Growing with the Seasons

The following are back installments of Lynn Woodland’s column, Growing with the Seasons, first published in The Phoenix, the Twin Cities-based, oldest recovery paper in the nation. In-print and online magazines wishing to reprint any of these articles are welcome to. Please just let me know (lynnwoodland@comcast.net) where and when they are being published and include the byline below:

Byline: A writer, teacher and ordained minister, Lynn Woodland has more than 30 years of professional experience in metaphysics, mental health, motivation, spiritual healing and mind-body dynamics. She’s the founder of Quantum Spirit Unlimited, a program of online spiritual education and ordination. For more information see http://www.lynnwoodland.com and http://www.QuantumSpiritUnlimited.com.

A high resolution photo suitable for printing can be downloaded from Lynn’s web site on the page: http://www.lynnwoodland.com/workshop.html.

About Growing with the Seasons

Every season lends itself to a certain kind of spiritual work and personal growth. A different aspect of the archetypal drama between Light and Dark unfolds with every seasonal change and the more we attune our inner lives to the cycles happening in the macrocosmic world of nature, the more we access an energy source greater than our own. As Chinese medicine has taught for centuries, there’s an ease that comes from letting the current of the outer world carry us. We release the constant stress of overlaying our own agenda on an unavoidable flow and we become more whole simply by realizing we can’t remain unaffected by the world outside of ourselves.

Lynn Woodland’s unique approach to spirituality and empowerment makes this connection between the outer world and inner experience—a connection that’s so easy to deny in our speeded-up, super-sized, convenience-driven world.

Each article offers practical information and exercises on some aspect of self-awareness, healing, personal empowerment or spiritual growth. Together, as a series, they guide readers to understand their own personal development as being part of a greater circle of life.

September 2007: Coming Home

With September comes a potent turning point in the cycle of nature, ending the season of light and beginning a descent into darkness. Whereas spring propels us out of doors and fills our hearts with everything fresh and new, fall urges us within and reminds us that the ultimate culmination of abundant life on earth inevitably leads to death. The dying and darkening of the natural world have a way of turning our attention toward home: we seek sanctuary indoors; our inner lives light up as the outside goes dark; we look to our roots and yearn for a spiritual home. It’s no wonder spiritual communities see attendance dropping in the summer as we’re focused more on the externals of life; and see people trickling back as it grows colder and darker.

As a metaphor for human experience, our times of darkness and dying are often the ones that give rise to a rebirth of the spirit, allowing us to move steadily back toward light, life and hope—just as light is perpetually reborn at the winter solstice so that life can grow again. Joseph Campbell called this journey through darkness the Hero’s Journey, which I wrote about in depth last November (back installments of this column will be available on this page in the future).

But September only hints of the coming darkness with its trials of the body and spirit. It’s a good time to shore up our foundations, giving a little extra attention to our physical health as temperatures change, and to our spiritual well-being by heeding the longings of our heart for spiritual “home.” Paradoxically, it’s just this soul-deep craving for home that leads us on the most difficult journeys of our lives, turning us upside down and inside out so that we find, at last, real peace, not just a desperate substitute for it.

My own latest journey home started last September, with the ending of a six-year ministerial position at a Minneapolis church and living without a spiritual community for a time. Months of church shopping led me to many interesting groups. There were things I liked about all the places I visited but with each, the doors just didn’t quite seem to open to me. Then, just as I had stopped actively searching, a friend directed me to a church I knew nothing about, virtually insisting I meet with the Pastor, Don Portwood. Going to the meeting with no expectations, I found in Don a kindred spirit and as I began attending the church, Lyndale United Church of Christ, I was overcome by a profound feeling of coming home.

This small, unpretentious, community is short on the flash and dazzle of church-as-entertainment that has become almost mandatory for any up and coming church nowadays, but it’s long on… what is it? .…The only word that pops surely into mind is, “heart;” or perhaps, “authenticity.” The United Church of Christ, of course, is know for being progressive, embracing diversity and not adhering to rigid dogma (on the premise that “God is still speaking”), all of which appeal to me, but I immediately sensed that this community has something particularly special going on. Upon my first visit, I was neither embraced with evangelical zeal nor treated as invisible. Rather, I was simply noticed, and greeted, and spoken to by many. It felt authentic; not an intentionally undertaken campaign.

The longer I’m there, the more I am moved by the powerful stories of community members walking, rather than wearing, their spiritual commitment. From the young man who followed his hero’s journey “home” to Africa where he helped local farmers make great strides in their productivity, to the story of John Gustav-Wrathall who shared his extraordinary story in a recent Sunday service. Because it so beautifully exemplifies following the call “home,” I’ll share a bit of it here.

John grew up Mormon and gay. He rose through the ranks of priesthood and was ordained an Elder. In early adulthood, the contradiction between his hunger for intimacy with men and the expectation of heterosexual marriage and family became life-shattering, almost leading to suicide. In the darkest moment, he heard the voice of Spirit directing him away from the Mormon Church; away from familiar comfort, but toward “home.”

Ultimately John found his way to the UCC, a church that openly embraces people of all sexual orientations and found the same-sex life partner his upbringing forbade. But this wasn’t the culmination of John’s journey home. Nearly twenty years after his guidance to leave the Mormon Church, he again heard the whisper of Spirit, this time calling him home to the church of his youth.

John says about this, “People ask me how I can be gay and Mormon. Mormons generally have a way of living that is completely centered around heterosexual family; and they believe that exaltation is contingent upon our ability to marry heterosexually in the temple, ‘For time and all eternity.’ Few denominations seem more inhospitable to those of us driven to seek the comforts of family with a member of the same sex.”

At one point, he thought it might be his mission to change the Mormon Church. But instead, he found his to be the more challenging work of loving the way Christ loves, through patience, humility, seeing another’s perspective and loving, “even those who do not regard us as their equals.” John now attends Lyndale UCC on Sunday mornings and then goes to a second service at his Mormon Church, his purpose being to practice the kind of love that Christ modeled.

A young gay man leaving the restrictive church of his upbringing might be a poignant coming-out story many could relate to. A gay man leaving his rigidly dogmatic community and returning to fight the good fight for change is a path few would choose but many would cheer on. Coming back to that community, not to change it or submit to it; just to practice loving acceptance is a different kind of story altogether. It transcends the paradigm of victimization that can only be resolved by escaping from or defeating one’s abuser. This is a story of transformation of self. As John put it, “…if our faith does not first change us, it is not a faith worth having.”

John closed his talk with these words, “For me, to be gay and Mormon, and to affirm both, requires a special kind of trust in God. But it is not fundamentally different from the kind of faith any of us need in order to survive in the topsy-turvy world we live in. May we each learn in our own way to trust that in the day that we call, God will answer us, and may we each, in the day that God calls, answer back.”

In this month of waning light, as the outer world fades and the inner light brightens, consider listening a bit more carefully for your own quiet whisperings of Spirit. And when you hear the call, may you heed it and find your way back home.

August 2007: Bending Time

August is a month that always makes me aware of time. Being a summer-lover, August has a bittersweetness, bringing the last of warm days, cook-outs and vacations. I find myself wishing that time would slow down; that summer would last forever. The overblown vegetation of August suggests energy extended outward to its limit, reaching a still moment before the pendulum swing of nature starts back the other way and diminishing light puts an end to the summer growing season.

On the other hand, a friend of mine who dreads the heat of summer, approaches August wishing only for time to speed up so that we may be delivered to the blessed relief of fall sooner rather than later.

Perhaps all this makes August a good month to play with some of the mysteries of time. And I do mean play—it’s still vacation time after all. So if you’re game, suspend disbelief, let your mind be boggled a bit and take a leap out of the box of what you think you know about time.

Einstein proved, in his theory of relativity, that time and space aren’t a fixed and neutral container for the material world; rather, they can be altered by what they contain. What if time truly is more fluid than we assume? To stretch your mind around this, imagine that when you’re running late you could expand time to make more of it. Or, imagine being able to heal an illness in the past, right at its inception, instead of at its current, more advanced state. Suppose you could condense time and skip steps that lie between where you are now and a desired future outcome (as subatomic particles are known to do when they make quantum leaps). Or imagine being able to simply send a state of mind, such as joy, into the future so it will be there waiting for you.

Once, a handful of folks in my Tuesday Night Class did some experimenting with time and discovered that expanding it to avoid being late was actually quite an easy place to start so, that’s where we’ll begin. For best results, I recommend practicing the following visualization a few times before you’re in a situation where you need it so it’ll come more naturally when you’re actually running late and need a few extra minutes.

Expanding Time when You’re Running Late

Bring to mind the experience of what it’s like to run late. Notice what you usually do: the thoughts you think, what you feel, the stress that builds up in your body. Let the experience become very real….

Now, as you feel everything speeding up inside of you, winding tighter and tighter, stop the process… and let yourself become completely still. Relax. Let your shoulders drop. Stop thinking of where you’re going and what you’re doing…. Just let go. This may feel opposite to what you’re conditioned to do but let yourself do it anyway. Create a vivid inner experience of peace.

Now, imagine the universal fabric around you bending and flowing, reshaping itself to reflect your inner state of peace. Imagine time itself becoming soft and flexible and stretching to accommodate your needs. Hold a strong certainty that you now have plenty of time. Picture yourself being where you need to be on time, getting done what you need to do with time to spare, not needing to rush, or sacrifice, or feel stressed. Be light, playful and peaceful as you imagine these things. Let it be a game and not deadly serious. Let go of any attachment you may have to the outcome so it no longer matters whether you have enough time or not. Affirm that everything will work out perfectly no matter what, and that there’s plenty of time.

Now practice this visualization when you really need it. See if you don’t wind up with time to spare!

Sending Peace Forward in Time to an Important Event

Now that you’ve learned how to stretch time, here’s an exercise for condensing it. For this, bring to mind an upcoming event that you want to go well—perhaps a situation you expect to be stressful, such as an important meeting, an emotionally charged family gathering or a situation to test your performance in some way. As with the previous visualization, begin by noticing what thoughts and feelings come up as you anticipate the event… and then stop the process. Stop thinking about what’s going to happen and just be still…. Relax, let your shoulders drop; let your jaw relax, your stomach muscles soften…. Take some deep, slow breaths and simply be present in the moment, letting every part of you relax. As with the first exercise, create the inner experience of peace. When you are deeply peaceful and relaxed, add to this inner state any other feelings you want to have in this future situation: confidence, love, competence, victory, joy, whatever best fits.

When you can feel everything you want to feel in this future event, then imagine sending this inner state forward in time. Imagine time as a linear path, streaming endlessly behind you and before you. Envision where this important date falls on the timeline and either project a fluid energy wave of all your good feelings forward to this point in time, or imagine time condensing so the distance between the present and the future disappears, and this moment and the future moment overlap. Now you can infuse the future with the power of your peaceful inner state. When you feel completely at peace in this future event, let it go and come back to the present moment. Let go of any attachment you may have to the specifics of what’s to be and trust that the best possible outcome for all is falling in place.

2:00 PM

This last exercise is just purely for fun. As you have in the previous exercises, take some time to relax, quiet your mind, take some deep, full breaths and cultivate a state of peace…. When you feel peaceful, make this experience even bigger, growing it into a big burst of joy. Now bring to mind the linear timeline of the future and envision 2:00 PM—every 2:00 PM, every day, into the future. Send a big burst of joy, to every 2:00 PM from now on. What’s more, imagine every single person who reads this article, past, present and future, sending a burst of joy into 2:00 PM. Send your burst of joy to every reader’s 2 PM and imagine them doing the same for you. As you meditate on 2 PM, imagine that it now holds a burst of joy for each of us forever more. Do this lightly, playfully, without attachment to outcomes, and then let it go.

To make the most of these three exercises, forget about what’s true; release the debate about what’s real and what’s not. Lightly, playfully, just notice what works. Oh, yeah, and start noticing 2:00 PM!

July 2007: Getting in Synch with the Season of Abundance

We so often see our human condition as set apart from the natural world. Not only has this collective mind set contributed to the serious environmental problems of our day, it also denies us access to a certain down to earth wisdom about life. I’ve noticed that the more I pay attention to the cycles of the world around me, the more my own life naturally flows in harmony with the seasons. Just as if some big, unexplainable wave is picking me up and carrying me, life takes on the ease of floating downstream instead of fighting the current. With fall come endings and letting go; winter brings introspection, and spring new beginnings. This time of year, when the natural world is growing, flowering and producing lavishly, there’s an easy abundance to life. To keep my classes consistent with the energy of the seasons, this is when I offer workshops on prosperity and abundant living.

This connection between seasonal cycles and personal life may seem like a stretch to many, especially if our human experience bears no resemblance to the outer world. When we’re out of synch, we’re likely to fall sick in fall/winter from our inability to flow with change. We become depressed in the dark seasons from our failure to access the inner light of inspiration. Then we don’t have the energy to begin new ventures in spring, and summer finds us in scarcity rather than abundance. A way back to an easier harmony with life is to study the season that best matches our current out-of-synch experience and learn from it.

Thus, if summer finds you in a place of scarcity rather than abundance, much can be learned through studying the sparseness of winter. This empty, barren phase of nature is a concentrating time when energy pulls in and pulls back, in order to gain momentum for the next burst of growth. Even the devastating barrenness created by forest fires are nature’s way of creating fertile ground for new growth.

In times of financial or other scarcity, we often start worrying, panicking and withholding, which only sows seeds of more scarcity. Because many of us have learned to connect financial prosperity with such large issues as well-being, self-worth, even survival, when our money supply is threatened we tend to feel threatened in all these other areas as well. We may become so wrapped up in our feelings of fear and powerlessness that we don’t even see how many practical options we have for make less money more manageable. So, an important first step in times of scarcity is to address our state of mind, because action taken from a place of anxiety and weakness is bound to create more of the same.

In the natural world, scarcity doesn’t last indefinitely. A season serves its purpose and evolves into something else. As soon as we begin to think of our experience of scarcity as a “season” we’ve defined it as temporary, and thereby given it permission to evolve into something else. Times of scarcity often precede big jumps forward. Consider how a bow and arrow works: the pulling back creates the force that propels it forward; and taking a few steps back builds momentum for a big, running jump. How we work with the leaner times in life has a lot to do with what we allow to happen next. They can be very potent launching pads for prosperity and abundant growth if we recognize them as such. The following are some suggestions for making the most of your seasons of financial scarcity.

1. Dream. As in winter, times of financial scarcity are good times for envisioning what you want to do with more money and with your life in general. Imagine this to be like pouring through gardening catalogues in winter. Just as you have faith that seasons change, feel the same certainty that this financial season will change. Let your dreaming fill you with pleasant anticipation for what the next growing season will bring and use this time to turn within (think of hibernating in winter) instead of externalizing your energy through spending.
    
2. Clean house, materially and emotionally. Lighten up. Let go of the past and what you no longer need. Make room, literally and symbolically, for the coming growth and prosperity.
    
3. Become conscious of how you flow money. Let the lack of excess help you get clear about what’s really important and spend only on that. Become, out of necessity, a good steward of your money, using it in the highest way. This will make you magnetic to more and will also teach you how to wisely use more. This lesson in wise spending may be just the preparation you need to attract a significantly larger flow of prosperity into your life.
    
4. Find ways to enjoy life that don’t require money. Become aware of any ways you’ve become dependent upon money for recreation, self-nurturing, self-esteem or socialization. What you create, experience, and how you stretch when the easy crutch of money is taken away may be a big part of why you unconsciously called this season of scarcity into your life.
    
5. Imagine financial scarcity has come to teach you how to be abundant. If you’ve been forced to pay more attention to money because of its absence, make the most of the opportunity. Prepare your state of mind, your space and your habits to receive more money. Instead of feeling powerless in your lack of income, adopt the mind-set of a student who has chosen to forgo an income temporarily in order to learn and prepare for the future. Learn all you can. Read books, take classes, study investing, business, accounting, spirituality or self-help around money. Learn in those areas where you see your own weaknesses, perhaps the areas you most resist. For example, if you have a great idea for a nonprofit but don’t want to learn grant-writing, or want to lead workshops but don’t want to learn how to promote them, or have received an inheritance and don’t want to learn how to invest it, your resistance might be the only thing keeping prosperity away. If you’ve pursued your callings and interests in life but are struggling with the absence of money, then an education in money might be exactly what you need, especially if you’ve never undertaken the study before. You may find it opens doors and brings you back to your true callings in ways you can’t foresee.

As you honor this “winter” phase in your life, don’t forget to appreciate the abundance of the natural world. The beauty of summer can be enjoyed for free. Give thanks for the blessings in your life and then, in the coming months of fall, allow something old and unnecessary to die away so that winter can fill you with new inspiration. As you let the wheel of the seasons carry you forward in this way you may be amazed at the abundant life you’ve created by the time next summer rolls around.

June 2007: Lighten Up

The month of June marks the beginning of summer and the lightest time of year. As a season characterized by intense growth in the natural world, I like to give my classes a similar slant, emphasizing rapid growth and manifestation in our personal lives. “Manifesting,” the art of creating shifts in the outer world through visualization and focused attention, has been introduced to the mainstream as of late in the movie, The Secret—a movie made particularly popular by its recent appearance on the Oprah Show.

There are many related metaphysical techniques for manifesting. Most include vivid visualization of a desired outcome and some involve affirmative statements such as, “I now have my perfect job,” or the creation of picture collages containing symbolic or literal representations of the desired end. All presume a cause and effect relationship between state of mind and the physical reality that shows up in our lives.

I’ve known of many people having truly astonishing successes using these techniques. In fact, John Assaraf, one of the featured teachers in The Secret, shared his experience of clipping a photo of a beautiful mansion to represent the home of his dreams and pinning it on his vision board to keep it in his attention. Eventually, the board wound up being packed away for a few years and, when he stumbled across it again, he was shocked to realize that he had unknowingly moved in to the actual house in the photograph. Occurrences such as these—that seem like magic and fantastic coincidence—become understandable through an exploration of the outer reaches of quantum physics. (Though beyond the scope of my article, to learn more about this I recommend the highly readable introduction to the subject, Taking the Quantum Leap by Fred Allen Wolf.)

But for all the miracle stories I could tell, I’ve also seen people “technique” themselves crazy and never manage to attain their desired results. Consequently, the focus here—also in keeping with the light-filled month we’re in—is on one key element of manifesting work that often gets overlooked: that of “lightening up.” Nothing kills the success of manifesting quicker than a dead-serious, overly controlled frame of mind. It’s sort of like enticing a butterfly to light on your hand and then clutching it in a death-grip. Identifying and visualizing a desired outcome as though it’s already happened is a good start, but then it’s essential to lighten up around it. Lightness means not straining your brain trying to focus or make it happen, and letting go of trying to control the outcome.

Princeton University researchers, Robert Jahn and Brenda Dunne have collected years and years of interesting data showing irrefutably that human will alone can affect the random movement of machines. Not only human will—they also found that baby chicks and bunnies could call a robotic “mommy” to them once the machine had been imprinted upon them from birth as their “mother.” However, they also found in their experiments that many people were successful in influencing random effects in the opposite direction of their intention. In other words, their conscious minds directed their subconscious power to cause an effect, but it was an effect of the subconscious mind’s choosing—one that probably reflected performance fears, disbelief and other agendas different from the conscious order to simply move forward. Too much conscious focus on making something happen can plug us into worry and doubt, triggering this subconscious, contrary response. This undermining effect is one that’s seldom mentioned in the teaching of miraculous new age techniques for achieving anything we want.

What this means is that it’s actually important to stop giving conscious attention to what we’re manifesting at a certain point. While conscious intent may steer the course, the energy for movement comes from the subconscious mind. Someone once explained to me the slow process of turning a giant ship around in the ocean. The tiny little captain in the giant ship may have the idea to make the turn and the mechanism to accomplish it, but has to reckon with the huge force of the ship already set in motion. Our subconscious mind is much like the big ship already set on its course. We can direct its course with conscious intent (like the captain), and if our subconscious “ship” is already moving in more or less the direction we desire, it will be very easy. If our “ship” has long been on a course programmed by painful experiences and limiting beliefs, more time may be needed. But, even so, the process of turning the boat around isn’t one of stressing, straining and fighting with the boat. Think of the ship captain—he can set the process in motion but no amount of his own personal strength is going to make the ship turn faster. Ultimately, it’s the ship’s own mechanism (i.e. a subconscious process set in motion by a conscious directive) that turns it around. So, what begins as a conscious intent needs to become a subconscious process and for this to happen we need to get our conscious mind out of the way. Like a ship captain who trusts the mechanism he’s set in motion or a gardener who trusts the seed to grow, in manifesting work it’s important to trust in an invisible process and know when to take our personal strength and will out of it to let a bigger force we can’t control take over.

I think of the perfect state of mind for manifesting as being the one we bring to the experience of a butterfly landing in our hand: we’re still and focused, filled with joy and wonder; we’re “holding” it but with an open hand, willing to let it go; and when it flies away, we’re left feeling full rather than empty.

As you stop micromanaging your dreams into being, do cultivate a feeling of pleasant anticipation around your desired outcome. Anticipation is a light state of being. It’s the feeling of, “wouldn’t it be lovely!” as opposed to “I’ll just die if I don’t get this!” Anticipation is confident rather than doubtful. I once knew a young man who created a whole new life in a new city by happily affirming, “I don’t know what’s going to happen but I know it’s going to be great!” and sure enough, a new job, home and friends showed up like magic, through wonderful coincidences rather than planning and stressing.

If you want to see your dreams come to fruition more quickly, let the light of this sunny month of June help brighten your spirits and lighten the weight of burdensome worries. Take a moment, right now, to hold your heart’s desire in mind…. Hold it lightly, as you would a butterfly, not a life raft. Surrender your plan to a higher plan (let it fly away). Even when it’s out of sight, let it leave you feeling full and happy as you go about your day and know that you have just performed a powerfully creative act.

May 2007: All about Mother

May is the month of Mother’s Day and May Day, the modern evolution of the Celtic Beltane when the burgeoning fertility of Mother Earth is honored. Male or female, we all have the ability to mother; to tend and grow, as opposed to construct and build, and there are times when our dreams must be tenderly nurtured into fruition rather than forced. Nurturing assumes the presence of a growing spark of life that knows what to do. A house is built piece by piece. There’s nothing of it that isn’t of the builder’s doing. But a garden, on the other hand, needs to be tended; and a child guided and nurtured. Too much of the gardener or parent stunts the growing thing. Mothering works with the forces of nature (“Mother Nature”), not just the power of human ingenuity, and requires faith, not just know-how. It’s a delicate balance of input and stepping back. The mother who tries too hard becomes the terrible “smother mother” and may fail to grow her child’s self-worth and independence.

There are times when brute force, ingenuity and perseverance are what it takes to make our dreams concrete. But when no amount of strength and effort is having the desired effect, it just may be that our dreams need to be “mothered” into being rather than built. Consider your own experience: is there some cherished dream in your life that’s failing to thrive no matter how hard you work at it? Could it be that you’re trying too hard to force something that needs to be grown? Or smothering something with your fearful concern so that your fears are growing instead of your desires? If you’re experiencing an unwanted lack of growth in an area of life, here’s a little exercise all about Mother that may just help you nurture your dreams into being.

Step One:

Before reading any further, identify for yourself a cherished dream you’d most like to bring to life in this growing month of May.

Step Two:

Now turn your attention in a completely different direction and think of a strength your mother imparted to you. Don’t think too long; just see what pops into mind first. If you haven’t thanked your mother for this, consider doing so this month. If she’s no longer living, don’t let that stop you. Offerings of love and gratitude always do the world good. There’s no such thing as “too late.” Imagine this strength popped into mind here and now because it’s one that will help you nurture your current dreams into manifestation.

Step Three:

Now, think of a weakness your mother instilled in you through her mothering, or lack thereof. Again, see what pops into mind first. It may be something silly and inconsequential. It may be the challenge of your lifetime. Imagine it came to you now because it’s what’s most inhibiting the growth of your dream.

If you haven’t forgiven your mother for this weakness, begin to in this month of Mother. Forgiveness takes place in the heart; it’s not an act of words, so this isn’t a suggestion to dump upon your mother hurtful words of forgiveness for deeds she may not have thought about for years. True forgiveness is a healing release through the power of your love. It’s usually a process rather than an act. Aim for a moment at a time and do it for yourself. There’s nothing more transforming than freedom from toxic anger and bitterness.

How does this weakness, inherited from your mother, stand in the way of your own ability to mother? How has it stunted your trust in the process of life; inhibited your faith in yourself; made you fearful to use the power of your own love to attract love and grow beauty?

Step Four:

Know that, no matter how imperfect your own mother was, there’s a greater Mother always present. She’s easy to find in this burgeoning month of May simply by walking out the door. Find a place of beauty in the natural world and offer up your fear, weaknesses, wounds and obstacles to an unbroken flow of life. Imagine yourself as a child receiving loving nurturance from the Great Mother all around you. Think of this as Mother Nature, Mother Earth, Mother Mary or any other larger-than-life archetypal image of Mother that appeals to you. Whatever you mother couldn’t provide, imagine the Great Mother offering unconditionally.

Relax. Drop the armor you carry in you body. For just a moment, release the protective shields of rationality and let yourself be loved by something you don’t need to understand. Sometimes the wounds inflicted by our parents are precisely what create the “cracks” in us that allow us, force us even, to shine more brilliantly and connect to something greater than our selves. So, if there are any “cracks” in you left by the way you were mothered, feel them now to be easy openings for the loving hands of Motherspirit to reach in. If there are empty places in your heart and soul, let them be filled. And, just as you handed over your wounds, now give Her your dreams.

Step Five:

Don’t try to figure out exactly what the last step accomplished. Just feel confident that it planted a seed. Now, go plant an actual seed, nurture a house plant, or start a garden and let it represent the bigger life dream you’re growing. As you tend this growing thing, imagine your dream is growing in a similar way. Trust it has a living spark to it, greater than the sum total of your efforts. Believe that unseen forces are at work and your dream knows how to “become.” Effort is needed but so is letting go and trusting that the tomato sprout knows how to grow a tomato; the spiky stump of rose bush knows how to bloom. Let the plant teach you faith in what you can’t yet see. Sometimes love for the tender beginnings without impatience for the final outcome is all that’s needed to grow the garden of your dreams.

April 2007: The Spring Thaw

Spring is here and we’ve entered the season of rising light. All things frozen are starting to thaw as the combination of light and warmth translate into growth. Along with sap in the trees, spring brings a natural rise to our zest for life, refreshing our spirit after the last, long weeks of winter. It’s this burst of emotional energy that motivates us toward the challenges of new spring growth. Yet, if we have a long-standing habit of stifling emotion, it might take more than spring to bring frozen feelings back to life.

Ever watch kids express emotion? They show it with their whole body and full volume. They don’t wait until later or decide if it’s appropriate. They’re just a spontaneous eruption of energy that flows out their bodies. Think of how different that is from an adult who can sit completely still and feel happy, angry, or sad and barely move a facial muscle.

All the emotions we feel in quiet, frozen stillness leave their unexpressed energy in the body, eventually creating an armoring of physical tension, toxicity and a numbness of spirit. Even unreleased joyful energy can turn toxic, as a woman in one of my healing services once experienced: while receiving hands-on healing, she had such a feeling of ecstasy, she wanted to jump out of her seat and cry out. Instead, she did the “appropriate” thing and kept her exuberance contained so as not to break the quiet, meditative mood. The consequence of stifling herself was that she awoke the next day with one whole side of her body in a painful state of muscle cramps.

But before we can open to our feelings in a way that’s healing, it’s important to understand the difference between feelings and thoughts. While painful thoughts tend to increase our pain when we dwell upon them, painful feelings need to be felt and released to lose their charge. Emotions are pure physical energy and sensation; they’re wordless. Thoughts are all about words and interpretation; they’re our inner dialogue. So, for example, the feeling of anger would be the knot in our stomach, the tension in our shoulders, the desire to clench our fists, the urge to scream or beat something. The thought of anger would be our inner conversation about who’s to blame, how often this has happened before, the unfairness of life… and so on. These downward spiraling thoughts intensify painful emotions. To release pain it’s necessary to both change the limiting thoughts, and open to the feelings. Doing one without the other doesn’t facilitate a complete healing. Emotional catharsis without a new thought attached tends to lead us more deeply into despair, rage and depression. On the other hand, a new thought without the emotional clearing often doesn’t “take,” like planting a seed in hard, arid soil.

When we allow an emotion its full release, it turns into something we need. The big energy of anger that wants to scream, beat and push out of us, when released becomes power, passion and physical vitality; tears of grief break our hearts open to love again and feel compassion for others; when we relax into fear it becomes exhilaration; and love and joy amplified become ecstasy, intimacy, and transcendent Oneness with God. There’s tremendous energy in emotion: directed it becomes power and growth; suppressed, it diminishes our power and happiness; even our health.

Next time you feel angry, annoyed, or frustrated, notice what your conditioned response is. Do you run an angry dialogue in your head? Do you launch a reciprocal attack in an aggressive or passive way? Do you turn it on yourself and become depressed? Anger is incredibly toxic. There’s not much worse we can do to ourselves than live in a state of anger. It destroys our physical and emotional health and sends out a vibration that attracts more anger to us.

So, as you notice signs of rising anger, experiment with a different response. For instance, even the coolest among us can hardly avoid the occasional moment of road rage when behind the wheel. Next time someone rudely cuts you off, instead of muttering to yourself, leaning on your horn for a little too long, or reciprocating with some less than safe maneuver of your own, try holding the wheel as tightly as you can for a moment and letting out a blast of sound, perhaps a big ”Haaaaaaa!,” putting your chest and belly muscles into it. You can put a lot of energy into this sound without it even needing to be excessively loud (try growling!). There’s no need to aim this as a death blast at the offending driver. Hold a healing intention instead of a hurtful one: simply imagine you’re ejecting toxic anger out of your body and mind.

When it’s not convenient to make noise, you can get a surprisingly good release by quietly clenching all your muscles and just imagining yourself screaming at the top of your lungs. When you’re involved in an angry exchange with another person, at the earliest opportunity, take yourself away from the interaction and blow off some steam in this way. This might not change everything between you, but it will help you come back to situation with a cooler head.

There are similar steps you can take around the experience of grief. For starters, make friends with your tears. Tears literally carry toxins out of our body so let them flow but do change any downward-spiraling inner dialogue that may accompany sad feelings. Instead of telling yourself that life is hopeless, you’re alone, you’ll never be happy, or that crying is a sign of weakness, imagine your tears cleansing you, emptying sadness from your body, preparing you for new growth. Tears are far more healing when shed in the presence of compassionate others. If you tend to cry alone, find ways to share your tears with people you trust. Grief experienced alone can sink us deeper into isolated despair while grief shared with others is more likely to turn into love.

If your emotions seem so deep and dark they’re inhibiting your ability to perform the normal activities of life, or if you have suicidal thoughts, then it’s important to find outside help to assist you with this work. Seek out a therapist or support group. Don’t be afraid to ask for help. Sometimes reaching out is just the act needed to break through a downward spiral of unhappiness.

As you release anger and pain, don’t forget to free up joy as well! Try laughing for no reason at all. Norman Cousins, best selling author of Anatomy of an Illness, used laughter to heal a serious illness by locking himself up with funny movies and losing himself in deep belly laughs. Even if you don’t feel it at first, doing the action will eventually bring the emotion with it, so laugh as if the world is fresh and wonderful; as if anything is possible; as if it’s the best day of your life. Try it, even if it feels silly. Before you know it, you’ll feel a lift that’s bigger than you as the ever-renewing, unstoppable surge of spring breathes new life into the frozen corners of your being.

March 2007: The Spirituality of “Living Green”

Mostly we think of “Living Green” as living gently on the planet: changing our uses of energy, leaving less of a mark, and living sustainably. As we pay closer attention to the impact humanity has on the environment, a more overlooked aspect of living with, not just on, the earth involves recognizing how profoundly it also affects us. This connection may seem obvious: Earth sustains every aspect of physical life as we know it. But She also shapes and sustains our inner life in ways we may not fully grasp in our speeded-up, convenience-driven world. Each new season brings change crashing into our lives and the fast-paced agendas of modern life often leave us little room to move with, rather than in spite of, these cycles of nature.

Perhaps, for example, winter-related depression wouldn’t be so rampant as to warrant its own medical diagnosis (Seasonal Affective Disorder) if we hadn’t forgotten how to follow the lead of the seasons, letting outside darkness lead us into and through the darker realms of our own being. Darkness facilitates hibernation, introspection, rest and renewal. It gives us space to release pain and sadness if we let it. Fall’s descent into darkness and the quiet dormancy of winter give us time to let a piece of ourselves die and be reborn, if we’re willing. Statistically, more people die in the darker months than any other time of year. Even if not consciously, we know instinctively this is the time to let go. Those of us left among the living are more likely to reflect on our losses this time of year as so many anniversaries of loved ones’ passings roll around. Yet, on the darkest days of year, instead of giving darkness its due, we crank up the lights, shop like there’s no tomorrow and party harder than any other time of year. We do everything we can to deny the darkness rather than honor it. (Is this so different from the mindless way we’ve treated the earth and its resources?)

Every season lends itself to a certain kind of growth and the more we attune our inner life to the cycles happening in the macrocosmic world of nature, the more we access a larger energy than our own. As Chinese medicine has taught for centuries, there’s an ease that comes from letting the current of the outer world carry us. We release the constant stress of overlaying our own agendas on an unavoidable flow and we become more whole simply by realizing we’re part of that flow.

The spring and fall equinoxes are seasonal turning points where the hours of daylight and darkness are equal (we’re coming upon one this month). They herald times of dramatic change where, in a single season, the natural world goes from cold and dead to lushly growing in spring, and back again in the fall. The summer and winter solstices are the lightest and darkest days of the year, respectively, and these mark more subtle turning points. If the spring and fall seasons relate to the dramatic passages of birth and death, winter and summer are more akin to conception and fulfillment. Thus, each season offers a rich enactment of the archetypal dramas of Light and Dark, life and death; and all together, a template for wholeness.

When light is on the rise in spring, we know it in our bones. Even if we don’t consider ourselves terribly attuned to nature, even if we never garden, even if it’s still Minnesota-cold out. That first spring “breath of fresh air” doesn’t just tell us it’s time to plant literal seeds, it brings something fresh and new to our very soul.

At the summer solstice, light reaches its peak, making it a time of rapid growth in the natural world. At the microcosmic level of personal growth, this time of greatest light and activity draws our attention outward rather than inward and lends itself to accomplishment on a tangible, physical level. But even though light and warmth are still strong in the summer months, light is decreasing every day. The spring energy of “striving” evolves into the fulfillment of late summer and, for many, this is a time for vacationing and kicking back. It’s literally and metaphorically time to “stop and smell the roses,” for without this attention to appreciating what we have and savoring life, our achievements become hollow.

At the fall equinox, we enter a three-month descent into darkness, culminating with the darkest point of the year at the winter solstice. This season of ruling darkness takes us from the overflowing abundance of harvest to the starkness of winter, giving rise to themes of death, endings, letting go and loss of control. It’s a time when all the shadowy parts of our being become most visible. Just as we’re bombarded in spring with candy eggs, baby chicks and fertility-symbol bunnies, fall brings images of ghosts, goblins, witches and skeletons, making children’s fun out of what we collectively fear the most.

Then, at the beginning of every winter season, light quietly triumphs over dark, as marked by the many religious holidays celebrated around December. Darkness still prevails, with nights longer than days, but there’s a hopefulness present as light grows a little stronger each day. This makes winter the perfect time for inner transformation, spiritual rebirth, and for allowing new dreams to quietly percolate under the surface so they can take root and grow in the spring and summer.

While I usually focus on a single month at a time in this column, this month I invite us all to step back and look at the whole: the year, the planet, our lives. The spirituality of “living green” doesn’t ask us to abandon our Christian, Buddhist, or even atheist orientations. It merely asks us to be part of the whole.

So, if you’re still reading, think back through the last year, recalling last spring. What did you “birth” at that time? What felt new and fresh? How did you take advantage of the opportunity of new beginnings?

Now, take yourself back to the months of summer. What was abundant and plentiful in your life? Were you grateful for it? Were you open to receiving the abundance of life?

When fall brought months of darkness, recall how easily or reluctantly you flowed with change. What died in your life? What did you release? How did you let go?

Finally, bring to mind the last few months of winter. Did you allow enough quiet time for new inspiration to infuse your dreams? Did your spirit lift in hopefulness for the future?

If these questions all draw blanks and you see no connection between your life and nature, perhaps “wholeness” is something worth cultivating as we enter a new growing season. Let the energy of spring fill you with faith that what begins small grows large and hold your winter dreams up to the rising light for the magic of growth to begin. It’s easy as moving with the river instead of forging your own way against the current. Feel what a relief it is to become a part of nature instead of a small fragment standing alone, and let the earth’s ebbs and flows carry you with Her.

February 2007: The Hidden Gifts of Love

In the wintry month of February we’re still in the season of hibernation, introspection and energy turned inward. While the candy-heart overlay of Valentines Day certainly is a cultural rather than seasonal phenomenon, it’s well-suited for late winter. After all, when the weather and still-short days drive us indoors, we tend to find ourselves in close quarters with our fellow humans. And when our attention turns within, there we are with our own hearts. Love and relatedness bloom, or we become acutely aware of their lack. Sadly, or fortunately, depending on your perspective, a scarcity of love is more a state of mind than of opportunity.

I became profoundly aware of the connection between love, healing and attitude, as well as the incredible capacity for any two people to give and receive the gift of healing love, in my work with the attitudinal healing movement. In 1983 I started a Center for Attitudinal Healing, modeled after the original Center founded by Jerry Jampolsky, for people dealing with life-challenging illnesses (for more about attitudinal healing and the national network of centers see www.attitudinalhealing.org, or Google The Center for Attitudinal Healing). Rather than using professional counselors, we paired clients with volunteers who’d received training in how to listen compassionately, see everyone as a teacher, and define healing as a process of joining in love with others rather than fixing them. The healing that resulted between these volunteers and clients was miraculous and deeply moving.

Not only did these nonprofessionals seemed to know just the right thing to do or say when coming from a place of love, the traditional roles of helper and client quickly disappeared and the learning and healing flowed both ways. People too ill to even leave their beds often became the most amazing teachers, profoundly touching not just the volunteers who came to “help” them, but other home bound people for whom they became phone pals. People who felt weak and useless became empowered teachers—often improving physically—when someone simply recognized and appreciated the gifts they still had to give.

That we are all students and teachers to one another is a foundation principle of the Attitudinal Healing movement and, in my experience, a fundamental truth. It’s one that doesn’t require the high intensity of catastrophic illness to manifest. It’s our true relationship to one another at all times, though we’re often blind to it. Everyone we encounter has something to offer us and the more we seek it out, the more we’ll find it. Believing in the goodness and wisdom of others calls it forth, even from those who didn’t know they had it to give.

But even if we appreciate this notion in theory, we may still go through life thinking only certain people have the love, support, approval, wisdom and gifts that we need and that others are unattractive, annoying, invisible, or have nothing we want. This is what makes life lonely.

To bridge the gap between theory and experience, here’s an imagination game I occasionally do in my classes. Imagination is the doorway into intuition, so what starts out as something we’re just “making up” can sometimes evolve into profound truth. Whether you believe you’re in some way transcending time, distance, and separateness to connect with the highest wisdom of another, or simply connecting with a wiser part of yourself, you may find unexpected insight through this exercise and it can’t help but change how you look at people which, in turn, has a way of changing what happens between you.

Begin by bringing to mind someone you think of as a wise teacher. This could be a person you know or someone you only know through their work, such as an author, world leader or historical figure. It could be someone either living or dead.

Now, picture the person in your mind’s eye and take a moment to simply open your heart. Imagine you’re sending an outpouring of gratitude for all that you admire and appreciate in this individual. The power of love is well documented. It keeps us healthy; it empowers our prayers; it’s a gift that, when given unconditionally, is always received, even when it’s not registered consciously. Imagine that your love is awakening and calling forth the best in this person.

Many philosophers and cutting edge scientists have speculated that all minds are part of one consciousness. So, even though you’re not physically present with this individual, and may never be, imagine there is, none the less, a reality where all minds meet. Picture yourself visiting with your revered teacher and imagine a real meeting is taking place in this realm of pure consciousness. Your mentor may speak to you, or show you something, or simply radiate love and healing.

You might imagine yourself in the role of your teacher, seeing yourself from this other’s view. In this role, speak to yourself. Offer wisdom, healing and whatever gifts are most needed. If you have a request for specific assistance or a question, ask for these and allow the teacher to respond.

But this isn’t the end of this exercise. While it’s easy to imagine a favorite mentor as having the gifts we most need, the truth is that everyone is a being of profound complexity, wisdom and depth with gifts to give. That includes our friends, family, coworkers, complete strangers, even the people who thoroughly annoy us. So, bring to mind, now, your most intimate peer relationship. This could be a spouse or romantic partner, or it could be a close friend. Repeat the previous exercise, this time letting your intimate peer come to you. See past the person you’ve become so familiar with to perceive the rich, complex being that includes but isn’t limited to the personality you know. Imagine this individual as having facets you’ve never seen; wisdom and love you’ve never experienced. See what new gifts this person has to give you when you open your mind and heart to them.

Now that you’re warmed up, do this exercise one more time—this time with the last person you’d ever imagine as having “gifts” for you. Just as with your mentor and peer, imagine this being has important wisdom, guidance, healing and love for you. And just as you did with the other two, let yourself open to receive it. Bring to mind the most important question of your life, perhaps one you posed to your mentor. Imagine that the higher mind of this person has something significant to contribute to this matter; something you would have missed had you not opened yourself to it. See what it is and don’t be surprised to receive an unexpectedly different view with a new perspective worth considering. End by thanking this person for their gifts.

If you do these exercises deeply, you may see changes in how people relate to you. You may never be able to look at people quite the same way again and, before you know it, you might even notice the world has become a lot less lonely.

January 2007: Brightening the World

Last month, I wrote in this column of the subtle returning of light that comes with the winter solstice. The birth of light that happened in late December is still a quiet secret held within our hearts this time of year. It’s not like summer where light seems to positively show off with its lavish displays of growing things. No, the light to celebrate in January isn’t that of the sun; it’s the less obvious, but no less powerful, inner light that becomes all the more beautiful in the contrasting darkness—in much the same way candles are made for winter nights more than the light-filled evenings of summer. For some of us though, January, and the beginning of winter, can appear as a seemingly endless stretch of cold, dark barrenness; simply a time to get out the SAD lamps and do what we can to keep depression at bay.

Perhaps in this season where we can’t rely on the light around us to brighten our world, the best antidote to seasonal depression is to shine our light outward in some way—to make the world brighter by our presence. Though I’m about to launch into a discussion of doing good, the purely selfish, personal benefits to “goodness” are many. It’s well-known that the best therapy for just about anything is often stepping out of ourselves to help another.

Along these lines, Dean Ornish’s excellent book, Love and Survival, compiles all sorts of research documenting the healing power of love and makes the point that, “What is also important in a number of studies is not only how much [love] you get but also how much you give.” He went on to cite a particular study of more than seven hundred elderly adults that showed, “the effects of aging had more to do with what they contributed to their social support network than what they received from it. The more love and support they offered, the more they benefited themselves.”

So, offering a bit of light to the world around us will keep us younger and, what’s more, it doesn’t need to be done through grand gestures. In this subdued, gestating time of year, perhaps it’s the small acts that are more in keeping with the season—acts that don’t try to save the world, but just quietly demonstrate a faith in goodness, and help us believe the world is worth saving.

Over the years I’ve encountered many spiritual teachers and leaders of social change. There are a number who stick in my mind as especially powerful. However, along with the movers and shakers who are working in an obvious way to heal the world, there have been people who I’ve been just as deeply moved by in spite of their humble activities. One such person is a woman I regularly encountered in my former home town of Baltimore when I bought gas. She worked in a small glass booth between gas pumps on a busy city street in a neighborhood considered unsavory. Her job certainly wasn’t glamorous, easy, or overtly aimed at world healing. Yet she had an aura about her. Her smile was authentic and heartfelt whether it was to a polite elderly person or an intoxicated troublesome one. She seemed to create a ripple of peace around her in this chaotic atmosphere. More than once my encounter with her changed my day significantly for the better. It’s hard to know how profoundly she affects her world through these simple emanations of love. My guess is that her impact has been considerable.

Then there was a man who held the lowly job of collecting shopping carts outside a big supermarket. He had a smile and a word for everyone who walked in or out, got to know an astonishing number of people by name, and often broke into operatic renditions of popular tunes as he helped someone with their bags. His poor reading and writing skills made it hard for him to qualify for the indoor job of bagging that he wanted but I never saw him any way but cheerful—no, cheerful is too small a word. The man seemed to make it his job to extend kindness unconditionally to everyone passing through his world. His work on that parking lot was nothing less than a ministry and, ten years later, I still remember him profoundly. In an urban parking lot plagued with crime and teeming with people, who knows how great his influence was.

More recently, I heard someone tell a story of being at a restaurant with her mother and when it came time to pay the check, their waitperson told them that someone at another table had paid their bill. Their benefactor had already left by then and they never did find out who did it or why. But I’m sure it’s a gift that will remain in their memory for years to come.

Those of us who celebrate the winter holiday season with an exchange of gifts may now be sitting on a pile of new things, but how many of them will you remember ten years from now? How many things have you done recently, or ever, that make you deeply memorable, in a good way, to people who barely know you?

Whether you’re feeling oppressed by the still-long, dark nights of winter, or rejuvenated by the solstice light returning, could there be a better time to brighten the world a little? But, before you go at it, consider these “enlightening” questions: What are some small acts of kindness that have left a lasting impression on you? What small act could you imagine doing that might be remembered for years to come by those affected? Now, most important of all is this: What small act would take little from you and would give you a lift in doing? In other words, forget about what you should do or what would look good; forget about heroic efforts and sacrifices meant to impress and consider what would just plain feel good to do. When you think of something that fits this description, you’ve more than likely found the gift that someone will be remembering decades after the event. How can this not be an important contribution to the world?

December 2006: The Season of Giving & the Art of Receiving

December is a month packed with a complicated interweaving of sacred holidays, emotionally charged family traditions, crass commercialism, and overindulgent partying. At the core of it all is the deep, magical rebirth of light that many world religions celebrate in a slightly different ways. In America, the outer expression of this natural and spiritual event can give rise to an exhausting overload of lights, sentimentality, materialism and social gatherings. Often referred to as the “Season of Giving,” it’s the time of year retailers live for and the result of so much successful retail activity makes it just as much a season of receiving.

In another article here—in June, when light reaches its peak—I wrote about the profound connection between light and love. Those who’ve had near-death experiences describe the light beyond death as being virtually indistinguishable from unconditional love. So, at this point where light is birthed out of darkness, perhaps the magical point to it all—what we’re grasping for through the abundant exchange of packages—is the rekindling of sacred love. It’s easy to lose this point in the overlay of cultural expectation, gifts becoming more a fulfillment of social obligation than a sacred offering.

At their root, giving and receiving are as connected as breathing in and breathing out, and if we’re not good at one we’ll certainly not do well at the other. Just as inhaling and exhaling flow together as breath, giving and receiving flow together as joining. If our giving doesn’t create joining in love, then somehow the true gift of it is missing. And when we give without receiving, we deny an opportunity for love. Think of how disappointing it is to give to someone who doesn’t fully appreciate and receive the gift. When we don’t receive, we may be sharing our generosity but withholding the greater gift of communion.

This may sound good in theory but fall short in the real world of unwanted gifts. Suppose you’re on the receiving end of an awful “secret Santa” gift at your office where the gift reflects nothing of your tastes and was given dutifully rather than joyfully? How does one find the essence of “sacred love” in such a mundane context?

In a workshop, many years ago, I suggested everyone bring something precious to give away unconditionally, without knowing who the recipient would be. This exercise is always filled with synchronicity and amazing coincidences as people randomly receive something perfect for them. On this occasion, the gifts had been given out and people were excitedly showing the wonderful things they had received. Then one man held up a small object that had come to him as his “perfect gift.” It was the offering of a rather odd fellow who, for days, had seemed a little out of synch with the workshop. After the obviously lavish gifts received by others, this one was in a different category altogether and as the man displayed what he received, my heart sank for him.

But, as he started talking about the strange gift of a dirty little pebble embedded in a half-used tin of brown shoe polish, his face lit up and he shared all the ways this was indeed the perfect gift for him. He felt genuinely inspired by his gift and received it with as much joy and pleasure as others had received their more opulent ones. His example, decades ago, has been an inspiration to me ever since. If he could extract joy from a pebble stuck in shoe polish offered half-heartedly by the giver, who am I to complain about a knickknack not to my taste? It’s always our choice to experience joy and gratitude or disappointment, so why choose disappointment when joy feels so much better?

Gratitude is a highly magnetic state of mind and the more we feel it, the more we attract in life what truly delights us. Perhaps the “gift” in something unwanted is the reflection it gives to us of our own state of mind. We may feel too ungrateful to appreciate the beauty around us, or feel too unworthy to let it in. We may be too closed to let others know us well enough to give us what we need, or too distrustful to believe that anyone could or would please us. Our expectations have a lot to do with the life we create. What does the quality of the gifts coming your way tell you about your expectations?

In that so many people know me as a teacher, I periodically, around birthdays or holidays, find myself the recipient of mountains of small gifts given by kind-hearted folks who don’t know me well. Some are lovely and just what I wanted, others are lovely things I have no use for, and some just aren’t “me” at all. At times I feel a little overwhelmed by the sheer quantity of stuff that I have unwittingly become the owner of. In spite of the occasional overload, I dearly love these outpourings because of the love behind them. I give attention to each gift and take it in. Then I cart it all home and put a lot of it in my gifts-to-give area. I imagine myself like Santa Claus and have as much fun matching the right thing to the right person at the right time and giving it away, as I did receiving it. That I pass on some of the wealth doesn’t mean I fail to receive or enjoy it!

There are many ways to take joy in a gift that isn’t quite what we want. It’s even possible to create something positive out of the sticky situation of gifts given with unspoken expectations and strings attached. While there are times we may decide not to accept such a gift, there’s never a time we need to withhold our gratitude. What’s more, if we begin to accept conditional gifts by receiving the gift and not the condition, it becomes easier to extend appreciation. It might seem hard to fathom how to accept a strings-attached gift without the complicated entanglements, yet manipulation can’t happen unless both parties agree to it. When one party stops, it changes the whole dynamic.

When we simply receive a conditional gift as though it were given unconditionally and offer back the most sincere, heart-felt gratitude and nothing else, the results can be profound. The giver may see that the attempt to manipulate isn’t going to work and just stop giving. But, the experience of receiving love instead of resentful obligation or rejection can be such an unexpected gift as to completely transform the relationship, opening a flow of love, pleasant surprises, and unconditional giving on both sides.

Just as the essence of giving is love, regardless of the form it takes, so is receiving about accepting love, regardless of whether the form of the gift is a perfect fit. Sometimes, by finding the love the giver didn’t intend to put into a gift, we can create something real and heart-felt out of a gesture than began empty. Let this season of giving be an opportunity to practice this true art of receiving, and in so doing, receive the most important gift there is: that of sacred love.

November 2006: The Hero’s Journey

As November takes us deeper into the darkness of fall, we can’t help but become reflective. If the shorter days and colder temps aren’t enough to turn our attention inward, fall has a way of bringing the past back to life. It starts a season filled with religious and secular holidays that take us right through the beginning of winter: Rosh Hashanah, Thanksgiving, Christmas, Hanukah, Kwanza and more; holidays that revive tradition and bring families together to rekindle memories—good and bad—and remind us of who’s no longer present. More people die during the darker months than in the lighter seasons so we’re more likely to be attending funerals this time of year or coming upon an anniversary of a loved one’s passing.

The spiritual work of fall draws us into the shadowy underworld of our fears: death, loss of control and all things denied and repressed. Just as the growing light of spring urges us to reach high for our dreams, fall’s darkness compels us to reach deep within, emerging with wisdom, power, and a life no longer defined by fear. It’s a profoundly healing journey—one that brings us face to face with our shadow and, ultimately, rewards us with many previously hidden treasures of Self. Joseph Campbell called it the “Hero’s Journey” and its archetypal scenario repeats throughout mythology and folklore.

The “shadow,” as Carl Jung used the term, is a collection of personal, unknown aspects of the ego that we’re more likely to see and judge in others than recognize in ourselves. Wherever we feel the most outrage at the people or world around us invariable shows where we’ve projected a bit of our own denied and disowned self.

Achieving wholeness and true empowerment requires recognizing that a piece of the enemies we encounter in life also live within us. This holds true not only in our personal relationships but also for those things we find most hateful about the world: its leaders, ideologies, structures of power and resulting practices; things that seem larger than life and removed from us as individuals. These collective representatives of power become the perfect screens to hold our shadow projections precisely because they’re so removed from our personal sphere and seemingly out of our control. Our very powerlessness makes it feel easier to justify hatred.

Passion is always a potent force, and hatred is a powerful passion—albeit an ugly one that we often train ourselves to suppress and deny. Just as passionate desire plays an important role in our ability to achieve results in the external world, recognizing our passionate hatred is crucial to achieving the inner result of a healed self. What we most love to hate shows where we’ve given power away and, just as passionate love often signals our path of highest purpose, passionate hate shows our path to wholeness—our own personal Hero’s Journey.

Healing our hatred of others is really nothing more than healing our self-hatred. Maturing into wholeness ultimately brings a shift in our passionate nature so that we genuinely love to love more than we love to hate. We forgive, not because it’s the right thing, but because it’s the most self-serving thing.

What’s more, this work of shadow healing increases our overall effectiveness. No matter how justified we may feel in our hatred and projection, it’s not without consequence. In the collected writings on Jungian psychology, Man and His Symbols, Dr. Marie-Louise von Franz writes of this: “If we identify our own shadow with, say, the communists or the capitalists, a part of our own personality remains on the opposing side. The result is that we shall constantly (though involuntarily) do things behind our own backs that support this other side, and thus we shall unwittingly help our enemy.”

In many circles rage is seen as a necessary force for change—as a bumper sticker I’ve often seen puts it, “If you’re not angry, you’re not paying attention.” But, in truth, far from making us passive or oblivious, healing our rage makes us more powerful. The highest potential of anger is to win a battle. It doesn’t have the power to create peace. Anger is only capable of creating a temporary “cease fire” through dominance; one that only lasts until the next war. A healed state of mind sees options that were previously invisible. When we’re at peace inwardly, we call forth the peace in others in a way that dominance and rage can’t.

It’s never mandatory that we look into our own dark natures. Joseph Campbell wrote of this in his classic book, The Hero with a Thousand Faces, as refusing the call to adventure: “Often in actual life, and not infrequently in the myths and popular tales, we encounter the dull case of the call unanswered; for it is always possible to turn the ear to other interests. Refusal of the summons converts the adventure into its negative. Walled in boredom, hard work or “culture,” the subject loses the power of significant affirmative action and becomes a victim to be saved. His flowering world becomes a wasteland of dry stones and his life feels meaningless….”

For those willing to answer the call, fall is the perfect time to look into our own dark side, and this November, the opportunity is particularly rich as we enter the hot debate of a political election year. How many of us don’t have a politician we love to hate? If you’re ready to take a deep dive into your own nature and increase your ability to make a positive difference in the world at the same time, read on.

Exercise

Bring to mind the political or other world figure you most hate and identify what qualities most enrage you. Look deeply into yourself until you see how you, too, hold some of these same qualities. Begin your Hero’s Journey by forgiving yourself.

Now, look with different eyes at this leader you’ve vilified. See the person, not the symbol, and find compassion, forgiveness and love for the man or woman behind the role. Know that your compassion doesn’t give advantage to “the bad guys.”

Recognize that inner peace is the only state capable of creating outer peace; and peace comes through finding what we love and serving it, not by seeking what we most hate or fear, and fighting it. So, now, seek out the candidate you most love and vote!

October 2006: The Dying Season

As fall deepens and light fades, nature is now showing us her “dying” season. In Minnesota and other areas where seasons are dramatically distinct, nature goes out with flashing glory before winter gives the landscape a rest. We humans are a bit more apt to go out kicking and screaming.

Psychologically, even though the birth phase of life experience, with its flurry of hopeful beginnings and springtime growth, creates just as much stressful change as the fall phase of dying away, we tend to associate “birth” with joyous emotions while “death” evokes feelings of fear, sadness and loss of control. Birth fills our thoughts with wonderful possibilities but death requires true vision and faith to see that just as every beginning leads to death, every ending leads eventually to a new birth.

Many of us fear terrible, painful deaths over which we’ll have no control. But, the more aquatinted I become with people at the end of their lives, the more I’ve noticed that we tend to die in a similar fashion as we’ve lived: according to our temperament and much more in control of the process than we think. I’ve come to believe that the time leading up to death, far from being just the necessary end to life, is a profoundly meaningful learning time during which we resolve and complete the deepest lessons of our lives.

Even those deaths that seem like random, cruel blows of fate unbefitting the dignity of a person’s earlier years hold unexpected gifts and, perhaps hidden purposes. Alzheimer’s is one of the “tragic” endings many of us fear and I know a man whose father developed it shortly into retirement after a lifetime of hard work. He supported five children and devoted himself to a company that didn’t reciprocate his loyalty, firing him when he was nearing retirement age and had been “used up.” Alzheimer’s seemed like a sad finish to the life he’d lived and the person he’d been. It wasn’t long before his middle aged son had to take care of him like a child.

During these years of illness, the son spent many days taking his father along with him wherever he went and said it was the first time he’d ever felt close to the man. He described a time he had even taken his father to his weekly therapy session, and was amazed by his father’s sudden and unusual moment of lucidity: when asked by the therapist if he understood why he’d been invited to the session he responded, “To show my son that I love him.” Then he lapsed back into forgetfulness.

Here was a man who’d never been affectionate or emotionally demonstrative, who devoted himself to what he thought were his duties: working hard for his family and his company. Maybe Alzheimer’s enabled him finally to set down the role of provider and allow some softness into his life that he may never have accepted in his “right mind.” Perhaps, in the end, this was his perfect retirement.

One of the most fearsome aspects of dying is its capacity to plunge us into unbearable pain or disability. My close friend, Cheryl, who died in her thirties from a life-long degenerative disease, feared this for most of her life because the course of her illness left people progressively more disabled and in pain. For many years she secretly held a suicide plan for taking her own life before she became too disabled to do so. She never resorted to it, however, even though her disease did progress as expected. Somewhere along the way she just stopped fighting the pain. Instead of trying to control death from a place of fear, she allowed its mystery to unfold; trusting herself, trusting the process of life. Toward the end she had many experiences of leaving her body and meeting with “angels” who gave her encouragement and instruction. She also had many deepening experiences of love with the people in her life. She found that in spite of growing pain and physical disability, she loved life more with every passing day. She once reflected in horror that her fear of the unknown had almost compelled her to end her life prematurely, cutting short this richest time of all.

Her very last day found her hospitalized, struggling for breath and medicated for pain. But even then, her life couldn’t have been further removed from the helpless pain and despair she once feared. Playfulness, love and sensual delights filled her last hours as she conspired with friends to sneak her down the hall for a forbidden but luxurious shower and shared a last supper of her favorite chocolate doughnuts. The night before, she called me in the middle of the night and said with much excitement that her lack of breath was starting to feel like the beginning of being born—she just needed to push a little harder and she’d be “out.” Shortly after her friends left the hospital that last day, Cheryl easily left her body. While we all wanted to be with her, we suspected she waited until she was alone because she knew we’d be upset watching her go and forget the truth of how delighted she was to be “out.”

If death is something you think about reluctantly and only with foreboding, consider going into this time of year—the dying season—more deliberately. Decide to become the creator of your death, not its victim. The following exercise is a start.

Exercise: Your Dying Season

Write a story about yourself as a very old person nearing the end of your life. Write this as someone who’s experienced a deeply fulfilling life. As you look back, you see how even the failures and disappointments had a purpose, teaching you something you needed for your next step. You have the perspective of an older and wiser person and can acknowledge your accomplishments, accepting that they didn’t all match your hopes, plans and expectations. You feel warmth and gratitude for the love you shared with people and, now that many of your loved ones have died, you look forward to making the transition they have already made.

Picture yourself as healthy and vital, even at an advanced age, and your life filled with love, meaning, and serenity. Describe what you do in a day, what you think about, what gives you pleasure.

Continue on to the event of your death. Picture it as you wish it to be. See who is with you, where you are, what the cause of death is, and what the final moment of letting go is like. Describe the experience of releasing your body to a wonderful sense of freedom and joy. Finally, tell how the people who love you celebrate your passing and imagine your funeral or memorial.

Don’t wait passively for death to swoop down on you like some fearsome predator. Instead, choose to go out with the flourish and easy letting go of a fall leaf. Start now, expecting and creating nothing less than the perfect finish to your well-lived life.

September 2006: We’re All Going to Die, So Let’s Sing and Dance!

I always experience a kind of stillness about August. The expansive growth of spring and summer has spread outward nearly to its limit and in August everything seems to stop briefly as energy, set all in one direction for nearly half a year, approaches a turning point. It’s like that moment in a creative process when the project is completed, right before the emptiness that precedes the beginning of the next one.

But with September, and the fall equinox, comes undeniable, unavoidable change. With each solstice and equinox comes a shift in the balance of light: in spring light is on the rise, at summer it reaches its peak and by fall it’s on the wane, moving toward the darkest time of the year. Yet, of the four seasons, fall is the one most poignantly about change. It takes us from the abundance of late summer to the barren cold of early winter in one short season. Fall carries us into darkness and dying.

Yet, as the outer world dies away, the inner life activates and at the darkest point comes a rebirth, an imperceptible movement back toward light, life and hope for the future. It’s no accident that so many religious holidays of light and renewal fall so close to the winter solstice.

In some larger cycle of our human evolution, perhaps humanity itself is moving through a fall season. Our external growth has spread outward to an extreme degree, both in terms of sheer numbers as well as through our technological ability to change the world around us. And now, as we turn our technology against ourselves and feel the reverberations of our impact upon the planet, death and destruction seem to be everywhere. We’ve certainly reached a point in history where change flies at us quickly. World catastrophes, both political and natural, crash upon us so with such speed it’s difficult to digest one before the next is happening.

Some might see this autumn metaphor as too poetic for the times we’re in. After all, a season is part of a circular cycle of change, with eventual renewal always on the horizon, not a linear path to the end. If the metaphor is to hold, there must be evidence of an inner quicken to match the outer dissolution; a quieter coming together that will one day give birth to a new phase of growth.

While some are predicting the “end times,” others predict the same technology that’s brought so much of our downfall into being will play an equally important role in our coming together. The internet, for one, is changing us in ways we may never comprehend fully except in retrospect. Author, Donald Dulchinos, veteran of the cable TV industry and involved in online communities predating the World Wide Web, pulled together many fascinating strands of philosophy, technology, and science in his book, “Neuroshphere,” on “the convergence of evolution, group mind, and the internet.” He presents the views of numbers of well-known theorists who all believe that humanity is moving in the direction of a higher, wiser, group mind. The chaos theorist, Ralph Abraham, for example, believes the explosive growth of the World Wide Web has increased the bandwidth of the mind’s connections, increased the overall intelligence of our species, and, to use his words, will “save us from the ‘Death Track’” of human greed and exploitation. The early twentieth century philosopher, PierreTeilhard de Chardin, anticipated this quickening of human consciousness, Dulcinos writes, in his theory of noogenesis, a theory that as humans stopped evolving biologically, they began an evolution of consciousness. “The World Wide Web is the material manifestation of Teilhard’s vision.” Dulchinos himself speculates that, “the Internet represents the latest manifestation, in the material world, of the ongoing evolution of consciousness.”

Observing joined consciousness in a less technological context, I’ve noticed in my work with groups over several decades, the tremendous synergy they afford. Healing, insights, altered states and personal growth breakthroughs of all sorts seem to come more easily in a group than singly or even in a one-on-one setting. I’ve even discerned a shift, over the years, in why people attend groups. In my early years of group facilitation, it seemed that people mainly just wanted to learn or fix something and go home. Then, in the 80’s, support groups came in vogue and people found, not just healing in groups, but community and belonging. They came to mend or learn, but stayed for these secondary gains. In recent years, I’ve noticed people joining groups less from a feeling of lack and more because we all somehow sense that together we’re more. We come for the “quickening.”

As evidence points to the world falling apart around us, I believe it also points in the direction of some evolutionary leap in connectedness. The most stand-out feature of this new joining of minds is that it gives greater power to each individual mind. Through the internet we can reach people as never before. Uncensored blogging is changing the face of journalism. Grass roots emailing can launch a presidential candidate. Information spreads around the world at a speed never seen before. What’s more, the new science of consciousness is proving that consciousness itself has the power to impact the physical world and that minds are connected beyond the boundaries of time, space and technology in ways we’re just beginning to fathom. Who knows what this new power of the collective mind might someday birth.

Yet, what does such a huge evolutionary change mean to us personally? It doesn’t stop the death. How can one not feel small and powerless in the face of so much change? Maybe our power in these tumultuous times has to do with what we choose to feed: the death all around us or the birth within us.

I remember hearing Jamie Sams, the Native American teacher and author of the well-known “Medicine Cards” deck of animal cards, speak many years ago making the point that the earth doesn’t need us to set about healing her with great seriousness and gloom. She’ll benefit more from our joy and dancing. A more personal sentiment I heard recently at Pathways, the Minneapolis heath crisis resource center, was a quote by one of the center’s highly regarded contributors, Linda Francis Cartee. Linda died of cancer in 2001 with such grace that her example left many no longer afraid of death. A program she envisioned for Pathways but never lived to create, she entitled, “We’re all going to die, so, what the heck! Let’s sing and dance!”

“Singing and dancing” isn’t an attitude of denial. Far from it. It’s the discovery that we become more empowered to change our lives and the world around us when we’ve found peace—even joy—in the midst of what is. So as we buy our electric cars, get politically active, organize to help those in need, and do what we need to do to get by in the face of profound change, let’s not forget to sing and dance!

August 2006: Appreciating the Beauty of the Moment

“Live in the present. Do the things that need to be done.
Do all the good you can each day. The future will unfold.”

Peace Pilgrim

Now that we’re well into the summer season, it’s easy to see the steady subsiding of daylight. Yet, while the ebbing of light reminds us that fall isn’t far away, the warmth of August is still all summer. This month is a time of fulfillment: everywhere we look, gardens are producing a perfection of ripening crops and burgeoning flowers. Soon it will all be gone but now nature is a feast. With the darkening of fall so close and the heat of summer so present, more than any other season, this late summer month urges us to appreciate the moment, to “be” rather than strive, to live in the fullness of what is and be grateful.

A remarkable woman, who made appreciating the beauty of each moment a way of life, was Peace Pilgrim, who in the 1950's, chose to let go of her middle class life, adopt the simpler name of her pilgrimage, and spend the rest of her years, until 1989, walking back and forth across the country talking to people about peace. She owned only one set of clothes and the very few personal items she could fit in her pockets; she ate only when she was offered food, slept indoors only when she was offered shelter, and talked to people only when they approached her first. She claimed to have no fear whatsoever, in spite of the fact that she sought out the most populated and so called "dangerous" areas to travel through on foot at all hours of day and night. She saw everyone as good and consequently called forth people's highest qualities and behavior.

She became one of my personal heroes when I was just a child and fortunate enough to encounter her on a couple of occasions as she passed through my part of the country. She was mesmerizing and emanated a joyfulness and serenity that moved everyone. Children and adults alike flocked around her and hearing her speak about her life is one of the most vivid memories of my childhood.

In spite of owning nothing, living nowhere and having no outward forms of security, Peace Pilgrim consistently experienced love, generosity, and miracles wherever she went. For her, life was a cornucopia of abundance. She became quite well-known by the time she died and there are a handful of books and videos available about her including the best-known, Peace Pilgrim: Her Life and Work in Her Own Words. This book captures some of her words on gratitude:

All people look beautiful to me; they look like shining lights to me. I always have the feeling of being thankful for these beautiful people who walk the earth with me....

I am constantly thankful. The world is so beautiful, I am thankful. I have endless energy, I am thankful. I am plugged into the source of Universal Supply, I am thankful. I am plugged into the source of Universal Truth, I am thankful. I have this constant feeling of thankfulness, which is a prayer.

In spite of her rough living conditions, Peace Pilgrim enjoyed excellent health up until her death in a car accident. She had tremendous energy and, even in her advanced years, could out-walk just about anyone who tried to walk with her. She said she was walking on “that endless energy that comes from inner peace.”

Gratitude truly is a transformative state of mind: it promotes physical health, leaves us feeling happy and at peace, and naturally attracts to us our highest good. Even the very words of gratitude are powerful. Dr. Masaru Emoto, the Japanese researcher well-known for his revolutionary work photographing ice crystals, demonstrated the undeniable impact of words by exposing water to both spoken and written words, then photographing the crystals formed by that water. He found that loving words, such as “thank you,” (in any language) form beautiful, complex, snowflake patterns, whereas water exposed to pollutants or harsh words form broken, asymmetrical patterns. Just the fact that our human bodies are predominantly water, leaves little doubt that our words must profoundly affect our well-being.

Gratitude and seeing the beauty in everyone made Peace Pilgrim’s life not just one of service but one of supreme joy and fulfillment. It’s not necessary to adopt her extreme life style to find this same joy. This month, as nature is producing so many easy opportunities to appreciate the beauty of life, let the power of gratitude work its magic for you. Notice all the small moments in your day when something beautiful is put in your path and let the healing words, “thank you,” ripple through all the water in your body, making you beautiful and whole as well. When circumstances conspire in your favor—a parking place opens up just as you need it, you almost drop something breakable but catch it instead, something that was lost shows up again—give thanks for each of these small gifts.

Give thanks even for the experiences and life lessons that feel painful. As we give thanks for situations that feel hurtful, we relax, let go of struggle and become more open to healing. I once knew a woman who had struggled with the extremely dangerous skin cancer, melanoma, for many years. Inspired by a book on spiritual healing, she began to write over and over the words, “Thank you, God, for cancer.” At first the words felt untrue and hard to write but as she kept at it, gradually she began to feel at peace with her illness for the first time, and soon her six-week check-ups were detecting no precancerous tissue—something that had never happened in the fifteen years she’d battled the disease. More than a year later she was still clear of cancerous growth.

See if this simple attention to gratitude, if practiced consistently, doesn’t take on a life of its own, awakening you to the joy of life and heightening your well-being. Soon, you’ll be the one touching others with your serenity and inner peace and, in your own way, you’ll have become a Peace Pilgrim.

July 2006: Money Doesn’t Grow on Trees…

This month of July is a lush and abundant one with nature producing lavish excesses that will sustain us through the winter months ahead. Growing our personal wealth and abundance is a theme that fits well with this season of plenty. But, unlike apples, cherries and peaches, we all know that “money doesn’t grow on trees.”

Who hasn’t heard that expression enough to have it ingrained in our personal memory banks, perhaps even with a familiar family member’s voice attached? While we may easily grow way too many roses, tomatoes and zucchinis every summer—enough to take offerings to our friends and neighbors without giving it much thought—we all seem to recognize that with money this easy abundance doesn’t exist.

In his best-selling novel, The Celestine Prophecy, now out as a movie, James Redfield beautifully encapsulates complex spiritual and quantum truth by defining everything in the physical world as “a vast system of energy.” As I wrote in last month’s article, physicists call this the Zero Point Field and speculate that it could one day endlessly meet all our energy needs. But this abundance is invisible to our physical senses and, so far, outside the range of our physical attempts to tap it. In this sea of abundant energy, we experience ourselves in a world of scarcity. Consequently, Redfield says much of the current interaction among humans involves trying to steal energy from each other because we feel weak and insecure.

This insecurity compels us to go through life like containers, scooping up everything we can and holding on to it for fear that whatever we release may never be replaced. Those of us at the higher end of the wealth spectrum often suffer from money worries as intensely as those who have much less. Collectively we give tremendous attention and effort to making more money even though, as studies show, once basic needs are met, having more money doesn’t make us the least bit happier.

In spite of the endless examples of extreme lack that can be found on our planet, scarcity is more a shared myth than a reality. Our experience of lack is created and perpetuated by the vast amounts of energy and resources we use up in protecting our wealth from others who might try to take it (or stealing a piece of someone else’s). Imagine what might happen if all the energy that now goes into national defense budgets around the world was directed instead into raising the quality of life. Imagine what could happen if all the resources and creativity that now goes into competition, advertising and going after a "bigger piece of the pie," went instead into producing the highest quality product and the highest good for all. It's hard to imagine, isn't it? It's easier to envision a cataclysmic end of the world than it is to imagine universal cooperation and well-being.

The wars, greed, military spending, abusing the environment for profit and other atrocities that result from our fear of not having enough aren’t the fault of governments, corporations and large institutions. This is an insecurity shared and perpetuated by all of us, even the most politically correct. Consider your own "hoarding" tendencies: how many material things do you own that you haven't used in a year or more? Are there things in closets, drawers, boxes, your attic, basement or garage that you don't use, perhaps don't even like, yet keep because they’re "valuable," because you might need them some day, or because you just haven’t taken the time to sort through them? Do you hold on to money, waiting until the last minute, perhaps past the due date, to pay your bills? Or cheat a little on your taxes?

Now, picture your own small stockpile and minor withholding tendencies and multiply it by the millions of other people on the planet who are similarly sitting on their own small hoards. Imagine what could happen if each of these individuals released everything they had that they didn't use or like. Our problem isn’t one of scarcity, it’s one of fearful withholding.

The good news is that we don’t need to wait for the shifting of world powers or the advancement of science in order to live amidst abundance. As the wise voice of the “Rich Dad” counsels in Robert Kiyoski’s best-seller, Rich Dad Poor Dad, “Money is not real.” Rather, it’s “What we agree it is.” “The more real you think money is, the harder you will work for it” Very true, and the more we agree that money is scarce, the more it is—and the more we struggle for it.

As we begin to imagine and believe in the abundance we can’t always see, we naturally relax, feel safer and no longer need to relate to each other through control, greed and manipulation. Sharing what we have becomes easier (think how easy it is to give of your bumper crop of tomatoes) and we discover that giving energy to each other is the most self-serving thing we can do because it calls forth the best in that person. At their best, everyone just naturally begins to give back. And, as I proposed in last month’s article, this flow of unconditional sharing may just be our easiest access to the mysterious potential of the invisible field of energy described by physicists and meta-physicists alike.

While changing the world’s mind set may feel out of your realm, unloading your own surplus is far more doable. And it’s not just virtuous—according to the widely-embraced Asian tradition of feng shui, cleaning out your clutter positively affects your health and well-being in just about every way. I’ve noticed that people who’ve made huge, quantum leaps in their growth often feel compelled to simplify their lives, clearing out all sorts of things they don’t need any more, shortly before dramatic changes just seem to “happen” to them. There’s nothing like the vacuum power of an empty space for attracting something new.

This month, try making wealth a little less “real.” Imagine the stockpile of your unused excess is a garden full of flowers and vegetables with enough for you, enough to share and more still growing. Consider pairing down your excess of unwanted things—share them, sell them, release them—and create an empty space for something new. If you’re really bold, experiment similarly with your money. Start with an amount of money you can safely play with and make it less “real.” Offer it to someone or something for no reason other than prospering them makes you feel good. See if these offerings of your abundance don’t come back to you in ways you never would have dreamed!

June 2006: God, Light and the Zero Point Field

This month of June is all about the light. The lightest weeks of the year fall in this month, leading up to and following the summer solstice, in the third week of June. It’s hard not to feel the energy of it. Just as the dark of winter leaves some depressed and listless, this time of year is more likely to result in restless energy and sleeplessness as sunlight streams into our bedrooms earlier and earlier each morning.

In homage to this month of light, this article, too, is all about the light. Light: so pure and primal it’s perhaps one of our most-used metaphors. It stands for clarity, goodness, spirituality, and salvation from all things dark and frightening. Light is life-giving and divine. From the world of science, we know that light, energy and matter are all variations of the same. As quantum science demonstrates that most of reality goes on at a level imperceptible to our human senses, it’s also showing the very underpinnings of the universe to consist of a field of light.

In the seventies, the highly distinguished physicist, Hal Puthoff, pioneered study into the mysteries of this energy field, called the Zero Point Field, and has since been followed by many others. The Zero Point Field essentially is the energy left in a space when all possible matter and energy are removed. This remaining field comprises, literally, a super-charged, sea-of-light backdrop to everything and physicists have theorized that if we learn how to tap it, it could become a limitless energy supply, meeting all our current needs, even enabling Star Trek-like space travel. As well-known physicist, Richard Feynman put it, “the energy in a single cubic meter of space is enough to boil all the oceans of the world.”

As physicists are working to explain and tap this incredible ocean of light, another very different glimpse into the light comes from the growing body of research on those who’ve had near-death experiences. Consistently, people who have clinically died and been revived tell a similar story of coming into contact with a mystical light. These experiences are profoundly transforming, leaving the survivors forever changed, with a measurably higher zest for life than the general population, healthier, and more apt to have psychic abilities.

Could it be that the cessation of life as we know it in a physical body allowed these individuals to have a perceptual awareness of the Zero Point Field and tap into its unlimited power? And is there something we can learn from their experience to help us tap this energy without physical trauma? Perhaps a key lies in another consistency to their stories: invariably they describe “the Light” as being synonymous with unconditional love. The mystical light that people experience is far from cold or neutral. Rather, it’s powerfully benevolent. Much like what religions of the world have called “God.”

Science writer and author of The Field, Lynne McTaggart, hinted at this benevolent nature of the universe in the summation of her excellent compilation of cutting edge science. She suggests that new scientific thinking promises to give us back our optimism as we realize that we aren’t simply alone in an indifferent universe. “Far from destroying God,” she says, “science for the first time was proving His existence…”

Scientists are working on machines to extract energy from the Zero Point Field, but with this blurring of lines between science and mysticism, might there be a more common-place path into the Field—one more accessible to all of us—through mystical experience and unconditional love?

In a paradoxical illustration of spiritual law, I often cite Mother Theresa as a role model when I teach classes on prosperity. Paradoxical because Mother Theresa lived such a simple life among the poor and we tend to remember her for her unconditional giving, not her materialistic “getting.” However, Mother Theresa was amazingly good at manifesting material resources. Accounts of her life are filled with stories of last-minute saves where the support she needed to continue her humble work show up, often in serendipitous and miraculous ways. Her counsel to the rich was, “give until it hurts” and, for her, they did. Yet, her priorities and attention remained on caring for the poorest of the poor rather than on how to get what she needed. Just as she manifested easily without it becoming her focus, I believe she gave easily without having to work at it either. As she once put it herself, “When you know how much God is in love with you, then you can only live your life radiating that love.” She lived in an awareness of God’s love that so filled her to overflowing, all she could do was share it. Consequently, she wasn’t focused on giving or getting. She was simply living in the fullness of God, which heightened her abilities to both give and attract.

If, as near-death accounts suggest, unconditional love is synonymous with the sea-of-light underpinnings of the universe, and if what religion calls God has some corollary in the Zero Point Field, could it be that Mother Theresa discovered what physicists haven’t: how to tap the limitless power of the Field? And might her simple statement be the way? “When you know how much God is in love with you,” (When you’re cognizant of the benevolent sea of unconditional love/light and your Oneness with it,) “then you can only live your life radiating that love.” (then you quite naturally tap the unlimited potential of this sea-of-light Field.)

By Mother Theresa’s wisdom, access to the Light begins with “knowing” it and what better time of year to know the light than now, in this light-filled month of June? Consider giving yourself a special moment—the closer to the solstice the better—out-of-doors, not just to work, play or bask in the light, but to recognize your Oneness with it. Let the sun’s light be a physical representation of the sea-of-light Field holding us all in its embrace of unconditional love. Name it according to your beliefs: God, the Light, the Field, and let its regenerative powers wash over you, healing your body, calming your mind, heightening your zest for life and restoring your faith in a benevolent Universe.

May 2006: Reaching for the Sun

This month of mid-spring is all about growing: light, warmth and vegetation are all on the rise. The essence of May can be captured in the image of plants reaching toward the sun at the stage just before they tumble over, pulled down by the weight of their own abundant growth. In the seasons’ never-ending interplay of light and dark, now is when light is most on the rise. Not at its peak, which comes next month with the summer solstice, but growing stronger every day. As a personal metaphor for growth, May embodies the energy, aliveness and passion of reaching for the heavens and pursuing our dreams. So, if there’s something you’ve wanted to do but never seem to find the time or energy for it, now’s the time!

However, passion alone isn’t enough to bring our dreams to life. What makes the difference between exuberant, undirected bursts of energy and productive manifestation is will. Passion without will is like a tomato plant that’s left to grow like a weed without a stake. There may be tomatoes but they’re all on the ground rotting and buggy.

Will is our power to get the job done, to put dreams into action and make our creativity truly productive. It’s not to be confused with self-discipline which is the force we need to exert to keep ourselves doing what we don’t really want to do. Self-discipline becomes necessary when we’re acting on what we believe we should do rather than what our heart wants. It’s fueled by our fear and we act because we’re afraid of what will happen if we don’t.

By contrast, will is fueled by love. It’s the energy we put behind things we’re passionate about. When we’re pursuing our dreams, we may experience challenges or feel resistance but the energy to push through comes more readily. We handle the boring chores and obstacles of life easily when they’re steps toward our heart-felt desires.

While the energy of willpower in service to our dreams is easier to call up than self-discipline toward those things we have no passion for, will still needs to be developed. It’s like a muscle: if we don’t exercise it, it becomes weak. When we seldom use our will, it’s not there when we need it, much the same as when we seldom exercise our bodies and find even the simplest exertion leaving us breathless.

Three Aspects of Will

I think of will as having three distinct and equally important components. The first is courage. Courage includes obvious acts of heroism and bold action in the face of real or perceived danger, but it comes into play in more subtle ways as well. Any new venture requires a step beyond what we know and, consequently, a step out of our comfort zone. For example, if you haven’t exercised in twenty years, going to the gym for the first time can be a courageous act.

The second aspect of will is strength. This is the willingness to work hard at something, draw upon all our resources and apply ourselves fully. No matter how much courage it took to join the gym, that’s not enough! We need to actually get on the equipment and give it our best, until we’ve applied all our physical strength and emotional fortitude.

Last, but far from least, comes commitment. This is where, after courageously joining the gym and working out ferociously, we come back and do it again. And again, and again…. Commitment is the willingness to follow through on our intentions and act with consistency, even when it’s become a little boring, because we know it’s in service to our highest aspirations. Commitment lacks the high energy of applying strength and the adrenalin rush of courage but without it, the tremendous energy expenditure of the first two can wind up being for nothing.

Most of us are better at one of these than the others, and we may be comfortable with applying all three in certain contexts. A firefighter who exhibits obvious courage in his job may quiver in fear when it comes to taking emotional risks. People who are excellent at keeping their commitments to others may not be able to summons the energy to keep the ones they make to themselves. The more we develop an over-reliance on comfortable strengths, the more we limit ourselves and become weak.

Just as will becomes weak when not used, the good news is that we can grow it stronger with practice. So, if you have a special dream, why not make now the time to grow it? Offer a small effort and let the energy of the season carry you higher. To get you started, here are some calisthenics for the will:

Calisthenics for Developing Willpower

Identify your most passionate goal and think of one step you could take toward it that would push you out of your comfort zone and require courage. Next, think of something you could do in service to this goal that would test your strength and take some real effort on your part. And finally, think of one small action you could take everyday for a month toward furthering your dream. Now, of course, it’s time to get moving! If this goal is truly something dear to your heart, considering taking this challenge and discover for yourself how far passion and will combined can take you.

April 2006: Awakening to the Miraculous

The Spring Equinox, the official beginning of spring, happened in the third week of March, marking the point where, for the first time in six months, light and darkness are equal. We’ve entered the season where light is on the rise, growing stronger every day, and it can’t help but touch us all and get our energy moving, even if we don’t consider ourselves terribly attuned to nature, even if we never garden, even if it’s still Minnesota-cold out. When light is rising, we know it in our bones. At the very least, we find we don’t need our Seasonal Affective Disorder lamps as often and notice our houseplants going wild Every year this time, the presence of light awakens us in any number of obvious as well as deep, primal ways.

Of course, the true rebirth of light happened at the Winter Solstice, the darkest day of the year. Yet, winter light is a quiet power, both dormant and pregnant, like the time after conception but before birth. Spring, on the other hand, is for “hatching.” Easter brings with it a riot of candy eggs, baby animals, and Jesus rising from the dead, as Christian symbolism blends with earlier, earth-based, traditions.

This energy of birth and beginnings is exciting, fresh, and a bit fragile. There’s an openness and child-like innocence to it; a sense of the world being new and that anything is possible. What better time to consciously cultivate this energy of excitement, fresh perspective, and willing suspension of disbelief, not as a naive first step on the way to a painful crash, but as a creative force? What better time to open ourselves to miracles?

If the pure presence of Spring isn’t enough to open your jaded mind to the possibility of miracles, try wading into some of the mind-boggling findings of relativity theory and quantum physics over the last century. Science is now showing us a remarkable new definition of reality in which time and space aren’t fixed, matter isn’t solid and the very nature of matter changes according to the expectations of those observing it. We’re seeing that consciousness in and of itself has the power to affect the physical realm and that minds are joined beyond the limits of time and space. To quote one of the pioneers of quantum physics, Erwin Schroedinger, on the nature of consciousness, “the overall number of minds is just one.” (A good starter book on new science is Taking the Quantum Leap, by Fred Alan Wolf. For a deeper dive, try The Field, by Lynn McTaggart)

But this article isn’t really about the mysteries of time, space and matter. It’s an opportunity to explore and experience these mysteries first hand. It’s an invitation to suspend disbelief, allow your mind to be boggled and take a leap out of the box of what you think you know because what follows is an exercise in miracle-making.

Going back to Erwin Schroedinger’s idea of “One Mind” and combining that with mounting evidence of the mind’s power to affect matter (on this, check out physicist Helmut Schmidt’s research with random events generators, for starters), and then throwing in what we’re beginning to know about the fluidity of time and space (thank you, Einstein), take a little leap of imagination and consider that, simply through your intention to do so, you could connect with every other mind who has read, is reading, or will read this article. Imagine that, beyond the illusionary limitations of time and space, together we could (perhaps have already?) form a powerful, synergistic force of Mind capable of moving proverbial mountains of matter. (Why not? It’s been documented that prayer said anonymously, sight unseen, on another’s behalf has a statistically relevant, positive impact on physical health. Check out the book, Healing Words, by Larry Dossey, M.D. for more on this.)

So, if you’re still with me, stop for a moment and really imagine this. Envision your mind joining with the minds of all who have read, are reading and will read this article. Imagine us joining in a common intent that every reader now experiences something miraculous this month. (What’s “miraculous?” I think of it as something better than I expected, perhaps didn’t believe to be possible, always win/win, and often showing up through serendipity rather than effort.) As your mind follows along, already you’ve become more than a passive reader—you’ve entered the process and begun to reshape matter, starting a healing ripple for yourself and countless others you will never know.

Picture this joined consciousness as clear, beautiful, and only positive—an ocean of pure potential having the power to do great good and incapable of doing harm. Imagine that beyond time and space we’ve formed a synergistic, only-for-good, creative force, ready to be directed. You can add your own mind power to this in any way your imagination might suggest: aim a beam of light from your heart to this collective pool and see it grow brighter; hold a heart-felt intention that these many others who you’ll never know now receive whatever highest good best serves them; or simply think and say this to yourself. Imagine you believe this is true even if you don’t. The power of our consciousness magnifies whatever we give consistent attention to so simply holding in mind an imagined reality is akin to planting a seed. Bringing it to mind repeatedly provides the sun and water that nurture its growth.

Now, all that’s left is to have faith. Faith means expecting success and seeing signs of it everywhere and in everything. It’s not a matter of hoping and wishing, which keeps our attention focused on something that isn’t here yet. “Faith” is when we’re so certain the future will unfold perfectly, we feel no need to be attached to it at all. Consequently, faith keeps us very present and at peace in the moment. Once we’ve stopped trying to worrying the future into being, the miraculous present happens, with grace and serendipity. So, instead of looking for signs of your success, which is tinged with an attitude of prove-it-to-me doubt, this month practice finding signs of success. It’s a little like being on an Easter egg hunt. You know without any doubt the eggs are out there. Some may be so obvious you’ll practically step on them, while some you might have to peek behind bushes and rocks to uncover. Play lightly with the possibility of miracles this month and see what shows up when you least expect it!

March 2006: Choosing Seeds for Growth

(Or, What Are You Creating with Your Thoughts?)

March is a transitional month during which winter gives way to spring. The time of dreaming and hibernating that characterizes winter soon will transform into a more outward phase of activity and visible growth. There’s a quickening taking place as light builds and finally, at the spring equinox, overtakes the darkness for the first time