~revjim
#spirit-edu.com -Spirituality Online
#aworldthatworks
Spirit Education is a CSL Authorized Virtual Education Provider
Grace in Aging class starts September 18th Online
International Day of Peace Meditation September 21st
We’re having a Zoominar September 28th
1st Century Mystics October 4th
Do you have a spiritual practice? Does it sound too woo-woo for a manly man, or even a highly motivated woman? Chances are you do and don’t even realize it. But don’t worry, I wont tell anyone.
Basically, Spiritual Practice is all about taking care of you. Mostly, we find ourselves taking care of others, helping them with their life’s, but usually at the expense of our own. So, here are a few of my spiritual practices.
1. Meditation. You might say, “I don’t know how to meditate!” Or “I can’t sit with my legs crossed!”, but it’s not about that. It’s about you sitting or standing or walking quietly. It’s about putting away the problems of the world and your life and being “in the moment.” When you are in the moment, you are allowing your inner self to just be in peace.
2. A Daily Reading. Whether you choose a short faith-based reading, like something from the Bible, the Quran, or the Habbalah, or you choose something like “Around the Year” by Emmett Fox, or something more secular like “The Seven Decisions” by Andy Andrews, or “Jonathan Livingston Seagull” by Richard Bach, you are able to continue to create that uplifting space that you began in meditation.
3. Journaling. Writing down your thoughts from this place you have created to this point can help clear up some of the issues that may have come up for you during your meditation and your reading. Write about it. It is definitely therapeutic and you can look back to your journey later through these “Aha moments” you have experienced.
4. Mindful Eating. Knowing your body is your temple, what are you doing to create a more healthy eating program for yourself? Think about it.
5. Healthy Lifestyle. This is a broad area in which we can adjust our behavior and interactions with others. We can be more discerning with whom we interact. Are your interactions always of a combative nature? Are the people you hang with negative or demeaning to others? Are you watching TV that makes you angry all the time? Remember, change is good.
6. General Acts of Kindness. Holding a door for someone or a simple smile can do so much to uplift someone’s day and make their life better, if only for a moment. It doesn’t cost a thing and it gives back to you as well.
7. Gratitude. It cant be stressed enough that being grateful is a powerful practice. Gratitude is reflected in everything you do or say. It’s the starting point for change and the action that can allow change.
What else might you do to change and uplift your life? I’d love to hear!
~revjim
#spirit-edu.com -Spirituality Online
#aworldthatworks
Spirit Education is a CSL Authorized Virtual Education Provider
Grace in Aging class starts September 18th Online
International Day of Peace Meditation September 21st
We’re having a Zoominar September 28th
1st Century Mystics October 4th
Are you at peace where you are right now? It’s a fair question, because, even if you don’t see yourself as the success you had hoped to be by now, or you’re not sure of your ultimate direction, but you can be at peace in the present moment, then you are in a peaceful place.
When you don’t allow your circumstances to rule your roost, you can be much more open to the possibility of change, when it tries to run you over. And, maybe you can hitch a ride rather than take a ride to the emergency room when it hits you unawares!
~revjim
#spirit-edu.com -Spirituality Online
#aworldthatworks
Spirit Education is a CSL Authorized Virtual Education Provider
Grace in Aging class starts September 18th Online
International Day of Peace Meditation September 21st
We’re having a Zoominar September 28th
1st Century Mystics October 4th
We have no means of discriminating between right and wrong if we do not take into account others’ feelings, others’ suffering.
-Dali Lama, Ethics for the New Millennium
It is in this quote that the idea of “ethics” begins to merge with the ideas of authenticity, compassion, love, and empathy.
As we consciously think about how we want to respond or react to the thought of others, we need to think about how our definitions of right or wrong differ from the thoughts of others and, is what we are wanting to say in reaction to a comment or idea we don’t align with and why do we feel that way? Even more important, what is it in the other person’s life experience that causes them to feel the way they do? The old quote about not judging someone until you have walked a mile in their moccasins comes to mind.
We cannot know what their life has been like. So, in all things, we need to do our due diligence to ascertain why they feel the way they do.
How do we do that? We have a dialogue with them. We engage them in non-confrontational conversation to get to know them. Normally when we learn to engage in this manner, we find that we really are not that far apart in our beliefs and that when we change the way we see what we see, as often happens when we get up close and personal, we are able to find a common ground upon which we can build anew.
~revjim
#spirit-edu.com -Spirituality Online
#aworldthatworks
Spirit Education is a CSL Authorized Virtual Education Provider
Grace in Aging class starts September 18th Online
International Day of Peace Meditation September 21st
We’re having a Zoominar September 28th
1st Century Mystics October 4th
~revjim
#spirit-edu.com -Spirituality Online
#aworldthatworks
Spirit Education is a CSL Authorized Virtual Education Provider
Grace in Aging class starts September 18th Online
It may be that you’ve already got plans for engaging in Peace on September 21st, but we want to invite you to join Rev. Pat Davies and myself for about 30 minutes of prayer and meditation at 7 PM Eastern, 4PM Pacific in Zoom. No sign up is necessary. We ask that you bring with you only the desire for peace, in your own life, and be willing to build on that from there.
Your presence in the virtual ZOOM room will be enough to raise the consciousness well beyond the numbers we’ll have join us. If you can’t make it, if you hold the same consciousness for Peace while we pray, it will still make a difference. Every and anything we do in life affects everyone else, so there is nothing lost and greater connection gained by your being with us in consciousness.
More info and the Zoom access is available at https://spirit-edu.com/international-day-of-peace/ There is no signup, just show up, in person or in consciousness and we’ll bring a higher consciousness to all those across the world.
~revjim
#spirit-edu.com -Spirituality Online
#aworldthatworks
Spirit Education is a CSL Authorized Virtual Education Provider
Grace in Aging class starts September 18th Online
Join us as we explore how to have a more gracious, loving and compassionate life.
You don’t have to be old to embrace these principles. It’s just that most people don’t slow down enough during most of their lives to realize there is another way. We are introduced to fear, and limitation at a young age and buy into a dog-eat-dog mentality. We see it all around us, in the news, in our TV shows, in our politics, and even in sports. Competition is good for our egos, but not really good for our sanity. And, it’s really only good for some people’s egos, while devastating to those on the receiving end.
By practicing mindfulness and compassion, we can find our joy and happiness in much more self-sustaining ways. Ways that will uplift us, and those around us.
If you can’t join us, please read the book. It may give you a perspective on your life you have never envisioned before. It could be your lifesaver.
~revjim
#spirit-edu.com -Spirituality Online
#aworldthatworks
Spirit Education is a CSL Authorized Virtual Education Provider
Grace in Aging class starts September 18th Online
In the Grace in Aging, we learn to be more mindful of what we want in our life.
~revjim
#spirit-edu.com -Spirituality Online
#aworldthatworks
Spirit Education is a CSL Authorized Virtual Education Provider
Grace in Aging class starts September 18th Online
What does this mean to me?
It means that whatever I do, wherever I am, God has my back.
It means that Spirit always watches over me. It means that if I get hurt, God will help to heal me, to reveal the truth of the moment to me. It means that, when I die, I may cease to exist on this plane, but I do not cease to exist. I will transcend death, just as Jesus transcended death. I know that I am always in the hands of grace, and it allows me to move through life with a light step, rather than the fear and worry that weighs so many down.
Grace is something we can practice all our lives. We don’t have to wait until the end is near. Life is so worth living without a heave heart, and without taking the burden of the world upon our shoulders.
That doesn’t mean we don’t care for others. It doesn’t mean we hold back our help. It means we can be compassionate without suffering, comforting without taking on another’s grief as our own. We can care for others without giving up our own joy for living.
From our joy for living, others are actually uplifted from their despair. And when we feel the pain of some suffering, the hands of grace surround us naturally, because that’s what karma does. What we give to others is returned to us.
Try it sometime. Show someone you care about them. Feel the love.
~revjim
#spirit-edu.com -Spirituality Online
#aworldthatworks
Spirit Education is a CSL Authorized Virtual Education Provider
Grace in Aging class starts September 18th Online
“Happiness is a contagion which could lead to viral happiness and smiles and actually create peace all around you.” ~jts
Everything in our life is a choice and how we choose determines how we see our life.
Are you happy?
Or, do you wake in the morning and wonder “What’s going to go wrong today?” Do you fear that things that haven’t happened yet will? Do you feel that something bad is going to happen to you, and you don’t even have any reason to feel that way, beyond an offhand comment you heard or a news reporting the radio?
Psychologists refer to F.E.A.R as an acronym for False Evidence Appearing Real. I love that. It amazes me how often we fall into this mode of thinking, me included. We really limit ourselves when we allow some future “maybe”may occur for us, bad or good, and that our future is totally out of our control. The truth is that most of the things that happen to us are a product of our thinking. If we think the world is basically a dangerous and unloving place, that is what we tend to see. If we believe the world is basically a good and safe place to live, this is what we tend to see.
Can we control everything that happens to us? No. Most of the things that aren’t under our control are remote occurrences and almost silly to think about. The chances of your house burning down, or getting into an accident or most other things are so small that they really are False Evidence Appearing Real. Something like a bombing is astronomically small. They are also external things to us.
Our real control is in our day to day lives, our personal choices. We have virtually 100% control over those. How we eat. Is it healthy? How we spend our money. Do we choose frivolous things we’ll never use? In business, do we make informed choices, or do we see a resurgence of the “pet rock” or “Beanie Babies?”
There are many benefits of choosing to be happy. The first is that smiling not only makes us feel better, it also helps cheer others up. Smiling is contagious. Happiness is a contagion which could lead to viral happiness and smiles and actually create peace all around you. Imagine how much more you might attract into your life by just changing your primary thought to being happy when you wake up n the morning.
I have always, as long as I can remember, woke up and greeted the dawn with a hearty in-breath, a big smile and, most of the time, a statement to the sun, of how grand life is and how blessed I am to be a part of it! I also intentionally interact with people in public and give them a glance and a smile, and sometimes even a quick greeting, if they actually make eye contact with me. In small towns people are more willing to engage you, than they are in the “big city.”
Still, all in all, being happy leads to you wanting to take better care of your body, mind and spirit. Leaving out any one of these things can lead to you, or me, from being in harmony with our own self and lead us into that quagmire of unhappiness and a pronounced frown.
Did you know it takes fewer muscles to smile than to frown. That alone is a good reason to smile.
~revjim
#spirit-edu.com -Spirituality Online
#aworldthatworks
Spirit Education is a CSL Authorized Virtual Education Provider
Grace in Aging class starts September 18th Online
