When they were placed in the room, the pessimist simply started to cry and whine about his lot in life, wondering why on earth he should be bad enough to receive nothing but horse manure for his birthday.  The other little boy, however, was gleefully digging through the stuff, throwing horse manure this way and that, having a ball.  The pessimist asked him, “What on earth are YOU so happy about?  It’s a room full of horse manure!”  And the optimist replied, “with all this horse shit, there HAS to be a pony somewhere!  I’m going to find that pony and go for a pony ride!”

Always look for the pony, it is there!  Know that you draw to you what you think about, so always get the view from the top.  Don’t think about what is lacking in your life.  Thing about what is good in your life.  Concentrate on that.

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Karen Linsley, RScP, is a licensed Spiritual Coach and current Ministerial Student at Holmes Institute.  She will be teaching Money, Metaphysics and the Meaning of Life on Wednesday nights in Carson City (for 8 weeks beginning October 13) and on Thursdays (beginning October 14) in Lake Tahoe.  For more information, email her at karen@laketahoespirituallivingcenter.com

What are you feeling today?

Did you know that whatever you are feeling is a blueprint for what will manifest in your life?

The Universe always says yes.  It says yes to our feelings and the overall patterns of our thoughts.  I’ve always known this.  It’s a fact that has been proven to me over and over again.  So, when my thoughts and feelings turn to something less than productive in my life, I employ the spiritual tools I have at my fingertips to change those thoughts and feelings to something more productive.

Here’s some tools you can use to change your thoughts and feelings:

1.  Do something different than what you’ve been doing.  It doesn’t have to be anything big; you don’t have to move or change jobs or partners.   In fact, sometimes making a change like that is simply a band-aid, you are still bringing you along for the ride and the ride will look like what you look like on the inside.  That’s a topic for another blog.  For today,  try going to work using a different route.  Or listen to a different type of music than you usually do.  Or call someone you don’t speak with often.  Or bake some cookies.  Then bring them to the local fire station.

2.  Make a gratitude list.

3.  Meditate.  Meditation does not have to be difficult.  If you think you don’t know how, just sit quietly and contemplate your surroundings.  Do a search on my blog for meditation, I have lots of posts about how to meditate.

4.  Get outside in nature.

5.  Every time you have a feeling that is not serving  you, thank it.  Thank it for sharing.  Acknowledge it.  Then tell it that you are going to do and be something more positive  now, and that it is free to join you, or to go away.

A pattern, over time, of changing your thoughts and feelings to something more positive will lead to a happier you, and a happier life!