READ: Wabi Sabi Love by Edie Weinstein
January 23, 2012 by Edie Weinstein
Filed under •-Headline, Books, Insights, Love, Reflection, Relationships, Vision
What if there was a guide to prevailing over the potential pitfalls and perils of the relationship journey that felt like a friendly hand to assist you in maneuvering the myriad mudholes? Today is your lucky day, if you are discovering Wabi Sabi Love: The Ancient Art of Finding Perfect Love in Imperfect Relationships. Written by Arielle Ford, author of The Soulmate Secret, it speaks to the challenges we face regardless of the longevity and form of relationship. It could as easily (as I have discovered) apply to parent child or platonic relationship as romantic partnership, although that was Ford’s intention in writing about “the ancient Japanese art form that finds beauty and perfection in imperfection. Wabi Sabi honors that which is imperfect, impermanent and incomplete. It finds beauty in most things modest, humble and unconventional.”Simple to put into practice exercises have fun titles, such as Learning to Go from Annoyed to Enjoyed which invites the reader to change perspective on a partner’s behavior that would have pushed buttons. Ford suggests listing the behavior and then 5-10 times when these actions might occur. She then delves more deeply by inquiring : How many more times am I willing to allow this situation to annoy me? What payoff do I get by finding fault? What does being annoyed keep me from having? Where did I learn to be annoyed by other people’s behavior? The next step is a stretch for some as it asks the reader to wonder how they can learn about themselves as a result and what gifts might be contained within the experience.
Rev. Edie Weinstein, MSW, LSW is a Renaissance Woman and Bliss Mistress who delights in inviting people to live rich, full, juicy lives. Edie is an internationally recognized, sought after, colorfully creative journalist, interviewer and author, a dynamic and inspiring speaker, licensed social worker, interfaith minister, offering uniquely designed spiritual rituals. In addition, she is a PR Goddess, promoting events and transformational teachers, healers, writers and artists. She speaks on the subjects of wellness, spirituality, sexuality, creativity, time management, recovery, body image, mindfulness, self esteem, stress management, re-creating yourself, caring for the caregiver, loss and grief. She is a frequent guest on radio and TV. Edie is currently writing her first best selling book entitled The Bliss Mistress Guide To Transforming the Ordinary Into The Extraordinary and is offering a workshop for women who want to re-create their lives, based on those concepts. A 20 year old journalistic vision came to pass in July of 2008 when she interviewed His Holiness The Dalai Lama. It was a potent reminder to never, ever, ever give up on our dreams. Over the years, Edie has written for mainstream and transformational publications. She has interviewed hundred of notables in the transformational fields, including Wayne Dyer, Marianne Williamson, Debbie Ford, Leonard Peltier, Shirley MacLaine, Michael Beckwith, Jonathan Goldman, Gregg Braden, Neale Donald Walsch, Mary Manin Morrissey, Dan Millman, Alan Cohen, Ram Dass, Jack Canfield, Jean Shinoda Bolen, Patch Adams, Ben and Jerry, Donna DeLory, James Twyman, Elizabeth Lesser, Michael Franti and Jean Houston. Her website is http://www.liveinjoy.org
Read more from VividLife.me contributors:
Our True Value by Edie Weinstein
LOVING A WABI SABI SLOPPY JOE by Arielle FordREAD: Walking On The Moon And Moments That Change Your Life Forever
January 18, 2012 by Ed and Deb Shapiro
Filed under •-Feature, Books, Insights, Intuition, Meditation, Meditation, Mindfulness, Personal Growth, Spiritual Guidance, Spirituality
Imagine walking on the moon and then returning to earth in Apollo 14? That’s what Edgar Mitchell, the 6th astronaut to walk on the moon, talked to us about for our radio show and in our book, Be The Change. Few of us ever get to see the earth from outer space, but it was entering the vastness of space that led Mitchell to a deep, personal transformation, one of those moments that change us forever: unexpected and unlooked-for moments that take us out of our normal, rational selves and offer us a glimpse into another dimension of reality.
“We were coming home after being on the moon. As we rotated, a 360-degree panorama of the heavens appeared in the spacecraft window every two minutes. As my job had been the landing craft on the moon, I could now sit back and enjoy the view. I became immersed in the vastness of space. Suddenly, I realized the connectedness of everything, like the ancient mystics all said, and it was accompanied by this feeling of ecstasy, an overwhelming experience that I had never had before.”
Having a glimpse of a different reality can have the effect of turning us inward, as if the outer world loses its relevance while the inner world becomes alive and vibrant. As Mitchell continues:
” I wanted to know what had happened in that transcendent experience so when I got back to earth I started talking with Eastern mystics and holy men, and with spiritual people from all over the world. I studied virtually all the meditation disciplines and techniques and practices that there are. The only answer I came to was that I was in resonance, a deep quantum resonance with the ground of my being. A theologian would say the ground of our being is God; I would say it is a field of infinite energy and potential and that when we have such experiences we are in quantum resonance with that deep reality. And when we get in resonance with that reality, we have this feeling of deep peace and the sense that everything is really okay.”
Such transcended moments can take the form of dissolving our sense of being a separate self. For Deb’s mother, it occurred when she was washing the dishes and heard the sound of a wild bird’s song; in that moment, she became the sound and lost any sense of being apart from it. For Deb, it occurred when a worm crawled over her foot: “I was barefoot and had been walking slowly and meditatively across the grass. I had stopped and was standing very still and silent when this worm crawled out of the earth and traveled across my foot before disappearing back into the grass. I felt this intense gratitude that it had deemed me safe enough to walk over, and then I suddenly became it, there was no difference or separation between us. I too disappeared into the grass. In that moment I ceased to be a separate, ego-defined human. It changed the way I saw everything.”
Transcendence also awakens our heart to the love that is the essence of all life. Ed had this experience when he was on the ferryboat going from NYC to the Statue of Liberty. It was evening and he was gazing at the starlit sky. “It seemed the sky was clearer than usual with the stars shining brightly. It was if the microcosm became the macrocosm and there was no separation, just one breath. The universe was breathing and I was part of this universal breath, my whole body was breathing along with the whole cosmos. I became breath, and then it all became a bright light. All I could feel was that everything is love. I spun around and in every direction it was love! Within and without was love! Up and down was love! My whole being was blissful love!”
Such moments stay with us; they alter our fundamental awareness and constantly remind us not to take ourselves too seriously, that we are way bigger than we realize, and that that vastness is always available to us.
****
See our award-winning book: BE THE CHANGE, How Meditation Can Transform You and the World, forewords by the Dalai Lama and Robert Thurman, with contributors Edgar Mitchell, Jack Kabat-Zinn, Byrone Katie, Jane Fonda, Marianne Williamson, and many others.
If there is one book you read about meditation Be The Change should be the one. Hear about some of the cool people who are doing it and why you should do it too. – Sharon Gannon, founder Jivamukti Yoga.
Deb is the author of the award-winning YOUR BODY SPEAKS YOUR MIND, Decoding the Emotional, Psychological, and Spiritual Messages That Underlie Illness.
Our 3 meditation CD’s: Metta—Loving kindness and Forgiveness; Samadhi–Breath Awareness and Insight; and Yoga Nidra–Inner Conscious Relaxation, are available at: www.EdandDebShapiro.com
Ed and Deb Shapiro are the authors of BE THE CHANGE, How Meditation Can Transform You And The World, with forewords by the Dalai Lama and Robert Thurman and Winner of the 2010 Nautilus Gold Book Award. Deb is the author of the bestselling book, YOUR BODY SPEAKS YOUR MIND, winner of the 2007 Visionary Book Award. They are featured bloggers on Oprah.com/spirit, HuffingtonPost.com/Living, and Care2.com. They have 3 meditation CD’s: Metta — Loving Kindness and Forgiveness; Samadhi – Breath Awareness and Insight; and Yoga Nidra – Inner Conscious Relaxation. See: www.EdandDebShapiro.com
Listen to Ed and Deb’s VividLife Radio interview with Edgar Mitchell 6th Man to Walk on the Moon:
Shoot for the Moon with Astronaut Edgar Mitchell, 6th Man to Walk on the Moon
VividLife Radio’s Ed and Deb Shapiro welcome Edgar Mitchell, an American pilot, engineer, astronaut.and the sixth person to walk on the Moon to discuss realization , oneness and walking on the moon. Edgar Mitchell was presented with the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1970 by President Richard Nixon.
ORDER NOW: Invoking the Archangels – A Nine-Step Process to Heal Your Body, Mind, and Soul
November 11, 2011 by Sunny Dawn Johnston
Filed under •-Feature, Angels, Books, Deities, spirits, and mythic beings, Spirituality
Invoking the Archangels – A Nine-Step Process to Heal Your Body, Mind, and Soul Sunny Dawn Johnston has the power to move thousands from tears to laughter in the blink of an eye. She’s been described as “a best friend who will love you unconditionally but also kick you in the butt when you need it most.” Her support is always present as she guides you to your own personal freedom and power. Why is she the best friend that so many look for and only hope to find? Simple. She’s all about unconditional love. She teaches it, lives it and now writes about it. Her book is filled with metaphorical teachings as she shares her raw and emotional journey from self-hatred to self-love. Desperate, angry, and fighting for her life at age 19, she reached out to the one thing she could count on – the Archangels. Sunny knows hard times: she lived in a shack, mingled with mice as she slept on the floor, and barely survived on food stamps and welfare. The only thing that kept her going was her connection to the Angelic realm. You too can find your way from self-hatred to self-love and start living the life you truly desire and deserve. In this emotional yet practical, easy-to-understand book, you will learn about Sunny’s nine step process that uses the power of the Archangels to heal your heart from the inside out. You will discover how appreciation ultimately sets you free from failed relationships, broken finances, self-hatred and damaging addictions. Her touching, moving and inspiring “never giving up hope even when the going gets tough” life story, will make even the non-believers … believe … in the power of the Archangels. Are you ready to claim the life you deserve?
READ: In the Pursuit of Consciousness: Relating to relationships
November 11, 2011 by Chris
Filed under •-Headline, Abundance, Books, Family & Relationships, Holistic Living, Law of Attraction, Law of Attraction, Love, Meditation, Meditation, Metaphysical, Personal Growth, Reflection, Relationships, Spiritual Guidance, Wealth
The Ultimate Challenge
Here is an interesting question: Who are you within the parameters of an intimate relationship? Do you understand this question? I’m not always as clear as I would like to be, so I want to make sure that everyone is on the same page here. The question speaks not necessarily to whom you are now, but who you will become when you engage in an emotionally dynamic relationship with an intimate, relational partner. In other words, if you are like most people, then you will begin to transform and morph your behavior once you enter into ‘the relationship’.
Have you noticed it?
More and more single people around these days, right? Some might say more and more lonely people. However it is my belief that there are more and more courageous people these days who dare to become emotionally independent, and who dare to dream of self actualization. Sure, you might argue that self actualization is something that could or perhaps, should, be able to be pursued no matter what your relational status is. However, I argue that for most people this is a state of being that must be pursued in relative emotional isolation. Most people who say otherwise are most likely fooling themselves. Conversely, you could argue that self actualization can not happen without a significant other to be your ‘mirror’ and show you yourself, fully as it were.
There are exceptions to this however, a few here, a few there. Some folks can actualize themselves and tackle the responsibilities of being a conscious partner at the same time. However, these individuals are few and far between. Most people are constantly in an unconscious state of seeking love and validation and thus, the person or people who choose to be single, are often in recognition of the emotionally addictive nature of relationships and are in the process of trying to wean themselves off of this drug.
I can hear you out there
Proponents of the argument for a loving relationship are very vocal when it comes to this philosophy. They say, ‘But you need to love and be loved to be whole’ or ‘it’s my right to want someone to love’ or ‘you cannot evolve without someone to show you who you are.’ I’ve heard it all, truly. Everyone has their own individual path to enlightenment and will take that path. No two paths will ever look the same, but I will tell you this: most people are more likely to undergo conscious evolution outside of a relationship than inside of one. You can argue all you want with me, but that is the truth. Most of the fully illumined conscious seekers have taken some years outside of and away from the confines of ‘the relationship’ in order to actualize themselves to the point where they feel emotionally independent and evolved.
Here is the question
What happens if, you find someone, but you are still in the process of evolving and working on yourself? What happens if you are a conscious seeker who is working to integrate your emotional body (arguably the only aspect that really needs to be integrated) and then this other person pops up in your life? What if they are also a conscious seeking, spiritual being like yourself? How do you negotiate this new terrain?
Maintaining consciousness
In the pursuit of consciousness one finds that the trick is not really pursuing it, but rather maintaining it. Thus, the pursuit of consciousness becomes the maintenance of consciousness from moment to moment. As a very good friend of mine says, “How about now?” and “How about now?” If you understand what this means then you understand that my meaning is that the pursuit of consciousness is being with how you feel in every moment. How do you feel in this moment? If you are able to be emotionally honest and in touch with how you feel then you may notice, of a sudden, that in this particular moment you are feeling less than integrated; then you can allow this feeling to surface for integration. This is the ultimate pursuit of consciousness.
So now, engaging in this type of interaction with a significant other? With someone who will become your mirror and most likely trigger you in big and small ways? The maintenance of consciousness has never been so challenged as in the arena of intimacy. Here is the testing and proving ground of any would be conscious seeker and experienced integrationist. Here is where you will get to find out how conscious you really are. Are you willing to allow to come up, be with, and ultimately integrate whatever feeling comes your way? This is the test that many are stepping up to the plate during these extreme times to come face to face with. This is your test, this is your challenge. Be who you want to be with by integrating your mirror.
Christopher Pinckley
Author of Reality Creation 101
Book Release: Invoking The Archangels – A Nine-Step Process to Heal Your Body, Mind and Soul
October 21, 2011 by VividLife Editorial
Filed under •-Feature, Angels, Books, Deities, spirits, and mythic beings, Spirituality
Sunny Dawn Johnston has the power to move thousands from tears to laughter in the blink of an eye. She’s been described as “a best friend who will love you
unconditionally but also kick you in the butt when you need it most.” Her support is always present as she guides you to your own personal freedom and power.
Why is she the best friend that so many look for and only hope to find? Simple. She’s all about unconditional love. She teaches it, lives it and now writes about it. Her book is filled with metaphorical teachings as she shares her raw and emotional journey from self-hatred to self-love. Desperate, angry, and fighting for her life at age 19, she reached out to the one thing she could count on – the Archangels. Sunny knows hard times: she lived in a shack, mingled with mice as she slept on the floor, and barely survived on food stamps and welfare. The only thing that kept her going was her connection to the Angelic realm.
“Sunny Dawn Johnston is a beautiful expression of love.” Sonia Choquette, bestselling author of The Answer Is Simple
You too can find your way from self-hatred to self-love and start living the life you truly desire and deserve. In this emotional yet practical, easy-to-understand book, you will learn about Sunny’s nine step process that uses the power of the Archangels to heal your heart from the inside out. You will discover how appreciation ultimately sets you free from failed relationships, broken finances, self-hatred and damaging addictions.
Her touching, moving and inspiring “never giving up hope even when the going gets tough” life story, will make even the non-believers … believe … in the power of the Archangels. Are you ready to claim the life you deserve?
It was very brave and giving of Sunny to share her most personal experiences and feelings with the world. The book was engrossing and spellbinding and I could not put it down. It was like coming home to a knowledge I had long since forgotten. It is a step by step process to improve and/or save your own life. Thank you Sunny for sharing this wonderful book with us!
I am almost finished with the book. Sunny, what a wonderful outpouring of who you are “naked” , your life and your family. It is not often that a human is willing and open to “baring” their life for the benefit of others. You are such an AMAZING spirit.
I am really enjoying your book! It is beautifully written and I have felt a sense of oneness for instance that ‘there is someone else out there that has been through this, which will be awesome for the readers that don’t know you. There is something about your book that gives me a special feeling when I read it, maybe because I sense your intentions as you were writing each part.
I just want to thank you for this opportunity!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I read until midnight last night just going “Yes!!! Exactly!!!” and then taking in the info that I can use now by calling on Michael etc… and I’m not even done with the book yet:)
This book would be a GREAT book to have a book study club and work together as a class?
Truly enjoying the book. Finding it soooo helpful and informative. Love the format. It also helped me understand the change in direction of my own book. Very interesting how this all happens!
Well my dear, as I read I realize that I have been the one trying to manage other relationships. I know you know all of this but reading your story makes things fall into place more for me.
Ok well my dear … I just did the exercise about each weekday and then writing the color next to it. First thing that hit me was I picked green for Wednesday. I do healing ceremonies every (well as often as I can) Wednesday! Wheee … this is just SO cool.
On page 36 and must say LOVE IT, LOVE IT, LOVE IT. It sooooooooooooooooo speaks to the heart. You are so amazing.
