Welcome to the Lake Tahoe Spiritual Living Center!

“A positive attitude may not solve all your problems, but it will annoy enough people to make it worth the effort.”  Herm Albright

“It is wonderful to contemplate the mental attitude of people who are not afraid to believe their prayers will be answered.”  The Science of Mind, page 161, from the chapter called Faith

The previous two quotes are from the daily meditation for August 31, 2011, written in the Science of Mind magazine by Leta Miller.  You can get an online version or subscribe to a printed version by going to http://www.scienceofmind.com/home.  Each month the magazine, which has been published continuously since 1927, features a set of daily  meditations written by a different author.  Although I read other daily meditation books, I have found I return to the magazine over and over again for my daily “dose” of spirit!

Ok, now that all my attribution is done, I can get to the point of today’s post.  The other day I was chatting with an acquaintance about a function we both participated in.  Sales were down this year for both of us, and while she was complaining that she would never do this function again (she said the same thing last year), I was happy because of the networking opportunities I had by participating.  And she said, “well of course you would make lemonade out of it.”

She was annoyed, and my thought was, “why would I think any other way?”  Why wouldn’t I choose to look on the bright side?  Why wouldn’t I want to grab hold of all the good I can?  And why would I place attention on negativity?”  It is a scientifically proven fact that what we place our attention on grows.  Quantum physics has proven it, over and over again.  (I just love it when science proves something that spiritually minded folks have been asserting for thousands of years!)  I don’t set out to annoy people with my optimism, but it seems to happen.  I don’t understand why someone would get annoyed at someone else’s optimism either, but have learned that is their choice, and has nothing to do with me.

So here’s some tips on how to uplift your life, and if you like to be annoying, that’s a side benefit that will just come naturally.

1.  Think positive!  Any time you have a negative thought, move to the other side of the thought.  Do not park on the negativity.  Your thoughts have power, and that negativity will manifest.  The cool thing is that positive loving thoughts have more power than negative ones do.

2.  If you must judge, judge in a positive way.  This applies to people, institutions, the weather, everything.  Did you know that judgement is simply your opinion of yourself  turned inside out?  Yep, whatever you are judging anything else for, look within, because that is the source of the judgment.  If  you spot it, you got it!’

3.  If you find yourself unable to move from negativity to positive thinking, and unable to stop judging, and you really want to live life differently,  get some help.   Something within you is calling, something within you wants to manifest good in your life, something within is saying that it is time to think and be and do in new ways.  However, most of us need assistance when we want to learn a new way of being.  A coach is good for holding the light and showing you where to dig, and they can nudge you when you falter.  It is not always easy to live in a way that is different from the way you’ve done it your entire life, which is why I put that little caveat in there about really wanting to change, because there will be parts of you that balk.   It’s good to have the supportive wisdom of someone who is trained to guide through the path of change.

4.  Listen to uplifting music.  I particularly like disco for this!  It prompts movement, and movement in our bodies create yummy things called endorphins, which are a natural attitude booster.  Any kind of movement will do actually.  If dancing to disco doesn’t float your boat, go outside and take a walk, or ride a bike, or go to a gym, or dig in your garden, or even clean house!

5.  Help someone else.   Every religion and spiritual tradition teaches this.  It is the wisdom of the ages, helping others.  If you do nothing else, do this.  I know a lady who bakes cookies at Christmas  for all the fire stations in town.  Another fosters dogs until they are ready for adoption.  I know others who volunteer their time at various charitable organizations.  I provide free coaching on a regular basis and donate my time and services to my local Center for Spiritual Living.  Attorneys do some pro bono work.  Doctors provide free medical services.  Find your niche, and fill it.

6.  And last but not least, remember that happiness is a choice.  Abraham Lincoln was right when he said that we are as happy as we make up our minds to be.   Ultimately, it is your choice.  No one is going to stop you if you want to sit in misery, but choose happiness and you will find an entire village of people supporting you and doing what they can to help you achieve your goal.

Go with the flow.

What does that mean anyway?  If you go to Urban Dictionary.com, here’s the definition:  “To not push against prevailing behavior/norms/attitudes, occasionally including bowing to peer pressure.”  Wow.  I’m not liking that definition much, and it doesn’t fit with  my concept of going with the flow.

In doing a Google search of “go with the flow” I found a song I had never heard of, as well as lots of metaphors about not trying to swim upstream, which makes sense, but I don’t think it goes deep enough.  To continue the metaphor, unless we are diving, we swim on the surface.

I’m talking a bit deeper here.

Today’s reading in the Science of Mind magazine (http://www.scienceofmind.com/) talks about flowing, and that’s what gave me the idea for today’s post.   Chris Michaels  (www.chrismichaels.net) wrote the daily guides for this month, and I’ve always liked his stuff.  Anyway, he talks about not fighting, or working too hard.  He says, “don’t place too much emphasis on strategy.”  When I read that I thought, “now THIS is what I mean by going with the flow!”

It’s an inside job.  Going with the flow means quit trying so hard.  Spend more time within yourself in spiritual practices.  KNOW. Connect with Spirit.  In so doing you will develop a faith and that knowingness that simply is, and it will allow you to enjoy a life free from fear, a life full of peace and joy.

Around my circles we talk about outlining, which is a bit like placing too much emphasis on strategy.  In Meta-speak, it means doing a treatment and then prescribing how you think the outcome of the treatment should be accomplished.    It means praying, then limiting the results by coming up with ways in which those results can be accomplished.  We have a job in life:  it is to connect with Spirit, and allow it to move through us and as us.  It can only do so as much as we will allow it.  We limit the power of Spirit to move and work in our lives when we prescribe the ways in which we think things can happen.

By going with the flow, we go within, learn our own truth, and live that truth.  No matter what.  No matter what the outside appearances are, when we are connected with Spirit within, we can simply BE, and then we know peace and power and joy.

I’m thinking that this month is a month of change for many.  First of all, it’s the start of a new year, and a new decade. Secondly, we’ve just come, as a population, out of a year of challenge, and it seems to me that what I’m hearing from folks is that they aren’t going to take it anymore.  I think the consciousness of the populace is going to force a change.

So, do you plan to implement any changes in your life?  Do you plan to use the new year as a perfect opportunity to jump on the  bandwagon of consciousness and do things differently?  If so, how do you plan to do that?

All change starts within.  It is no accident that the slogan of the United Centers for Spiritual Living is “Change your Thinking, Change your Life.”  It is no accident that all the stars, both current and past, preach from their books, CDs, videos and speeches that in order to manifest change on the outside, in the world of the physical, you must first change the insides.  You must first change your thoughts and your beliefs.

So, this year at the Spiritual Living Center in Carson City, we, as a group, are embarking on a journey of daily spiritual practices together.  All of us will be same tools in our daily spiritual practices, a book called Practice the Presence and the daily meditations in the Science of Mind magazine.

Practice the Presence is a daily reader and journal written by Edward Viljoen and Chris Michaels.  I feel a tie to Viljoen, even if I don’t know him personally.  He is minister at the Santa Rosa Center for Spiritual Living, which is also the campus where I am embarking on my Consciousness Studies.  He has also written some other books which I have read and enjoyed and learned from.  I encourage you to pick up a copy of this book and join us in our daily spiritual practice!  If you live in or near Carson City, you can get one from our bookstore, or order it from Amazon.com.  As each of us, in our own homes, read and write in this journal every day, we will be joining in the  One. 

I also encourage you to get a subscription to the Science of Mind magazine and read the dailies there as well.  The author changes with each month and I find those dailies quite valuable.   The rest of the magazine isn’t bad either!

These are outside tools that will encourage you and support you as you journey inward each day, to the place  where true change happens.   And each day, as you read the readings, and contemplate what  they mean to you and how they apply to you in your life, you can change your beliefs and thoughts to effect the change you wish to see in your outside world.

Happy changing!

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Treasure Map Playshop! Saturday, January 30th. Cost is $29 plus $5 materials charge. We will spend the playing, coloring, pasting, talking, laughing and experiencing profound moments! Contact me for more info and to register.

In my last post I went over the importance of daily spiritual practices and briefly covered meditation.  Today I want to write about my favorite:  reading spiritual literature.

I’ll be honest here:  I meditate because I know it’s good for me.  I get benefits from it.  I am not to the point where my mind automatically thinks, “oh boy, we get to go meditate!”  I’m not there yet, and I don’t know if I’ll ever get there.  But the benefits from meditation are so great:  strengthened immune system, lowered blood pressure, more in touch with the spirit within me, plus it’s a gateway to treatment and visioning, that I do it.  (if you are wondering what treatment and visioning is, stay tuned!). 

But reading!  Oh, how I love reading!  I read every chance I get.  I have a Kindle loaded with books and I take it everywhere I go.  Of course I read fun stuff: I love mysteries and and a genre of books that I’m not sure has a name, but it’s sort of fantasy science fiction.  But to contribute to my soul, to my connection with spirit, I read spiritual stuff. 

There is so much spiritual stuff out there it would take several lifetimes to read it all!  And then there would be more!  It’s bordering infinity!  And the cool thing is that  no matter what your beliefs, there’s a book for you.  A bunch of books.  No matter what your soul is calling for you to explore, you can find many books on the topic.  So,  how do you find these books?  Probably the most fun way is to go to your nearest bookstore and browse.  All the bookstores have aisles totally devoted to spirituality.  Some mix spirituality and religion, if so you will have to wade in between the books you are not interested in to find the ones you want.  Just take what you like and leave the rest.  Amazon.com is also a great place to browse for books if you are comfortable on the computer.

I read New Thought and metaphysical stuff.  Just to give you an example:  here’s a list of the authors on my Kindle:  Karen Linsley, RScP (HAH!  I just had to put myself on there, yes, my blog is on my Kindle and it can be on yours too!).    Ok, here’s the others:  Ernest Holmes, Dennis Meritt Jones, Marshall B. Rose, Bruce Lipton,  Wayne Dyer, Barbara Bradley Hagerty, Christian Larson, Eckhart Tolle, James F. Twyman, Michael Bernard Beckwith, Louise Hay.  In regular paper books I also read Deepak Chopra, Catherine Ponder and Neale Donald Walsch and Thich Nhat Han.   

I only give you these authors to give you a sense of the sheer volume of good stuff that is out there.  Spiritual literature is not limited to the big three (Bible, Torah  and Koran)!  Some of these books were written long ago, the authors long dead.  Some of the authors are alive and well, writing more books!

I also read daily meditation books.  Again, what you can find is almost unlimited.  I read the Science of Mind magazine, because every issue they publish a set of daily meditations, each month by a different author. They always quote the Science of Mind textbook plus a huge variety of other books.  In fact, I find some of my best books by researching the quote in the magazine, if they’ve quoted someone I don’t know, I look them up.

If you read nothing else, daily meditation books are great for daily spiritual practices.  One page a day, read in the morning, can go a long way towards setting your day up on a positive note and helping you to remember to connect with Spirit.

If you do none of the other practices, read something spiritual in the morning.  If you are short of time, read it while you are on the  toilet.  But it is best to take the time to do your spiritual practices consistently, every day.  You are worth it!

Today’s meditation in the Science of Mind magazine is titled “Allowing,” and talks about healing, but what I got out of it was going with the Flow.  I’ve capitalized Flow on purpose, because there is a purposeful Flow to life and part of our job, I think, is to go with it.  If I think of it in terms of Flow with a capital, I’m connecting Flow with Spirit, which makes me feel good.  If I think of it in terms of just flow…well, I’m usualling waiting for something and that’s not good.

Anyway, the meditation gives a quote from Jerry and Esther Hicks (by the way…I’ve never been much of a fan of a lot of New Age stuff like channeling, but I think Jerry and Esther Hicks have some way cool things to say) that talks about healing in terms of allowing wellness instead of beating the illness.  I have sort of an aha moment when I read that.

Wow!  Allow the wellness instead of beat the illness.  And what if I could take that and expand it?  What if I allowed abundance into my life, instead of fighting against lack?  Take any issue you’ve got and turn it around:  allow good and stop the struggle. 

The magazine talks about it in terms of always going downstream instead of fighting to go upstream, always going with the Flow.

I’m going to quote part of it here:

“All my good, be it in the form of health or wealth, is already here, waiting for me to accept and allow it to be.  Whatever we resist pesists, and so to fight an illness is not the way for us to heal.  Healing is in joyfully accepting all the good that God has already prepared for us.”

I’m currently doing treatments for a bunch of people, including myself, so I’m going to write one, here and now.  All of you who have asked for treatments, know that this is for you too.

One.  ONE!  All is One, one Source, one Mind, one Energy Flow, one Universe.  God is everywhere, always.

We are all a part of the One, we are all a part of one Mind, one Energy Flow, one Universe, one God…and we are everywhere, always.  We are floating downstream with Spirit, a part of the Flow.

And so I speak my word, today, right  here and now, knowing that my word is all powerful, just like the word of other powerful enlightened beings that have walked the earth before me.  I speak my word for myself, and for all the names on my treatment list this week.  I speak the word of abundance for all, knowing that there is enough for everyone, enough money, enough good health, enough clarity of thought.  I speak my word and allow everyone on my list, including myself, to have enough!  I have enough money!  You have enough good health.  You have enough clarity of thought!  As we continue to float with Spirit, we allow all good to come into our lives.

I know this to be true for me, for you, right here and right now, and always.

And so I release this powerful treatment into the Flow of Spirit, knowing that all is well.

Thank you

The title of the meditation in the magazine today is Divine Medic, and the copy is so wonderfully written that I am going to quote it here:

“One of the glorious perks of having Spirit as our Beloved is that God is the divine healer extraordinaire.  Thus, when we are afflicted by conditions in our human life, we simply ask and our Beloved is immediately present to minister to our every wound.  whether our temporary need for help arises from a condition of confusion, poverty, ill heath, relationship issues, national or international crises, our Divine Medic is ‘on call’ to rekindle the flames of love in our hearts.”

My favorite part is that we simply ask and our Beloved is immediately present to minister to our every wound. 

I got up this morning and the first thing I did (well, honestly, the second thing, after getting coffee) was go and sit in my special place.  This is the same place I sit every morning.  I bring my coffee and my Science of Mind textbook and my Science of Mind magazine, and I read.  Then I meditate, then I do my treatment work.  It might take a half hour.  Today I thanked Spirit for helping me to get back on track in my thinking, because it was a bit…well…off track.  And I did my treatment work for the folks who have asked for it.

That’s my morning routine.  I remind myself of my connection with Spirit like that just about every morning.

It’s a wonderful way to live.

I just read a very cool article in this month’s Science of Mind magazine called Contemplate Change.  It was written by a guy I’d never heard of called Joe Dispenza, D.C..  The gist of his article is…..wait for it…..coming soon….are you ready?…..ok…here it is….

CHANGE YOUR THINKING, CHANGE YOUR LIFE!

Ok, so I’m feeling a bit silly this morning.  Actually, Dispenza’s article was a bit more involved than that and he has a web site that you can check out too (http://www.drjoedispenza.com/), but my point is that it is no accident that the same message keeps appearing, over and over again, from many different sources.  And this same message has been appearing since humans started walking the earth.

I know I’m probably preaching to the choir here, but would you believe that there are actually people out there in the world who do not believe this to be true?  And then there are the people who believe it, but are stuck somewhere.  Still stuck in lack, or ill health, or negativity.  You are the folks I am reaching out to.  You can get unstuck.  Life is full of change, full of miracles, full of possibilities.  Sometimes we just need a little help.

If you need a bit of help, you have only to ask.

Today’s quote from the Science of Mind magazine comes from Albert Schweitzer:  “I don’t know what your destiny will be, but one thing I do know: the only ones among you who will be really happy are those who have sought and found how to serve.”

And the reference from the Science of Mind textbook is on page 270:  “….there is an Infinite Law of the Spirit which tends to multiply our gifts, because in so doing It multiplies Its own experience.”

Sometimes I don’t quite get the connection between the quote and the textbook but that’s ok because each day I contemplate the readings, I get something good out of it.  Todays textbook reference comes from the chapter on Principles of Successful Living, and this part contains one of my most favorite laws:  the Law of Mental Equivalents.  This law says:  “Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.”

If you are surprised by a quote from the bible, don’t be.  All of Science of Mind is based on basic principles from all the great spritual books, including the bible.

Anyway, the text goes on to talk about judgement.  What I have learned from judgement is that anytime I judge anyone for anything it means two things:  One is that whatever I’m judging the other person for, it is something within myself that I don’t want to look at, so I am projecting it outward.  And two is that whenever I judge, I am the one that ends up with negative consequences.  It never hurts the one I am judging, only me. 

I love the part in the text where it says:  “The criterion for any man as to what is right or wrong for him is not to be found in some other man’s judgement.  The criterion is:  does the thing I wish to do express more life, more happiness, more peace to myself, and at the same time harm no one?  If it does, it is right.”

I must admit, I still have some problems judging those who judge.  I am intolerant of intolerance!  I know, it seems like a contradiction, and it probably is, and will be something for me to work on when I finish working on all the other stuff I’m working on!