Santa Monica Pier- Relaxation Video

24-hr Silent Retreat

Step 1: Choose your day

Plan ahead and choose a day that you don’t have to be at the office, or available ‘on call.’ A weekend or regular day off works best.

Step 2: Let others know

Post it on your Facebook page, record a special voicemail message, and setup a vacation email response letting friends, family and colleagues know that you’re unavailable to talk during this time. Make arrangements with your household, particularly your partner and children, so that everyone understands and respects your choice.

Step 3: Set up guidelines for the day

We suggest forgoing media - email, television, texting, etc. for the entire period of your silent retreat. Will you write notes? How will you deal with emergencies? Are gestures or sign language okay? Make a list of your own guidelines for the day and share it with your family so everyone is on board.

Step 4: Consider how you’ll spend the time

Mindful activities like yoga, meditation and journaling are natural choices during a day of silence. Spending time outdoors, or doing a beloved creative activity are also excellent ideas. Will you venture out in public? Or try to stay in solitude? Thinking and planning ahead will make the experience go more smoothly.

Step 5: Reflect

What did you learn about yourself while in silence? What was challenging? What surprised you? Spend the last hour of your day contemplating the experience.



This post was taken from HealingLifestyles.com.

5 Steps to Happiness

Be grateful

Insofar as our actions and state of mind help shape our own reality, make the choice to identify and celebrate the love and blessings in your life, whether that’s your health, your home, or your neighbor’s child who smiles at you every time you meet.

Consider your surroundings

Sometimes, our lives seem so hectic and out of control that choosing to be happy is an overwhelming prospect. It’s liberating to know and accept that your response to any life challenge is yours, completely, to choose. This includes distancing, or removing yourself completely, from negative people. And while we’re mentioning movement, remember all those studies that have shown the positive effects of exercise on improving mood. Instead of sitting at home worrying or feeling sorry for yourself, take yourself outside for a long walk.

Keep it simple

Happiness isn’t really such a complicated thing. When savored, simple moments—a bowl of hot soup on a cold winter day, listening to music that lifts your spirits on the way to work, a perfect cup of tea before bed—can help shape your outlook. Wealth can purchase a lot of stuff, but happiness really isn’t one of them. 

Put things in perspective

Find a spot where you can look up at the sky. Picture the beautiful blue Earth, suspended in the universe, spinning slowly around the Sun, surrounded by billions of stars and other planets. Suddenly, the argument you had with your sister, or the mean clerk at the market, lose momentum and importance, and are scaled back to what they really are: small blips in the day that have no lasting importance, isolated moments in a world so vast and astounding, that they’re easy to let go of. Which brings us, once again, to consciously making the choice to be happy. It’s up to you. 

Step outside your own drama

Doing something for someone else can be an instant mood-improver. Help a neighbor shovel snow from their driveway, or offer to shop for someone who has a hard time getting around. There are countless opportunities to help others in every community, and the effort doesn’t have to be monumental in its proportions. Simple acts of kindness are often the most rewarding.

This post was written by Debra Bokur.  To read the entire post, click here: HealingLifestyles.com.

Breaking the Habit of Being Yourself

Every day, as you see the same people (your boss, for example, and your spouse and kids), do the same things (drive to work, perform your daily tasks, and do the same workout), go to the same places (your favorite coffee shop, the grocery store you usually frequent, and your place of employment), and look at the same objects (your car, your house, your toothbrush ... even your own body), your familiar memories related to your known world “re-mind” you to reproduce the same experiences.

We could say that the environment is actually controlling your mind. Since the neuroscientific definition of mind is the brain in action, you repeatedly reproduce the same level of mind by “re-minding” yourself who you think you are in reference to the outer world. Your identity becomes defined by everything outside of you, because you identify with all of the elements that make up your external world. Thus, you’re observing your reality with a mind that is equal to it, so you collapse the infinite waves of probabilities of the quantum field into events that reflect the mind you use to experience your life. You create more of the same.

You may not think that your environment and your thoughts are that rigidly similar and your reality so easily reproduced. But when you consider that your brain is a complete record of your past, and your mind is the product of your consciousness, in one sense you might always be thinking in the past. By responding with the same brain hardware that matches what you remember, you’re creating a level of mind that is identical to the past, because your brain is automatically firing existing circuits to reflect everything you already know, have experienced, and thus can predict. According to quantum law (which, by the way, is still working for you), your past is now becoming your future.

Reason this: When you think from your past memories, you can only create past experiences. As all of the “knowns” in your life cause your brain to think and feel in familiar ways, thus creating knowable outcomes, you continually reaffirm your life as you know it. And since your brain is equal to your environment, then each morning, your senses plug you into the same reality and initiate the same stream of consciousness.

All of the sensory input that your brain processes from the external world (that is, seeing, smelling, hearing, feeling, and tasting) turns your brain on to think equal to everything familiar in your reality. You open your eyes and you know the person lying next to you is your spouse because of your past experiences together. You hear barking outside your door, and you know it’s your dog wanting to go out. There’s a pain in your back, and you remember it’s the same pain you felt yesterday. You associate your outer, familiar world with who you think you are, by remembering yourself in this dimension, this particular time and space.

To read the entire article and to learn how to Break the Habit of Being Yourself, go to blog.gaiam.com.


This post was written by Dr. Joe Dispenza for blog.gaiam.com.

10 Thoughts on Whole Living New Year Edition

1 NOURISH YOUR MIND AS CAREFULLY 

AS YOU NOURISH YOUR BODY.

2 BRISK, CRISP, INVIGORATING-REMEMBER

ALL THE POSITIVE SIDES OF WINTER.

3 FINDING BALANCE IN YOUR RELATIONSHIP REQUIRES ALL YOUR SENSES. 

4 If you feel the need to be critical,

BE SURE THE URGE IS COMING FROM A PLACE OF KINDNESS.

5 WHEN YOU BREAK A SMALL BAD HABIT,

YOU TEACH YOURSELF

THAT YOU CAN CHANGE ANYTHING.

6 PROSPERITY BEGINS WITH THE ASSUMPTION

THAT THERE;S MORE THAN ENOUGH FOR EVERYONE.

7 Willpower is sometimes a biological issue,

not a moral one. Don't judge yourself harshly.

8 THE BEST WORK ENVIRONMENTS FOSTER PERSONAL

CONNECTION AS WELL AS PRODUCTIVITY.

9 SPEAK YOUR MIND. Unmet needs create resentment when they go unexpressed.

10 THE NEW YEAR ISN'T A DO-OVER; 

it's an opportunity to take your next big step.

This post, written by Terri Trespicio, was taken from Whole Living Magazine, January/February 2012.

How to Become a Mindful Parent

An interview with Jon and Myla Kabat-Zinn, authors of “Everyday Blessings: The Inner Work of Mindful Parenting”

As a working mother of a 15-month-old, I’m constantly seeking the balance between work, family and my “inner” life. Some days I feel like I can have it all. Other days that ideal flies out the window by 6 a.m.

Looking for answers, I caught up with Myla and Jon Kabat-Zinn, co-authors ofEveryday Blessings: The Inner Work of Mindful Parenting. Most importantly, I discovered, it might just be that there is no perfect answer. Life is here to teach us as we go along, and parenting is just one very special course—with no textbook. We just have to show up for class each and every moment.

What does being a mindful parent really mean?

Jon: Mindful parenting is a lifelong practice. It means you become less attached to outcomes and more mindful of what’s unfolding in your life and your children’s lives. Mindful parenting is about moment-to-moment, openhearted and nonjudgmental attention. It’s about seeing our children as they are, not as we want them to be. We let everything that unfolds in life be the curriculum for our parenting—because it is—whether we like it or not.

Myla: We are so caught up in our thoughts that we’re being continually pulled away from the now—and we tend miss it. Practicing mindful parenting doesn’t mean we are never going to be judgmental, or we will never have fear and expectations—those are part of being human. The process is to really begin to see when that happens, and to ask ourselves “how does that feel?”

How does this “deeper” style of parenting impact children?

Jon: It affects both the emotional and relational development of the child. Studies of the brain have demonstrated that empathy is built into being human. When we attune to the experience of another, our nervous system is actually resonating with the same pattern of neural activity as the other person. If we don’t attend to our children in ways that are emotionally present, we are disrespecting the fundamental threads of connectivity between us. If parents are more emotionally present in a balanced, more mindful way, the evidence is that children grow up to be grounded and functional in dealing with their own emotionally charged situations.

Myla: We’re talking about being in a relationship. When you meet a child with more acceptance, it doesn’t mean you have to love everything they do. It’s about having a kind of deep faith that their core being is whole and that the behaviors you are reacting to are a response to some sort of imbalance in yourself. There’s no bad child. Children who are ignored or unseen simply have behaviors that reflect that.

How are children, as you put it, live-in Zen masters?

Jon: Well, for example, a Zen master is likely to continually push your buttons so you have plenty of occasions to practice maintaining clarity and emotional balance. Children, by their very nature, are going to call into question and perhaps disrupt everything you know, and that is a great opportunity for bringing mindful awareness to the situation. Say you’ve put a lot of energy into making dinner after a difficult day, and your baby starts screaming and is inconsolable just when you are about to sit down and enjoy it. That’s a perfect opportunity to bring mindfulness right into that moment and see how attached you may be to having a peaceful dinner. What are your options? You can flip out and be immature and not be in resonance with whatever your child is experiencing, or you can realize this is what it means sometimes to have baby or a toddler. Life itself is the curriculum. When you give up your attachment, you won’t relate to your child with resentment. Our live-in Zen masters teach us to accept things as they are, and then respond appropriately rather than react mindlessly—because things are already as they are.

What are some simple ways parents can begin practicing mindful parenting?

Jon: The first step is to bring more awareness to your mind and body in key moments. Ask yourself, “Am I reacting here or am I responding?” Then, “What would be an imaginative, out-of-the-box response?” When you are not reacting, you can respond more mindfully, creating a more spacious, nuanced, truer, unique outcome. You have to use what’s arising in the present moment. Also, begin to question the truth of your constant self-statements. Self-awareness brings out another dimension of our experience. Mindful parenting is not about being a yogi or practicing Buddhism; it’s about being human and realizing that we have more options than we may think in any moment, no matter what is happening. Just bringing awareness to your breathing and sustaining it over time can be very powerful. Remember, whether you are reacting mindlessly or responding mindfully, your child is drinking it all in.

Myla: You might tune into a sense of an inner landscape as you’re going through the day. Start to pay attention to your thinking. Observe that your self-talk is constant. Start to bring awareness to your thoughts and the tension in your body. Remember, feelings come along with thoughts. Ask yourself, “Am I actually really worried about this, or am I just starting to obsess out of habit?” When you create more freedom and space around the source of those feelings, especially when they are very strong, you have more effective choices. You can also use the breath. For me, taking a slow, deep, intentional breath can bring me back. Sometimes it helps to put a hand on yourself, and say “here I am” to bring calmness to the situation.

Given our busy, increasingly complicated lives, is it really possible to practice mindfulness each day?

Jon: The more complicated our lives are, the more important it is to live in the present moment—otherwise we’ll miss much of our lives. As a parent, you can’t withdraw to a cave to meditate. It’s all about now. When you tune into the breath and sensations in the body, you are stepping outside of time. Moment-to-moment, nonjudgmental awareness cultivated by paying attention—we are all capable of this. Mindfulness actually saves us a tremendous amount of time because we don’t go down so many dead ends with our thoughts. It doesn’t take any more time to be more mindful. It’s not a philosophy, it’s a practice. You don’t have to get less busy or fix anything. Simply reclaim your moments by showing up for them. The more “speedy” your life is, the more oxygen this practice gives you.

Why do you think the work of parenting (versus “real” jobs) is undervalued in our society?

Myla: I’m not sure it’s as undervalued as it used to be. However, our society is focused on making money. If you look at education, for example, it’s geared toward the economy and the workplace. Parenting is not as clear-cut as learning a skill. There are no benchmarks. We have benchmarks in our society for success, but being a parent doesn’t take that form. Lately, is does seem like people are deciding to live more simply—to have less, work less and have more family time. People are starting to want more balance. There is something stirring.

This post was written by Julie Kailus for blog.gaiam.com.

Give Thanks

Gratitude. Unlike eating leafy greens or practicing yoga, it’s not something we usually consider “good for us.” Yet a recent study by psychologists at the University of California-Davis and the University of Miami shows that giving thanks is indeed beneficial for our psychological well-being.

Conducting “gratitude interventions” with such varied groups as college students and adults with neuromuscular disease, researchers Robert A. Emmons and Michael E. McCullough found that individuals practicing gratitude on a regular (daily or weekly) basis displayed a more positive general outlook, greater optimism, and less stress and depression. Other benefits found were higher levels of alertness, energy, enthusiasm, and determination as well as a greater likelihood of being generous, empathetic, and aware of one’s interconnectedness with others.

Though we may say “thanks” countless times each day, really practicing gratitude requires reflection and open-hearted sincerity. Mark Nasralla, former ayurvedic clinician and current therapist manager at The Crossings in Austin, Texas, notes, “Being grateful intellectually isn’t enough. Gratitude is an emotional, psychosomatic experience. You feel grateful, so you have to put your attention inward and seek out the source of that feeling.”

Similarly, the subjects in the study were not merely thanking others in passing, they were actively engaged in contemplating what and whom they were thankful for by making lists, participating in self-guided exercises, and keeping journals. Not surprisingly, Emmons and McCullough found that the religious and spiritual were more apt at cultivating gratitude, often through the practices of prayer and meditation. But becoming more grateful doesn’t require joining a church, it can be as basic as counting your blessings before bed—a practice anyone can do.

“The simplest way to become more grateful,” Nasralla explains, “is to make lists, every day. This allows you to revisit all the things you are thankful for. As you continue, gratitude becomes a habit.” Not a list-maker? Prayer or a moment of silence before a meal is one way of honoring the food and the person who prepared it. In his book Bless This Food (New World Library, 2007), author Adrian Butash has compiled 160 mealtime blessings from cultures and religions throughout the world, making it easy and educational to say grace. Finally, if you meditate, incorporate gratitude into each session by visualizing one person, place, or thing you truly appreciate.

The more you practice gratitude, the easier it becomes. “It follows the law of attraction—like attracts like,” says Nasralla. “What you [focus] your attention on grows stronger.” To bring more thankfulness into your daily experience, Nasralla offers three steps. One, have a clear intention. Two, take action by meditating, journaling, or speaking. And finally, consciously look for opportunities to feel gratitude during small, everyday events.

Though there is no magic spell to keep stress, troubles, and the bumps of life from happening, there is evidence that bolstering feelings of gratitude can change the way you experience those events. By helping you navigate life’s storms with greater ease, more general happiness, and a brighter sense of optimism, giving thanks can become something to be thankful for.

This post was written by Tanya M. Williams for HealingLifestyles.com.

10 Steps to Starting a New Habit and Creating Lasting Change in Your Life

If you want to change a habit, and make an everlasting change, the first thing to do is raise your standards. Change the belief and desire you have of yourself in the area you wish to change. Write down all the things you’ll no longer accept or tolerate and all the things you want to become and achieve. What do you demand of yourself?

A habit begins with a number of beliefs that together create a strategy. If repeated often enough, the strategy becomes a habit ... so how can you change a habit once it’s been formed?

It’s pointless to raise your standards and not believe you can achieve them; that’s called self-sabotage. Once you’ve raised your standards and decided on the habits you want to change, you must start to modify your limiting beliefs and remove your doubts by following this process:

1. Have a firm belief.

You need to have a firm belief, without any doubt in the achievement and success of your desires. These beliefs need to be like unquestioned commands. They’ll shape every thought, feeling and action you’ll take. Within the strength of these beliefs lies the “core” to real and everlasting change.

2. Your belief needs to be under control.

If not, no matter what you decide to change, you’ll never have the conviction to achieve your goals or the desire to truly change.

3. Create a strategy. 

Once you have the beliefs that will lead to your success ingrained within you, you then need to have a strategy to achieve the results. I’ve provided the example result of getting in shape below; follow this strategy to enhance your belief in your goal.

Set your beliefs that you're in great shape and physically fit; you know what you can accomplish (such as running a marathon); and you can see yourself doing this, you can hear the applause (or whatever sound) and you have the feelings. (Don’t use the phrase “I want ...” as that will result in your goal being pushed further in the future; use “I am ...”).

Enhance the whole image you’ve set in your mind.

• Adjust the brightness to bring it to clarity.
• Adjust the color to enhance its brilliance.
• Adjust the size of the picture to make it life-sized.
• If it’s a still picture, make it a movie; if it’s a movie, make it a still picture. Adjust the speed of the movie until it feels the most realistic.
• If there are sounds, adjust these to make them heard in surround sound.
• Feel the feelings inside you; relishing how good it feels when you can create the body you want.

Allow your inner being to do its part in fulfilling your goal — letting change occur. After these changes have taken place and been performed repetitively, a new pattern will develop that will create the habitual change within you.

Determine what has to happen for you to know that you’ve made the desired changes in your life. What would be the final step? Would it be that you can fit in a dress that you purposely bought for a special day? Would it be that people comment on the "new" you? You'll need to write down this final step as your evidence step.

4. Choose steps.

Choose several steps you can take each day that will assist you on your journey toward the new you, to make this new pattern ingrained into your subconscious mind and ultimately creating new habits. For the exercise example, your steps might include:

• Set the alarm clock 45 minutes early.
• Have workout clothes laid out the night before, for easy accessibility.
• Take the dog on your walk; you’ll get companionship and the dog will benefit from the exercise, too.
• Have a healthy lunch prepared the night before.
• Stock your fridge with healthy snacks you can grab quickly when you’re hungry.
• Plan all your meals in advance.
• Schedule exercise, meals and other healthy activities into your day planner or PDA.

5. Be very specific.

Write down a date when you’ll start this new strategy and how often you'll do it. Choose the route you'll take in the neighborhood or which gym you’ll visit. State exactly in the present tense what you’re doing, as in, “I’m walking three miles today and will do so on Monday, Wednesday and Friday each week.” This is much better than simply saying, “I will exercise each week.” Being specific implies a commitment to your goal.

6. Make a commitment to start.

Think about what’s at stake and focus again on the list you made, thinking about how it’ll feel and what benefits you'll receive when you incorporate this strategic change into your life. We’ve all had the experience of wanting to start an exercise program “next week”; when next week comes and goes, we just put things off, and it never happens. Make the commitment to begin — and follow through.

7. Thank yourself for participating.

It’s OK to be grateful to yourself; this is a wonderful affirmation. Hearing the words "thank you" relaxes the muscles and deepens the resolve. If someone, anyone, thanks you for something, it naturally makes you feel good. You want to keep doing it to get that praise again, so praise yourself. Soon others will see the positive changes in your life and praise you, too.

8. Notice when you don’t follow through.

Ask yourself why, but be careful not to beat up yourself over a lapse. Do you need to alter the motivation or the steps to your new strategy? Was there something that created some doubt in your mind? If so, change it back. The results you get are the product of your thinking, so if you continue to be disappointed at what you achieve, you must be willing to ask yourself some hard questions and change your beliefs.

9. Use your affirmations.

Often people will take the affirmations they’ve created and make an audio recording of them that can be played back each morning as they exercise. This is a great way to start the day on a positive and upbeat note while encouraging yourself to commit to your new habit.

10. Journal your progress.

This is very important. Journaling is a way to keep track of how far you’ve come and how much you’ve accomplished, which can sometimes be difficult for you to remember. Journaling can be as simple as a brief paragraph noting what days you performed a certain habit or task and what the outcome was. You can also use a journal to record specifics of your diet and exercise regime as well as how you’re feeling as a whole and any emotional events that are occurring. It's important to do this daily. The more specific you are with your journaling, the better reference tool it will become.

This post was written by Melonie Dodaro for blog.gaiam.com.

Lift Your Mood

You spill a cup of coffee all over your desk. How do you react? If you're chatting on the phone with a new love interest, you shrug and chalk it up to giddy distraction. If it's right before an important meeting, you feel annoyed, even angry with yourself. Why the difference? In one scenario, it's just an accident. In the other, it goes to prove your day is doomed.

There's a reason for this: We view the world through mood-colored glasses, interpreting events according to how we feel at the time. But while we may swear that the guy who cuts us off in traffic ruined our morning, it's the way we respond that creates our experience. Life's little annoyances themselves don't sour a day; they serve as a reflection of the mood we're already in. "When you focus on negative thoughts or memories, you begin to interpret events around you through that lens, which generates more negative thoughts," says cognitive psychologist John Selby, coauthor of "Take Charge of Your Mind." It's a vicious cycle -- and one that can cause even the best of moods to plummet.

Research in cognitive psychology shows that our thoughts determine the quality of our emotions, moods, actions, and life experiences. "So nothing is more urgent or more important than learning how to take charge of our thinking," says Selby. He created a technique to break "thought addiction," or an inability to let go of past regrets and future worries in order to enjoy the present moment. The approach uses "cognitive shifting," which helps you move between states of mind and optimize your mental performance. In pairing that mental shift with specific phrases you say to yourself, you build a powerful habit that can overcome the tendency to "read" events in a negative way. In short: You stop letting little things upend entire days.

Although his sequence of exercises is deceptively simple, like any good skill, it requires practice. "You'll feel the effects right away, but if you continue to do it for two or three weeks, you will experience even more powerful results," he says. Then those flat tires, missed appointments, insensitive emails, and torn hems won't rankle you as they once did.




Click here to read the entire article written by Terri Trespicio for WholeLiving.com.

What's Your Spiritual Type?

What comes to mind when you think of a "spiritual" person? Maybe it's someone who never passes up a dharma talk, sings in the choir, or spends every weekend volunteering. Maybe she says prayers before each and every meal.

No matter what the outward signs, if you don't happen to share those habits, you might feel lacking in the divine department. Not so, says Jonathan Ellerby, Ph.D., spiritual program director at Canyon Ranch and author of "Return to the Sacred." "Spirituality is an essential dimension of being human, and as much a part of us as our bodies and minds. It's not a matter of whether or not you're spiritual, but of what kind of spiritual personality you have."

Indeed, one person's brand of spirituality might look entirely different from another's. Chances are good that your interest in certain types of work, play, and other activities may be reflected or balanced by what engages you spiritually. The key, says Ellerby, lies in discovering your unique style so that you can optimize your spiritual tendencies and talents.

To that end, he has identified four distinct spiritual types: body, mind, heart, and soul. While we all embody some characteristics of each, chances are you lean more strongly in one direction or another. Read on to find the right expression of your sacred nature and connect with a sense of the divine in a way that really works for, inspires, and energizes you.

Body-Centered Seekers
If you gravitate toward physical activity and even derive satisfaction from physical chores, this is you. "The body is just as wise a teacher as the mind or the heart because spirituality is more than an idea," says Ellerby. "It's an experience." What's working for you in the spirituality department is that you appreciate the joy of being fully and physically present -- and that's vital to a strong spiritual practice.

Your Challenge Because you're athletic, you get competitive in practices such as yoga. This attitude can take you out of the more grounded, peaceful mind-set. And when pride and ego take hold, you may miss the spiritual aspect of a practice altogether.

Explore  See yoga, tai chi, qigong, or any other mind-body movement classes as a vehicle to spirituality, not just a sweaty workout. Incorporate movement into your own spiritual practice, even if it means doing a walking meditation every day along your favorite path. "By setting an intention as you begin any of these types of practices," says Ellerby, "you'll give your movement focus, changing the nature of the activity and gain a greater sense of connectedness and joy."

Mind-Centered Seekers
For you, intellect and knowledge lie at the heart of spirituality. You may be a philosophy or an English major, a deep thinker, a lover of books and brainy discussions. Life for you begins and ends in consciousness, in your ability to study and analyze ideas.

Your Challenge You've been accused of overthinking things, not to mention living entirely in your head. Sometimes this can cause you to get stuck -- mentally and spiritually.

Explore Use your intellect as a vehicle for spiritual growth, as opposed to an end in itself. That might mean diving into more spiritual fare (say, the Bible). Consider forming a spiritual book group to add a new dimension to your study. You'll engage your intellect while connecting with like-minded folks.

Heart-Centered Seekers
Your sense of satisfaction rests on your feeling emotionally connected and invested. Relationships are your interface with the world, whether that means with others, with the divine, or with yourself. More intellectual pursuits (like studying spiritual texts) may leave you cold, unless they facilitate connection with similar souls. In other words, you may enjoy reading Eckhart Tolle, but not as much as you would talking about it with others.

Your Challenge Because you value connection so much, you risk being overly dependent on others. You may lose yourself in someone else's spiritual path rather than shaping your own.

Explore  Capitalize on your emotional intelligence and knack for cultivating relationships. Find nourishment in volunteer work or other forms of service to your community (helping out at church or dedicating your time to a charity event). These people-centered activities naturally engender a sense of connection to others. If you've felt spiritually at sea in the past, you might benefit from working with a spiritual mentor, such as a life coach, rabbi, priest, or yoga teacher.

Soul-Centered Seekers
You possesses a deep and intense awareness of spirituality. You devour stories of saints, fantasize about traveling through India, and wonder about the monastic life. What you want most is to take your spiritual experience to the limit.

Your Challenge A hyperawareness of the transcendent may make you vulnerable in some ways. You risk going to extremes, using spirituality as a form of escapism.

Explore Maintain a healthy, realistic mind-set and consider where you're at mentally before you take on soul-centered challenges (e.g., starting an intense fast on the heels of a bad breakup). Mentorship is important, too. Plenty of organizations provide support and supervision to safely explore the kind of experiences you crave, says Ellerby. 

Look to balance larger-than-life adventures -- such as pilgrimages to spiritual sites, wilderness expeditions, solitary retreats -- with more moderate ones. Rather than a 40-day vision quest in the woods, "try two days of isolation, just in your apartment, for instance," says Ellerby. Or take a digital fast, shutting off the phone, TV, and Internet. Don't discount your capacity to access the deep spiritual experience in the everyday. 

This post was written by Terri Trespicio for WholeLiving.com.

Peace

This post was inspired and taken from my friend Shelby's post entitled Quiet Time.  

Check out her blog, Eat, Drink and Be Married.

6 Ways to Create a More Peaceful Workspace

To get to my desk, I have to step over a pile of clothes I’ve been meaning to put away, clear boxes of books slated for charity and dodge an “in” tray that rivals the height of my five-year-old. On my windowsill sits a forlorn fern in its final death droop. I sigh. My office is decidedly NOT Zen-like.

But oh, how I long for it to be. A desk free of clutter, with healthy plants, a place for everything and everything in its place. Those who’ve achieved it say I can expect a boost in productivity and enjoyment in work, and a decrease in stress.

Gina Mazza Hillier promises me nothing less than “greater joy” if I can see my way clear — literally. Hillier is author of Everything Matters, Nothing Matters: For Women Who Dare to Live with Exquisite Calm, Euphoric Creativity and Divine Clarity and someone who has created her own Zen-like office space in her home.

She makes it seem so easy.

When she decided to work from home, Hillier removed everything from the space that would become her office. Then, she says, everything she put into that empty space — from the paint on the walls to the fresh flowers to the whimsical artwork — was placed there with intention.

And that seems to be the key, say the experts. Creating a space that nurtures your soul, boosts creativity and productivity, and encourages success is a product of consideration. Serenity is no accident.

And don’t confuse serenity with being laissez-faire, say the experts. A serene office will help us get more work done with less stress, leading to a fatter paycheck and increased well-being. I’m convinced. So where do I start?

1. Wipe the slate clean to get serene

Like Hillier, personal organizer Betsy Simmons – dubbed the “Queen of Serene” by her clients – suggests a clean slate, whether working from home or in an office tower. “Start from scratch and designate or zone this space within it for a specific purpose,” she recommends. “Remove everything. A fresh coat of paint is a good place to start.” Steer clear of red, orange or yellow, which Simmons calls fast colors, noting that they’re usually the colors of choice for fast-food restaurants. Instead, she recommends blues, greens and lavenders…but with a bit of punch to keep you calm but moving forward.

Starting with a fresh slate, promises Simmons, means that you create an environment that will work for you.

Then determine what you need in this location. A desk is generally a given, but choose a style that suits your needs without compromising. It’s too important a piece to try and simply make do, believes Hillier. Hillier also subscribes — “lightly,” she says — in the principles of feng shui. Simmons recommends the desk be placed facing a door and without a window to your back. “Open space draws energy from you and you want strength behind you,” she explains. Get a comfortable chair that keeps your posture erect but relaxed. “Or use a ball,” suggests Simmons. “It’s great for your posture.”

2. Work the system

Create a system and work it until it’s second nature, says Regina Leeds, known as The Zen Organizer and the author of six books including the New York Times bestseller One Year to an Organized Life and One Year to an Organized Work Life (January 2009). “Another word for system in this context,” she explains, “might be ritual, habit or routine. If your day is run by the whims of others, you won’t get much done.”

Simmons agrees. “The more you can control and maintain the space, the more time you have to catch the curve balls that keep coming.” With that in mind, create zones in your office that reflect the different aspects of your work life — a priority zone, which is usually what you’re working on, a reference zone, and so on. Choose a system of organization — alphabetical, color-coded, by date or topic — that works best for you. Then stick with it, always returning things to their rightful zone.

Simmons also suggests that those of us seeking office serenity start each day with a plan. “Each minute of planning can save one hour of execution.” Then spend a few minutes at the end of the day on cleanup. “Do not pass it on until tomorrow!” she insists. “What a horrible way to start a day…by finishing up yesterday.”

3. Clear the clutter

While every magazine promises us the key to curing our lives of clutter, why do so few of us succeed? “Getting organized is a skill,” reminds Leeds. If it’s not something that we learned from parents or that comes naturally, it’s something we not only need to learn now, we need to take action to implement. With that in mind, clear anything out of your office that isn’t directly related to your work or to helping you work. That means kids’ toys (gulp), family photos (double gulp) and any extraneous stuff that isn’t currently relevant to your work or to creating a peaceful space.

4. Green and light are a go!

Bring in live plants. Not only do they help clean indoor air, they’re a positive life force. And by all means, light candles that lend an air of calm. Ensure that they’re nontoxic. Artwork that inspires is a great addition to any office space. And don’t just think of your walls. A beautiful rug can be art for your floors. Hillier includes fresh flowers in her office space. “They add to my energy,” she says.

5. Use the zone concept to get more done

Keeping in mind your office zones, tackle work in the same way. Group together tasks, such as phone calls or errands, blocking out more time than you think you’ll need to ensure that you complete tasks and complete them well. Leeds reminds us that “Time is a commodity. It can be wasted but never recovered.”

6. Work to live, don't live to work

Our work should complement our lives, giving us greater meaning, greater joy and greater balance. An office space that soothes our soul while it stokes our energy will be a place we’ll look forward to entering. It will lead naturally to a career that enriches not only our wallets, but our beings.

This post was written by Leslie Garrett for blog.gaiam.com.

4 Ways to Express Gratitude Every Day

Learn how giving thanks can keep you feeling happy 

When newspaper headlines are screaming financial disaster and your nightly news station broadcasts war and devastation, it’s not hard to get swept up in the pessimistic world view that things are bad—and getting worse. Now, stop and think about whether or not that’s really true. If the world were so bad, would that person at the grocery store have let you cut in line when you were buying one item? How about the card your next door neighbor's child made you for Christmas? We often focus on all the problems we're having and forget about life’s small blessings.

That’s exactly the mentality Sonja Lyubomirsky, Ph.D., Professor of Psychology at the University of California, Riverside, and author of "The How of Happiness," is using her 5-year, $1 million grant from the National Institute of Mental Health to explore. She has done vast research on the topic of long-term personal happiness and found that, among other things, expressing gratitude regularly contributes to it in a big way.

Here are four ideas on how to express gratitude every day.

Keep a gratitude journal

We often feel gratitude in the moment that kindness or generosity is bestowed upon us. The problem is that we soon forget about these moments and, during a dark time, we begin to feel they never come. A gratitude journal is where you can write down the things you are grateful for each day. And when the going gets tough, you have something to remind you there is hope.

Write a gratitude letter

Sometimes we need to take time to think about the people in our lives and how they contribute to our happiness and well-being. Instead of just tossing the idea around in our brain, write a friend a note telling her what you appreciate about her presence in your life. It’s not even important that you give her this letter; just the act of writing it out will solidify your feelings of gratitude for her.

Make a gratitude creation

Exercise your artistic side by creating something that represents what you are thankful for. A collage; a sketch; or, if you're a more adventurous artist, try a sculpture. By incorporating elements that represent things you are thankful for, you will have a visual reminder that life isn’t all that bad.

Make a gratitude appointment

Set a specific time to be grateful each day: when you wake up, when you go to sleep or before a meal. By setting this specific time, you will find yourself thinking all day of what you are grateful for, so at your “gratitude appointment,” you won’t be caught empty handed.

This post was written by E.C. LaMeaux for blog.gaiam.com.

Pray for What You Already Have

An excerpt from "One-Minute Mindfulness"

The next minute is not what we think it will be — not even close. But it can be what we decide to focus on. If we constantly look for what’s missing from our lives — that big house, dream car, perfect relationship, ideal job — then the upcoming minute might be filled with regret, remorse, sadness, frustration and hopelessness. If we consistently appreciate what is currently before us and available in our lives — the car that runs, the roof over our head, the job that provides resources and the relationships we do have, most importantly with ourselves — then we spare ourselves disappointment.

I was running a workshop when I met Hannah, a 50-year-old nutritionist, and one of the topics was overcoming depression through gratitude. During the break, Hannah approached me, held out her right arm, and pointed to a bracelet adorning her wrist. Dangling from the bracelet were all the letters of the alphabet. She proceeded to tell me the story behind this bracelet. For years she struggled with depression and anger because of a highly stressful job and some unhealthy relationships. Antidepressants had come and gone, but nothing seemed to work. By the midpoint of her life, Hannah, by her own admission, was not a pleasant person to be around. She could have just shut down; instead, she placed her faith in bringing gratitude to what was already in her life. This shift gradually and dramatically altered her experience of the stream of minutes that followed. Hannah smiled as she told me, “The change was so obvious that people at work asked me if I was taking medication. I think they were hoping it was something they could take.” To stay connected to her practice of gratitude, Hannah uses her bracelet and a journaling exercise in which she chooses a different letter of the alphabet and records all the things she’s grateful for that begin with that letter.

I’m not suggesting you ignore the ruts in your life by covering them up with chocolate frosting. That would leave you with a chocolate-covered rut. But at the same time, the rut is not all there is. Would you agree that this very minute the path is also paved and can be navigated without driving over the ruts? This is within our control. To understand where you are placing your awareness and to recognize the ruts, take the following one-minute mindfulness inventory.

What is missing?

• Do I tend to focus on what I don’t have? If so, how is this affecting my relationships?

• What do I think is missing in my life?

• How do I feel when I place my awareness on what’s missing?

What is present and available?

• What is present and available to me?

• How can I begin to redirect my awareness to the gifts I have?

• How does looking at what is in my life make me feel? Does it give me hope and energy?

• How will feeling this way affect my relationships?

I am reminded of the film Under the Tuscan Sun, in which the heroine, played by Diane Lane, moves to Italy after her divorce. The things she wishes to have in her life — people to cook for, a family and a wedding — manifest in such unexpected ways that she doesn’t immediately recognize that they are present. When her realization dawns, she glows with peace, joy and wholeness.

This post was written by Donald Altman for blog.gaiam.com.