How many times do we ask that question over the course of our lifetime? How may times have we heard others ask us, “Who are you?” Besides this one all-encompassing question, some people will most likely want to further define us in their mind, so they can perhaps, assess our worth or likeability. Their questions would probably continue, by asking things like, what are our hobbies? Did we go to college, and if so, where? Are we married? Do we have kids? What do we do for work? What kind of car do we drive? Where do we live? What are our spiritual beliefs or religion? What is our nationality?

If we are considered, by the culture or society that we live in, to be successful and prosperous, we will be proud to spout off our labels and accomplishments. Our voices will be strong and confident, our chests may pump up, our shoulders square broadly, and our chins may tilt toward the heavens. If not, the opposite will most likely occur. Our voices may be small or nearly muted, chests almost concave, shoulders slumped forward, and chins heading straight for our chest.

That is a strange title, isn’t it? Why in the world would we want to welcome stress or anxiety? Perhaps a better question to ask is, “What is the benefit of slamming the door on them in hopes they’ll just quietly go away?”

“Well, maybe because they are not too pleasant to be around,” we may respond.

They are both, of course, chaotic characters, disheveled, unpredictable, sometimes abusive, and always difficult to understand. We fear their unpleasant attributes might rub off on us, and we will become lost in that breathless, palpating world. We fear we might become isolated and alone, because no one wants to be around anything or anyone that makes them feel uncomfortable and anxious.

Perhaps there is a different way we can look at these unsavory personalities. They both represent a part of us we would rather avoid. Each of us, at one time or another, have experienced these emotions. They make us feel jittery, fearful, uncertain, and even immobilized. We may judge ourselves for falling victim to their toxic lure once again.

As the old expression goes, “We are spiritual beings having a physical experience.”

What exactly does that mean and why is it important? I have discovered its meaning and realized its importance, through my practice of journaling over the years. The journals were rarely anything fancy, though there were a few that were. Today, I have an abundance of spiral bound notebooks, black and white ones, and many pieces of loose-leaf stashed in the pages of those random books. Writing was an exercise of exploration for me. When I was younger, I made some choices that led to much pain, confusion, and heartache. Back then, I thought they were “bad” choices. Today, I realize there are no good or bad choices, only opportunities to learn lessons, connect with our souls, and awaken to a higher level of consciousness and understanding. The choices I made along the pathway of my life throughout the years, were necessary, preordained, and a series of sacred contracts that were part of my soul’s plan.

As I am writing this blog, it is extremely early in the morning, 5:00 AM, to be exact. Sleep last night was like the elusive butterfly. It fluttered teasingly in and out of my waking consciousness, promising an eventual abstract moment where my brain would finally succumb. Slumber’s promise was not kept. Thus, I laid cozy, warm, and comfortable beneath the soft blankets on our bed. With eyes closed and focusing on my breath as it moved in and out of my body, I hoped it would be the successful catalyst. It was not to be. Eventually, I begrudgingly surrendered to the imminent dawn of a new day and opened my eyes.

The cable box indicated it was 4:00 AM. Our bedroom was aglow with a soft iridescent light. At first, I thought there was a lamp on somewhere, or a cell phone flashing, as a notification was received. There was neither. As I looked for the source of the illumination, a cool breeze waft through the open window and I looked toward it. Peeking from behind and in between the slats of the half-closed blind I saw it.

What came to mind as you heard the title of this week’s blog? Did it bring a feeling of relief as you thought, “It’s nice not to have to face such a turbulent world anymore!” On the other hand, did you think, “Yes, I feel safe and less stressed, but life has lost some of its excitement and the expectation of possible new adventures right around the corner.”

Part of getting older is that our world tends to reach a point where the expansion of growing up and always reaching for the next new goal or adventure begins to wane. This is especially true when one has stopped working because of retirement, illness, or disability. Life no longer pulls us out of our comfort zone. At that point, we must make a conscious and concerted effort to yank ourselves off the couch and step out into the uncertain and hazardous world where danger abounds, and potential catastrophe awaits.

Without warning or planning, we fall into the inevitable inertia that we are indoctrinated to believe comes with a declining form. We wonder how, just because we reach a certain age, we stop looking at life as an exciting, wonderous journey. We may often begin succumbing to our aching joints and diminished energy. They give us a free pass to stop seeking the wonders and mysteries hidden and tucked away in the spaces and places just beyond our daily routine and familiar surroundings because it is just too much effort.

I would like to start this week’s blog with a short meditation. If you are listening to this, gently close your eyes and get comfortable. If you are reading, try to slip into a meditative space and continue. Take a few long, slow deep breaths. As you exhale, let go of any tension and allow a peace to grow inside of you.

Now, imagine it is early morning on a beautiful spring day. You are looking forward to your morning walk at the lake just down the road from your house. You drive a short distance, park your car, and step out into one of the prettiest spots for miles around. The path around the lake is brimming with new life. Flowers are blooming, the trees are birthing a brand-new canopy, the ducks are quietly tending their nests by the water’s edge, and the sleepy turtles are basking in the morning sun perched on a log in the middle of the water.

You look forward to seeing the familiar faces who are here most every morning. Everyone is always so friendly, smiling and waving as they slowly or quickly pass by. One man always catches your eye. He is an elderly gentleman with longish hair, like snow. He walks gingerly with a cane. His spine is slightly curved, so his head tilts forward toward the ground, but he always seems to know when you are close. He looks up at you as you pass by, and smiles. His eyes are kind and seem to have a sort of other-worldly glow within them.

“They soon will come. Nothing can stop them now,” warned a sad, disheartened voice that flowed ominously upward and outward from the very soul of the Great Planet Earth.

There was a heaviness in the air and a dark, gloomy hush that filtered through the lush green forest. His broad outstretched arms pleaded with the heavens to stop the insanity that was about to happen. Yet, he knew there were but a few humans who could see him or even sense him. Most human souls could not hear the voice of his spirit that had existed within his massive body for nearly 200 years. They knew not, the sacred wisdom he sheltered in the bosom of his gnarled and knotted form.

“I am alive,” he bellowed. I have a name! It is Okanto! Can you not see the harm that will come to Mother Earth and her children if this senselessness continues? We, the lungs of the earth, the great giant oaks, maples, redwoods, birch trees and locusts, among others, provide the very breath that sustains your lives. Without us you cease to exist. For many years,” he continued, “some among us freely offered up our lives in the sun to make room for shelter, roads, and other necessary construction for mankind to develop and flourish. Once felled, the energy of other trees around them sent love and nourishment to their roots so they could continue to thrive beneath the ground. But a whole forest?”, he roared causing the wind to align with his fury, bending and twisting his branches and demonstrating just how much strength, power and resilience this mighty being possessed.

The topic of my morning meditation was New Beginnings. Therefore, I thought that would be good idea for this week’s blog. In it I will share an example of how to set the tone for each day and hopefully awaken a new beginning. This is the way I begin my day but it’s not necessarily the right way for those of you reading this. It might, however, spark some creative ideas for how you might spend some time doing the same sort of thing, but differently.

I love the early morning hours when the gilded sun is still resting lazily beneath the horizon. It is dark in the living room where I’m sitting comfortably in my sacred space. It is here where I genuinely enjoy basking in the inky blackness that permeates my quiet, peaceful, introspective time. It is my moment alone to connect with my inner world, pray, and commune with my guides the angels, and God. My first prayer is always one of gratitude for all my blessings and for the miraculous gift of a new day that is about to unfold. I give thanks for the possibility of new beginnings that continuously emerge with every new performance of the drama- driven sun. I ask for guidance. “What is next for me on my spiritual path? How may I be of further service to others and to the world?” I ask for inspiration, courage, and strength to face a world of uncertainty, unpredictability, and constant change.

Of all the things I have studied and experienced during my lifelong search for truth and understanding about who we are, where we came from and what our purpose is here on the earth plane, this work has been the most transformative for me. The study of past lives or reincarnation goes hand in hand with life between lives examination. Evidence of these two provocative and intriguing topics was inadvertently discovered, for the most part, by people who did not believe in the existence of either. The two people who seemed to have had the most impact on this area of research and on me are Dr. Brian Weiss, MD, a traditional psychotherapist, and Dr. Michael Newton, PHD, a traditional counseling psychotherapist and master hypnotist. Dr. Weiss’s book, Many Lives, Many Masters, is groundbreaking regarding past life regression and I highly recommend reading it. However, Dr. Michael Newton took Weiss’s work a step further to include not only past life regression, but he also developed a technique that allowed him to take his clients into and even deeper level of trance, called the superconscious, to access memories of our time spent in between lives. Therefore, I will reference only the work of Dr. Michael Newton exclusively.

This is a topic that evokes so many different emotions. Most of us, at one point or another in our lives, will suffer the loss of someone we love. Believing in an afterlife, which many people do, makes physical death a little easier to bear. However, nothing can dull the raw, gut wrenching anguish we feel when we come to the inevitable realization that we will never see our loved ones again, at least not as they appeared here on earth, during this lifetime. We will never be able to hug them or feel their warm arms around us. The sound of their voice, the way they walked, their laughter and their smile will be lost to us forever, except of course, in our memories.

Mercifully, we understand that death is part of life and most of us find a way to discover a new normal. The grief we felt initially may soften as we eventually find that our memory of him or her brings more smiles than tears. Yet the grief is always with us and we all wish we could see them or talk to them one last time. Especially when we feel there were things left unsaid between us, or that feelings were not shared that we wish were. In both cases we feel the absence of closure and of the possibility of peace.

Welcome to the first session of our discussion and adventure into the journey of our souls. Near death experiences, in the not so distant past, seemed relatively rare since there is little evidence of it, though tales of a bright light leading to another world are as old as time. When NDEs did happen in years past, the people who experienced them had a difficult time talking about them. For one reason, they thought no one would understand or believe them. For another, both then and now, they found it difficult to describe the afterlife in words because they felt there are no words adequate, that would accurately express what they saw, heard, and felt during their time there.

Today, however, with the advances in technology and the ability of the medical community to bring people back from the brink of death, things have changed. There are countless people who have had rich, vibrant and life altering NDEs and they are far more willing to talk about it. The consciousness of humanity has also evolved, and the term spirituality has become more inclusive of all organized religions, as well as people with no religion at all. People of different faiths, as well as those with different or nonexistent belief systems report remarkably similar experiences.

Death and life after death is not an easy topic to discuss. However, it is a topic that I have been interested in and have studied extensively from both a physical and spiritual perspective. I have read countless books about near death experiences, past life experiences, reincarnation, and mediumship, which is about gifted men and woman who can communicate with those who have passed on. I have studied and have had personal experiences regarding signs from the afterlife and how we can connect with our loved ones who have crossed, and finally, I have explored a fascinating body of research regarding the investigation of life between lives and have had personal experiences regarding this topic.

People often ask me, and I have also asked myself as well, why focus on the afterlife? Would it not be a better use of one’s time to focus on what is happening right now in this life. The answer I have discovered from research, study and meditative inner work is that learning about the entire cycle of the journey of the soul helps us live more authentic, balanced, and meaningful lives now. Understanding the physical experience from the vantage point of the soul demystifies death and the afterlife. Instead, it gives meaning and a higher, spiritual perspective to all experiences here on the earth plane, both joyful and painful.

Find a place to sit where you won’t be disturbed. Close your eyes now and be sure that your feet are flat on the floor. Begin by taking a long deep breath in through your nose very slowly….hold it…and release it slowly through your mouth. With each breath open to the healing energy of the angels. Take another deep breath…hold it and slowly release it. One more time breathe in slowly and release it.

Imagine a golden light all around you spreading out as far around you and as high above you as you can visualize it. You feel safe and so relaxed as the light strengthens and grows. This is a protective golden dome which will create a barrier and protective shield so that any unwanted or negative energies will be unable to enter inside it as we take a wonderful spiritual journey to the angelic realm. We ask that the angelic realm be present for us now to assist us on our journey. At the same time, we surrender to our Divine Creator and accept whatever experience is appropriate for us today.

Hello everyone. I’m excited to be with you again to share this week’s blog called…. I thought this might be a good time to discuss meditation and what it can do for us in our lives. Fortunately, it seems meditation has become much more mainstream than in years past. People begin meditating for many reasons because it can be helpful and healing for numerous conditions and circumstances. Some people meditate to ease anxiety or stress. Some meditate to help teach themselves how to stay mindful of what is happening in the present moment, so we do not miss our precious lives as they pass quickly by. Others enjoy this tranquil state of mind, because it brings to light the chaos that goes on as the egoic, monkey mind tries to toss us headfirst into life’s dramas. Being mindful of those mostly useless thoughts, helps us hit the pause button and allows the stillness and silence to open the door to our intuition, insights, inspiration, and peace of mind. From a spiritual perspective, I believe that the silence or the gap between our thoughts is the very place where God, the angels and our spirit guides have an opportunity to speak to us and help assist us on the path to our life’s purpose. They can also offer us answers and solutions to questions and challenges, that inevitably come to pass in our lives throughout the years.

Close your eyes and sit comfortably with your feet flat on the floor. Begin by paying attention to your breathing. Notice how your breath flows easily without having to think about it. Breathing in and out at a normal rhythm is a miracle that allows God’s light to fill you each moment of every day. Now begin to take some long, deep breaths to bring more of that light into every cell of your body. When you focus on your breath and use it purposefully you can bring your consciousness more into alignment with the Divine creator of all things.

So take a long deep breath now in through your nose, hold it, pause and release it slowly through your mouth and at the end of the exhale pause for a moment a feeling of deepening falls over you….take another deep breath, hold it … and again release it….and one more time breathe even deeper, hold it and release it through your mouth.

What is mirror work? How can it help us create more self-love?

Mirror Work was a method originally developed by inspirational teacher Louise Hay as a way of getting in touch with the inner self. The primary purpose of mirror work is to develop self-love, self-care, and a more meaningful relationship with others. By simply looking into the mirror for a certain amount of time each day and gently talking to yourself, you can foster a more compassionate and forgiving connection with yourself.

How does it work?

As I mentioned, many years ago I learned this practice from Louise Hay, and it has served me well many times in my life. We will most likely experience times in our lives when we feel we could have handled a situation better. During those times we might notice that snarky, judgmental voice in our heads saying very unkind things to ourselves. If you think about it, sometimes we say awful things to ourselves that we would never say to anyone else. Why are we willing to be cruel and hurtful to ourselves but not to others? That is quite a mystery, but the answer can simply be, “I don’t know, but it ends here.” That does not mean that the ego in our minds will not try again to judge us, but we will be ready. We will know how it operates and we will be armed and ready with heightened awareness along with self-compassion, self-confidence, and self-love.

Hello everyone! I am sure you are wondering, “What the heck could this blog be about.” I was wondering too when the phrase popped into my head. It is curious to me how that happens sometimes. Amid the random, out of context thoughts that the monkey mind insists on tossing around from moment to moment like, “I wonder if cats think or, how does the Christmas cactus know it’s Christmas,” suddenly, a little tidbit of wisdom just pops in. You may not know exactly what that wisdom is but, you have this subtle feeling that the thought deserves further exploration. So that is what I did when I contemplated this rather strange, invading verbiage.

So, what do we know about mirrors? They reflect. We look in the mirror and an image of our physical form looks right back at us. Some days we catch a glimpse and comment silently, or on great days boldly and loudly, “Hey! You’re looking pretty awesome today!” We throw our shoulders back, lift our head high and feel rather good about letting the world see how spiffy and handsome we are. On other days we rub the sleep from our eyes and greet ourselves by taking our first look in that finicky mirror and we moan, “Holy cow! You look like hell! Your eyes are puffy, your skin is dull and wrinkly and your whole face looks like a big round beach ball.” Our shoulders slump forward, our head drops to our chest, and we slink out of the bathroom wondering if we should stay hidden away in the house for fear other people will notice how ugly we are.

“Hello, Ego!!!”

Hi there. I hope everyone is staying safe during these trying times. For those of us who live in the Northeast US, it has been a challenging week. We have been pummeled with not one but two major snowstorms, each time leaving us buried under mountains of snow and ice. For many of us, storms like these give us the perfect excuse to nestle into our inner spaces and explore any new and magical spiritual mysteries not yet discovered. No matter who we are or what level of spiritual development we find ourselves in, spirit continues to call us to come home to ourselves. Though we may not understand the sense of restlessness and lack of fulfillment, we still feel the pull of unseen forces continuously urging us to rediscover or remember our soul’s light.

So, the topic of this blog is Staying Grounded. What does it mean for us as we pursue a spiritual and soulful path in our lives? Does it mean staying nestled and safe in our own little sanctuary, away from the harshness in the world and simply spend our days meditating and sending out thoughts of love and light? I think we can all agree that would not be wise or sustainable, though for some souls that is the path they chose for a particular lifetime. Staying grounded means living our lives as physical beings who perceive our world and our experiences through spiritual eyes.

Good morning everyone. It is about 6:30 AM on Monday morning. February has barreled into the Northeast US bringing with it an abundance of white, fluffy cotton candy falling from the sky. I peeked outside when I got up and noticed how the streetlights illuminated the crystalline flakes as they danced and swirled with the tempo of the wind. There was a vacillation between the peacefulness of softly falling snow in one moment, and an image of fury and frenzy as the wind gusts interrupted the serenity of the scene.

It got me thinking about the word equanimity and what that means for us in the dance of life, we all must learn. The definition of equanimity is mental or emotional stability or composure, especially under tension or strain.

Let us think of ourselves as the sky. The sky is always the sky, right? It looks different and changes appearance and displays some “attitude” or “hostility”, it you will, with the weather that passes through the sky. Yet beneath the grey clouds, torrential rain, blustery wind and sometimes treacherous storms, the sky is still blue. A bright warm sunny and cloudless day might be defined as the sky’s state of equanimity. It is stable and peaceful. A gentle spring shower is a welcome respite sometimes from all the abundance of sunshine, but it is still peaceful. Then we have hurricanes, tornados, nor Easters, and winter snowstorms. They bring a sense of fury and chaos, at times, disrupting the sky’s peacefulness for a while as they churn and blow off steam. Eventually, the storms pass, the blue skies return, and equanimity settles back in. During all the changing of seasons and unpredictable weather the sky does not change, only what passes through it does.

Good morning everyone. I am writing this at 5:30 AM on a blustery cold January morning. The sun is not up yet so I cannot see outside but I can hear the howling of the wind and the banging of the tree branches against the window behind me. I just finished a wonderful meditation and happily the topic of the day emerged from the stillness. Today we are going to talk about Clarity. So, a good definition of clarity for our purposes is “the state or quality of being clear.”

To begin we are going to do a short visualization. If you are listening to this, you might want to close your eyes and take a few deep breaths to help you relax.

Imagine you are on vacation. You rented a small cabin in the mountains on a beautiful lake dotted with lily pads and surrounded by giant trees fully dressed in their summer greenery. So far, you have only seen pictures and you are anxious and excited to be able to see this magical place in person. In the morning you walk out onto the deck that overlooks the lake. It is early morning, and you notice there is a dense fog all around you. It hangs thick and soupy over the lake so you cannot see anything. You know the lake is close because you can hear the water lapping against the shore and a boat bumping against the dock as a slight breeze shifts it to and fro. You squint your eyes trying to bring the scene into focus, but the fog is just too thick. You suddenly become uncomfortable with the obscurity and murkiness all around you.