Follow the healing road of Compassion “If you want others to be happy, practice compassion.  If you want to be happy, practice compassion.”-Dalai Lama

Are you aware that your Soul cherishes compassion?  And, that feeling compassion for yourself and others can actually awaken powerful healing energies inside of you?   I love this passage about compassion from the book, Shaman Wisdom, Shaman Healing: Deepen Your Ability to Heal with Visionary and Spiritual Tools and Practices, by Michael Samuels, M.D. and Mary Rockwood Lane, PH.D. (2003): “The Spirit Body Healing method is about feeling compassion for yourself.  In Buddhist meditation you go to a place where there is total compassion.  You go to a place where you restory your life from compassion and love.  Become compassionate for yourself by seeing yourself from a distance, from outside.  Stand back and say, “Look at her.  She needs.”  In a moment of witness, of reflection, see what you need to heal.  When you see yourself with compassion, you can tend to your body as a sacred body; tend to your emotions as natural forces that move through you.  You can honor intuitions and insights, be illuminated to find your place in the world.  The Spirit Body healing method is about feeling healing energy.  When you feel the energy of the universe flowing through you, you will heal.” We have all experienced painful situations in our lives.  And each one of us deserves compassion and empathy for our pain and suffering.  Our immortal Soul loves us without condition, and a big part of being able to feel the healing energy of Divine love is allowing ourselves to feel compassion.  In the end, whatever we give to another we ultimately give to ourselves.  We must always remember that we are One Family joined in love.

“Compassion is in each of us: it is the ultimate answer, the one I aspire to, to teach my patients and to shout from the rooftops.”- Judith Orloff, M.D.

Mia~

Find your Bliss!

“Follow your bliss and the universe will open doors where there were only walls.”-Joseph Campbell

How do you define “bliss”?  At www.freedictionary.com , “bliss” is defined as: extreme happiness, ecstasy or spiritual joy. Personally, I find a warm therapeutic foot soak or a spa pedicure to be pure bliss! But, how can we add more blissful moments to our normal everyday stressful lives?  In her book, The Bliss Principle, author and yoga instructor, Kellye Davis, has this to say about the importance of finding blissful moments in our day, “Like a red flashing light at a train crossing, your peace urge cautions you to stop. It tells you that you’re going beyond your boundaries and that you’re spent.  You’ve been carrying too heavy a load for too long.  We know the peace urge intuitively.  The desire to refuel spiritually and emotionally is innate.”

 She goes on to offer these 7 simple steps to satisfying our peace urge and finding bliss:

1. Take Deep Breaths-take 2-10 deep breaths and just notice them.  By simply paying attention to your breath, you’re likely to experience an automatic calming effect.  I find taking deep breaths throughout the day centers and grounds me, allowing Divine love to flow.
2. Repeat a Mantra-a mantra is a spiritually charged word or phrase.  Find something that uplifts you and use it regularly (e.g. love, peace, tranquility or Om).  I often repeat the word, Soul or Soul love, throughout the day.
3. Listen to Beautiful Music-relax and listen to music with the sounds of nature or ocean waves, something soothing.  I enjoy the music by artist Marcome, and I love Piano by the Sea, a gift to me from my dear friend Suz, @mssuzcatsilver on Twitter.
4. Move your Body-practice yoga, take a relaxing walk or do some stretching.  Movement releases stress and creates an internal shift.  I love doing some simple yoga postures early in the morning to start my day.
5. Create a Tranquility Altar-it can be large or small.  Fill it with lovely things that honor all that is peaceful and calm, and connects you to Spirit.  Try adding candles, crystals, photos and flowers. I have several in my home, and I even travel with one that I made inside a cigar box.
6. Capture the Power of Scent-use aromatherapy, or essential oils like lavender or ylang ylang.  Add some to your bath or shower.  I enjoy the aromatherapy room mists made by www.ezencia.com. They even have one called, Bliss, a favorite of mine!
7. Drink Healing Teas-herbal teas taste great, provide health and balance to the body and mind and also hydrate! I like chamomile, peppermint and ginger. Celestial Seasonings brand makes a lovely sweet apple chamomile that I often relax with before bedtime.

Thanks to author, Kellye Davis, for a simply Soul-licious list, of ways to find bliss!

I’d love if you would please take a moment to comment and share with us, the ways that you have found to experience bliss.

“The soul is a garden enclosed, our own perpetual paradise where we can be refreshed and restored.”-Thomas Moore

Mia

Let your love shine!

Those who bring sunshine into the lives of others, cannot keep it for themselves.-James M. Barrie

Do you give yourself permission to shine your light in the world?  What I’m talking about here is sharing your love, and the joy that you have uncovered in your life.  The world needs your light; it needs your love, right now!  It’s actually quite natural to want to share the love you feel, the joy that you experience; the more it rises up in your own heart.

Author, Shaeri Richards provides these thoughts on sharing love in her book, Dancing with your Dragon; The Art of Loving your Unlovable Self (2011): “For me, love is the true golden gift.  Love is the treasure of all treasures.  I mean this quite literally.  But what is love?  Most of my life I thought that love was something to get.  I felt so needy to receive love that I failed to realize the incredible gift of giving it.  Love can be expressed in many ways.  It can be expressed through laughter, thoughtful conversation, nurturing, artistic expression, and even just through listening.  I’ve learned the act of giving love brings me just as much pleasure as the act of receiving love.  The trick is not to be attached to the love.  The trick is not to worry about whether I’m recognized or honored for giving it, or whether anyone gives back.”

So what better gift could anyone of us give, especially with the holidays fast approaching, than the golden gift of our love?  Let’s all let our radiant Divine light shine on!  Sometimes, all it takes is remembering to greet the world with a smile on our face, and a song in our heart.  It will make us feel good and I’m betting a whole lot of other people will feel good along the way too.

Love is the beauty of the soul.-St. Augustine 

Mia

Encouragement lights our way

“Praise is like sunlight to the human spirit: we cannot flower and grow without it.” -Jess Liar  

How often do you encourage yourself and others?  We all need encouragement to grow and be our best self.  I once attended a personal development seminar many years ago, in which I asked the speaker what he thought I needed to do, to be my very best self.  He responded by saying, “You need to become your own source of encouragement.”  I remember being a little taken back by his answer.  Does he know me that well, I thought?  That he knows I can often be my own worst enemy?  It took me a moment to realize that his answer was as true for me as it was for anyone else.  If I wasn’t going to be able to encourage myself first and foremost, who was?

“Remember, man does not live on bread alone; sometimes he needs a little buttering up.” -John C.Maxwell

I have found that one of the best ways I can give encouragement to myself is to share praise and recognition with others.  This becomes even more powerful when it comes from the heart, by focusing on someone’s strengths, instead of their weaknesses.  Focusing on others’ weaknesses is all too common in our world today, especially in our workplaces and schools.

“There is nothing better than the encouragement of a good friend.” -Katherine Butler Hathaway

To me, being a good friend is being a good source of encouragement.  Giving love in the form of positive praise and recognition helps nourish body, mind and soul, and increases positive emotions and energy.  The most amazing thing here is that giving praise and recognition freely has the power to magically increase the flow of positive emotions not only in others, but in ourselves as well!  We feel empowered and we shine, all from the magic of encouragement.

~Mia

Recently, my friend Musa Askari, @Alone2Alone on Twitter, wrote these words to me:

“A beautiful encounter. Such encounters are like little flashes of some mystery coming into our lives.”

These words were in response to the following story I shared with Musa about his late father Hasan Askari, and a Soul encounter I had with him. It goes like this:

I was rushing through the streets in the Soho area of New York City, when I passed a Krishna follower dressed in orange robes. He was holding out a small booklet to me, with a very large smile on his face. I stopped for a moment and looked at him. I noticed that the picture on the front cover of the booklet was of a swami meditating in a lush forest with a waterfall, and a beautiful deity above him in radiant light. The booklet said, “The Perfection of Yoga.” I reached into my purse for a small donation, and accepted the booklet. He then asked me, “Are you into Krishna?” And I replied by saying, “I am into the Soul and Divine love,” with a big smile. He said in return, in a sweet voice, “Oh, I am too,” as I rushed away into the bustling crowd to get to my next meeting. When I finally had a free moment, I began to read the booklet. It is about Arjuna, the Krishna, and the Bhagavad-gita. As I began taking in the words, my thoughts turned to Hasan Askari, and it was like he was saying to me, “Enjoy this work of the mystic, my friend.” And it was a smiling voice, a joyful voice. Somehow, I knew it was Hasan, and that his Soul had made it so that this booklet would come into my hands.

I offer you this passage from the booklet, “The Perfection of Yoga,” by Swami Prabhupada:

“For him who has conquered the mind, the mind is the best of friends, but for one who has failed to do so, his mind will remain the greatest enemy. How is it possible for one to become his own friend? This is explained here. Atma means “mind,” “body,” and “soul.” When we are in the bodily conception and speak of atma, we refer to the body. However, when we transcend the bodily conception and rise to the mental platform, atma refers to the mind. But when we are situated on the truly spiritual platform, then atma refers to the soul. In actuality we are pure spirit. In this way, according to one’s spiritual development, the meaning of the word atma differs. As far as the Nirukti Vedic dictionary is concerned, atma refers to the body, mind, and soul. However, in the verse of the Bhagavad-gita, atma refers to the mind.”

To learn more about the philosopher and author Hasan Askari, visit http://spiritualhuman.wordpress.com

~Mia