HOW TO STAY SPIRITUALLY CONNECTED

 Whether we follow a traditional religion or have a Universal spiritually, we each need to tap into our own personal sense of self in order to be spiritually connected.

    Look for opportunities within your realm to project love out into the world.  Be kind to yourself and others and show compassion and empathy towards those around you and beyond.  The vibration and energy of being loving towards yourself and others ripples out into the world.

    Acknowledge your Source or Creator, the Universal Energy.  Know that there is a higher force at play in your life.

    Set aside some personal ‘soul time’ for yourself on a daily basis.  Dedicate a special personal chair or space to be used exclusively for time for reflection, contemplation and prayer.  This may even by a window seat or be out in a garden setting  -  whatever is most comfortable with you.  Take this time to meditate, read uplifting and/or spiritual texts, do yoga ... whatever resonates with your soul at the time.

    Express gratitude daily. Be grateful for what you have in your life – your family, friends, loved ones and beyond.  Let your loved ones know they are appreciated and honoured.  Be thankful for the little things as well as the large and you will find more things to be grateful for every day.  The Universe responds to the vibrations we emit and brings us more of what we put out for.

    Become more accepting of yourself and others and put judgements aside.  Let go of the urge to label things as ‘good’ or ‘bad’ and just accept ‘what is’.

    Acknowledge, recognize and learn from your mistakes.  We are all confronted with obstacles and life lessons throughout our lives, and the most important factor is how we deal with them and what we learn from them.  Admit when you are wrong and be willing to take responsibility for your actions.  Take the positives from the situation, learn the lesson and move on.

    Be the best you can be  -  everyday.  We are all blessed with unique talents, skills, personalities and purposes.  Strive to express the best of yourself in all that you do and with every person you come into contact with.

    See the good in yourself and others.  When you look for good in others, your willingness subconsciously brings this trait/energy forward.

    Be forgiving.  Whenever you withhold forgiveness you keep yourself bound and tied to your own negative feelings.  You do not need to condone the behaviour or action that was ‘unforgiveable’  -  but to forgive others is to forgive yourself ... the ultimate form of healing.

    Pray and bless the world.  Pray that your own life be blessed along with those of all you know and love.  Bless the whole world - all creatures and beings on the planet and within the entire Universe.

Use these simple steps and exercises to keep yourself connected to ‘Self’ and Source.

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Joanne Walmsley
Sacred Scribes

Body And Soul~Mind And Spirit

The Benefits of Expressing Gratitude

With so much going on in our lives today it is easy to forget and overlook who and what we are truly grateful for. It can be challenging to focus on what we are grateful for when we are feeling overwhelmed, dis-satisfied or disgruntled. We can find any number of reasons (or excuses) for not focusing on what we are grateful for, such as:


• Feeling too busy or stressed in our daily lives


• Focusing on the negatives in life and the world around us


• Paying attention to what we may feel we are ‘lacking’ in our lives


• Waiting for things to change for the better


• Focusing on what works needs to be done rather than on what you’ve already achieved and are steadily achieving


These reasons are understandable, but unfortunately they get in the way of fully feeling, living and expressing the most powerful emotions we have access to - the power of gratitude.


When we choose to re-focus on the positives and choose to be grateful for what we have rather than what we do not have, the power of transformative gratitude changes our lives. The more we are grateful and show gratitude for all the blessings in our lives, the more we will receive in kind. Simple things we take for granted that we can choose to be grateful for each day will lead us to receiving more blessings in our lives.


Stop and take stock of your true core values ... ask yourself:


“What do you love most about the people in your life?”


“What do you appreciate about your life and lifestyle today?”


“What are you truly grateful for, both small and large?”


The emotion and expression of gratitude makes us feel good about ourselves, others and our world. It is also a wonderfully powerful attractor of love, peace, abundance, good health and wellbeing, success and connection with self and with Source. The more we positively focus upon what we already enjoy, appreciate and truly love in our lives, the more we find we have to be grateful for.


There are too many ways to practice gratitude to list but some simple things to do could include:


• writing cards, notes or emails and expressing your gratitude to others who have touched your life;


• meditate and focus on what you are grateful for and thank the Universe for your blessings;


• arrange a lovely dinner party or impromptu celebration for yourself and others;


• keep a gratitude journal and make sure the write in it regularly;


• keep a simple list you can add to as you think of precious things to be grateful for;


• think of some unique, thoughtful and personal ways of expressing your gratitude to others and yourself ... treat yourself with love and appreciation.


Enjoy your blessings ...

Also see:

The Universal Spiritual Law of Gratitude

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Joanne Walmsley
Sacred Scribes

MAKING LIFE CHOICES

Difficulties and life lessons enter our lives through many different doorways – accidents, illness, loss of career, relationship upheavals and so forth. The variations are endless. Each of us is presented with life lessons and experiences in order to grow and learn from them. The choices we make in everything we do have long-term repercussions - be they positive or negative to our circumstances.


Most often when difficulties appear in our lives we feel powerless, causing us to wonder how this could possibly happen to us.


We certainly don’t have total control over all the situations and events in our lives, but we DO use our choices to bring about many of our circumstances. Every choice we make, large and small, have long and short-term consequences. Every choice matters. This is why we anguish over all sorts of choices we need to make in our lives, in every moment. We can either choose what our intuition tells us, or we can make our choices based upon other factors. We can make our highest choices for our own good, or we can ‘settle’ for less than what we may truly desire. Either way our intuition and soul know our choice. The choices we make bring about the experiences that match that choice, be it in the long or short-term.


For most people, at some point in their life they have ‘settled’ for someone who was not really what they wanted in the relationship sector of their life. As humans we do this because of the dislike and/or fear of being ‘alone’. We would rather be in a relationship with an obviously unsuitable partner than spend our lives as what we perceive to be ‘alone’. When we do this we are ‘settling’. When we choose to stay in an unfixable relationship or situation, at some point the inevitable moment of ‘truth’ comes to light. Your intuition and inner wisdom always knows what is right for you, and when you go against your own inner-truths eventually something has got to give somewhere.


Whether you settle for less than you want in any area of your life, the knowledge that you have compromised your own intuitive truth and inner-knowing you will consciously or unconsciously sabotage your choice. It will not feel comfortable to your soul, and this will bring eventually force change.


Your soul will not allow you to live with the pain of self-betrayal and eventually an outlet for that pain will be found. This may manifest in the form of an addiction, an unsuitable partner choice, depression, resentment ... any number of negative emotion and/or behaviour.


This negative behaviour is a sign that the psyche is deliberately trying to get your attention in order to break out of the situation. The conscious-self may feel too overwhelmed, ‘stuck’ or too frightened to take charge of the situation directly, so you covertly take these steps through displays and feelings of anger, becoming depressed or taking your frustrations out through addictions of all kinds. It is a very loud indicator that a choice you have make, or choices that you are currently making, do not reflect your true soul’s desire and you have settled for less than what you truly desire, want or need.


Always getting exactly what you want is impossible of course, so settling for something less than what you truly want is something that can not be avoided. It is how you deal with them that counts. Each choice that you make has an affect of your life and every facet of it.


So how can we make choices that reflect our inner guidance and are not self-sabotaging?


There is a very subtle difference between ‘settling’ for something and ‘choosing’ something as a passive choice. If you know that you’ve settled for less than you truly wanted, then expect to feel compromised for as long as you are in the situation.


Take time to reflect upon what really matters in your life. Discern the difference between what you want and what you need in your life. Choosing what you need is your ‘soul path’, although what we need may not necessarily be what we want. The path of what we need often anchors us in challenges that serve our life purpose. We discover our greatest talents and inner resources when following the path of what we need in our lives. When making choices based upon the premise of ‘I may want to do this - but I know I need to do that’, you are able to discern your choice based upon your true value system that is in harmony with your true self. 

Choosing what you know resonates with your soul and such an approach to your life may not necessarily make your decisions easier, but wisdom and inner clarity makes navigating your life a much more fulfilling experience.

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Joanne Walmsley

Sacred Scribes