Posts filed under ‘Spirituality’
Sister Giant Announced for 2015: Creating a New American Politics
I am beyond thrilled to announce Marianne Williamson’s next SISTER GIANT Conference, to be held March 28-29, 2015, Live in Los Angeles as well as Livestreamed.
This year’s theme, Awakening Our Conscience, Restoring our Democracy, will feature a Saturday night keynote address by Senator Bernie Sanders, as well as talks and discussions with former Congressman Dennis Kucinich, Lisa Bloom, Thom Hartmann, Elizabeth Kucinich, Cenk Uygur and others.
Issues covered this year include Getting Money Out of Politics/ Overturning Citizens United; Corruption of Our Food Supply/ Regenerative Agriculture; Race, Mass Incarceration and the Drug War; Turning a World at War into a World at Peace; and Creating a New American Politics.
SISTER GIANT fosters a political conversation based on conscience and compassion. As a citizen, activist, candidate or prospective candidate, please join us for a unique experience in opening your heart and expanding your mind.
Marianne says, “SISTER GIANT is a gathering not to be missed. We’re going to rock it this year as we have rocked it before.” Please help spread the word.
Creating a Counterforce to the World’s Despair
From my mentor, Marianne Williamson. This is my heart…
Gravity exists on many levels, both physical and emotional. There is a force in the universe that literally weighs things down.
In order to counter gravity in the physical body, we physically exercise to develop strong muscles. Emotionally and spiritually, things work the same way. We nullify the effects of emotional gravity through accumulated repetitions of positive thoughts. Where the world says things like, “This can never happen,” we repeat to ourselves that with God, all things are possible.
Strong physical muscles give us the power to navigate the external world more effectively, while strong spiritual muscles give us the power to navigate the internal world. With physical musculature, we gain the power to move; with internal musculature, we gain the power to sit still, to be nonreactive, to be centered and calm and wise.
There are many meditative practices, from Transcendental Meditation to completing the workbook A Course in Miracles to others that are rooted in traditions like the Christian, Jewish, Buddhist faiths and so forth. What is important to note is that meditation is more than mere deep relaxation. We don’t just feel relaxed after meditation. Brain scans have proven an actual shift in brain-wave patterns. The religious call to a “new mind” is not just a metaphor; it is a call to become our more peaceful, creative and productive self.
With the modern world having become so frantic, it is easy to become as frenetic as the world around us. The problem with that, though, is that without calm, there is no wisdom, no impulse control and no real peace of mind. We’re more likely to become emotionally reactive and unclear in our thinking. Without deep peace of mind, we cannot be the people we are capable of being, and we cannot live the lives we are capable of living.
The power of meditation is of little use if only understood intellectually. When this spiritual exercise is built into our everyday, practical lifestyle, it becomes utterly transformative. It’s not enough just to know how important healthy food and exercise are; we must actually eat well and exercise regularly to enjoy the benefits of those habits. So, it’s not enough to just know the power of prayer and/or meditation; we must practice these rituals, through daily devotion.
We routinely wake up in the morning and take a bath or shower, because we don’t want to take yesterday’s dirt on our body into the new day. Yet unless we pray, meditate, do inspirational readings or some other practice of spiritual alignment in the morning, we take yesterday’s burdens on our mind into the new day. Are body and soul not equally important?
We find excuses for why we’re not doing our spiritual exercise, just like we find excuses for not doing our physical exercise. But, in both cases, once we start doing our exercises, we start to crave their continuance. Often, people say they don’t have the time to meditate; but, in fact, meditation slows time. Time, in the words of Albert Einstein, is “an illusion of consciousness.” Shallow thinking literally speeds up our experience of time, while deep and peaceful thinking slows it down. We inhabit time more effectively when our mind and heart are clear.
Such a world view is like a mental filter, leading us to experience the world through a lens of love instead of fear. Fear is the thinking that dominates the world, but love is who we really are. Grounding ourselves each day in a deep remembrance of who we really are, we actualize the spiritual power that lies latent within all of us. We were created to love, and in loving we are fulfilling the purpose of our lives. With every thought we think, we either extend love or project fear into the world. Taking a few simple principles and applying them to our daily lives lifts us above the turmoil of the world:
Ask every morning of your God: “Where would you have me go? What would you have me do? What would you have me say, and to whom?”
Before you go into work, into a meeting, into a party or into any situation at all, consciously blast everyone who is going to be there with love. Just as light casts out darkness, so does love cast out fear. You can’t send love to someone and, at the same time, worry about what they will think about you, fear what’s going to happen or succumb to controlling, judgmental or manipulative thoughts. The presence of love literally casts out neurotic, fear-based thoughts.
As you go through the day, anywhere you might be, look at someone’s face and silently say to them, “The love in me salutes the love in you.” I defy you to do this for two minutes each day and not become happier.
No one needs to be reminded today that we are in need of a counterforce to the world’s despair. All the hatred and unnecessary suffering that have gripped our planet are a challenge to our species to evolve and grow—to become who we are capable of being, so we can rise up with greater power and behave with greater wisdom. 
When any of us does this individually, our lives transform. And when we do it collectively, our planet will transform. Love will not just heal your life or mine. Love will heal the world.
Peter Diamandis’ Truth About Global Violence
REPRINTED FROM MY MENTOR PETER DIAMANDIS (My favorite bits are in bold.)
I call CNN the Crisis News Network (or the Calamity News Network), delivering all crisis, all the time…
Today’s news media is a drug pusher, and negative news is their drug.
It might interest you to know that violence around the world has actually been going down, and has been for some time.
Your chances of dying a violent death are 1/500th of what they used to be during medieval times.
We’re blind to this fact, because our brains pay 10 times more attention to negative news than positive news. I wrote about these cognitive biases in Abundance: The Future Is Brighter Than You Think.
This graph shows deaths due to war between 1900 and 2005. You’ll notice clear spikes during World War I and World War II.
Check out this next graph.
Here, you’ll see the types of battles fought since 1940, and every classification — colonial, interstate, civil, and civil without foreign intervention — has dropped off drastically over time.
But this isn’t the impression you get from watching the news every night, is it?
Today, every skirmish in every part of the planet is broadcast straight into your living room live, in HD… over and over again.
But when we look at the data, the amount of warfare and deaths by human hands are reducing globally.
What do I do to counter this barrage of negative news? I’ve stopped watching TV news. They couldn’t pay me enough money.
I get my news from selected Google News and my social feed. Try it. You’d be amazed at how much happier you’ll be.
It is Your Gift
As we celebrate our Country and our freedom at a time of such political unrest with our two-party system, I wanted to share a statement I heard recently from Derrick N. Ashong, aka DNA, that to me speaks to a growing need. A need for change.
He said:
“Making a change, making the world a better place is not only your responsibility, it is your joy, it is your blessing, it is your gift. It’s your opportunity to make your life mean something…so take it!
Who is Marianne Williamson?
“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, ‘Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous?’ Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It’s not just in some of us; it’s in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”
Have you read this before? It was written by Marianne Williamson more than twenty years ago.
Many know her as a best-selling author. Some as a phenomenal spiritual teacher. Others, like myself, as one of the thought-leaders for a new conversation in politics. Take 3 minutes to watch why Marianne is running for Congress. See why millions love her and why she is inspiring a movement for political change.
Congressman, Alan Grayson says, “Marianne Williamson has taught us that ‘playing small doesn’t serve the world.’ Every Member of Congress needs to hear those words. We all need to ‘play big,’ and create a world where each one of us is free to – in Marianne Williamson’s words – ‘let our own light shine.’ In a nation where Marianne Williamson helps to make the laws, our differences will no longer divide us; they will be cultivated and nurtured and cherished, so that every one of us can be all that he or she can be.”
Vote June 3rd for Marianne. Or tell your District 33 friends to vote. Let’s be the next generation that rises up to say enough and restores to America her creed — a government of the people, by the people, for the people.
Happy New year! Tips for the Year of the Horse
I received this yesterday from my dear loud-and-proud-Chinese girlfriend, Nancy. It has such great advice for the Chinese New Year, I had to share! Besides who doesn’t want to hear about tips for making 2014, the Year of the Green Wood Horse, as spirited as it can be?
queen of connection | Shelby L. Phillips 