Archive for the ‘Books’ Category
Cozy in the Woods
March 1st, 2006
Our experience
This has been a family favorite for years. Amazon doesn’t carry it but there are some sellers online or you can get it from the library to enjoy with your children too.
What this book is about
Cozy in the woods is a sweet, short story about a girl who, one fine day, has many visitors come knocking on the door of her cozy house. They are all animals acting like humans, as a lot of children’s stories are, bringing gifts which are combined beautifully to make a meal for all to share.
Conclusions
A couple of reads through and you’ll have this one memorized. It’s short and a hard page book so it will last for years. Children of all ages will enjoy it.
Posted in The Celestine Prophecy
February 25th, 2006
My experience
At the beginning of my spiritual journey in 1994 this was just the thing to engage my mind. It’s a "new age" adventure story. It teaches principles to help us on our own spiritual path and our evolution as a species. This book was so intriguing, fascinating and interesting that I read it in two sittings. It took about 9 hours.
So, if you’re looking to learn more about "new age" principles and enjoy reading a good novel, this is a wonderful choice.
Author
The author, James Redfield, is creating a community for those who see the vision of the The Celestine Prophecy. If you resonate with the ideals of this story he wants to hear from you.
Movie
The Celestine Prophecy Movie is coming out soon. But you can see it as soon as March 31, 2006 at a pre-release screening. If you feel guided you can even host your own pre-release screening. The website offers online discussion forums, movie trailers and much more. (I reviewed the movie)
View book details at Amazon.com: The Celestine Prophecy
The Power of Now
February 21st, 2006
The Problem
People aren’t being nice to themselves, each other or the planet.
The Solution
We have to remember who we are: the Source of all Life, individualized. Remembering this will also help us remember that we’re all one. We will then treat each other with love and respect all the time.
Barriers to remembering
The pain body and the restless mind.
Restless mind
In most of us the mind doesn’t stop thinking. Just try to stop for five minutes. You’ll probably find you can’t even stop for one, let alone five or the rest of your life. The restless mind keeps looking to the past and/or the future instead of being in the now. It thinks the past and/or future is more important and more powerful than the now, which is the opposite of the truth.
Pain body
The pain from the past accumulates and lives on in us as the pain body. If you imagine it as an invisible entity you are close to what it actually is. It gets “triggered” (you’ve heard of buttons, right? Well, these are the buttons.) and the pain body can take you over. You think it’s you, but it isn’t. You’ll recognize this when it happens. Just look for signs of negativity. It can be in your thoughts, feelings, and moods. The body getting aches and pains is a sign the pain body is awakening. Have you ever thought you knew someone and then they start acting crazy? It’s probably the awakened pain body.
Methods for being in the Now
1) Observe your thoughts by listening to the voice in your head. You must listen to it NON-judgmentally. Don’t judge your thoughts, just observe them. This goes for times when the pain body has been activated, too. 2) Feel the inside of your body. If you close your eyes and feel the inside of your body, perhaps one part at a time, you can feel the energy moving through your body. This is the inner energy field. No matter what you are doing make it a habit to keep some of your attention on the inner energy field of your body. If you need help being in the body, the breath can help you get there. Just pay attention to your breathe going in and out of your body and you’ll soon have your attention in the body. 3) Catch the pain body as it starts to awaken, before it arises and takes you over, by paying attention when negativity starts to fill your mind. Listen to the voice in your head and feel the inside of your body and the pain body will loose power. The negativity will subside and so will your reaction.
How it works
As you live more and more in the now you reclaim energy that is being used up by the restless mind and energy that is stuck in the pain body. Consequently they lose their power. Through continuing effort, patience and perseverance you will be at peace. The mind will be calm; the pain body will dissolve and won’t cause you or anyone else, pain anymore. You reclaim this energy by being in the now.
Benefits of using these methods while in a relationship
Eckhart Tolle points out that relationships aren’t meant to make you happy. Really?!? Unfortunately, that isn’t surprising. What is surprising is that they don’t cause pain and unhappiness. They bring out the pain and unhappiness that’s already in you, you just blame it on your partner so it seems like the relationship is causing it. The good new is intimate relationships can be used to achieve enlightenment. It isn’t east at first but fortunately all it takes one person to make it work. You don’t need your partner’s cooperation. So don’t stress if they won’t cooperate, just do it for yourself.
My experience
I’ve found that only one of us gets ‘triggered’ at a time, usually me. If Martin reacts, both our pain bodies have been activated and an argument ensues. So the trick is not to get ‘triggered’ by the person who starts acting negatively. For example, I was making dinner on Saturday and got angry when I asked Martin to set the table. He responded with a query as to whether or not I was going to set the table for him the next morning when he made breakfast. I was the one who got angry but he wound up reacting to my anger. (It did seem to me like his response was passive aggressive in the first place, though, so maybe I was reacting to him, but that’s not important for our example.) I observed my reaction, emotions and thoughts as they were happening and I guess he did the same because less than 15 minutes later, when he came back to the kitchen, the anger had dissipated from both of us and we hugged before we sat down to eat dinner.
Obviously the best thing is not to react at all. Just observe the other person’s reaction, non-judgmentally, while keeping your attention anchored in the moment. Martin has always been really good at not reacting when I get ‘triggered’. Now I’m getting good at it too. We’ve both gotten so good that even if we both react, it doesn’t last long, 15 minutes at the most. I used to hold onto anger for days, so this is quite an improvement for me. Also, I don’t get angry as often as I used to. Watching what I eat, practicing the methods in Transforming Stress as well as the methods in The Power of Now have helped me cut down on being moody and getting angry in the first place. (12/06-I’ve since been working with the teaching in Ask and It Is Given and have raised my non-reaction to a whole new level.) The healing work I’ve done, books I’ve read and following the teachings of Paramahansa Yogananda have really worked tremendously to bring me to this place of emotional health and well-being. It’s been a hard, long 16 years since I started my own healing and spiritual journey and the road hasn’t always been easy. In fact it was hardly ever easy but it had to be done. Now I’m closer to being the change I want to see in the world. As we heal ourselves we help millions of others to heal as well. And now I can share the things that have helped me get to this place so you can get to it too.
More than I can possibly write about here
There is so much more in and to this book: being in the body as a means of being more creative; finding inner-peace; healing the body; clearing the toxins in our body and planet and so much more. The author’s voice even works toward make people more conscious. This book has been thought of as graduate work in the New Spirituality. I must tell you that there are probably a great many phrases in this writing that are direct quotes from the book. I have been listening to the audio CDs of both The Power of Now and Practicing the Power of Now for two years now so it’s hard for me to totally paraphrase everything. I hear Eckhart Tolle’s voice in my head and it really helps me throughout the day. It’s also merged with my own thinking so I remember the book in much the way it was written. No plagiarism was intended and I tried to change phrases as best I could.
Tips to successful practice
Listen to the CDs or read some of the book every day. Practice being in the body when you are doing everyday things like washing dishes, climbing the stairs or after getting in your car. There are meditations in the book to help if you have trouble feeling the inside of your body. What you can also do is try feeling your body after you have done some aerobic activity (if your doctor says you can do aerobic activity). I have found it 100 times easier to feel my inner energy field when my blood is really pumping. Accept where you are and be there fully. Even if the pain body is active in you, don’t try to be in any state other than the one you’re in. Wanting to be in a state other than the one your in is projecting yourself into the future. I’ve noticed that I naturally stop listening to the CDs for a little while. Other things just come up that I want to listen to but I always continue practicing. I just return to listening to the CDs when it seems right. I alternated between The Power of Now (7 CDs) and the abridged version, Practicing the Power of Now (3 CDs).
View book details at Amazon.com: The Power of Now : A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment
View the audio CD at Amazon.com: The Power of Now: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment
View book details at Amazon.com: Practicing the Power of Now: Essential Teachings, Meditations, and Exercises from The Power of Now
View the audio CD at Amazon.com: Practicing the Power of Now: Essential Teachings, Meditations, and Exercises from the Power of Now
Dawn of a New Day Raw Desserts
January 20th, 2006
Updated and revised to be even better!
What this book is about
If you downloaded the first edition of the Dawn of a New Day Raw Desserts e-book that I presented to you on the site back in September, this second edition has been reworked a little to include photos, clearer directions and even more loving intention! I’m sure you’ll appreciate it.
The original promo for Dawn of a New Day Raw Desserts
I love dessert and I especially love raw desserts. Believe it or not, if you have all the ingredients ready to go it takes less time to make many raw desserts than it does to make a cooked dessert. As an added bonus, raw desserts energize you, they don’t make you sleepy and the raw chocolate recipes produce a feeling of well-being. You are just going to love this.
Do you like eating dessert?
Most of us love dessert but don’t like the sluggish feeling that comes with eating them. Here’s a solution: treat your family, friends and yourself to raw desserts and eat as much as you want without feeling sleepy or eating too many sugary desserts. There’s no guarantee that you won’t gain weight since the largest factor in gaining weight is what you believe (the law of attraction as explained in Ask and It Is Given) but you’ll certainly feel better about what you’re eating.
Special recipes
Same great child and hubby approved raw food desserts, now with pictures!
It’s my gift to you. Tell your friends, pass it along, and let me know what you think.
Download the revised and updated version: Dawn of a New Day Raw Desserts
A World in Transition
January 4th, 2006
About this book
Through the lectures and talks in this book the monks and nuns of Self-Realization Fellowship inspire us to look inside for our strength. By changing ourselves we change thousands and have a positive affect on all of humanity. We owe it to ourselves, our children, all beings on the planet and the planet herself to be better and make a difference in the world. We have a duty, and once we are on a spiritual path that duty is primarily to make ourselves a good example for others.
Transitions
This world we live in is definitely in transition. I was finding it very difficult to have hope for the future, both for myself and for my children. There were times when I would ask myself why I brought children into this world. It isn’t a very nice place, at least it hasn’t been during my lifetime and it certainly seems like it’s getting worse. I tried to keep myself thinking positively but I was just overwhelmed. I didn’t want to bury my head in the sand but I didn’t want to fill my mind with negativity either by focusing on the news. This book came along at just the right time for me. It helped me to find hope again.
My experience
I also found inspiration and encouragement. I can now see a world, and a future, in which my children can live in happiness and harmony. This world will survive and I believe our species will survive too, growing in spirituality and wisdom, for that’s the only way we will survive.
There is hope for the future and we are it. Let’s make the change in ourselves and the world will follow suit.
View book details at Amazon.com: A World in Transition: Finding Spiritual Security in Times of Change