Welcome to the Lake Tahoe Spiritual Living Center!

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!

Life is best lived from the inside out, not the other way around.  What this means is that if we base our happiness on outside stuff, that happiness will be fleeting, because the outside stuff comes and goes.  Happiness and peace sticks around if we go within to find it.  This is done with spiritual practices, and I have a list of nine for  you to try out.  This is not a comprehensive list, but it does cover all the basics.  Over the next few posts I will delve into them one at a time, but for today, here are the ten:

1.  Centering

2.  Listening

3.  Meditation

4.  Spiritual Mind Treatment

5.  Visioning

6.  Sacred Study

7.  Sacred Service

8.  Sacred Giving

9.  Silence

10.  Journaling

A foundation of consistent and regular spiritual practice insures a life lived well, happily and peacefully.  You don’t have to do all of these every day, but each serves in it’s own unique way to contribute to peace in your life.  Stay tuned for a primer on each practice!

What happens in our lives today is a result of our choices yesterday, so if what is happening today is not to our liking, then it behooves us to make better choices.  The questions then becomes, how to make better choices?  Here’s a few tips:

1.  Do not make choices from your head, make them from your heart.  When you make choices in anger, fear or even excitement, you are coming from your head.  Anger and fear is an altered state of consciousness that will lead us to make wrong choices.  Better to move from head to heart first by calming down, then doing some spiritual practices.  Meditation, journaling, visioning, even sitting in the silence will move you from your head to your heart.

2.  Come from a place of love, rather than a place of fear.  If you are making a choice because you think that’s what someone else wants, or because you think you will be able to control something or someone by your choice,  you are coming from a place of fear and this choice will not serve you well.  Come from a place a love and your choices will always serve you well.

3.  Examine your motives.  Why are you considering this choice?  Wrong motives can make for disastrous choices and manifest ikky things in our lives.

4.  Sometimes, in the heat of a moment, even if we aren’t in fear, we haven’t had time to properly consider a choice.  If it is possible to wait before making the choice, then do so.  The other option is to do things on a daily basis that will keep you spiritually grounded, so that when opportunities for choice come up you will be in a better position to make a better choice.  Staying spiritually grounded involves daily spiritual practices and embodying the consciousness of Spirit, 24/7.

Daily spiritual practices are things like meditation, visioning, journaling and reading spiritual literature.  If you are a religious person, add prayer to the list.  Embodying the consciousness means that you remember that Spirit is a part of you, surrounding you, within you…IS you in physical form.  When you are conscious of this, you are embodying it.  The more you remember this, the more peaceful you will be and the better your choices will be.

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Karen Linsley, RScP is a licensed spiritual coach. Questions about life coaching services can be directed to karen@laketahoespirituallivingcenter.com or by calling 530-906-9336

Mother Nature knows that the best way to function is to rest regularly.   There is an entire season when the trees drop their leaves and go dormant, as do all the rest of the flora.  Even the pine trees stop growing in winter, and simply wait to provide shelter from winter storms. 

So it is with us.  We need to rest regularly, and also find a means of sheltering from life’s storms.  You can rest by doing spiritual practices…every day.  Take at least ten minutes for yourself to meditate and/or vision, journal or read some spiritual literature.  You may not think you have the time, but  if you do this, you will function much better throughout the rest of your day.   And besides, you deserve it.

The Course in Miracles says there are only two states of being:  fear or love.  It further tells us that we can only be in one state or another, the two cannot co-exist at the same time in the same entity.

The reactions we have behind fear are very non-productive and don’t serve us well at all: anger, lashing out, shutting down, a certain sort of immobility, indecision, anxiety;  all are symptoms that we are in fear.  And to add insult to injury, acting these ways tends to produce more of the same!

When we are in love, we behave just the opposite:  a sense of well being, all is right with the world, a calm, a sense of our own worth, acceptance, compassion, tolerance, trust, faith, a knowing that all is well.  We are much better able to function in life in a state of love, and the Law of Attraction works here as well, producing more of the same.

So, how do you get from fear to love?  It’s all inside work.  The state of being in love is not based on anything outside of us, although it may seem like the state of being in fear is caused by outside stuff like relationship woes, financial issues, health challenges.  But it really isn’t. Fear is caused by a lack of a connection to Spirit, and love happens when we have The Infinite in our lives.

The question then becomes a matter of making sure we are connected, always…24/7.  In order to be connected we must first define it. Trying to define The Great Stuff is a bit like trying to herd cats, it really can’t be done because Energy is infinite, yet we seem to need a definition.  So go ahead, define it. What is it, what does it look like, smell like, feel like?  What do you call it?   How does it operate in your life?  Where does  it  live?  What do you feel when you are connected, when you are aware of the Presence of the One?

You can change your definition later, for Light does not care what we call it or how we  define it, and as we grow and change, our concept of the Great Reality Deep Within is likely to change as well.

Once you have an idea of what it means to  you and how it works in your life, it becomes a matter of connecting, daily.  We do this by daily spiritual practices:  quiet time, meditation, visioning, journaling, reading of spiritual literature.  Sometimes we need to have a chat with a Practitioner to get past  fear and into love…sometimes several chats. 

Love is a state of being and we can be in that state all day, every day.  It only takes a few moments each day of actively and consciously connecting with The Force.  Being in a state of Love is not dependent on what happens in our outside world; and being in a state of Love will help  us deal better with what happens in the outside world.

So go within today, and make that connection, and keep it, and have Happy Loving!

I will be once again offering the very popular meditation class, only this time with a twist:  it will be offered in one day (instead of in ten weekly classes) and will be combined with Visioning.

Visioning is not visualization.  Visioning is a powerful spiritual tool that can assist you in the transformation of your life.  You will leave this class with the necessary tools to incorporate both meditation and visioning into your daily spiritual practices.

Date of the class is Saturday, March 20 from 10 am to 3 pm.  Location is the Lake Tahoe Spiritual Living Center, I will give  you the address and directions when you register.  Registration is $39 in advance, or $44 at the door.  You can register by emailing me at karen@laketahoespirituallivingcenter.com (be sure to give me your phone number) or by using the pay pal button at the bottom of the home page.

I am so excited about this class and I look forward to sharing some adventures in meditation and visioning with you!

No matter what you do, no matter what you desire, no matter what you wish to accomplish, ALL of the work is done inside.  It’s done deep within, where the most profound connection with Spirit occurs.  That little voice that keeps popping up is Spirit, guiding you.  That intutitive knowing that you can’t quite put into words is the voice of the One, nudging you along your path.

Even if you don’t want to follow that path.

If it’s your path, sooner or later, you must follow it. 

We were created so that the Universe could experience the physical.  Our Soul is made of that God stuff that  longed for life in the physical form, and we are living that life.  So we must honor our Soul’s calling.

In order to do that, we must go within, to where we can listen in the silence to the voice of our Soul.  And then we must honor what it says.  Meditate, do some visioning work,  journal, and where you must go will be revealed, what you  must do will become clear.

Sometimes it might be a bit scary to do this, but walk in faith, knowing that all is well.  Honor your path,  as I honor your path.  When we honor our path, all is  always well.

Sometimes life can be like a deconstruction zone.  I say DEconstruction, as opposed to construction, because before you can construct, or build something new, you must first deconstruct what exists, in order to make room for the new.

Deconstruction is not fun.

Sometimes it’s forced upon us.  It might look like a partner wanting a divorce, a sudden dismissal from a job, or an accident.

Sometimes we see it coming, and take steps to avoid it, go around it, prevent it from happening, until we realize that really isn’t working so well.

But the bottom line is, if the Great Reality Deep Within is calling for something new in your life, that something new is likely to be preceded by a period of deconstruction.  Your soul knows what is best and it is your Soul that is One with the One, one with Spirit, and Spirit, like our Souls, will not be denied.

Sometimes deconstruction can manifest the most trying of symptoms:  you may feel anxious, to the point of anxiety attack.  You may not be able to sleep, or be sleeping too much.  You might be having some muscle twinges or odd aches and pains.  You might feel as if you are on the verge of insanity, with wide mood swings, going from tears to hysterical laughter to ”normalcy” in the space of an hour.  And you might be crying at all hours of the day, at the most unexpected things and the most inconvenient times.  You are likely to experience fear, depression, sadness, despair, frustration, anger and self pity. 

Really, the deconstruction period  is not very pleasant at all.

However! 

There are some tools you can use to walk through the deconstruction period with dignity and grace.

1.  Get support.  Professional help can be invaluable during the deconstruction period.   Although I might be a bit prejudiced, I happen to believe that Practitioners are great for times like this.  I’ve used my Practitioner during deconstruction periods and I can tell you that it’s been invaluable.  Other professionals like therapists, life coaches and counselors can also be helpful.  Mentors can usually provide a unique form of support that you can find no where else.  And of course, family and friends are a great resource.  In addition, you  might want to think about cluing them in on why you are behaving so oddly.

2.  Spend more time with daily spiritual practices.  If you don’t currently do them, start now.  If you do do them, add more.  If you journal and read spiritual literature, add meditation and visioning. 

3.  Make sure you take care of  your physical self:  eat right and get plenty of exercise.

4.  Don’t make any rash decisions.  Acting on negative feelings will usually just lead us deeper into the problem, instead of into the solution.

5.  Set your intention.  You are in the perfect place during the deconstruction period to set an intention for what you want your future to be. 

6.  Have faith.  If you can’t have it for yourself, have a Practitioner carry that faith for you until you can get there and pick it up.

I can promise you this:  good things are in store for you. Walk through this period with dignity and grace and you will come out of this period  with a sense of peace and joy and things happening in your life that you never knew possible.  Know.   Be Still and Know. 

The Universe is conspiring for your good, even if it doesn’t feel that way right now.  Hang in there, this too will pass into the Sunlight of the Spirit.

What is faith anyway? 

I like to say that faith is knowing and feeling that all is well in my world, that I am whole and complete within, no matter what is happening on the outside.

In other words, no matter what is manifesting in my physical world, in the realm of health, finances, relationships, etc, I am well inside of myself, and always will be.

You might have a different definition of faith, or express it in a different way.  I’d like to hear about it if you do!

But what if you don’t feel ok?  What if you don’t feel at peace, well on the inside, whole and complete within?  

Faith is something that does not seem to come automatically, at least for me.  I think it comes from regular, consistent spiritual practices.  Daily connection with Spirit.  Daily meditation, journaling, quiet time or visioning.  For us Practitioners we include daily treatments as well. 

I’ve heard it said that  faith is trust with a track record.  Maybe so, but isn’t this simply placing our faith in outside stuff?  If we have a track record of good things happening to us in our lives, then we have trust with a track record, or faith.  But what if we have a history of some not so pleasant things in our life?  What happens to trust and faith then?  Does it not  exist for us?  Or perhaps we have trust and faith that things will always go wrong? 

I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to have that kind of faith, that things will always go wrong.  I also don’t want to have the kind of faith that is based on outside experiences. 

I would rather have the kind of faith that  is based on that  timeless connection with Spirit, that connection that never goes away, as long as I continue my spiritual practices.

If you feel you are lacking in faith, try spending some time every day in some sort  of spiritual  practice.  It can be meditation, reading spiritual literature (you are the one that determines what is spiritual for you.  Browse the spirituality aisle at the bookstore and find something that calls to  your heart.), spending time in nature, journaling.  The particular practice doesn’t really matter, as long as you are mindful about what it is you are doing.  Consciously connect with your own concept of Spirit, and know….faith will follow close behind.

This last weekend I attended my first regional class in Santa Rosa. It’s called Ministerial Craftsmanship and it’s all about rituals and ceremonies.  I have two more classes, which I will attend through teleseminar, and I am very excited about this class.  Like most people I am familiar with probably the most well known of all rituals: the wedding.  In fact, having photographed over…wait for it…5000 weddings in the last 22 years, I am more familiar with weddings than most.  But I learned something new yesterday and   am excited to implement what I learned the next time I perform a wedding, as I am occasionally called upon to do. 

Anyway, in this class we will be writing four rituals:  a wedding, a baby blessing, a memorial and one other of our choosing.  I was so excited upon returning home that I wanted to also perform rituals on various rooms in my home, my studio, my Center, my animals, my cars, even the snow blower!  I do tend to get carried away sometimes.

But I think the most valuable thing I learned from this class is the importance of ritual.  Ritual cements things.  My first night of class my fellow students did a welcoming ritual for me and the other new student and I can tell you that it moved me to tears, made me feel a part of the group, and allowed me to know that I was indeed now officially a ministerial student at Holmes Institute.  It also made me feel more connected to my classmates.

Do you have ritual in your life?  Why would you want it?    Ritual helps in the sense that it can allow us to feel gratitude, or the specialness of the moment, even in something as simple as making coffee in the morning. 

when you get up in the morning and go through the process of making your coffee, take a moment to think about the process:  where did the  beans come from?  Acknowledge the people who made it possible for you to have that coffee in your home:  the planters, the harvesters, the packers, the shippers, the stock person in the store.  Acknowledge Mother Nature, or God or whatever you want to call it, for the miracle of growing things on this earth.  Acknowledge gratitude that there are still places on earth that are not developed, where coffee can be grown.

Practicing a ritual like this can help you to feel grounded and connected.  And feeling grounded and connected will help you to feel at peace, no matter what is occurring in your life right now.  And if you feel grounded and at peace, you are better able to handle the daily stresses that occur.

In a way, ritual can be one more type of daily spiritual practice.  Why not try and add it in to your repertoire of reading daily spiritual literature, journaling, meditation and visioning?

Do you have a place in your home, the same place, where you go every day to do  your daily spiritual practice?  If not, create a space.  Perform a ritual there by gathering some things that are special to you, such as candles, little knick knacks, maybe a photo, or a gift that was given to you by a loved one.   Create an altar by strategically placing everything just so in your spot.  As you place your items, think about their meaning to you, and acknowledge their sacredness.  Create some imaginary boundaries around your altar.  These have the effect of keeping your place sacred, and when you go to your sacred place, it will be a time for just you and your Spirit.  Nothing and no one will disturb you while you are there.

With the advent of this class I have added more rituals and ceremonies to my repertoire.  I’ll be doing a barn blessing soon where I ride.  There has been a lot of change there and it’s time to bless the newness of it all.  Moving soon?  I can perform a closing ritual at the old place, and a blessing of the new.  Ending a relationship?  A closing ritual for that can bring you to a place of peace about it, just as much as a wedding demonstrates the beginning of a new relationship for couples.  Baby blessings, pet blessings, celebrations of life.  All of these are rituals, and I’m excited to be able to bring this service to you!

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