Beached!

I've been living on the Central Coast of California for close to two years now.  It's radically different living here than it was living in the Silicon Valley.  There it seems everything moves at a breakneck pace and here things move in a very chillaxed way.

I believe the ocean does something to the people who live near it. The waves, salt water, and beauty are healing and meditative. The variety of colors of the sunsets and the water are magnificent, like a great painting, only real.

In the Silicon Valley you have to plan your life around the traffic patterns lest you'll spend two hours traveling a short distance of 20-30 miles.  The only traffic here I've seen regularly is coming around the bend of 101 South into Pismo Beach.

The ocean suddenly appears to your right and it's jaw dropping beauty causes one to stare.  Traffic slows to a crawl here and then inches along.  It's not troubling though because there's this expansive beauty to gaze upon while you wait.

Living in a beach town you plan your life around the ocean tides and the rising and setting of the sun.
You ask yourself when and where might I find the most beauty?  Instead of how can I avoid traffic?

I am so much more connected to Mother Nature - Mother Earth - Pachamama - here and I am grateful and LOVING it and living it up!

5 Fun & Easy Spiritual Practices

5 quick and easy spiritual practices that you can do daily:

1. Pranayama Breathing (extension of the breath)
1. Inhale through your nose for 6 seconds.
2. Exhale through your mouth for 6 seconds.
3. Do this 10 times. 
2. Practice Random Kindness
1. Pay someone a compliment (nice shirt, nice tie, love your shoes).
2. Hold the door open for the person walking in behind you or exiting from the same door in front of you.
3. Post a lovely comment to someone’s facebook wall for absolutely no reason.
3. Gratitude List
1. Stop whatever you are doing and write down 5 things you are grateful for.   (Stop reading this and do it now!)
2. Before you begin your day every morning.
3. Just before you fall asleep at night.
4. Start Your Very Own “Brag Book”
1. Carry it with you and write down every compliment you receive.
2. Refer back to brag book when you forget how completely AWESOME you are!
3. You will develop a greater awareness of the constant influx of your good.
5. Higher Power On the Hour
1. Set an alarm on your phone or in Outlook to make time for your higher power every hour on the hour for one day.
2. Stop whatever it is your are doing and make conscious contact with the Divine.
3. Get back to work!

We have a 5 point spiritual practice in Religious Science of Prayer, Meditation, Sacred Service, Circulation and Education.  I believe with the new organization we also have three additional practices being added and those are visioning, mindfulness and the creative process.  These are definitely important to be practiced within every spiritual community and in our individual lives too.

However, in order to continue to grow and expand your mind and consciousness, I believe that a balanced practice plus a variety of other practices sprinkled in will open you up to greater joy, happiness and possibility in your life.

I have discovered that when I do the exact same physical exercise daily my body becomes efficient and even though I have a killer workout routine, my body is no longer responding the way it did when I first began the routine.  Time to switch it up.  My doctor said that in the case of exercise you want your body to be inefficient because this is what causes muscles to grow and fat to burn.  I believe the same is true for Spiritual Practice.

I have also found that if I use the same shampoo in my hair over and again and then one day I switch it up, my hair responds in a wonderfully new and different way...usually a new shine with more volume.

Variety is the spice of life.  Please leave a comment here if you have additional spiritual practice ideas.

Namaste!

The Benefits of Spiritual Coaching: Clarifying Confusion

Change your thinking, change your life you heard one day.  Ok, great, you thought to yourself, I am ready.  You took CSL101, Foundations class and became a member of the Center.  Then you took the Power of Your Word course and began to use our form of affirmative prayer, praying and praying often, for yourself and others.  Ultimately, you began to spend more time consciously aware of your communion with the Divine through prayer in all areas of your life.

One of my teachers, Adyashanti, is a big proponent of meditation, and for extended periods of time too!  He once told me that meditation is easy when you’re on “the cushion,” in the privacy of your own home without the distractions of the external world.  Your REAL meditation begins “off the cushion,” out in the world. So there it is!

I have found the same to be true for prayer.  In my conscious and sacred time of communion (on the cushion) with the Divine, prayer is deliciously different.  REAL prayer begins when I am out in the world (off the cushion), still delicious and an entirely different experience.  Can I access that sacred, prayerful state in all that I think, in all that I say and in all that I do?  Even in the face of adversity?  Even in the face of THAT?  Yes, especially in the face of THAT.

Onto one of the pitfalls, or common areas of confusion that I have discovered on my own and in the lives of others who I have coached on the spiritual path.  And that is in thinking that we need only pray, and then wait.  Here’s the absurdity with that...if your prayer includes the desire for transformation in relationship, maybe you are seeking that right and perfect romantic partner, your soulmate.  So you pray and then spend your spare time sitting on the couch in front of the television or reading a book alone...thinking the soulmate is going to materialize in your living room or come knocking on your door.  I’m not saying that is not a possibility, or that it cannot happen that way.  I am saying that there may be work for you to do out in the world, off the cushion, as it were.  Such as saying yes to attend a party your friend is throwing or attending other events you are drawn to say yes to attending and then being open to the possibilities the Universe provides.  

And believe me, the Universe ALWAYS provides.

We have a saying that you may have heard in Religious Science as follows: “treat and move your feet.”  This is to say pray, and then do the work necessary to create an environment wherein your prayers may be answered.  If you wanted to grow corn, you wouldn’t plant your seeds in the carpet of your living room.

Go get ‘em!  Much Love to you on your path.