Tag: spiritual health

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Meditation for Spiritual Growth

Although meditation is a way to center ourselves and shut off the outside world for a moment, it can also be a way for you to grow spiritually. When you spend time calming your mind and finding inner peace, you have room to explore your spiritual consciousness. Let’s explore how looking inward through meditation can help you grow.

Meditation Restores Balance

Healthy habits are an important part of feeling energized and balanced. Similar to how exercise, healthy eating, and a full night of sleep are good for you, meditation is one way to take care of your mental health. When you find the world is chaotic, take a moment to close your eyes, be silent, and focus on your breath. After your session, you may feel calm and balanced once again.

How To Meditate Spiritually

Spiritual meditation is the practice of learning how you are connected to something bigger than yourself. Start by reflecting on your inner self and how you move through life. Then, begin to focus on the present moment. Ask yourself the following questions:

  • What do I feel?
  • What do I hear?
  • What do I smell?
  • What do I taste?

As your eyes are closed and your breathing is deep, begin to overcome any negative thoughts or feelings by accepting and acknowledging your entire self. When you learn to find love and compassion for yourself, you can more easily do the same for others. During your practice, focus on the following:

  • Your authentic self.
  • Being open-minded.
  • Directing compassion toward others.
  • Releasing grudges or burdens.

The Takeaways of Meditation for Spiritual Growth

Learning how to quiet your mind and take time to live in the moment requires practice. When you begin meditation, you may find that your thoughts are racing. As you learn to sink into calmness, you can enrich your life, appreciate every moment, and be more mindful.

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Healing Your Energy by Having an Open Mind

Illness is your body being out of balance in some way.  Whether it is a virus attacking your body’s immune system, or depression attacking your mind from within.  When things get scary your stress levels can increase dramatically which can aggravate an ongoing physical or mental problem or illness, or actually weaken your immune system which can leave you vulnerable for outside causes of illness to take advantage.

Developing and strengthening an open mind can help heal your energy, physically, mentally and emotionally.  Closed minded belief systems stem from fear.  Usually fear of the “other” or the “unknown,” but also fear of losing a sense of yourself or where you are in society as a whole.

By trying to face those fears head on, you can actually heal yourself mentally and emotionally as well as strengthen your physical defenses by not having the added stress and anxiety that being overwhelmed by fear can cause.

Being open minded and having an open mind means you are open to what the universe has in store for you, that you are open to other people, and other belief systems, even ones that are diametrically opposed to yourself or your own beliefs.  Having an open mind doesn’t mean you have to accept or believe the same way as every other person in the world, but it does mean you accept every other person’s right to live and believe their own way and not force them to believe or be as you are. 

By trying to be open to the belief that all people are equal and have equal rights to every right every other person enjoys and is born into, it can help your mind, body and emotions find balance and be more open to what the universe has in store for you.  By focusing your energy on being at its most balanced, it can help your whole self heal and grow to your highest vibration.

This is easier said than done.  Many fears are deeply rooted from early childhood and are systemic because they are tied to parents and grandparents in your subconscious.  So if you are going to change the way you think about your own fears it can cause mental and emotional dissonance to happen, because you don’t want to “betray” those that came before you or who you are in their eyes.  When belief systems are that deeply rooted it takes time and patience with yourself to feel okay about change.  But during the time that you are taking to make these difficult changes in being more open minded, understand that it isn’t a straight line.  You will make progress some days and other days you will not make as much.  The most important aspect of making changes like this is to continue to strive to do your best. 

Being open minded can help bring peace to yourself and help your mind, body and emotions all find balance.  It can also help your society and the world at large be more at peace and more balanced.  By healing yourself through having a more open mind, you will actually help heal the world as well.

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Mantras for Having an Open Mind

Becoming more open minded can be difficult and can take time and patience with yourself.  Closed mindedness caused by fear and distress about other people, or other beliefs and behaviors, can be deeply rooted.  These types of fears and defensive mindsets are hard to change.  That is why mantras are such a good tool to use when trying to become more open minded. 

Mantras are phrases or ideas that can be repeated over and over to help reinforce a change you want to encourage your psyche to develop.  This can help reinforce actions for change and create a positive outlook about the changes you are trying to make.

Some mantras you might use if you are trying to develop a more open mind are listed below.

My happiness is not lessened by other people being happy.

By accepting other people exactly how they are, I can learn to accept myself exactly how I am.

My safety and security are not lessened by other people being safe and secure.

All people are equal and deserve to have equal treatment in all things.

I might not like or understand someone but they have a right to live and be happy as they are.

Equal rights for all people do not take rights away from me.

I am strong enough to fight my fears. 

My fears will not control me.

These mantras can be used alone or in combinations with each other as a series.

You can use music while you say mantras to help connect the words to a certain feeling.  For example, you can put on a calming soothing type music, or something upbeat and uplifting, while you repeat the mantras which will help you stay calm or reinforce a feeling of positivity for what you are trying to accomplish.

You can say mantras while doing something creative like drawing or painting or some other visual art.  This will allow the words to become associated with different colors or textures and become imbedded in the part of the mind that is connected to creativity.  Even if you don’t consider yourself “artistic” you can do something as simple as color a piece of paper with a marker or crayon of your favorite color.  You can also look at a photo or painting online or even a swatch of cloth in your favorite color while you say the words.  This will help create positive associations with the changes you are trying to create.

You can add mantras to your meditation routine or as an aid to begin a meditation routine if you have never attempted meditation before. 

Having an open mind can take practice, be hard work, and sometimes require an extreme change in how you feel about yourself, your place in the world, and other people.  It can be scary and require time and patience with yourself while you do this work. Being open minded can help heal old wounds that you didn’t know you were carrying around inside yourself.  Mantras can be an integral tool in opening your mind and healing the fears and underlying causes of being closed minded in the first place. Your being more open minded will help others in the world to feel more accepted and supported, so by healing yourself you can help heal the world. 

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Meditate for Spiritual Growth

Meditation is personal and private. This is a time to go deep within your soul to find the answers you have been looking for, instead of looking everywhere outside of yourself. Did you realize that we are actually spiritual beings having a human experience? When you think of it that way, many things can shift in your life. 

We are all unique. You may enjoy walking or running quiet-time to get grounded and connected to what means the most to you. Or, you may enjoy a more traditional approach to meditation when sitting in a calm and peaceful environment. Experiment and and find what works best for you. And then use these tools and techniques consistently. 

In the beginning it can feel too challenging and maybe your mind is racing fast and furious. You may want to try this box breathing technique to slow everything down: it helps achieve calm & has health benefits.

  1. Take 4 deep breaths in
  2. Hold to the count of 4 
  3. Release your breath to the count of 4 
  4. Then hold your breath for 4 counts. 

Keep repeating this for several sessions until your focus on your breath is bringing you into the here and now. This also reduces stress and takes you out of the future or the past. Return to natural breathing when it feels right to you. You can also start with short sessions of meditation and expand the time from there until you find your rhythm and consistency. The key is to keep at it — don’t give up. 

The beauty of meditation is that we connect to that inner wisdom, the internal GPS, the essence of our soul — and through that pure connection, we see what connects us all. We are all one, and the more we find ways to connect instead of ways to disconnect, the better our lives will be and the better our world will be. 

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Stay Hopeful

Stay Hopeful

There is a lot going on in the world, and in your own life. Now is a great time to focus on taking care of yourself — from the inside-out. It is essential to connect with what is most important for you. But right now, with all the uncertainties, do you even know what that is? Let’s focus on the basics.

Hope

Now is the time for deep and connected hope. Hope is the core foundation to build on. Let’s start with powerful self-care ideas. Creating ‘me’ time is essential, find what works best for you.

  • Carve out a private space of solitude (inside or out)
  • Slow Deep Breaths — this simple practice can do wonders
  • Close your eyes and imagine a place of comfort and beauty
  • Actually see it and feel it in your soul. Imagine how it smells, sounds, feels etc
  • Connect with a trusted power beyond yourself (God, Spirit, Universe, Higher Self…)

When you are grounded into nature or your personal power source, you can work together to translate fear, worry and anxiety into faith, trust and hope. This is not silly hope, this is the deep knowing that together, we can all get through our challenges — one step at a time, one day at a time.

Do this again and again, because it should not be a once and done activity. Make this a regular part of your daily life, like eating or brushing your teeth. We are being invited to quietly go within to find the answers we have been searching for all over the place. Guess what? The best place to find those answers is within you. You just need to slow down and ask the really primal questions that you may have been afraid to ask. This is not a scary dark place to fear, that will re-open all the pain from your past. This is like opening yourself to your own super-powers. You need to take the dedicated time over and over to peel through the many layers of the ‘onion’ of your life, to discover the gourmet variety of choices and flavors that you can choose from. All you need to do is believe in yourself and take the first step.

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At-Home Self Care Techniques

Self care, for many, is a foreign concept because we can get so caught up in our everyday responsibilities that we forget to take the time to care for our needs. To establish your own self care routine, here are three techniques you can start implementing today.

Go Screen-Free

If you’re like most of the world, you may aimlessly check through your phone more often than you’d like. One easy self care technique you can implement is to consciously step away from your screen. Try leaving your phone in another room when you’re sleeping so you aren’t tempted to scroll if you wake up in the middle of the night or first thing in the morning. 

Establish a Good Sleep Schedule

A good sleep schedule can improve your mood, reduce stress, empower your immune system by reducing inflammation, and even boost your memory. Aim for a consistent seven to nine hours per night. Try to go to sleep and wake up at the same time each day so your body can more easily fall into a normal sleep-wake schedule. While you sleep, manifest abundance. Once you’ve done this, you’ll be amazed at the energy you have and how ready you’ll feel to conquer the day each morning.

Eat Whole Foods

For many, food is medicine. What we eat daily can have a strong impact on our health, mood, and more. To make your meals part of your self care plan, try to eat a healthy balance of nuts, seeds, fruits, vegetables, and healthy fats. It’s also important to drink the recommended eight cups of water throughout the day.

Ultimately, learning how to take care of yourself can heal your soul because it’s rooted in what your body and mind tell you. Maybe self care looks like a bubble bath while reading your favorite book, or a meditation session in a dark room. Your body and mind are telling you what they want — all you have to do is listen.

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Crystals for Manifesting Abundance

Using crystals will help you generate the right vibrations to draw abundance into your life. When you’re working with crystals for this type of manifestation, it’s important to keep a clear vision of what you want and a strong conviction that you deserve this. Your confidence in the manifestation will bring it into being.

Manifesting Abundance

Abundance can mean many different things. Before you can start to manifest abundance, you must define what it means to you. Visualize your life with the kind of abundance you want to attract. This could be an abundance of free time, accomplishments, friends, or monetary earnings. Clearly identify what abundance looks like in your life.

Prosperity Crystals

Using crystals for prosperity will give your manifestations a powerful boost. The following crystals help strengthen your manifestations, clarify your vision, soften your barriers to success, and attract abundance:

  • Green aventurine.
  • Citrine.
  • Pyrite.
  • Green jade.
  • Tiger’s eye.
  • Green moss agate.
  • Clear quartz.
  • Rose quartz.
  • Selenite.
  • Amazonite.

How To Use Crystals for Abundance

Select the prosperity stones that resonate the most with your purpose. You might select one stone or several. There are many ways you can use these crystals for abundance. Consider some of these options:

  • Place your prosperity crystals on your workspace to invite wealth from your efforts.
  • Keep your abundance crystals on a personal altar with other items that symbolize abundance for you, such as a picture of something you want to purchase.
  • Place the crystals in your wallet to draw more money in.
  • Keep your prosperity stones in your pocket to draw abundance to yourself.
  • Meditate with your abundance stones in your hand.
  • Create a crystal grid with one or more abundance crystals.

With the right tools, you can draw abundance into your life and manifest the kind of success that you’re after.

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Manifesting Abundance Meditation

Meditation doesn’t have to just be about becoming zen and finding inner peace.  It can be much more than that for you.  Through meditation you can create a focus for your life, or bring about positive changes for yourself as well. 

The following is a mediation to help you manifest abundance into your life.

Get into a comfortable position in a spot where you won’t be disturbed for a few minutes.  Focus on your breathing.  Take slow deep breaths in and then let them out slowly.  Try to match the length of time for your exhale as what it took for your inhale.  With each new breath, focus on relaxing a different part of your body. Release any tension you are holding in your shoulders, your back, and even in your jaw.  Just breathe.

Feel your body in the room where you are.  Then realize you are a part of the larger whole of existence.  You are made up of the same stardust that has been here since the beginning of time.  Feel your body and mind becoming one with the energy of the universe around you.  Breathe in slowly, and then let that breath back out, in and out.

Now as you continue to breathe slowly, begin to think about abundance and what that means to you.  Does it mean having lots of tangible items? Does it mean being rich or famous?  Or does it mean having enough financial stability to have the freedom to travel?  Or is it simpler than that, like having plenty of food on your table and your bills paid with a steady job?  Whatever the idea of abundance is for you, focus on what your life would look like filled with that abundance.  Allow your mind to flow and experience the happy emotions that would manifest in your life.  Feel the positive happiness flow over you and visualize what you would be doing and how you would experience that abundance in your life.  Live it in your mind as vibrantly as if it has already happened.

Now settle your mind back into how your body feels sitting quietly, while breathing slowly in and out.  Picture a magnet inside your solar plexus and with each breath in, imagine that magnet is attracting all that abundance you desire into your life.  With each breath out, release any and all thoughts or ideas that might be holding you back from achieving the abundance in your life.  Each breath in the magnet pulls and draws happiness and abundance towards you, and with each breath out let go of barriers blocking that achievement.

Sit quietly, just breathing, allowing the magnet to work and attract all the abundance into your life, and know in your heart, all you have to do is accept it.  Work on allowing your mind to believe you deserve to receive this.  Open your mind to the belief that you will get the happiness and abundance that you desire.

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Why Is It So Hard To Love Ourselves

Why Is It So Hard For Us To Love Ourselves?

There is something about our society that over time has shown women that they have to be nurturers or caregivers.  This not only gives women a skewed self worth ideal, but also sets them up for years of self sabotage for not being enough to someone else. 

The opposite is true of how, for years, society has set up men for emotional failure.  For men, they are seen as weak or as less than if they show any emotions at all. 

Both of these stereotypical ideals of what people are supposed to be and strive for, sets both genders up for burnout, isolation, and a sense of failure.

How do we fight against this?  Self love is a good place to start.  It is easy to say, “love yourself” and one of the hardest challenges a person can face.  Childhood obstacles and trauma, unrealistic expectations of perfection, and measuring people by Hollywood standards make looking yourself in the mirror and saying “I like who I see,” let alone, “I love myself,” an uphill battle.

Where can one begin fighting against this near impossible challenge?  Small steps are the best way to attack any journey or mountain that seems too big to undertake. 

Make a list of things you like or admire about yourself.  Even if there is only one item on your list, start there.  Do more of whatever it is that makes you feel that positive way about yourself.  If you are proud of your artistic ability, then take a small amount of time each and every day to do something artistic.

If you think you have beautiful hair, then make sure to pamper yourself with special shampoo or a salon visit more often than you have been doing.

Whatever it is that is on your list, embrace it and celebrate it.  Once you start focusing on the good things you view about yourself, and feeding into that feeling about you, it will grow and branch out.  After a while you will start to see that maybe you have other things you like about yourself too. 

The second step to loving yourself is to begin to have compassion for you as you are right now.  So many people say “I would be happy if only…” about themselves or who they are.  It is an incredibly hard thing to think about yourself and have compassion for who you are right now this minute.  The reason for this is because we have unrealistic expectations about ourselves, so much moreso than we do of anyone else. 

Think of something you don’t like about yourself, whether it is your body-shape, or your inability to be as strong or as smart as you think you should be.  Now imagine your very best friend has those same qualities, I bet you would love them exactly as they are in whatever body, or abilities they have, because you see their worth, not for their body or the capabilities, but because of who they are.  Try turning that lens towards yourself.

Loving yourself and what makes you special and a unique individual is a wonderful way to fill your tank for the hard things you have to do every day.

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Rituals For Finding Love

Rituals for finding love

If you’re feeling a little lost in love, you may be asking hopeful questions like, “What is a love spell”, and “Do love spells work?” Simple love spells or rituals are mindful activities intended to attract love into your life. These can work as long as you’re not targeting a specific person. You can’t change an individual’s emotions, but you create positive energy that will naturally attract love from the right person.

Mindful Meditation

Manifest the love story of your dreams by meditating on what your life will be like when you’ve found your true love. Don’t give your lover a specific face or name. Simply sense their presence and focus on manifesting a partner that has the right qualities.

Visualize an ordinary day as it would play out with your ideal partner. Do you linger over your morning coffee in the dining room or spend extra time snuggled in bed? Do they send you supportive messages during the day or meet you for lunch on your break? Drawing up a clear image of the life you want will help you manifest it.

Love Spells With Crystals

Certain crystals are known to support self-love and help attract loving relationships. Rose quartz is the most popular of these. Keep a piece under your pillow or bedside the bed, wear rose quartz jewelry, or simply carry one in your pocket. This has the perfect vibration for attracting love.

Gratitude Love Rituals

It’s easiest to attract love when you have a deep well of self-love in place. The best love spells aren’t really spells as much as they’re natures way to attract. Begin a gratitude ritual where you write down the things you’re thankful for and the qualities that you love about yourself every evening. This will draw similar feelings of love and appreciation from others.

Simple rituals can support your own sense of self-love and help love grow with others.