Do you Approach Prayer as a Trick or a Treat?

On this Halloween day, it occurred to me that many of us approach prayer as a trick or treat venture.

On the “Trick” side:

What is the trick to successful prayer?

Will God give me what I so desperately need?

Should I pray all the time, begging him to answer my prayer?

Will more faith turn the key to the storehouse of God’s miracles?

On the “treat” side:

I love talking to my Source.

I pray not for more goodies but for more of a connection to my maker.

I view prayer as communion with God.

God is love and I always keep that in mind when I pray to God.

A Mixture Trick-or-Treat

I think most of us approach prayer with a mixture of that trick-or-treat feeling. However, I think it’s important to know that all you really need to do is ask God to help you to have more faith. Ask God to teach you how to effectively pray. Ask God to show you his love.

Remember…everyone that asks, receive.

Doctors Being Mindful

The University of Rochester Medical Center is teaching its doctors to be mindful.

Approximately 40 doctors attended the mindful communication training conference last week at the Chapin Mill Retreat Center.

Being mindful is an ancient practice that is rapidly becoming popular in the 21st Century. When you're mindful, you simply focus on the present moment. But the effects of doing so are far from simple. In fact, mindfulness has shown to reduce stress and improve health.

Two years ago, University of Rochester Medical Center researchers studied the effects of mindfulness on a group of primary care doctors. The results, published in The Journal of the American Medical Association, were promising. Consequently, the university has decided to conducted regular mindfulness cmmunication training of their doctors.

I think this is great progress. Can you have imagined doctors sitting for meditation 20-years ago?

10.28.2011 The Arrival of Unity Consciousness

GUEST BLOGGER

Salini Teri Apodaca

The grand awakening and end of the Mayan Calendar, the long-awaited turning point in world evolution, has finally arrived.  But this end date, Oct. 28^th, 2011, brings with it controversy and misunderstanding of its meaning, date and origins.  Many incorrectly believe that Dec. 21, 2012 is the date to watch for.  If they follow that timeline, they will miss the remarkable events & spectacular energy transfers occurring around them now.  Pay attention, it won’t be happening again. It’s now, it’s on, it’s powerful, and it’s for you.

The Mayan Calendar is a very complex mathematical and scientific object that divides the evolution of our planet into a 16 billion year cycle, with 13 distinct segments that represent each stage of the development of life, from the first cell to today’s advanced consciousness. The longest cycles are the first ones, covering billions of years and slow stages, like cellular development, then plant development and so on.  As the vibrational frequency of Earth speeds up, the consciousness of life on Earth also accelerates. When this occurs, cells evolve into higher species with more advanced consciousness.

The Earth has now passed through all 9 waves or 13 Ahau cycles and arrived at the very last day of the Mayan Calendar, Oct. 28^th, 2011. Each cycle was faster and shorter, each leap in awareness more profound than the last. This last cycle began on March 9, 2011 and is now concluded as of Oct. 28^th, 2011. It was intense, energetically challenging and very rapid. I’m sure you’ve all felt something, or seen massive changes around you. Keep watching as the world continues to transform before your eyes. We’ve done our spiritual homework and are ready for the fruits of awakening.

What does this mean for us today?

What this means is that the consciousness of Earth is no longer operating from a place of separation, or duality consciousness, but has accelerated in frequency to a place of Oneness, or total Unity Consciousness.  We have evolved to one united organism.  Everything is going to look and operate differently than you’ve ever known. Get ready for New Rules. It’s going to be harder to fight wars, compete, hoard money and starve the poor, lie to each other, take bailouts, or in general operate the way we have been told to operate by the oppressive system we live under. We will naturally want to help and support our fellow men and women.  We will seize our birthright and heritage….freedom , joy, abundance, and opportunity.

How will this manifest? Look around you…Occupy Wall St., universal hatred of financial, corporate and government oppression, worldwide revolution, the Arab Spring, and so on. It’s already happening before us, and its Grand Finale is today, Oct. 28^th, 2011. It’s going to get grander, more transformational, more liberating and more spiritual than you could ever imagine.

There are many possibilities of how this will look. It could be like the 100^th monkey theory when everyone is thinking and seeing the same reality at once and will thus create it. The energy of billions of like-minded people focusing on change, peace and transformation at once could set it in motion. We could then experience a massive wave of transformation in an instant.  The veils will be lifted and the many cosmic presences will become visible because we will be vibrating at a rate fast enough to make it visible. People will finally see what was always there, one united Universe of peace, love and Universal support. Angelic presences, the truth of Spirit, the web of connectivity, the reality of Unconditional Love, all available to everyone willing to step forward into Unity Consciousness and out of fear and separation.

Prepare yourself for a miracle. It’s possible the financial system could transform because the Long Count systems of old will not hold up in this new system. It’s possible that peace suddenly feels like the only option worth entertaining. Soldiers may lay down their arms, wars cease, and enemies embrace one another. It’s possible that the vibration is so fast that we all wake up at once, never again seduced by the illusions of today’s lies and propaganda, and instead join in brotherhood, harmony and love. 

That will be my hope for humanity on Oct. 28^th, 2011.

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Salini Teri Apodaca is a published author, lifelong mystic, healer, Shaman, and spiritual leader. You can visit her website at www.soultransformation.us

Bon Jovi Opens a Restaurant with Soul

Bon Jovi is one entertainer who has connected his soul to the souls of those less fortunate. He has opened the first “Soul Restaurant” in New Jersey:

Customers pay only what they can afford.

It’s true. There are no prices on the menu. If you can afford it, Bon Jovi would like you to pay a minimum donation of $10 to help pay for those who cannot afford it.

To be clear, this is not a soup kitchen. If you come to the Soul Restaurant, you get to eat in an actual restaurant setting with linens and silverware. (When you are struggling financially and are broke, the idea of being able to go out and eat at a restaurant occasionally makes you feel so much better. I know this because I’ve been there).

But the Soul Restaurant is also not a total handout to people. It's an enterprise designed to empower the community. For instance, if you cannot afford to pay for your meal, Bon Jovi would like to see you donate your time at the Soul Restaurant or other charitable agencies.

Will this enterprise work?

I don’t think that Bon Jovi is thinking about that as much as he is thinking about doing whatever he can to help.

At the grand opening of Soul Restaurant on October 19, Bon Jovi said:

"At a time when 1 in 5 households are living at or below the poverty level, and at a time when 1 out of 6 Americans are food insecure, this is a restaurant whose time has come…This is a place based on and built on community – by and for the community."

Amen. We need more love in this world. I think the Soul Restaurant is a great idea and I send many blessings to Bon Jovi for starting it.
What do you think of Bon Jovi’s idea of opening the Soul Kitchen? Do you think it will be a success?

The True Meaning of Forgiveness

Forgiveness is an important spiritual law, without which we cannot easily manifest our desires.  Jesus frequently spoke about the need to forgive all others before praying to God. Yet, few of us can say that we hold no grudges or resentments against certain others in our lives.

I believe that the reason we cannot forgive others is that we do not know what forgiveness is. Rather, we believe what forgiveness is not. Let’s start with what forgiveness is NOT, then.

Forgiveness is NOT accepting what that person did to you.

Forgiveness is NOT saying that what that person did to you was okay.

Forgiveness is NOT allowing that person back into your life if their behavior is such that they could hurt you again.

So what is forgiveness? 

I had what Oprah Winfrey calls an “Aha Moment” by watching this YouTube video from Oprah’s Lifeclass.

Forgiveness is not accepting what that person did to you; forgiveness is accepting that it has happened to you.

Forgiveness is giving up the hope that the past could be any different than what it was.

Forgiveness is giving up the perception that what had happened to you was bad, giving up the judgment of that action. Then coming back to the present and living here.

After watching this video, I can feel the shift taking place within my soul. I feel the baggage of unforgiveness—the resentment and trauma of a narcissistic and verbally abusive mother—dropping from me.  

I feel the lightness of my being.

Do you have trouble forgiving others? Tell me some stories of your battles with forgiveness. I’d love to hear them.

World Group Meditation for Global Compassion: October 23, 2011

Have you ever wished that people of the world could show more compassion?   Have you ever wanted there to be a lot more love and a lot less pain in the world? Have you ever wished that you could do something about it?

Well, here’s your chance to put your thoughts to the test.

An event called the “World Group Meditation for Global Compassion” will be held on October 23, 2011.

And get this…

You can join the 144,000 participants (who have registered so far) for a world group meditation on compassion. Famed author Gregg Braden and Howard Martin of Heart Math and Global Coherence Initiative will lead the meditation.

This is not just a random meditation event; it is a formal experiment to see if a group meditation really does affect others.  

I plan to participate in the World Group Meditation for Global Compassion event, and I hope you do, too.

Together, maybe we can change the world!

Occupy Wall Street: The Time has Come

Washington Square Park, NYC

The Occupy Wall Street movement is now worldwide. The movement has raised close to $300,000 so far. Hundreds of thousands of people are standing in the streets, signs of protest raised high above their heads, demanding that the needs of the average citizen be heard (for once).  

Hundreds of protesters of the Occupy Wall Street movement have been arrested, injured, pepper sprayed.

And still they keep coming. Their voices will not be silenced—not this time.

They protest the inequality between the super rich and the super poor. They protest that the wealthy now make all of the rules. They protest that, though greedy bankers largely caused the recent economic collapse, the only people punished for it was us, the average folks.  

The Occupy Wall Street protesters have many reasons for why they protest, but they all boil down to these questions:

When did it all become about money?  When did basic human decency, love, and compassion leave and cold, hard cash take its place? Why are the rich bankers and industrialists running the entire world?

Why?

Why indeed.

The Occupy Wall Street movement is the result of a spiritual principle beautifully expressed by Victor Hugo: “There is nothing more powerful than an idea whose time has come.”

The old, materialist worldview—and the coldness with which it expresses itself—is passing away before our eyes. While the rich bankers and industrialists were intent on making more money and consolidating their power bases throughout the world, they failed to see one thing:

THE TIME HAS COME.