| Page 61

Precious community

Posted on September 23, 2015 by Naomi

A meditation from the Rosh Hashanah service:

“… what we are, we are by sharing. And as we share

We move toward the light…

May we find our life so precious

That we cannot but share it with the other,

That light may shine brighter than a thousand suns,

With the presence among us of the God of light.”

I am full of gratitude for you readers and for our community of friendship. I know I shine brighter because of you.

Whether observing tonight or not, I wish you a wonderful year ahead, one filled with meaningful growth, health, and joy.

Posted in Spirituality | Tagged community, friendship, repentance, Yom Kippur | 4 Comments

Do what ignites your soul: permission slip for stay-at-home moms

Posted on September 21, 2015 by Naomi

I’ve got to tell you about Elizabeth Gilbert’s podcast called Magic Lessons!

The first episode is called “Do What Ignites Your Soul.” It touched on something I feel often. As a stay-at-home mom, sometimes I feel guilty that I have other focuses besides my daughter. She says women in general, and mothers especially, need to give themselves permission to do the things that ignite their soul. Not only is it for ourselves, but it’s an excellent example for our children. She herself (and her sister) are writers because her mother was dedicated to her own projects.

“There’s a deep, deep sense that once you are a mother, you lives belong exclusively, entirely, and only to your children, even if they’re in school… even if there’s 8 hours a day where they’re not in your presence. Anything that you’re doing in those hours that is for you and not for them, there’s this deep fundamental sense that you are taking something away from those children… that anything you do that ignites you harms them.”

Of course we must be kind to ourselves, and fill up our own needs and give ourselves a life… we can better take care of a family if we are cared for. But beyond that… Anything we do that blocks us from the work that wants to come through us is fear. It can show up as perfectionism, guilt, procrastination, insecurity… because we are too scared to do it.

I have definitely been too scared at times but I am overcoming it. I know what Liz is talking about for sure.

She reads a quotation from the British novelist and woman of letters Dame A.S. Byatt, author of my absolute favorite book of all time, Possession. Liz says this was the most radical and important thing that she’d ever heard a female artist say about being a wife, a mother, and an artist:

“I think of my writing simply in terms of pleasure. It’s the most important thing in my life… making things. As much as I love my husband and my children, I love them only because I am the person who makes things. I am who I am as the person who has the project of making a thing. And because that person does that, all the time, that person is able to love all these other people.”

In other words, if we don’t allow ourself the creative outlets, the intellectual interests, the soulful exploration, then we am not wholly ourselves, and that will lead to resentment that we’ve lost our life to them.

Tell us how you could better embrace a creative outlet and what it might open for you.

Posted in Creativity, Motherhood, Quotations | Tagged creativity, elizabeth gilbert, Magic Lessons podcast | 10 Comments

Happy together family tray

Posted on September 18, 2015 by Naomi

We had this tray on our living room ottoman that was functional but just sort of ok as far as decor. So I decided to decorate it with fun scrapbook papers.

I finished it off with a clear fixative spray and now I don’t let anyone put anything on it!

Posted in Behind the Art, Creativity | Tagged family, fun, scrapbook | 3 Comments

In the thick of it

Posted on September 16, 2015 by Naomi

“I’m sorry for yelling at Mommy and Daddy.”

“I’m sorry for having a messy room sometimes and leaving my things around the house.”

“I’m going to help the quiet girl in my class.”

As I mentioned in Monday’s post, we are in the 10-day period that is considered in Judaism to be the holiest days of the year. One concrete ritual that we do is perfect for children (as well as adults). We take bread to a moving body of water and symbolically toss our sins into the water with the breadcrumbs. This year, I got to watch and listen as three cute little people mentioned things they regretted doing and what intentions they have for moving forward. The idea of the ritual is that the sins are literally carried away and we can start anew. So much of what the kids said made me put my hand to my heart and smile.

Sitting in the children’s service earlier that day, trying to calm my very upset daughter, I realized how many preconceptions I have about what it means to raise a child to follow your example. There is much emotion tied up in raising our children!

I would love to know your thoughts about this. As you read below, think about how you would answer these questions:

Whether inside a faith tradition or not, how do you impart your values and expectations to your children and grandchildren?
And when they don’t act as you’d expect, then what???

And I do realize that I’m probably overthinking this as usual.

When I am inside any synagogue, I feel linked to the generations that came before me, to the hands that built the Temple I am sitting in, and to the generations who will hopefully follow. I am a descendent of the very people who sent a high priest to enter the Holy Temple in Jerusalem thousands of years ago every year during this time. I am part of a people who has been enslaved and freed from slavery, who has wandered and been found, and who has lost millions of lives while preserving human dignity and tradition. I am a piece of Divine Truth and Justice. I collect wisdom from rabbis who lived thousands of years ago and from the ones I know today.

I have huge responsibilities. We each do. I must help care for the earth and those living here. I must spread ideas of peace, conflict resolution, and harmony. I must do my part to feed and clothe the too many who are without basic needs and who get overlooked. I must work toward a future of equality and opportunity for everyone. I must educate, advocate, and never stop learning. I take it all seriously.

Even more, raising a child to feel those connections and to feel that sense of responsibility is the most important task I’ve undertaken. Before our daughter was born, Mr. B and I talked all about our ideals and wishes for her and about what type of home we would have to model and carry out our values. We talk with her about our values as we do good things for people and explain why we don’t do other things. We read books with moral messages, observe the holidays, and light Shabbat candles. We are part of a larger community.

I assume that I am the way I am because of the home that I grew up in and the values of my parents. It seems natural for that same tendency to continue into the next generation. And so much of what we do is for the benefit of our daughter as much, if not more, than for ourselves. She enjoyed making a honey cake for the holiday with me and took pride in setting the table for our dinner guests. She fell asleep talking with me about aspects of the holiday.

So what happened? She was so preoccupied with the idea that she was going to sit with a particular friend during the children’s service that she couldn’t focus at all on anything else. And when that friend arrived with extended family and they couldn’t join us where we were sitting, sweet girl just lost it. She could not calm down.

I understand she is just 6. Still, I was so disappointed in her behavior because it showed me that she had little understanding of the meaning of the holiday and how important it is. We drove her home afterwards, trying to explain, yet she refused to hear us. I returned to the adult service. When I got home later, she and Mr. B had talked it through and she told me she was very sorry.

I explained to her that I hold her to a much higher standard than I realized, and yet I don’t apologize for it. There is certain behavior that we expect of her. We observe holidays just as generations before us did. We read sacred texts. The prayers that cross our lips have been uttered for thousands of years. I asked her who she thinks she is to abandon and disrespect that. (Fortunately, Mr. B translated whatever I said into something she would relate to.)

We go to synagogue (or church or the mosque) to connect with God and to reflect on how we can become better people. We don’t go with the focus of catching up with a friend. On such an important day especially, surrounded by hundreds of people, we don’t make a scene.

And yet… those simple intentions tossed out with the bread crumbs by her little hand warm my heart and give me reassurance that she is taking in the important things. She knows right from wrong. She is kind to others. She has a sense of wonder. The rest may take care of itself.

It seems such a large responsibility to raise the next generation to follow in our footsteps. It does not happen by default. Whether inside a faith tradition or not, how do you impart your values and expectations to your children and grandchildren? And when they don’t act as you’d expect, then what???

Posted in Motherhood, Spirituality | Tagged children, expectations, home, people, religion, values | 9 Comments

The sound of silence

Posted on September 14, 2015 by Naomi

In my Mussar course, my focus right now is on the power that our words have and especially on the value of silence. I have always been sensitive to sound, but all of a sudden, I realize just how much noise is around me. Especially, I’ve noticed the noise within me. The noisiest thing in my life is my own mind.

I aimed to begin finding inner stillness by having five minutes of silence each day, simply breathing with my hand on my heart and listening to whatever comes. It is surprisingly difficult for me! I think I fear what I may find there.

Alan Morinis writes in Everyday Holiness that “spending ten or fifteen minutes just sitting quietly once or twice a day will change your life. This focused concentration will spill over into all areas of your life and generate peace, creativity, and inner healing.” He also writes, “silence is a pregnant state out of which can emerge worlds of possibility we have no hope of knowing so long as our lives are overfilled with words and noise.”

Perhaps my favorite: “The soul needs contemplative solitude in order to digest learning and experience and convert it into wisdom.”

Since mid-August, Jewish people around the world have been in the process of preparing for the High Holy Days, the 10 “Days of Awe” which begin today with Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year. We have turned inward to focus on repentance, forgiveness (of others and of ourselves), and of becoming better, cultivating compassion, loving-kindness, and patience, as well as on reaching out to others to mend fences.

I just finished reading This Is Real and You Are Completely Unprepared: The Days of Awe as a Journey of Transformation by the late Rabbi Alan Lew and I’d like to share an excerpt with you. It furthers our conversation about busyness, overwhelm, and the need for stillness. Let me know in the comments what resonates with you.

“Earlier I mentioned The Denial of Death, by the philosopher Ernest Becker, and Becker’s observation that we human beings seem to be the only creatures afflicted with the mysterious capacity to understand that we are going to die, and that it is precisely this fact that seems to call us to the world, to our life’s work, and to God. We try to compensate for this dread intelligence by constructing what Becker calls affirmation systems. We see the void and it terrifies us; it looks to us like utter negation. So we try to set up something in life that affirms our existence.

Against death, which we see as the ultimate failure, we offer up success. Against death, which we see as the ultimate emptiness, we offer up the acquisition of objects. Against death, which we see as the end of all feeling, we offer up the pursuit of pleasure. Against death, which we see as the final stillness, we offer up a ceaseless rage of activity. Against death, which we see as the ultimate impotence, we offer up the glorification of our own power.

But in the process, we give up our nefesh—the nothingness out of which life arises, the emptiness that gives our lives meaning. And we give it up because we are frightened of it. It reeks of all we are trying to deny. Consequently, we’ve become a nation of workaholics, a people who have come to believe that we can conquer death by dint of our own powers, by a ceaseless swirl of activity. To rest is to die, so we never permit ourselves a moment’s rest, a moment’s nefesh, a moment’s nothingness. We think we know how the world works. We think we even know how the mind works. We have become enchanted with how capable we’ve become with our computers, our jet planes, our space travel, our genetic engineering. We’ve talked ourselves into believing that we can solve any problem, overcome any obstacle if we just do more, if we just think about it long and hard enough, if we just try a little harder.

But our problem is not that we don’t try hard enough. It is that we try too hard. It’s that we have such an exaggerated belief in the force of our own effort that we never stop trying. Our pursuit of pleasure and success is relentless, feverish, sometimes bordering on the demonic. We never rest. We have portable computers and faxes and e-mail that we take on vacation. We have phones in our cars. We have call waiting, so that even our interruptions are interrupted. Even those small moments of contemplation—of nefesh, of nothingness—we used to enjoy on vacation or even just driving back and forth between errands, even these are denied us.

But in spite of our constant effort, there is failure and death all around us, on the downtown streets and in the testimony of our own bodies. We try not to see it, but the psychic squint we have to make in order to do this reduces everything in our line of sight, not just the void we are trying to ignore. And this squinting requires a tremendous expenditure of energy, energy we desperately need, and it never works anyway. Sooner or later we will find ourselves tied to a chair under the bare bulb of the truth.

Sexually, physically, and mentally, we humans peak in our early twenties. After that we decline. Our heart muscles weaken and we lose stamina and endurance. Our blood pressure increases and our arteries harden, and this affects our brain, heart, kidneys, and the extremities, and none of them take it well. The gastrointestinal system also begins to slow. The prostate enlarges. Our hormones slow to a trickle, making us look older and feel less energy and initiative. Our bones leach calcium and phosphates and become fragile. The skin thins, dries, and becomes discolored. Our brain atrophies. Our nerve cells waste away. We suffer memory loss, sometimes severe. Birth is our only real success, and even that success doesn’t really belong to us. It belongs to God. In the beginning, God created us out of nothing. It is all downhill from there, and that’s the part that belongs to us—the long, slow return to nothing.

But if we stop resisting it for a moment, it is precisely this return that can save us. It is precisely this return that can renew us.

Human renewal is one of the universe’s great mysteries, one we tend to take for granted. When our cars run out of gas, we fill them up with gas. When our batteries run down, we recharge them with electrical energy. But when we human beings run down, we simply plunge into nothingness. We sleep. Nothing happens to us when we sleep, and it is precisely this nothing that restores us.

When we lose touch with this sense of nefesh, of space, of emptiness, we feel overwhelmed, overstressed, overburdened. So for many of us the question is, How do we find our way back to heaven? How do we relocate that spaciousness out of which we emerged? How do we connect with our nefesh?

The Sabbath is a time when we inhabit ourselves this way. This may be the real reason so few Christians or Jews observe the Sabbath anymore. Work, commerce, and our usual frantic rush of activities are all devices we use to distract ourselves from ourselves, to keep from looking at who we are, to keep us from fully inhabiting our lives. Perhaps the real reason more of us don’t observe a Sabbath is not because it’s inconvenient—not because we are spiritually lazy—but rather because we are afraid. We are afraid of reflection because we are afraid of ourselves. We are afraid that if we ever stopped running long enough to catch a glimpse of ourselves, we would see something we didn’t like.

The real work we have to do at this time of year, I think, is to find compassion no matter what. But we have to find it for ourselves before we can be of much use to others. The real work is to look at who we really are, and to contemplate Who made us that way. This I can promise you: neither you nor your children conform to the ideas other people are trying to foist on you. You are the unique creations of God, and any attempt to pin you down to some idea will only diminish you. You are equal to your life. You have been given exactly what you need, not one thing more and not one thing less.”

Posted in Books, Mindfulness, Mussar, Spirituality | Tagged compassion, death, God, heart, High Holy Days, stillness | Leave a comment

Summer books… “woo woo” edition

Posted on September 11, 2015 by Naomi

I feel compelled to write a short intro here for the benefit of those of you with rational minds (which includes Mr. B and my immediate family). While I have been interested in learning more so I can find answers my own existential questions (where do we come from? where do we go when we die? what purpose does it all serve? are there other conscious life forms out there somewhere?), be assured that I am not going to run away to an ashram somewhere in India, don long flowing robes, and abandon all sense of reason.

That said, I find it hugely refreshing to learn about where we (Earth) fit into the many universes out there. That perspective has given me such a calm sense of reassurance that not only are we not alone, but that there is a compassionate Divine purpose for everything. We have free will, and yet we can’t make a choice that wouldn’t teach us something. On our journeys over lifetimes, we cannot fail. We are learning, embodying our experiences, and lovingly helping the evolution of our particular world.

Through my exploration of topics such as past lives and the afterlife, energy medicine, and intuition/spirituality, I am learning how to positively shape my life, to better keep things in perspective, and to find peace from worry, anxiety, and negativity.

The Map of Heaven: How Science, Religion, and Ordinary People Are Proving the Afterlife by Eben Alexander

Dr. Alexander, a neurosurgeon, wrote the bestseller Proof of Heaven, which I loved, and here he follows up with more stories people have told him and shows how they are echoed both in the world’s faiths and in its latest scientific insights. If only for the history of science, philosophy, and alchemy alone, this book is fascinating. He explores the nature of consciousness with his underlying message: “though it might be impossible to catch spiritual experiences and examine them in a laboratory, that doesn’t mean they aren’t real.” Highly recommend.

“There is a larger world behind the one we see around us every day. That larger world loves us more than we can possibly imagine, and it is watching us at every moment, hoping that we will see hints in the world around us that it is there.”

Frank Talk: A Book of Channeled Wisdom by Tracy Farquhar

I heard about this one from Mike Dooley at tut. This short book from a group of souls (who call themselves “Frank”) from another universe has 9 chapters which cover the story of their own civilization, plus fascinating discussions about the nature of reality, science, spiritual wisdom, a different perspective on time, the animal kingdom and more. It may be a bit “out there” for most, but I found its words reassuring and comforting. I had to dole out the pages sparingly or I would have read it all in an hour.

“It is through your challenges and deepest despair that the greatest opportunities for growth live, and so remember that this brief time in this dimensional space is all for your highest good, and that you simply can’t get it wrong, no matter what choices you make.”

“It is always essential to find ways to express this creativity and honor your divine light, as these are gifts which are meant to be shared with the world to inspire others to create their own lives. There is no gift which is bestowed upon someone by mistake, or which has the danger of leading someone down a wrong path. These gifts have many properties which can assist in the learning of practical life skills and decision-making.”

I read this right after the South Carolina shooting, so these words were helpful:

“It is these shifts which will inaugurate the need for changes in your political, social and economic structures world-wide. It simply will not be possible for your world to continue to operate under the old structures for much longer with the types of shifts that are occurring right now. These changes are already occurring in your governments and leadership, and in the corporate structures which have reached their absolute peak of growth and stability. It is essential for some of these systems to fail, in order to make room for new structures which will create more of a balanced system among the people of your planet. The wide disparities in economic and social structures need to be balanced and healed in order for your social systems to thrive. This is creating fear among those who hold the vast majority of the world’s wealth as they feel their grip on this wealth and power slipping away. This will create a huge backlash which will threaten the viability of the new-found systems; however, those on the cutting edge of these new systems will be stalwart and resilient in their efforts to create lasting change which is designed to heal the planet and help it to flourish.”

“Within the chaos of change there is a silent, still center of peace. There is a calm that can be found in knowing that change is occurring and that the things that need to be altered are being carried through the process of change. As you navigate your way through these days of seemingly unrelenting negative energy from those who see no hope or even a sense of purpose within the world, know that these feelings are temporary, and that they arise from the growing pains of a new society.”

How to Read the Akashic Records: Accessing the Archive of the Soul and Its Journey by Linda Howe

The book is divided into two parts. Part One is about how to read the Akashic Records; Part Two offers techniques and exercises for using the Records to heal yourself and others.

The Akashic Records contain a vibrational record of every soul and its journey and contain everything that every soul has ever thought, said, and done over the course of its existence, as well as all its future possibilities. Whereas it used to be that only a select few could access these Records, today “anyone with a conscious commitment to seeking and spreading Divine Light and healing can access this body of wisdom, insight, and guidance.”

This is the one and only book I have read on this subject, so I don’t know how to compare it to “fact,” but I found it compelling, easy to read, and highly informative.

Anatomy of the Spirit: The Seven Stages of Power and Healing by Caroline Myss

“Your biography becomes your biology.” Myss writes in Part I that our emotions, our choices, and our stresses integrate themselves into our physical bodies, often becoming diseases. Certain emotional or spiritual crises become particular problems in the body. Myss is a medical intuitive and she can read a body like a book, determining where someone’s personal power has been weakened and also it’s possible cause. She can examine the energy state of an illness and help treat it’s cause, not just symptoms. She’s identified the emotional, psychological, and physical stress patterns of nearly a hundred different illnesses.

Here’s the idea in a nutshell: “Each illness and each body organ, I learned, has its own ‘frequency’ or vibrational pattern… Just as radio stations operate according to specific energy wavelengths, each organ and system in the body is calibrated to absorb and process specific emotional and psychological energies. That is, each area of the body transmits energy on a specific, detailed frequency, and when we are healthy, all are ‘in tune.’ An area of the body that is not transmitting at its normal frequency indicates the location of a problem. A change in intensity of the frequency indicates a change in the nature and seriousness of the illness and reveals the stress pattern that has contributed to the development of the illness.”

Part II of this book is about the seven power centers in our bodies. She integrates Judaism’s Kabbalah, Christian sacraments, and the chakras into seven universal spiritual truths. Energy is power, and each of the seven energy centers houses a particular set of powers. This section is the majority of the book and it is wholly fascinating.

After reading this, I feel far more conscious of how my emotions are affecting me physically. So much of what are/were my patterns have caused energy depletion. Some days I hardly did anything and yet I was exhausted. Now I know exactly why. I refer to earlier periods of depression but also something as relatively minor as needing gallbladder surgery. All of that pain stemmed from my own untrue judgements, illusions of separation, pressures to conform, and lack of love for myself. Myss could most likely find the cause of a run-of-the-mill headache too.

Think of how this could help people for the betterment of their health if only they’d learn about this!

“All our thoughts, regardless of their content, first enter our systems as energy. Those that carry emotional, mental, psychological, or spiritual energy produce biological responses that are then stored in our cellular memory… Accepting the idea that every part of your life—from your physical history to your relationships to every attitude, opinion, and belief you carry inside yourself—affects your biological makeup is only part of the healing process, however. You also have to get that acceptance to move from the mental level into the physical level, into your body, to feel the truth viscerally and cellularly and believe it wholly.”

Of course we can’t blame someone for falling ill, for nobody would consciously choose to create an illness. But sickness develops “as a consequence of behavioral patterns and attitudes that we don’t realize are biologically toxic until they have already become so.” That is what’s in our control. And whereas going to a doctor and following their prescribed treatment is mostly passive, energy healing is 100% active and “an internal process that includes investigating one’s attitudes, memories, and beliefs with the desire to release all negative patterns that prevent one’s full emotional and spiritual recovery. This internal review inevitably leads one to review one’s external circumstances in an effort to recreate one’s life in a way that serves activation of will—the will to see and accept truths about one’s life and how one has used one’s energies; and the will to begin to use energy for the creation of love, self-esteem, and health.”

The thing is, though, you have to want to be healthy. If you feel a sense of power from being unhealthy, there’s not much anyone can do to help you change.

OH! And a huge helpful aha for me…

“Learn what rather than who draws power from you. Understand that the person who seems to be drawing your energy is actually only a reflection of some part of yourself. For instance, if you are jealous of someone, the important issue for you is not that specific person but the shadow side of your nature as it is reflected in that person. In effect, that person serves as your teacher. Concentrating on the person of whom you are jealous will not heal you. You will only be sent more and more teachers, each more intense than the previous one. Your task is to learn the lesson that the teacher has for you rather than to resent the teacher.”

Archetypes: Who Are You? by Caroline Myss

Myss describes Archetypes as “universal patterns of power emerging from our myths and beliefs, and that these myths and beliefs, in turn, invisibly weave their influential threads into the way we view every aspect of our lives.”

For example, if I pointed someone out to you and told you she is the Perfect Mom, you’d have a mental conception of what that means. Your concept wouldn’t be very different from mine.

“Although archetypes are collective symbols that everyone in the culture shares, they can also speak to us individually, as personal archetypal patterns that are the foundation of our beliefs, drives, motivations, and actions, organizing and energizing all our relationships in life.”

Upon discovering which archetypes are guiding your life, you step into the core of your being, perhaps for the first time. Myss describes 10 archetypes that we are most likely to see today: the Advocate, the Artist/Creative, the Athlete, the Caregiver, the Fashionista, the Intellectual, the Queen/Executive, the Rebel, the Spiritual Seeker, and the Visionary.

“Each archetype is presented as the representative of an archetypal family, a team of archetypes with similar patterns. These general archetypal families cover both men and women. The Caregiver, for example, is the lead member of the Caring family, a team associated with nurturing that includes the Mother, the Rescuer, the Teacher, the Healer, and the Companion.”

Very interesting… I’d recommend this one as a quick reference book.

Journey of Souls: Case Studies of Life Between Lives by Michael Newton

I know this one is a bit woo-woo, but I found it fascinating. It consists of 29 case studies that explain our soul’s purpose, the different levels of souls, and how souls evaluate and grow between incarnations.

Here are a couple of excerpts:

“Earth is in a sparse section of the Milky Way with only eight stars that are ten light years from the sun. We know our own galaxy has more than two-hundred billion stars within a universe currently speculated at one-hundred-billion galaxies. The worlds around the suns which might support life are staggering to the imagination. Consider, if only a small fraction of one percent of the stars in our galaxy had planets with intelligent life useful to souls, the number would still be in the millions.”

“Our eternal identity never leaves us alone in the bodies we choose, despite our current status. In reflection, meditation, or prayer, the memories of who we really are do filter down to us in selective thought each day. In small, intuitive ways-through the cloud of amnesia-we are given clues for the justification of our being.”

“While speaking of a ‘paradise planet,’ with few people and a quieter, simpler version of Earth, he added this world was not far from Earth. ‘Oh,’ I interrupted, ‘then it must only be a few light years from Earth?’ He patiently explained that the planet was not in our universe, but closer to Earth than many planets in our own galaxy.”

“Dr. N: Why does a source, who is ostensibly perfect already, need to create further intelligence which is less than perfect? S: To help the creator create. In this way, by self-transformation and rising to higher plateaus of fulfillment, we add to the building blocks of life.”

Memories of the Afterlife: Life Between Lives Stories of Personal Transformation by Michael Newton

I was curious to learn more after reading Journey of Souls. This one is made up of 32 experienced practitioners from the Michael Newton Institute reporting stories of their own clients and how their sessions together changed their lives.

Emotional Freedom: Liberate Yourself from Negative Emotions and Transform Your Life by Judith Orloff

Another example of reading another of an author’s books to learn more (see Second Sight review below). This is such an amazing book! One of the little blurbs at the beginning by Rosanna Arquette spoke to me: “I keep re-reading it to remind myself to stay positive and that it is a choice not to go to a negative place. It taught me to feel good about my own sensitivities and deal with difficult personalities without going mad! We have the power to change any negative emotion into a positive one.”

This book is divided into two parts. Part I is about the 4 components of emotions; Part II presents a hands-on approach for facing the seven most prevalent difficult emotions and building positive ones. In a pressure-cooker culture where most people are pushed past their limits, it’s refreshing to learn about a compassionate and loving way to be more comfortable, to have more nurturing relationships, and to better learn how to react constructively and communicate effectively. Highly recommend!

Second Sight: An Intuitive Psychiatrist Tells Her Extraordinary Story and Shows You How to Tap Your Own Inner Wisdom by Judith Orloff

Orloff’s honest transparence about her journey of intuition, dreams, psychic impressions, healing, and community is inspirational. She tells interesting stories about the links between intuition and community, intimate knowledge and love. Her belief in a divine intelligence and the interconnectedness of all things mirrors my own, and Orloff’s clinical healing work is inspirational to me. She taps into the importance of our inner wisdom, our dreams as guides, and how being open and receptive can cause a huge difference in our life experience.

I have dozens of favorite quotations from this one, but my favorites are “To awaken is an act of courage” and “Make space for your own brilliance.” Highly recommend.

* * * * *

Thanks for reading! Do you have any spiritual books you’d recommend?

What have you been reading lately? And are you on Goodreads? I’d love to connect there.

More monthly book reports