unplug iPod
music stops abruptly
cricket song instead
~Dr. SunWolf, professorsunwolf.com
Thought for Today
A Simple Discipline: Silence
Silence can be hard to come by in our hectic, fast paced and often LOUD world. Sometimes is seems that everywhere we go we are bombarded with sound and often it is just too loud to ignore. As someone who is very sensitive to sound, if it is too loud it sends shock waves through my entire body. I am very aware of the potential harm in prolonged exposure to my own body, but I believe constant exposure to noise is harmful to every one. Once while leaving a church service with especially loud music a dear older man who was a church usher said to me, “We’re going to need to have a healing service for all the people who go deaf from the music.”
But aside from the pain and discomfort caused by loud sounds, they also disrupt our spiritual connection to the divine. We need that connection. We actually need time alone in the silence to clear our minds, reconnect and remember who we are. If you think you are too busy to find time for silent reflection, don’t worry, sooner or later you body will make time. This may not be the most pleasant of experiences as it may involve a physical injury or illness requiring you to stop and just be still.
Find time in your day to sit in the stillness and just be. You can start with just a few minutes. If you live a busy life it may take time to get used to the quiet. It may feel bad at first. I believe that is why we work so hard to fill our lives up with busyness and noise, to avoid the discomfort we feel in silence. We may even do this in church. Give it time.
I like to spend time in nature. Sitting in a beautiful setting naturally calms me. Focusing on your breath is another way to ease into silence. You may meditate if you wish. A spiritual path I follow calls the place of stillness where we meet God in meditation The Silence. You will hear more about this aspect of silence later this month.
Our bodies, minds and spirits need times of quiet. Find or create the time to sit and listen to the silence.
Thought for Today
“The greatest weapon against stress is our ability to choose one thought over another.”
– William James –
A Few Simple Disciplines
“Success is nothing more than a few simple disciplines, practiced every day.” — Jim Rohn
I was looking for a good way to start the new year when I happened onto this quote. Most of us tend to over complicate our lives don’t we? We think we have to do it all and we have to do it now.
Maybe it’s time to get back to the basics. At the beginning of this year instead of setting resolutions that will soon be forgotten, let’s think about how life would be different if we focused on just one simple discipline and actually practiced it every day?
This year we will focus on simple disciplines. Every month I will highlight one simple discipline through a blog post and quotes. Chose one or two to implement in your life and see how things change.
Blessings to everyone as we begin another new year.
Beautiful Day
Welcome to the first day of the New Year! Let’s make it a beautiful one!
Heal the World
Every year on New Year’s Eve I ask you to join me in praying for peace. This year I ask that we expand our prayers to ask Spirit how we can contribute to peace in the world. Meditate on this and be open to answers. Remember peace has to begin somewhere, often with what might seem like very small actions.
2015 in review
Well it must be that time of year again, time for the WordPress annual report. Thought you might like to take a look. Thank you for your faithful following this year, we appreciate it. Please feel free to tell your friends and family about Espirational. Next year let’s fill that Opera House 10 times!
The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2015 annual report for this blog.
Here’s an excerpt:
The concert hall at the Sydney Opera House holds 2,700 people. This blog was viewed about 15,000 times in 2015. If it were a concert at Sydney Opera House, it would take about 6 sold-out performances for that many people to see it.
Let Go
“Begin today. Declare out loud to the universe that you are willing to let go of struggle and eager to learn through joy.” -Sarah Ban Breathnach
This is the time of year when we look toward the new year. Many of us make plans, resolve to change and set intentions. These are all well-meaning and we really do intend to make them happen, but too often they are forgotten by February or at least March.
Before we start into the new year and add more into our lives it is a good idea to let go of anything which is no longer serving us. Letting go is not easy for many of us. We hold on tightly even to the pain and hurt of the past because we are afraid of the unknown territory we may find ourselves in if we let it go. We may believe that we have to keep working on our issues until they are somehow resolved, when the answer may be to just let go.
This is a time to really let go and let God. Let it all go and don’t pick it up again, even there may be temptation to do so.
In Unity Churches the Sunday between Christmas and New Year’s is observed with the sacred ritual of the burning bowl. This is a time to write things we want to release on a piece of paper and burn the paper in the flame of a candle. This is followed by each person writing a letter to themselves affirming the new, not hanging onto or mourning the old. This letter is read privately at the end of the year by the writer.
This is a prayerful and sacred ceremony, but it is something that may be done at home. Choose a way to burn the paper (it is a small piece of paper) in a way that is safe. You do not have to use a candle. If you have a fireplace you may throw it in the fire. Reverend Erin of Unity Village Chapel tells the online congregants they may write on toilet paper and flush it. Creates a little different imagery but it still works.
As we get ready to begin the new year let us affirm together. I release and let go of the things that have held me back and move into the new year with love, peace and gratitude. And so it is. Thank you God.
Thought for Today
“When we quit thinking primarily about ourselves and our own self-preservation, we undergo a truly heroic transformation of consciousness.”
– Joseph Campbell
The Great Delusion
Copyright 2014 by R.A. Robbins
At least for some of our time here on earth we live our lives under a great delusion. Believing the myth of separation, we go about searching for God, acting as though the earth is ours to do with as we wish and hating our neighbor while the truth waits to be “discovered.” Actually the truth waits to be remembered. We are all one. We are all created with a sense of “oneness” with the Creator and all of creation — but during our time in this life we forget.
We start playing the “my God is greater than your God” game and we believe that others are actually “less than” we are and deserving of our contempt.
All the while God is not only as close as the air we breathe, God is the air we breathe. The earth is our mother, supporting and sustaining us. When we look in the face of our neighbor or our enemy we see the image of God in whose likeness we are all created. You see, there is no separation. We are all one.
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