Balance material and spiritual

"What is [the role of money] in the search for meaning? Is our relationship to it one of the chief factors that keeps us in our prison, or could it also be a tool for breaking out, for awakening to a life filled with intensity of purpose?"-- Jacob Needleman

Our personality has a need for security. As a human in a material world, we need money to survive. If we don’t have enough for basics, our lives cannot function. At the same time, with too much emphasis on the material, we lose the spiritual awareness that brings meaning and fulfillment. The key lies in the balance.

What draws most of your attention, time and energy: spiritual growth or money? Reflect on (or better yet, journal on) the balance or lack of balance of these two in your life.

"Money is not required to buy one necessity of the soul." -- Henry David Thoreau

"View money and things not as something you create to fill a lack, but as tools to help you more fully express yourself and realize your potential." -- Sanaya Roman and Duane Packer

Tackle your financial challenges holistically! Learn the basic steps to managing money, explore your beliefs around wealth, and open to the spiritual laws of abundance.

Time Out ..

Sometimes the old body says to take some time out and rejeuvenate.  This old body is doing just that taking Time Out.  This blog will continue with the help of friends. 

Blessing to all of you. 

Keep the faith and "keep on keeping on"  which I recently learned means   Keep moving foward, don't look back.

Journey home

"Everything seeks its source." -- a universal principle

Our spiritual journey unfolds through 2 stages.

1. THE PATH OF PERSONALITY - We arise from the one source of all, to be born as individuals in a world of form. In this physical world, we experience separation and limitation. This is a time of immersion in a world of effects, form, ego, distortion, illusion and pain.

2. THE PATH OF SOUL - When we have experienced enough pain, we find our way back home to our spiritual source. We let go of the illusion of separation to embrace unity and wholeness. We work with cause instead of effects. Paradoxically, it's only with a strong and healthy personality that we become capable of expressing soul.

WHERE ARE YOU ON YOUR PATH? Are you struggling to do more and have more? Are you aware of your soul challenging you to open to the bigger picture of life?

"Two people have been living in you all your life. One is the ego, garrulous, demanding, hysterical, calculating; the other is the hidden spiritual being, whose still voice of wisdom you have only rarely heard or attended to - you have uncovered in yourself your own wise guide." -- Sogyal Rinpoche

Watch yourself shift from the self-centred, controlling behaviours of the ego to the power, love and wisdom of the soul .... 
 
and  if you are listening to all the dribble from the media or  other peoples egos take some time away and silence the mind.. move away from the self-centered, contolling behaviors of their egos ... and shift to the power, love and wisdom of your own soul..

Know yourself

"What is necessary to change a person is to change his awareness of himself." -- Abraham H. Maslow

STOP AND PAY ATTENTION! Set an intention to be more aware. Become a watcher, of yourself and what’s around you. Develop the witness, the part of you that can step back from life and impartially observe how you react and think and feel. We learn so much about who we are!

"Knowing others is wisdom; knowing the self is enlightenment."  -- Tao Te Ching

"The true profession of man is to find his way to himself."  -- Hermann Hesse

Know Yourself – An adventure in self discovery! Become aware of your subconscious limitations, your character strengths, weaknesses and potentials, your life challenges, gifts, talents, and your deepest desires and aspirations.

Live your own life

"We don't always know what makes us happy. We know, instead, what we think SHOULD. We are baffled and confused when our attempts at happiness fail...We are mute when it comes to naming accurately our own preferences, delights, gifts, talents. The voice of our original self is often muffled, overwhelmed, even strangled, by the voices of other people's expectations. The tongue of the original self is the language of the heart."   -- Julie Cameron

"Let me listen to me and not to them." -- Gertrude Stein

"What you must dare is to be yourself."   -- Dag Hammarskjold

Life wants us to go for what brings us most joy and meaning.

"It doesn't interest me what you do for a living. ...I want to know what you ache for, and if you dare to dream of meeting your heart's longing."   -- Oriah Mountain Dreamer

We are each unique beings with a unique path in life. If we wish to be fulfilled, we need to go to our own hearts for direction. We might regularly ask ourselves:


- "What do I really want to do?"


- "What brings me greatest happiness?"


- "How can I bring more of these into my life?"

Love yourself

"If you had a friend who talked to you like you sometimes talk to yourself, would you continue to hang around with that person?"-- Rob Bremer

Thanks to the power of our inner critics, most of us have a very poor opinion of ourselves. Yet self-contempt merely keeps us miserable and stuck in our mediocrity.

If we were to make only one change to transform the quality of our lives, we might try sending a little love our own way.

"A critic is a legless man who teaches running." -- Channing Pollock

"Unkind criticism is never part of a meaningful critique of you. Its purpose is not to teach or to help, its purpose is to punish."-- Barbara Sher

"You, yourself, as much as anybody in the entire universe, deserve your love and affection." - Buddha

Shift from being ego-driven to more soul-directed. Keep one foot walking a higher path - a higher perspective of life.

Seek union over separation

"Beliefs separate. Loving thoughts unite."-- Paul Ferrini

Our ego focuses on how we are different from the rest of the world. Our soul lives when we experience how we are the same.

Any time you separate yourself from other people or from situations, you know your personality is in control. At such times, shift your perspective to build connection and you will move into soul.

As our picture of life becomes larger, more things make sense and we have a greater playing field for life to unfold - naturally.

"As a holistic being you shatter the illusion of your separateness and reveal your connection to everything. This empowers you in a way that the ego-driven self could never contemplate."-- Wayne Dyer

Watch yourself shift from the self-centered, controlling behaviours of the ego to the power, love and wisdom of the soul.

Make time to play

"If we fail to nourish our souls, they wither, and without soul, life ceases to have meaning.... The creative process shrivels in the absence of continual dialogue with the soul. And creativity is what makes life worth living." -- Marion Woodman

Stress, fear, negativity, too much to do and doing things for others at the expense of our own needs -- these all stifle our innate creativity. Relaxation, fun, meditation, and going after our dreams all get the creative juices flowing. Soul is always creative, always fresh and new.

How can you create more space in your life to allow the soul’s energy out to play?

"I learned... that inspiration does not come like a bolt, nor is it kinetic, energetic, striving, but it comes to us slowly and quietly and all the time, though we must regularly and every day give it a little chance to start flowing, prime it with a little solitude and idleness." -- Brenda Ueland

"I lived in solitude in the country and noticed how the monotony of quiet life stimulates the creative mind." -- Albert Einstein

Who are you, REALLY? To truly know yourself, you need to explore your subconscious mind.

What drives you?

"Your life has to do with the agenda that has been set for you by you, by that part of you that we’ve come to call, in our language, your soul." -- Neale Donald Walsch

Our purpose in life has a spiritual foundation. Our MAJOR LIFE ISSUES are usually of 3 types:

- physical and POWER-ORIENTED, like making our stand and being more courageous.

- emotional and LOVE-ORIENTED, like expressing and receiving love, compassion and nurturing others.

- mental and INTELLECT-ORIENTED, like developing our minds and creating new things and processes.

"Our prayers are answered not when we are given what we ask, but when we are challenged to be what we can be."
-- Morris Adler

We don’t change overnight. Personal growth requires persistence.

Be Here Now

"This moment is the moment of reality, of union, of truth. Nothing needs to be done to it or to you for this to be so. Nothing needs to be avoided, transcended, or found for it to be so."-- Da Avabhasa

Creativity, connection, soul, inspiration and intuition are available only in the present moment for the present moment.

We choose how actively we take part in the cosmic dance of life. We can become wallflowers, mere spectators to life, if we get trapped in the patterns and habits of the past. Or we can choose to dance by being present and open to the energies, the opportunities and the guidance available to us each moment.

"Each today, well-lived, makes yesterday a dream of happiness and each tomorrow a vision of hope. Look, therefore, to this one day, for it and it alone is life." -- Sanskrit poem

"You must live in the present, launch yourself on every wave, find your eternity in each moment."-- Henry David Thoreau

Slow down

"The soul requires duration of time -- rich, thick, deep, velvety time -- and it thrives on rhythm. Soul can’t be hurried or harried .... We may go through many events in the day and experience nothing because the soul has not had the opportunity to feel them from many different points of view."-- Robert Sardello

Soul cannot exist when our connections in life remain superficial. An experience of soul requires that we take time to be fully present to the details of our lives.

Explore what happens when you take the time to STOP and PAY ATTENTION. When we choose to slow down and really experience the qualities of our lives, we get a whole new perspective on what living’s all about.

"We must not allow the clock and the calendar to blind us to the fact that each moment of life is a miracle and mystery."-- H. G. Wells

"The well of Providence is deep. It’s the buckets we bring to it that are small."-- Mary Webb

Build a new relationship with the time of your life. Experience time from different perspectives. Discover how to do life rather than allow life to do you.

Look for the gifts

"In school you get the lesson and then take the test ... In life you take the test and then get the lesson."
-- Unknown Source

"When it is dark enough, you can see the stars."-- Charles Beard

How is a problem in your life really an opportunity?

Problems invite us to go inside to recognize a bigger picture of ourselves and of life. This bigger picture brings meaning to what is unfolding. When you feel trapped in a problem, see if you can shift your perspective. Ask yourself, “What is my soul inviting me to learn from this situation?” The answer will always revolve around a quality or value, like gratitude, freedom, compassion, love, will, humour or acceptance. The answer will also always promote union rather than separation.

As soon as we find the meaning in our challenge, our resistance to it melts away. Often, awareness of the lesson is all that is needed to resolve the problem. If not, the awareness brings us courage and ways to work through it.

"The period of greatest gain in knowledge and experience is the most difficult period in one’s life."
-- Dalai Lama

"Out of clutter, find Simplicity. From discord, find Harmony. In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity."-- Albert Einstein

You are complete

You are complete


"Everything you need you already have. You are complete right now, you are a whole, total person, not an apprentice person on the way to someplace else." -- Wayne Dyer

Close your eyes and imagine that everything you have and everything you are is enough. You don’t need to be better or different -- you’re great just as you are. Can you experience the peace and contentment that owning that perspective brings?

Moving into such total acceptance does not mean that we stop growing. When we can accept who we are now, we open the doors to our own inspiration to do and be even more!

"Who you really are is enough." -- Oriah Mountain Dreamer

"Wherever you are is always the right place. There is never a need to fix anything, to hitch up the bootstraps of the soul and start at some higher place. Start right where you are." -- Julia Cameron

Be aware of Duty

Be aware of duty  "To serve is beautiful, but only if it is done with joy and a whole heart." -- Pearl S. Buck

Many of us have been taught to do our duty. What does this imply to you? For me, ‘doing my duty’ means doing something I really don’t want to do. My heart’s not in it, and so the energy for the act isn’t there. I have to force every move. Usually, there’s underlying resentment. When this is the scenario, tasks may get done but there’s no gift to the world.

We do not truly serve the world if we give to others but neglect our own truth and our own needs. We need to give to ourselves as we give to others. IT’S NOT SELFISH TO LOOK AFTER OURSELVES -- IT’S ESSENTIAL!

"Forget the resolutions. Forget control and discipline...too much work. Instead try experimenting. Go in search of something to fall in love with...something about yourself, your career, your spouse."-- Dale Dauten

"Nothing truly valuable arises from ambition or from a mere sense of duty; it stems rather from love and devotion towards men and towards objective things."  -- Albert Einstein

Soul lives in connection

"We all seek Soul. While Soul is always present, it doesn’t appear in our lives automatically. Soul requires our attention and reflection. Offering our respectful regard to the Soul is a way of loving it, caring for it, nurturing it."-- Benjamin Shield and Richard Carlson

How do we experience soul in our lives?
It’s so simple! STOP AND PAY ATTENTION! Soul lives in connection. Whenever we are present and conscious, soul emerges.

To easily experience soul, find something you love to do and immerse yourself in it. Consciously savour a favourite piece of music. Consciously enjoy a walk in nature. Really experience your breathing and the pounding of your heart as you exercise. Really be present to your partner, your kids, your pet or another, and you will know the contentment of soul.

"I think that whenever soul is present, it’s because what you’re doing, whom you’re with, where you are, evokes love without your thinking about it. You are totally absorbed in the place or person or event, without ego and without judgment." -- Jean Shinoda Bolen

Awareness is the key to all change. Begin to trust yourself more deeply as you uncover new dimensions of who you are.

Seek the inner cause of problems

  "When you arrive at your future, will you blame your past?"-- Robert Half

What holds you back from being and doing more? In your journal, list what you believe is holding you back.

Have you blamed people or factors outside of yourself? It's important to understand that ALL problems are rooted inside us. Even the blocks that appear to be outside of us are only reflecting back an issue we have inside that we have not yet owned. Once we address our inner issue, the outer situation no longer troubles us.

The buck always stops with us. We step into our power when we accept responsibility for our lives.

"The most self-destructive thought that any person can have is thinking that he or she is not in total control of his or her life. That's when, ‘Why me?’ becomes a theme song."- Roger Dawson

"...look at that word blame. It's just a coincidence that the last two letters spell the word me. But that coincidence is worth thinking about. Other people or unfortunate circumstances may have caused you to feel pain, but only you control whether you allow that pain to go on. If you want those feelings to go away, you have to say: ‘It's up to me.’" -- Arthur Freeman

"Don't make excuses -- make good."-- Elbert Hubbard

Open to the new

"The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn."  -- Alvin Toffler

How willing are you to learn something new? How open are you to new perspectives?

Only when we're open can we really hear what's being said or really see what's happening or really experience the moment.

Openness demands that we be willing to move to places we've never been before. It asks us to continually challenge the foundations of our belief systems so we can test out new ideas. And to do that, we need to accept insecurity.

Be open to seeing things: - from another's point of view, - from a higher and more inclusive perspective - with a beginner's attitude of wonder.

"The struggle of the mind to keep itself free from every sort of bondage -- to remain curious, open, unsatiated in all its relations with nature -- is tenfold more difficult than the cultivation of a stable, satisfying point of view, but a thousandfold more precious." -- Gardner Murphy

"Remain open. There is something bigger than you know going on here." -- Iyanla VanZant

Who are you, REALLY?

Labels limit us

"When I let go of what I am, I become what I might be."  -- Lao Tzu

How do you define yourself, to yourself and others? Are you first and foremost a husband/wife? A mother/father? A bus driver, dentist, musician ... ? A Christian, Moslem, Jew ...? A nag, joker, dreamer ...?

Be aware that any label puts limits on you. Today, experience how it feels to let go of the labels to rest in ‘I am.’ Feel the freedom, the spaciousness, the infinite potential of simply being.

"With every breath, the possibility of a new aspect of self arises." -- Wayne Muller

"As long as I am this or that, I am not all things." -- Meister Eckhart

Know your motives

"As long as one keeps searching, the answers come." -- Joan Baez

Why? Why? Why?

Asking ourselves 'why?' helps us delve deeply into our main motives -- why we do what we do. This process helps us go deeper into our reasoning, habits and unconscious beliefs. Once we become aware of our underlying motives, we can choose to change them, if we wish.

Regularly ask yourself, "Why am I ...?" Listen closely for the answer that surfaces in your mind, and write it down. Now look at your answer and ask why again. Continue with this process to reach the true source of your motivation.

"Men are more accountable for their motives, than for anything else ...."  -- Archibald Alexander

Embrace the positive and negative in wholeness

Embrace the positive and negative in wholeness

"Only when we can love hell will we find heaven."-- Unknown source

People often view the spiritual path as a search for the light. In truth, spirituality asks us to bring light and darkness together in wholeness. And in fact, this is the only possible solution. In our world of duality, any effort to focus all attention on the light only serves to increase the power of the darkness. Our aim is not to deny or reject anything but to embrace it all.

"When you are able to contain both the light and dark together, that is a very enlightening state. It means that you no longer have to choose one experience over another. You do not have to choose love OR hate, blame OR forgiveness, sadness OR joy, anger OR openheartedness. You are no longer polarized; no particular feeling boxes you in and keeps you from the light of true self. You then have access to the full range of human experiences you came into this life to embrace." -- Martia Nelson

All is mind

"I want to know the thoughts of God; the rest are details."-- Albert Einstein

Everything -- absolutely everything -- that happens in our lives has a spiritual cause. Events on all other levels -- mental, emotional and physical -- are only effects.

When we are struggling with any challenge, whether it be ill health, a lack of money, a lost job, poor relationships, an accident, whatever -- we need to look for the spiritual learning. We can ask ourselves, "What quality does my soul want me to live more fully?"

"If you start to think the problem is ‘out there,’ stop yourself. That thought is the problem."-- Stephen Covey

We don’t change overnight. Personal growth requires persistence.

Spend time with your soul

"Be mindful of how you approach time. Watching the clock is not the same as watching the sun rise."-- Sophia Bedford-Pierce

What would your soul consider a waste of time?

To a soul, the only real time is right NOW. Not the future or the past. It lives in connecting deeply with the rich experience of each moment. Through awareness we can be in touch with our authentic self and how it perceives all of the energies and guidance around and within us.

"Chronos is clocks, deadlines, watches, calendars, agendas, planners, schedules, beepers. Chronos is time at her worst. Chronos keeps track. ...Chronos is the world's time. Kairos is transcendence, infinity, reverence, joy, passion, love, the Sacred. Kairos is intimacy with the Real. Kairos is time at her best. ...Kairos is Spirit's time. We exist in chronos. We long for kairos. That's our duality. Chronos requires speed so that it won't be wasted. Kairos requires space so that it might be savored. We do in chronos. In kairos we're allowed to be ... It takes only a moment to cross over from chronos into kairos, but it does take a moment. All that kairos asks is our willingness to stop running long enough to hear the music of the spheres."  -- Sarah Ban Breathnach

"He who postpones the hour of living rightly is like the rustic who waits for the river to run out before he crosses." -- Horace

Build a new relationship with the time of your life. Experience time from different perspectives.
 
I have this wonderful chant.. called no time.. it is simple
 
There is no time, There is no space,  no time no time..
There is no time, there is no space, no space no space..
 
Simple Try it!!

Discover the treasures inside

"You wander from room to room
Hunting for the diamond necklace
That is already around your neck!"
-- Jalal-Uddin Rumi

Peace, joy, health and well-being can only be found inside us. They exist within us now, waiting to be discovered. Yet we tend to look to the outside world to satisfy our needs and longings.

Our outer life reflects back to us the way we think, feel and behave. The outer world is all effects. Go to the source inside for all of life’s treasures.

How are you searching for peace and contentment outside of yourself?

"Happiness cannot be traveled to, owned, earned, worn or consumed. Happiness is the spiritual experience of living every minute with love, grace, and gratitude." -- Denis Waitley

"It is not easy to find happiness in ourselves, and it is not possible to find it elsewhere."-- Agnes Repplier

Who are you, REALLY?

Life - What we see is a Mirror.

"Everything that irritates us about others can lead us to an understanding of ourselves."
-- C.G. Jung

We get clues about our unconscious programming if we watch our reactions, responses, feelings and thoughts about other people and events. Ask yourself: How do I judge or stereotype people? What pushes my buttons? What makes me angry or fearful or sad?

The outer incidents that trigger these reactions in me simply MIRROR my own nature. If I didn't have beliefs around the issues that upset me, where would my reactions come from? If I didn't have some internal reference, I wouldn't react at all.
When outer events spark a reaction, we need to look inside to explore what’s going on.

"We discover in ourselves what others hide from us and we recognize in others what we hide from ourselves." -- Vauvenargues

Mirror Mirror on the Wall.. What do I see? 

Goal Performance Worksheet

State the Goal:

Define what that means to you: (and look it up the key goal word in dictionary if you need)

Set the Deadline:

Identify Your Obstacles: (this could be habits, addictions, people, lack of skill, lack of finances, lack of

time, false beliefs)

Identify the People, Groups, and Organizations that can assist: (find a role model if you can)


List the Consequences of Not Completing this Goal:


List the Benefits to achieving the goal:

List the Skills you need to acquire to attain the goal:

Develop an Action plan:

Get Passionate about your goal: Change your posture. Take a deep breath, Look up, Stand tall. Walk
with the feeling I can, and say yes to yourself.

Create a Vacuum to make room for the desired goal: (Clear out the old to let in the new) old believes,
old patterns of behavior, old relationships, stuff you don’t need)

Actions: (start listing the actions)

What can I do right now? (pick one action and do it Now!)

Affirm: Here is an example for an affirmation of inner peace. If you can find one word to repeat to yourself to remind you to focus on your goal it helps to anchor the goal "I am at peace with myself and my world. I

anchor this with the phrase. “Inner Peace” I say it often. I think it often and the more I think and say Inner Peace the inner peace increases."

Review Your Worksheet often taking actions as planned. (Edit and modify as you need.) Notice what works and doesn’t work. Change the action plan if needed.

Reward yourself and Celebrate! Once you completed the Now Action give yourself a reward. It will remind you how good it feels to take appropriate action. I have a friend who takes a 4x4 piece of art.

paper and quickly draws and colours a star with pastels and puts them on her fridge. A long soak in a fragrant bath might work or gathering a leaf or flower from nature. Do what works for you and be sure to reward yourself and give thanks to everything in your world. Give thanks to yourself.

printed with permission from Linda Diane Taylor - http://www.taylyn.com/

Ask and It is Given.

Many ask questions and ask for help. The questions are answered and help comes.

We ask Ask what should I do? and we very clearly hear turn right because we think is is the shorter route, we turn left and end up smashing into a brick wall or even worse have someone hit us with a brick wall.

We ask to be guided to find a job. A pizza delivery guy appears asking for directions. We point the way but we pay no attention to him or worse we dismiss him as just a delivery guy. When in fact he is a traveling student from Hong Kong and his father owns the largest telecommunications company in the world and is currently opening a business in our community and is desparately looking for employees with our skills.

We hear "stop - smoking, drinking, drugging, playing video or computer games or any other addiciton" or "go take a walk or clean out your garage" and eventhough we may agree we procrastinate or worse make some feeble excuse as to why we are not following the guidance.

We ask for a healthy, loving and supporting relationships. And the next thing we know we are with unhealthy people, with unhealthy lifestyles and with values that don't even come close to our own. They tell us don't do this or that, or you can't, or that is stupid or even worse use manipulation to get us to do what they want.

We go off to psychics and other folks for guidance. They tell us we are a great something, maybe a healer or teacher or shaman. The send us to the wrong door and we spend months, years and sometimes a lifetime trying to become something we are not all because some psychic told us this is what we are. 99.9 % of psychics are getting their information from lower realms or are only reflecting their own issues. 99.9% of healers are only using their sexual energy to make people feel better. 99.9% of so called shamans are fake. 99.99% of spiritual and religious teachers by whatever name they take are corrupt in some way. The sad thing is that all of these teachers, leaders, psychics, healers and shamans are not only making people sick they believe there are a great psychic, healer or shaman. These people can have value and give some direction but in the end one must look at their lives. Do we really want to live as they live? Are they healthy? How much of what they say is an illusion from their minds? Ask what is their motivation? The time has come for a new understanding and all of these so called healers, psychics, shamans, teachers will be exposed as fake. Not to worry if we have choosen to be one of these things. All of us do at some time but now it is time to smile and say thankyou for the lessons and let them go now if our ego will allow.

We decide to talk to our dead ancestors. They freely come and give us information. They might even make us feel better for a bit. Realize that dead ancestors had issues likely not cleared. If we are trying to make money best not to ask the ancestor who never made a dime however if we have an ancestor like leonardo da vinci, einstein or mozart we could certainly ask them how to create. Be wary of messages from aunt em or uncle tom, this messages come from lower realms. Ancestors may also try and get us to clear their stuff. Say they were a black slave trader and ended up having a lot of guit about it and we find ourrself working helping the homeless black kids ... although it is a noble thing to do.. we do not have to take the task. If we think it is a karmic debt, think again. We can choose but in essence, we can actually decline. Breaking the ancestral karmic debts is not our job now.

I won't go on into how the media manipulates us nor how the governments of the world are just trying to stay alive by feeding on our ignorance and fear.

What to do what to do..

two choices .. one... stay where you are, keep doing what you are doing and not much will change.

two.. become silent and don't just listen.. act.. and you will access information available to only an elite few.

Dream

Dream!

What is your Dream? 

"The most pathetic person in the world is the person who has sight, but no vision." -- Helen Keller

What’s the big picture for your life? Always have a larger, purposeful, even spiritually ideal picture of where you are going. Your mind needs to have a clear and challenging vision to draw you ever upwards.

"Far away there in the sunshine are my highest aspirations. I may not reach them, but I can look up and see their beauty, believe in them, and follow where they lead." -- Louisa May Alcott

"The only limits are, as always, those of vision."  -- James Broughton

Dream ... of the world you want to be in.

Space Power

I was amazed at how most people are so busy in their lives, emotions, minds and daily dramas, that they did not have a good sense of the power of space.

Only as we find space do we get a glimpse of the truly creative. Only when we are empty can we fill with the good stuff of life. In emptiness we find our freedom. In emptiness we can play on the edges of ideas, ideals, higher energies, love and our true power, and find our own deepest urge or calling.

Our ego takes control to keep busy and keep getting what it wants. It sees no value in space and stillness. If you want to engage with love and your own inner power, then you will need to assert your will to break the busyness routine.

How can you experience space many times during the day? If being in emptiness or stillness are alien to you, then start small. Release the activity of your mind and take a few deep breaths; gaze out a window; invite mental silence during a washroom visit, a walk down the hall or a coffee break; and acknowledge a glimpse of beauty, a hug or a smile.

Ideally, find at least once during the day to pay a longer visit to your inner space, through meditation, a nurturing bath, solitude in nature, journal writing or quiet reflection.

Remember that in your unconscious, reactive busyness throughout the day, you are reinforcing old patterns. It takes considerable effort to replace them. If you sincerely seek empowerment, then set an intention daily to bring more space into your life.

Honour yourself. Respect yourself. Grow yourself - one step, one little space at a time.