OMTimes Magazine March B 2018 Edition

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March B 2018

Cover Story 24

Debbie Ford - Your Holiness

Health & Healing 42

The Hidden Value of Therapeutic Energy Jewelry

Spirituality 48 52 56

The Mystical Meaning of Easter Stop! Put Down That Cell Phone A Heartbeat to Remember

OM Living 64 68 72 78 84

Sex and Feng Shui Conflict Resolution and the Art of Listening Cultivating a Sustainable Community Breaking Bad News A Great Dreamer

Relationships 92

Living with True Love

Metaphysics 98

Standing on the Edge of Dreams

Personal Growth 106 How to Let Go of A Fear of Rejection 110 Finding the Perfect Life Mantra

Books 116 Your Holiness - Discover the Light Within

Debbie Ford:

Your Holiness

Every generation has its thought leaders who leave an indelible mark on the world.

Born of their personal pain, experience and life lessons, these leaders rise to bring wisdom and light so that others may benefit, heal and grow.

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Debbie Ford was a beloved spiritual teacher, New York Times Best Selling Author of more than 10 books. Her first masterpiece, “The Dark Side of the Light Chasers,” transformed the lives of hundreds of thousands of people by showing them how to embrace their shadow selves and find wholeness.

Later she followed up with groundbreaking books including Spiritual Divorce, Secret of the Shadow, The Right Questions, Why Good People Do Bad Things and The Best Year of Your Life.

Debbie Ford ‘s literary legacy was thought to be completed with her transition in February 2013.

But, death was on the end of sharing wisdom for the determined Debbie Ford. Her magic continued when her beloved sister, Arielle Ford, was mystically guided to bring to fruition a book that Debbie Ford wrote some time in the last years of her earthly adventure.

Today, Arielle Ford joins us to share the story of her sister’s amazing life and afterlife.

Arielle is the Best-Selling Author of The Soulmates Secret, Wabi Sabi Love, and Turn Your Mate Into Your Soulmate.

Victor Fuhrman: Welcome, Arielle.

Arielle Ford: Hey, Victor. How are you?

Victor Fuhrman: I am wonderful, and it is so great to have you. And this is a story that must be told because we know what magic there is in life, but there’s real magic in this story.

Let’s start at the end rather than starting at the beginning. Here we are a few years after Debbie Ford ‘s transition last year, and you get a magical call from your dear family friend James Van Praagh. What message did he have for you?

Arielle Ford: Well, James had called to tell us that he had recently moved to San Diego, and he wanted my husband, Brian, and I and my mom to come see his new home. And while we were gonna do that, he would give us a reading with Debbie Ford. And of course, we said no, right?

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Victor Fuhrman: James Van Praagh offers a reading - oh, yeah.

Arielle Ford: Right, because he doesn’t do private readings anymore. So, he lives about 45 minutes north of us, so we drove up there. We sat down in his office to do this reading with Debbie, and she came through instantly. And the very first thing she said was, Arielle, you have to write a prayer book with me, to which I said no F-ing way.

I don’t want to write my own books let alone write your books, I’m not going to do it. And she was like, no, no, no, you have to do it, you have to write a prayer book with me. It’s like, Debbie, I’m not writing a prayer book with you.

And then she gave us some more messages, and then Brian’s parents came through, my dad and my stepdad came through and various relatives. And every couple of minutes, Debbie would pop up with, Arielle, you have to write a prayer book with me. Debbie forgets it ‘s not going to happen.

And then at one point, James said to me, who’s Minnie, she Omtimes.com

keeps talking to me about Minnie. Nobody knows this, but Beau, Debbie Ford ‘s son, has a half-sister named Minnie, and Minnie’s not even her real name. That’s just what we call her. And he goes, oh, okay, that makes sense. She’s saying that she wants you to tell Beau that when he was with Minnie, she was there, too.

Now, what was crazy about all this is that Minnie lives in London, and she had just happened to be in San Diego the week before to visit Beau.

I was like blown away. It’s like, oh, my God, James is even better than I thought he was. He’s so amazing. So, the reading’s going on and on and on, and Debbie’s still hocking me, you’ve got to write a prayer book with me. I realized that she was not going to let the session end until I agreed. I just said to James, I don’t know how we’re gonna do this, I will figure out how to write a prayer book with you.

We were driving home, and I’m tortured. My God, how are we gonna do this? Brian said, I spent so much time with your sister driving her to her doctor’s

appointments and her chemo appointments, and I remember her telling me that she wrote some prayers. Why don’t you call Julie and see if Julie has copies of any of them?

Now, Julie was Debbie Ford ‘s right-hand everything - the CEO of her institute, her caregiver at the end of her life, you know, just everything. She’s like family to us.

I get home, and I write Julie this really short email that says, hey, Jules, do you have copies of any prayers that Debbie Ford ever wrote. And she writes me back, and she says, oh, I can do even better than that. She wrote an entire book on prayers called Your Holiness. I’ve attached it.

and Marianne’s editor. And I start to say the word prayer to me, he stops me, and he says, oh, my God, Arielle, he goes, the last four years, I’ve been feeling so guilty. Your sister always wanted to write a prayer book, and I always dissuaded her not to do it. I told her she needed to stay in her own lane and not to write a prayer book.

I said, okay, well, you can stop feeling guilty right now. Check your inbox. I just sent you the book.

Well, within days, HarperOne bought the book, and all I had to write was a five-page forward that describes the story I’ve just shared. And the book is now on sale.

I’m not freaked out and blown away because I’ve been her one and only literary agent.

Victor Fuhrman: That’s an amazing story. Obviously, you guys led magical lives.

How is it possible that my sister wrote a book that I knew nothing about?

Let’s talk about the magic that led up to this point and the continuing magic. Please share your early memories of Debbie Ford. What was she like as a child?

So, then I pick up the phone, and I call her editor at HarperOne. And he’s not only her editor, but He’s also my editor, he’s James Van Praagh’s editor, he’s Deepak

Arielle Ford: Well, she was a fat little thing. Even though she Omtimes.com

grew up to be a scrawny, skinny string bean, she was a tubby little toddler. And her nickname was Sarah Bernhard because she was always a drama queen.

She was always making a fuss.

And as she got to be about four or five years old, she became the leader of the pack in the neighborhood. Debbie Ford was like the pied piper. Wherever she went, all the other little kids wanted to follow.

So, she was always very engaging and fun to be with and funny and stubborn and difficult but very cute, really cute.

Like, she was my favorite toy until she got to be very verbal, at which point we fought a lot.

Victor Fuhrman: And what was your relationship like as teens?

Arielle Ford: Not good. She was three years younger, and she always wanted to hang out with my friends and me. And of course, we didn’t want her anywhere near us. I was always locking her out of my room, and she would do things like she would borrow my clothes.

Every once in a while, she would like to kick down my bedroom Omtimes.com

door because she wanted to get in. So, we did not really get along too well when we were teenagers.

Victor Fuhrman: Did she show any signs of any interest in spirituality at a young age?

Arielle Ford: Zero, none. No, she was a party animal, and she liked to get dressed up and go to nightclubs. And as young as the age of 12, she was doing drugs and hanging out at nightclubs.

So, she had a wild and crazy life.

Victor Fuhrman: You’ve said, if you had to describe Debbie Ford in one word, that word would be a seeker. What were the different stages of seeking, in her 20s, for example, 30s and 40s?

Arielle Ford: Well, the seeking part started after she got sober. So, she was a drug addict for about a dozen years.

And when she was in her late 20s, she went to a variety of treatment centers, and the first three didn’t work at all. She’d get there for about 10 days, start to feel pretty good, realize that she didn’t think she needed any more treatment or that she should be hanging out with the

losers in the treatment center, and she’d check herself out.

But, when she got to the fourth treatment center, and she got to day 10, she realized by that point that, if she didn’t stick it out, if she didn’t stay, she was gonna die. When she got to day 10, which was usually her day to bolt treatment centers, she locked herself in the bathroom of the center and got down on her hands and knees. In spite of the fact that the floor was filthy and stinky, and she was a clean freak, and just began to cry hysterically and to beg God for help to find a way to stick it out and get clean and sober so that she wouldn’t die young.

that moment?

Arielle Ford: I don’t really know. We never talked about it. We were raised Jewish in a conservative synagogue, so we went to Hebrew school, we got Bat mitzvahed, we went to high holy day services, which we tried to sneak out of as much as possible. Debbie Ford liked being Jewish. She liked the rituals. She didn’t mind it so much. I consider myself a gastronomic Jew. I’m only in it for the food. I describe myself as a Jewish Christian Hindu Buddhist Pagan, not necessarily in that order.

But, as Debbie got older and got more on her path, she really embraced Judaism, she became very close to a Chabad rabbi after she had her son and actually took him on a trip to Israel with her and 200 other people maybe nine months before she died.

And while she was praying, she had an awakening. And for the first time, she began to feel a sense of peace and a sense of possibility, and she said even a little joy and excitement that she could make it through one more day. And that was really the beginning of her seeking.

That was the start of her path to sobriety, which altered the course of her life.

Victor Fuhrman: So, she’s recovering from her drug addiction, what was next on her path?

Victor Fuhrman: What was her relationship with God before

Arielle Ford: Debbie had dropped out of high school. So, Omtimes.com

as she was really starting to explore what it would be like to be sane and emotionally healthy and healed from addiction.

I was sharing information with her, Deepak tapes and Wayne Dyer tapes, literally those cassette tapes. And she decided to get her GED and then go to college, and she got a degree from JFK University in transpersonal psychology.

And I remember her telling me one day about three years into her sobriety that she now understood that the body was capable of fully healing from just about anything. People could have terminal cancer and then come back and go into total remission and their cells could be healed. Why couldn’t that also be true for addiction?

She was studying the work of Carl Jung, and she discovered what he had to say about the shadow, which she liked to call the dark side. She found it to be gifts and embraces all the negative emotions of anger, fear, guilt, shame, everything, and what could that possibly mean for her life. While she was simultaneously learning to embrace her good qualities, her Omtimes.com

light side, her loving, generous, compassionate nature.

This became the basis of what she was interested in for her own self-healing. And at that time, she was working, and her work was that she did witness prep. Trial consultants would hire her to spend time with their clients that needed to go on the witness stand and show up as believable and authentic. And Debbie Ford had a real knack for transforming them.

So, that was her day job. And at night, she was going to, school, and she was studying every kind of self-help thing known to man and really dedicated to healing her physically, emotionally, psychologically and spiritually.

Victor Fuhrman: Now, in her Dark Side of the Light Chasers, her groundbreaking first Best Seller, she wrote about that process of unmasking and embracing our shadow selves.

How did she do that with her own shadow?

Arielle Ford: Well, the first shadow she embraced was when she was taking a leadership and speaking

workshop, and the instructor said Debbie Ford got up and spoke, and then the instructor said to her, Debbie Ford, you know, you’re a real bitch.

Debbie was thinking to herself, well, I know that, but how does she know that. Debbie was really ashamed that this woman had called her out in front of the whole class and said she was a bitch.

nasty, angry bitch part of you that is what we see now. So, that was like step one on the path for her.

Victor Fuhrman: So, we’re talking a little bit about the shadow work that Debbie Ford did, she helped hundreds of thousands of people transform their pain into their best possible lives. Why do you think she was so masterful at what she did?

Then the instructor said to her, well, can you see that there’s anything positive about being a bitch. Like, what is the benefit?

Debbie thought about it, one of her other jobs was she liked to flip houses. She was great at remodeling houses. And she said, well, it’s really a benefit when the contractors aren’t doing the job that I can go in there and be a bitch and call them out and light a fire under them. That’s, you know, that’s a real benefit of being a bitch.

Arielle Ford: Oh, wow. She was just born to teach? She really saw what was possible in her own life, and she wanted to make sure that anybody else who wanted to be freed from the tyranny of their own critical mind, that she knew she could help them. She had the tools.

And the instructor said to her, yes, it is. So, you can find a way to find all the gifts of being a bitch and embrace that. When you’re speaking, we see the fierce part of you that’s so useful, but we don’t see sort of the

Victor Fuhrman: I had the pleasure only of meeting her once when she was teaching here in New York several years ago, and I was really impressed, not only with her ability to cut through the chase and get

And she was not a kind or sweet teacher. She was rigorous. She didn’t put up with any BS. She would really get in your face and tell you what was so.

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right to the heart of what happens inside of people but also her warmth. She was a very warm woman.

Arielle Ford: Yeah, she was warm, she was funny, she was friendly. But, when she was teaching, you don’t want to mess with her.

Victor Fuhrman: That’s beautiful. You and Debbie Ford used to have a website called Ford Sisters, and you were known as the Metaphysical Angels. What a wonderful title.

Who led who on the path of enlightenment?

Arielle Ford: It was really a joint process because Debbie Ford was in her 12 step programs. She was already sober at least a year when I moved to LA, and I was already interested in a lot of this stuff, but we were taking different paths. But, we would often compare notes.

So, it was sort of a parallel track.

She was in South Florida. I was in Los Angeles. Then we both moved to San Diego in 1994.

Deepak Chopra was sort of the catalyst for all of that because Debbie Ford moved because Omtimes.com

she had gotten married, and her husband at the time, Dan, lived here in San Diego. I was working with Deepak, and he had just moved to San Diego to open the first Chopra Center.

So, I was down here all the time until the point where I realized I should be living here, too.

And it was actually Deepak that gave her her first big break because I took Debbie Ford to his house for lunch one day, and he asked her, he said, well, what kind of work do you do.

And she explained her witness prep work that she was doing and how she got people to transform and show up in a more responsible, cohesive way.

And he said to her, he said, you know what, I have 12 people working for me right now that could really use this.

Why don’t you take them for a weekend, and let’s see what happens?

Debbie Ford made up this course, and she presented to his staff for a weekend.

On Monday morning, he called her.

He said: I don’t know what you did to transform these people, but you need to give it a name and start teaching it here at the Chopra Center.

And that was the start of her career.

Victor Fuhrman: How did she empower you to create your own path as the bestselling author, especially in the field of soulmates?

Arielle Ford: What happened was I had decided one morning when I was 43 years old that it was time for me to find my soulmate and get married.

the story of how she manifested her soulmate. This is like completely out of the blue.

So, I stand up and I tell the story as best as I can remember it. I think I spoke for about 45 minutes. And when it was over, about 150 people rushed the stage saying, I want to do that, where’s the book, I need the book, I need to do that.

Debbie Ford said, yeah, you need to share this information, people want this. And I was: “Oh, my God, I don’t want to write a book.” Maybe I’ll create an internet product.

And I looked at my past, and I saw how I created this hugely successful career and just decided to use every manifestation technique I knew to manifest a soulmate. And it worked, and as you know, worked well.

So, I created this thing called the Soulmate Kit, which is no longer available, but at the time, it was a bunch of audios and a workbook and had step by step instructions for manifesting your soulmate. And eventually, HarperOne saw it, and they said, hey, we’ll give you a lot of money if you turn this Soulmate Kit into a book.

And one day, I was on one of Debbie Ford ‘s cruises. She had I think 200 of her coaches. She said, oh, I want my sister Arielle to come up on stage and share

So, that was the genesis of The Soulmate Secret, which turned out to be a big Best Seller in 40 countries and 21 languages and still, thanks God, continues to Omtimes.com

sell well today. So, that was the start of my career.

Victor Fuhrman: This is really the story of two sisters who were a team, wasn’t it?

Arielle Ford: Yeah, we just had sort of unusual ways. And what’s really funny is that I had a book called Hot Chocolate for the Mystical Lover: 101 True Stories How Soulmates Met and Married that came out on the same day as Debbie Ford ‘s book Spiritual Divorce.

And now today, what’s really happened, especially with the unearthing of her book Your Holiness and, you know, really being a prescriptive book to teach people how to connect to the Divine and to their inner godliness and holiness, we’re really talking about the same thing but from different angles.

Victor Fuhrman: It’s often the case that we must learn how to let go of old relationships before we can forge new and beautiful, loving relationships.

Arielle Ford: I was texting with Marianne Williamson the other night, and I was Omtimes.com

telling her, now that Debbie Ford ‘s been out of her body for five years, that in so many ways, we’re closer than we’ve ever been. And she said, yeah, she said, someone once talked to Yoko Ono about that, and Yoko said, when John was in his body, we were together 90 percent of the time, and now I have him 100 percent of the time.

Victor Fuhrman: Debbie Ford fought this long and valiant battle with a rare form of cancer.

In fact, when her doctor told her to get her affairs in order and prepare for hospice, she used some choice words to tell him what to do. Please share memories of Debbie Ford ‘s path toward transition.

Arielle Ford: Well, she basically told the doctor who said, you know, we’re putting you in hospice, she said, F off, nobody is going to tell me when I’m going to die, I never want to see you again, and she threw him off her team. And she went on to live two and a half more years.

And part of that was her pure stubbornness. Part of it was that Wayne Dyer took her to see John of God several times.

Part of it was, she just wouldn’t give up. So, she did every experimental treatment that was available to her. She did all kinds of alternative and energetic work. You did a lot of Reiki on her. She was open to all of that.

And it wasn’t until maybe seven weeks before she actually died, that she went into hospice, when her doctor who she loved so much, said to her, we’re at the end of the journey, okay? This is the end. There’s nothing more we can do.

It’s time to wrap your head around the end is near. And I remember, we were sitting in her hospital room, and she was going, oh, this is just so heavy because she lived in this belief that there would be a miracle, that there’d be a miracle cure or a miracle healing and that she wasn’t going to really die. And now, the person that she trusted most in the medical community who was also a very spiritual being said to her this is it.

But, she was funny as can be as she was on her deathbed. Like, I remember I fell asleep in her bed one night, and she couldn’t

move around very much, and I felt something poking me, and it was Debbie Ford poking me saying, you’re snoring, you’re snoring, stop snoring. And I said, okay, okay, I’ll sit up. And then she said, come here, I must tell you something. I’m like, what.

She said to take more vacations.

Victor Fuhrman: I remember seeing her with Oprah Winfrey on Super Soul Sunday before her transition, sharing her life story and her experience in transition.

How important was it for her to get this message out?

Arielle Ford: Well, she didn’t want to. So, she really kept it a secret how sick she was from as many people as she could. But, of course, at that point, you could just look at her and know that she was very, very sick. She didn’t want people feeling sorry for her because she was a teacher. She didn’t want that energy coming at her.

Really, at the end of her life, she even said to me one day: “You know, this past year, even though I’ve spent most of it in bed, I spend my life in pain almost every day; this has been the best year of my Omtimes.com

life. I really feel like I have completed my mission.”

Victor Fuhrman: Let’s share what message does Debbie Ford share with readers in Your Holiness?

Arielle Ford: That prayer can heal you. It can heal you physically, emotionally, spiritually, psychologically, it can heal you of addictions and that it can be easy to do and that it’s not that hard. And the way she’s written this book is all the chapters are short. They’re just a couple of pages. It’s filled with original prayers that she wrote, prayers

by Emmett Fox and Marianne Williamson and Rumi, and it’s sort of like, you know, if you’re in a recovery program, this could be your add-on on how to stay inspired on a daily basis to heal whatever it is needs healing.

Victor Fuhrman: Is Debbie Ford continuing to work and seek from the other side?

Arielle Ford: Absolutely. I just had a reading with James the

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other day, and she was trying to explain that she’s learning all these new things, and she’s not just in heaven, but she’s in other dimensions, and she has new understandings. And we talked about what she’s learned about prayer and what she’s learned about love since she passed.

And one of the things we’re gonna be offering book buyers is a 30-minute video of this interview that I did with her via James where she talks about all of this. So, that will be available at Debbie Ford ford.com for book buyers.

Victor Fuhrman: And what’s next for Arielle Ford?

Arielle Ford: You know, my focus right now is just making sure everybody who is out on the planet knows about this book. I’m not much of a longterm planner, you know, I’m easy to find. I’m at soulmatesecret. com, and I have lots of freebies on there for anybody who wants to know about finding love or keeping love.

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THE GAME CHANGERS A New Brand of visionaries, innovators and leaders that changed how we look and Participate in the world.

Health & Wellness

Innovative new approaches to Healing as well as holistic methods for dealing with health issues and personal growth

The act to adorn the human body is ancient practice, and old as mankind itself. Men have always felt the need to decorate and beautify themselves. The earliest adornments were made Omtimes.com

of animal bones and teeth, shells, stones, and wood and symbolized status, power, or mysticism. Some of the jewelry, besides being a kind of ornament, are related to the social role of each individual in their community, is a way of expressing and maintaining their cultural tradition. The purpose of this type of adornment is to create a sign, a brand capable of differentiating an individual from the others.

In each historical period, the characteristics of jewels, their artistic expressions the arts and their meaning have been transformed. For instance, the art of Ancient Egypt is filled with symbols and mystical significance.

Nowadays people prepare for the days of partying and celebrations, putting on special clothes, embellishments and beautifying themselves with jewelry. Despite the social trend, many people use

jewelry and other artistic artifacts reproductions to emulate the intent and the functions they represent.

The use of Mystic jewelry in daily life is also one of the most popular activities, and it is inspired by the sacred traditions everywhere.

Much Ethnic Jewelry even withholds a magic perception, expressing the myths, symbols and healing practices of many civilizations.

Many Energetic pieces of jewelry are not only used in ritualistic or ceremonial practices but because they represent many aspects of their cultural and religious traditions that incite their use as a form of channeling their spiritual and healing properties. Using Jewelry with intention.

In Arab culture, for instance, jewels have been regarded as possessing magical powers.

Turquoise stone, for example, would have the power to

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avoid the evil eye. A famous Arab story says that turquoise would have the physical ability to glow when the wearer is happy and to become opaque when the person is sad.

Another popular myth would be that the little bells saw so often in various Arabic jewels would protect its user, with the noise they emit, scaring away a legion of evil spirits.

The Phoenician influence on Sacred Jewelry Phoenicians - the great navigators The Phoenicians, the Nomadic people who settled in the region of present-day Lebanon, were merchants and great navigators, which helped spread different cultures, traditions, and information among the many various peoples of the ancient world with whom they established commerce. Their geographical position was of great value since it was located in the crossing of the leading commercial routes between the

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Mediterranean of the West and the vast territories of the east.

Thanks to their robust nautical skills, they reigned over the Mediterranean Sea. They brought and mingled among each civilization they worked with, not only material riches, but also cultural, artistic and spiritual riches.

Thus, their artistic productions, as well as the goldsmithery, to which they have added several techniques. Through trade, their art expanded, influenced and was influenced by distant lands such as Greek and Etruscan, and in turn reaching as far north as Africa.

We can spot for instance that in Phoenicians jewels carried elements of diverse cultures.

The Phoenicians not only added features to their art but assimilated them in their entirety, reproducing them impeccably. They stood out not just in the art of jewelry.

They worked with mastery of glass, wood, weaving, dyeing

techniques, ceramics, and metallurgy.

In the Middle Ages Jewelry as an art form suffered great religious influence (theocentric).

The ecclesiastical jewels gained strength, being much-used scapulars, crucifixes, and reliquaries used by both sexes.

The first societies of goldsmiths appeared, who settled in guilds (corporations of silversmiths).

The jewels had a powerful symbolism, not only religious but also of status and class division.

There were even laws specialized or etiquette for the use of jewelry.

With the advent of the circumnavigation and the discoveries of the Americas, Europe was supplied with gold, silver, and gems. It was customary that the Royal Families of Europe would wear several rings in the same hand,

as well as many necklaces. Also, they were known to use as pendants, earrings, brooches, and jewelry for hair and hat. Hats adornments were made of enameled gold, with mythological or religious motifs.

Jewelry on Magical Circles It is no secret that some ornaments, charms and many trinkets were used as protection devices, such as amulets, talismans, or as energetic batteries. Many of them use the combined power of symbol +materials such as carving sigils, or sacred geometric shapes into semi-precious stones and crystals. Some of this jewelry can emulate and force a connection with specific energy vibrations one may be pursuing or may be willing to bring into their lives.

Many Secret societies use their symbols on their decorated medals, invoking not only the power of their organization but also evoking the primeval energies they may represent.

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Simply Spiritual To perceive reality from a different perspective is to open oneself to the wonders and unlimited wealth of creation. Simply Spiritual offers the opportunity to visit new places, new methods, and different ways to perceive the vast human knowledge of our Universe.

The Mystical meaning of

Easter, in the Catholic tradition, means the “passage of God in life;” in another instance, it refers to the “death of Jesus,” the Christ of the Age of Pisces.

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Easter

But what many people do not know is that the Easter has a mystical meaning that goes beyond the Catholic concept of the resurrection of Christ and the Passover of Judaism, which commemorates the liberation of the people of Israel from Egypt. For the Theosophist and Russian writer Helena Blavatsky, Easter is the spiritual season of purification and liberation.

The symbolic language of the crucifixion is the death of the old paradigm; resurrection is a leap into a whole new way of thinking.

–Deepak Chopra In addition to the Christian interpretation of the date, the death of Jesus also contains different mystical symbols which we would explore later.

Historian, the researcher, and holistic therapist, Helena Gerenstadt, teaches that the Christic way of initiation was represented in the lifetime of Christ Jesus.

“It is outlined during Easter, the only holy day determined by the stars. It always falls on the first Sunday after the

first full moon of spring (in the Northern Hemisphere), after the equinox. The esoteric tradition reveals that only the highest initiates were able to partake of the mysteries and energies that occur at the equinox. For most people, including the learners of the mysteries and the disciples, the divine energies of the equinox were celebrated by “reflection” on the day of the full moon. We live in new times when these energies are available to those who want to receive them. “ According to her, Easter is the ideal time to get in touch with energies that transfigure life.

“It is a period supervised by Archangel Raphael, guardian of the Holy Grail. At this time of year, your mission is to help sharpen our senses so that the soul can see and know what still needs to be done.

Esoterically, Easter reflects the initiatory tradition of the manifestation of the Spirit of God among men, a very sacred occasion. It is a unique opportunity to celebrate with God and His Angelic Hosts. It Omtimes.com

is necessary to have a great spiritual vibration to merit the divine presence and also to withstand the vibratory charge.

Otherwise, we will not be able to “enjoy” the opportunity because we are not receptive, open and resonant to the Lord’s graces.

It is interesting to note that Easter is a religious celebration of the beginning of the New Year Astrological which is also the magical year, used by the ancient shamans, druids, pagans, magicians, and esotericists of all time. In the Esoteric Tradition, respect and veneration in the Equinoxes and Solstices are striking and always indicates an honest approach to Truth, True Power, Wisdom, Mercy, and Peace.

Easter is a celebration that can help us in our ever-upward spiral. It is a time of grand angelic celebration when we can connect more fully with the heavenly messengers to resurrect our lives. At that time there is a call for the incarnate masters of our time to awaken to their tasks and purposes.

It is a time when the energy of music and flowers can be Omtimes.com

discovered by people who are sensitive to it. It’s a time for great celebration, expansion and no regrets, “concludes Helena Gerenstadt.

Easter is then related to the Esoteric New Year and in the Northern Hemisphere and also marks the beginning of Spring.

It is in the spring that Nature, the feminine aspect of God, is renewed, awakened, reborn for life. It is when the rabbit comes out of its lair with its abundant litter (symbolism of fertility and beauty). Everyone knows that rabbit does not put an egg, this is another esoteric symbolism added to the party. The egg also comes from its symbolism linked to the principle of life, to the potentiality of an existence.

It is symbolically in the spring that life comes to life. An egg is the hope of a new life that will begin soon.

In ancient times they were hand-painted eggs of birds with esoteric motifs and ritualistically consumed Diversity. The resurrection of Jesus is celebrated in different ways around the world.

In Belgium and France, the bells are not played between Good Friday and Easter Sunday because of a legend that they (the bells) fly to Rome and when they return they drop eggs for everyone. Belgian children produce straw nests in the hope that the rabbit will leave lots of eggs.

In Bulgaria, after Mass on Holy Thursday, boiled eggs are painted, and paschal bread, “kolache” or “kozunak” are made. The bread and eggs are blessed. Each of the family picks up an egg and beats the eggs of others; he who gets the whole egg will be lucky during the year.

The Hindus make the Holi festival to reminisce about the emergence of the god Krishna. At that time, the population dances, play flutes, and make special foods to receive friends. It is typical for the owner of the house to mark the guests’ foreheads with colored powder.

“The very first Easter taught us this: that life never ends, and love never dies.”

–Kate McGahan

The Meditative week Wednesday - Day of betrayal and Judah’s Guilt. The meditations revolve around the transformation of our Egos, the death of the lower desires and the internal purification as the way to reach the greater light.

Thursday - Last supper.

It is time to meditate on the transmutation, and transubstantiation of matter to express it in a higher way.

Friday - Crucifixion. Here one learns to carry the cross because each being is responsible for his life, its own attitudes and energies. The inferior is renounced in favor of the superior. The recommended exercises are silence, fasting, and contemplative prayer.

Saturday. The veils between life and death, between the physical and the spiritual, have been broken forever.

Sunday. From darkness to light. It is a time of full and accurate communion with the angelic hierarchy. The theme is rebirth and reawakening to a new Light.

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“Stop! Put Down That Cell Phone” Bu John Holland

I’ve often written about how life takes over, and how technology starts to rule our lives and pulls us away from our soul, that inside quiet place where we can find

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direction and guidance. We become more focused on our outside world and forget about our ‘inside world.’ For many of us, we get up, look at our emails, Facebook, or texts, we eat our breakfast, we go to work, we come home with just enough time to wind down and sleep - before we do it all again the next day.

For sure, if you like a fast-paced life, it can be exhilarating for a while, before it eventually becomes exhausting. You must stop at some point, and ask yourself who’s driving who - and for what? Eventually, it will feel like you’re in the passenger seat and someone else is driving.

One day, you’ll wake up and realize that the monotony of life has taken over. This is where this saying rings true for many: “Are you living life?” or… “Is life living you?”

It’s time to take a break and reverse the roles. Your ego is the part of you that runs the predictable side of your life, keeps you on the straight and narrow, the safe

path, the familiar path, and the one you’ve traveled over and over. Occasionally, it’s important to let go and take that unfamiliar path, even if it seems unnerving, adventurous, or scary. It’s okay to try, and I encourage you to do it! It’s about releasing control and let the universe take over – even if it’s just for a while. You may find, that you take an entirely different direction from what you thought you’d laid out previously to conform to family expectation, society, and convention.

So, by letting go of your control, and letting your soul take over the navigation, you will find all sorts of hidden bonuses along the way, and of course, you will have the guiding power of something very special to help … yes, your intuition, which is there to help you with the shortcuts, team you up with the right people and situations that are out there to help you increase your levels of joy, personal fulfillment, and live a healthy balanced life.

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So, if this advice is resonating with you, maybe it’s time to stop, and follow the flow of where your soul and intuition are taking you. Sometimes it is right to take control, to grab those oars and steer towards a destination or goal, but occasionally it’s okay to let go of the oars and see where you’re guided. You may be quite surprised and happy where you end up!

JOHN’S LESSON Positively begin your day. It’s always your choice as to what kind of day you want to have.

Even before your foot touches the floor, try smiling. You don’t need a reason. By just smiling, you’ll positively begin your day. Also, set an intention for the day in your mind.

Whether it’s: peace, gratitude, calmness, joy, etc. All thought creates reality, so by starting off your day in this way, you’ll attract more positive vibes and opportunities.

Trust your intuition. If you have felt drawn to attend a workshop or class, to have lunch with a certain person

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at work, or nudged to visit a place although you’ve never been there before, then I suggest you follow your instinct! Your intuition is trying to get your attention, and if the same thought keeps coming up, that is NOT your imagination!

Reach for Your Inner Technology. Before your check that text or hop onto social media, just pause for a moment, close your eyes, and take a few good slow breaths. As you do this, put your hands on your heart and simply repeat a couple of times: “I AM a soul.” I’ve discovered when I do this, it brings me back to the present, and calms me quite quickly. So how about instead of reaching for your phone, iPad, (OuterTechnology) - reach for your (Inner-Technology). By doing so, you’ll begin to connect with your own soul and your inner-guidance. By doing this, it gives you the chance to step back from their life, at least for a little while.

Live a Soul-filled life!

Conscious Dating Makes all The Difference

"Real Spiritual Love " ASCENDIGHEARTS.COM

A Heartbeat to Remember

While checking out at a grocery store I noticed that a cashier had an unusual tattoo on her forearm. “What is that tattoo?”

I asked Ciani. She smiled. “It’s a copy of the EKG of my Omtimes.com

grandmother’s last heartbeat.”

Suddenly the checkout process faded to background. I wanted to hear more.

“I loved my grandma very much, and I was with her in the hospital at her last moment,” Ciani went on. “As a memory of our connection, I asked the nurse for a printout of her EKG, and I had it turned into a tattoo. Whenever I look at it, it reminds me of her and I feel close to her.”

As I drove home, I couldn’t get the image out of my mind.

It jogged me to consider the value of one heartbeat. Our heart beats about 100,000 times per day and 34 million times in a year. We generally go about our business taking our heartbeats for granted. Yet I’m sure that as Ciani sat with her grandma on the threshold of her passing, she and her family would have given anything for those heartbeats

to go on. In that moment one heartbeat meant everything.

One day all of our hearts will stop beating, but while they still pulse we would do well to count them all as precious.

Every heartbeat represents God’s intention that you have a purpose in the world and a reason to be alive. While many of us believe we are here to achieve a notable act or make lots of money, our real mission is based on the quality of our relationships. At the end of our life it is not our time in the office we will remember, but the meaningful moments with our family and loved ones. Let’s not wait until our dear ones are gone or almost gone to honor and celebrate them. Let’s tell them, “I love you” and do things to demonstrate that love while they are with us.

You might believe that there are things you have to do that are necessarily boring or annoying, and you just have to put up

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with them and wait until you have some free time to enjoy yourself. Yet if your intention is to live fully, you can turn any situation into a platform for aliveness through connection.

During a shuttle bus ride from an airport to a rental car outlet, I found the van driver to be delightful. This woman was super welcoming, upbeat, and helpful. She joked with the customers and made the ride a pleasure rather than drudgery. I was so moved by the driver that I sent her manager an e-mail complimenting her. The next time I arrived at that airport I encountered the same driver, and I told her I had sent a positive note on her behalf.

Hearing that, she lit up and told me she had printed out that e-mail, framed it, and hung it on the wall of her home. The e-mail took me but a few minutes to write, but its effect extended far beyond words.

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A Course in Miracles tells us that the quickest route to enlightenment is to make the most of our interpersonal connections. While being with people can be annoying, it can also be exhilarating and healing. A Jewish friend of mine went to the airport to pick up a revered rabbi who was giving a presentation at the local synagogue. As the two were driving toward the exit of the airport parking lot, the driver was trying to decide whether to go through an automatic toll payment lane or a lane staffed by a person. The rabbi told my friend, “Let’s go through the lane with a person.

The Creator gave us each other as gifts to enhance our lives, and we must never miss the opportunity to connect.”

The next time I went back to the grocery store I asked Ciani how she liked her job. “It’s pretty good,” she answered, “but sometimes I get bored.”

“Is there any way your job could be more exciting?” I asked.

She thought for a moment.

“Not that I can think of. It just is what it is.”

I told her that I was really impressed by her story about her tattoo and I wanted to write an article about it, hopefully to inspire others to value their meaningful relationships. I asked her if I could use her story for that purpose.

“Now that would be exciting!” she replied.

When we do things meaningful to us, we set into motion a ripple of positive events that moves everyone it touches. Ciani’s grandmother loved her immensely, which stimulated Ciani to get the tattoo as a memento. I was touched by seeing the tattoo and inspired to write about it.

The idea of the article uplifted Ciani and suddenly her job become exciting. Perhaps you reading this will inspire you to value your relationships and express your love to someone or take a mundane situation and lift it to soul reward.

A Course in Miracles tells us that when you do an act of kindness, it may go on to touch thousands of people you never even meet. Behold the value of one heartbeat.

Alan Cohen is the author of many popular inspirational books, including the bestselling A Course in Miracles Made Easy. Become a certified professional life coach through Alan’s popular Life Coach Training beginning Sept 1. For more information about this program, Alan’s books and videos, free daily inspirational quotes, online courses, and weekly radio show, visit www. alancohen.com.

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OM Living For those living a more Conscious Lifestyle

Sex and Feng Shui

by Kartar Diamond I am often asked if Feng Shui knowledge can improve a person’s sex life. The answer is YES, and it can do so in a variety of ways.

1) There are house types where the primary energy indicates

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loneliness. When that factor gets reduced, with remedies, it frees the occupant to pursue or attract a relationship. It can also improve an existing relationship. This, in turn, can enhance the sexual aspect of communication.

2) Other house types have powerful influences which make people argumentative.

This kind of energy can make an existing relationship so stressful and defensive that it undermines the desire for sex.

When these physical irritants are removed, it increases the likelihood of having a harmonious attraction between people.

The negative energies that I have eluded to exist in some detectable forms.

• The structure or design can cause someone to feel isolated, angry or threatened.

• The colors and lighting of a room can create a subliminal atmosphere.

• The hidden magnetic field which must be remedied with 5-element theory can reveal when occupants will have a variety of relationship problems.

(What you place in a room makes a difference, such as whether a person needs a metal or wood bed frame.)

• Time cycle that the house may be experiencing.

Sometimes the house is in a lousy year or several-year period making it difficult for relationships.

• Having Personal incompatibility with the house. (When your house is unsupportive of you personally).

3) Some house types are simply better or more conducive to relationships, sex, and romance. These houses possess energies which make it easy to attract sexual encounters–so much so– that

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married couples may need to use a Feng Shui remedy in order to TONE DOWN those impulses and not end up in outside affairs. Example: a house built after 1984, that faces Southwest (the whole structure), will have energy in its very center which implies that a woman could have a lot of boyfriends.

People continually ask, “What does a house that is good for romance look like?” The answer is that these house types do not “look” sexier than others. It is the hidden magnetic field which reveals the personality of the house.

This is a mathematical formula.

To contrast, one house type that often contributes to loneliness is the one which faces South and built in the 1970’s. Depending on where the bedroom is located in this house, its over-riding influence for divorce could be powerful.

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Other scenarios regarding sex and relationships can be predicted as well: • House types where one or both spouses cheat on each other.

• House types where there is promiscuous sex.

•H ouse types where the people are both lonely AND very sexual at the same time. I have seen this house type, where past occupants were known to be involved in prostitution or pornography. And interestingly, consistent with this house type are energies which imply legal problems and blood-related diseases.

It goes without saying that house types which are suitable for sexual opportunity are often easy to conceive children in, while the “lonely” house will usually be inhabited by couples with fertility problems.

Conflict Resolution and the Art of Listening

by Carl Greer, PhD, PsyD

In working as an analyst and as a clinical psychologist, I’ve learned that it’s best to listen, listen, listen, and then listen some more before responding.

This course of action is especially wise whenever the person I am Omtimes.com

working with is upset. When it comes to conflict resolution strategies, at the top of the list is the art of listening.

Listening does not mean remaining silent while being focused on what you want to say next rather than what the other person is saying. Listening means being fully present as you take in what a person says verbally and nonverbally. Don’t think about what you might say next, or try to anticipate what they will say or do. Don’t let your mind wander.

Good listening also requires tuning in to the other person’s tone of voice, words, and body language. Their mood and hidden thoughts and feelings can be conveyed in subtle ways. Can you listen with all your senses?

In martial arts, there are two important concepts, kime and ma. Ma is keeping the right distance, and kime is focus. I have applied ma and kime in my psychological and analytical practices, and in business dealings as well. By not being too quick to engage someone who appears to be

angry or upset, you practice ma. Conflicts can arise quickly if you do not take the time to listen at the right distance and you engage too soon, while the person you are dealing with is emotionally overwrought.

It is a challenge to keep your distance from another person’s anger and to listen intently without becoming emotionally involved yourself. Good listening involves ma and kime (focusing on what you are hearing). When you practice kime, you react to what you are hearing in a timely and appropriate way: the right response at the right time, with just the right amount of words.

Like everyone, you have an aspect of consciousness called the observing self, which can unemotionally witness another person’s sarcasm and aggressive or defensive stance without generating aggressiveness or defensiveness within you. It allows you to see when you are not being threatened and to remember that another person’s behavior and emotions may have little if anything to do with you.

As you focus on taking in Omtimes.com

cues about another person’s state of being, feelings, and thoughts, the observing self keeps you feeling steady on your feet, grounded in the awareness that you may not have all the information you need in order to know what is actually happening versus what appears to be happening.

When I was first learning martial arts, I was taught that if you remain loose until the last moment before making an assertive move, tightening only at that point, your action will have greater impact. If you are tight, you will get tired out and will be slow—and when you make your “move,” it will have less impact. If you are too loose, and don’t tighten up at the right moment, your move won’t have much force.

Similarly, when someone seems to be upset with you, remain loose, listening in a focused way. When the time comes to speak, focus: Your words will have greater impact. After you have spoken, become loose again, listening carefully.

Then, when the other person is finished, acknowledge what has been said. You might

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repeat their words back to them, and think or say, “You may have a point there.” Leave a pause before saying what you feel you need to say. Your focus on what is happening in the moment as each moment unfolds before you opens the eyes of your observing self. It restrains your ego, the aspect of your awareness that wants to defend you and fight back.

If you are too distant from the other person, not listening and not focused on what is being said in the present, your wandering mind may miss something important that is being communicated. It is natural to want to step back from someone who is crying or showing emotions that make you feel uncomfortable—or you may prematurely try to comfort them, before they have had the opportunity to fully express themselves. If you can remain present, observing as they speak, you will be at just the right distance to truly hear what they are saying. You will improve your listening skills and be able to pick up on the word, the inflection, the gesture, or the tone of voice

that tells you what you might otherwise miss.

Perhaps your careful, focused listening at the right emotional distance will reveal that behind the other person’s anger is hurt and behind the hurt is shame. Perhaps it will reveal that you are not hearing all that you need to hear to truly understand what they are feeling and thinking.

Maybe you will even come to see mistakes you have made.

So when in a conflict, remain present, practicing the art of listening, practicing kime and ma: focus at the right distance. Be loose and listen, and tighten up to make a point only when the time is right. Remember that conflict resolution is easier when you do not add fuel to the fire of someone’s anger, or retreat into defensiveness and shut off your ability to hear what the other person is saying. If you remain patient, and wait, you will see that the force of strong emotions and harsh words starts to dissipate.

Of course, other strategies are

available to you as well. You can avoid conflict by speaking with care, choosing words that don’t inflame. Avoid blame and make statements about how you feel and what you are thinking and experiencing. Accusations make it different for the other person to listen, to pay attention to all that you are expressing. Defensiveness can intensify conflicts, so let your observing self arise.

Then, take care to say what you need to say while leaving room for the other person to listen—and room for the emergence of that person’s observing self. By practicing the art of listening, you can make it more likely that any conflicts you experience will be productive, less hurtful, and more likely to lead to resolution and connection.

Carl Greer, PhD, PsyD, is a practicing clinical psychologist, Jungian analyst and shamanic practitioner. He teaches at the C.G. Jung Institute of Chicago and is on staff at the Replogle Center for Counseling and Well-Being. Learn more at CarlGreer.com.

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Cultivating a Sustainable Community: The Cycle of Collaboration

By Brad Smith and Barbara Wishingrad

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To survive peak oil, climate change, economic failure, and ecological collapse, we must make fundamental shifts in our collective way of life.

Individual change is necessary but not enough because our means of survival are embedded in complex social and economic systems. On the other hand, direct change

of the massive business and government institutions we now depend upon is unrealistic because the nature of all large institutions is self-perpetuation, not transformation. The practical domain in which we can effectively create a sustainable way of life is our local community.

We can understand the social process of cultivating a sustainable community as a collaborative cycle that emerges through four phases.

The first encompasses how we connect with one another. The second, how we communicate with each another. Third, how we co-create our community together. And lastly, how we coordinate our on-going social, economic, and political relationships. All four phases, connection, communication, co-creation, and coordination are essential for a healthy community and build one upon the other.

Connection In our present cultural milieu, independence and self-sufficiency are valued

far above cooperation and collaboration. We pass our time in separate homes, cars, jobs, and mindsets, severely limiting how often we meet and interrelate with one another. This, in turn, limits the mutual understanding necessary to create and maintain a healthy, sustainable society. Our very first order of business, therefore, is to structure ways in which community members can connect on an ongoing basis.

We need permanent commons spaces in which we may come together freely and often.

By being together for long periods of time they were able to find common ground and develop organizational processes that made them collectively strong in the face of official opposition. And they made real progress on the long road toward a more just and sustainable society.

If we now establish more permanent commons spaces in our communities, we can come together and cultivate the meaningful relationships

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necessary for sustainable social change. As we learn more about who we are as a community, we can collaboratively evolve practical new social, economic, and political systems.

One way is to create Community Coops where we together cultivate a just, cooperative local society.

Communication How we perceive and what we believe about who we govern our behavior in all its dimensions. Our understanding of ourselves and each other, therefore, is a major determinant of the kind of society we will organize or accept. That is why conditioning and coercion have commonly been used by hierarchical institutions to try to induce people to adopt various belief systems.

If instead of being passively conditioned by existing institutions, we get to truly know one another and discover who we are as people, we can begin to

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sustainably reorganize our social, economic, and political relationships and create just cooperative communities.

Our second order of business, then, is to develop effective processes through which we can communicate clearly and get to know and understand ourselves and one another.

Myriad methods for facilitating group communication have been developed that can improve the effectiveness of all of our social systems. Some of these include Dynamic Facilitation, Art of Hosting, Sociocracy, and Open Space Technology.

Purposeful group processes are key to freeing ourselves from the tyranny of hierarchical institutions.

Arranging our relationships and organizational structures around these will provide the engine for real social transformation. Seeking out and learning from those proficient in these skills and developing them ourselves will provide the heart and soul of a Community Coop.

Co-creation Our next order of business, then, is to collaboratively co-create new forms of social, economic, and political organization that reflect the understanding we gain when we connect and communicate effectively.

In a Community Coop, we can choose from among a multitude of models other than institutional top-down command and control. We can learn from what others are doing as we synthesize and experiment. The idea of a Community Coop is to create a context and place where all kinds of people can come together in various cooperative forms to collectively meet their social and economic needs. It embodies sustainable economic and ecological principles and is based on love and caring rather than self-interest and competition.

It revolves around a physical hub where conditions are cultivated for the emergence of a new culture. But it more broadly encompasses a whole community network of cooperation.

Only by working together can we create a coherently sustainable community out of the fragmented entropy we have inherited. Not the greatest genius among us is competent to concoct a grand scheme that will solve all our problems and meet all our needs. Top-down plans have always suffered from the law of unintended consequences.

But with everyone connecting, communicating, and cocreating together we can, over time, develop new ways of living that will work for generations to come.

Coordination Simply creating new organizational structures is not enough, however.

Over time we must evolve the processes and functions through which we can sustain healthy relationships between individuals, families, groups, localities, regions, and nations. Our fourth order of business, therefore, is to foster effective coordination of the various forms of organization that we cocreate amongst ourselves.

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Throughout most of history, massive-scale social constructs such as religions, governments, corporations, and entire economies have been coordinated through top-down bureaucratic structures and processes that tend over time toward inefficiency, inequality, and environmental degradation. Natural systems, however, are coordinated through network structures and processes, which are more efficient and, of course, environmentally sustainable.

The power of the internet now makes such networks available for social, economic, and political coordination. We have entered a new age where we can emulate resilient and robust natural systems in how we live together healthily and sustainably on this finite planet.

We are now participating in the rapid evolution of ways to circumvent the systems of force that have been exploiting people and destroying our planet from time immemorial. We are making an evolutionary leap to a new age characterized by the horizontal, sustainable coordination of all our ways of living.

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Conclusion A Community Coop is a context that facilitates connection, communication, co-creation, and coordination.

Cultivating a healthy community and sustainable global society is a cyclical process where each phase builds upon the one before, and each cycle builds upon those previous. In reality, however, these phases are not truly separate and distinct.

They unfold in sequence but also operate simultaneously, forming a coherent whole.

Thus, connection provides a foundation that underlies the other three phases.

Communication supplies a necessary framework that supports the others. Cocreation develops functional processes that make the entire cycle operative. And coordination sustains the relationships that develop along the way. All four functions work together to comprise one lively process.

Originally published in Sharable.om

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Breaking bad news

By Chrissie Giles

How do you tell someone that they’re seriously ill, or even dying? Chrissie Giles explores how doctors learn and how they deal with the stress and trauma, for both their patients and themselves.

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I was 14 when I was told that Dad was dying.

I was sitting on the floor of our lounge. Mum said that she had some news. Sensing the worst, I fixated on the newspaper open in front of me, staring at an advert for German cut glass.

It was cancer, in his pancreas, and he might only live a few more months.

They were going to try an operation, she told my sister and me to reduce the pain. As a nurse, she must have known that this was unlikely to work, but she knew her audience and didn’t want to overload us with information. She must also have known that pancreatic cancer has one of the bleakest outlooks, due in part to a lack of symptoms in the early stages.

By the time you start to notice nausea, jaundice or weight loss, it’s too late to hope that it’s something less serious.

That night, as I wrote my diary, I could think only about how I felt. Reading it back now I wonder what it was like for my

mum, still reeling from the news herself and having to tell the rest of us.

As a doctor, Kate Granger often deals with discussions of bad news and end-of-life issues. But there’s another reason the subject interests her. Three years ago, at age 29, she was diagnosed with a very rare and terminal form of cancer that affects soft tissue.

She’s spoken and written widely about her experiences living with a terminal disease. She spearheaded the #hellomynameis campaign, to get people working in the NHS to introduce themselves to every patient they meet.

She’s planning to live-tweet her own death.

Granger was diagnosed with cancer while on holiday in the USA. “I came up with some tough episodes of breaking bad news when I got back to the UK,” she says. “When I got my MRI results, I was told when I was by myself by a junior doctor who didn’t know what the plan was going to be.”

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In pain and alone, she was told “without a warning shot” that her MRI scan showed that cancer had spread. “He was basically giving me a death sentence. He sorts of couldn’t wait to leave the room, and I never saw him again.”

Her experiences have shaped her as a doctor. “I think I was a fairly compassionate, empathetic doctor, but having been through all I’ve been through. When I came back to work I was just so much more aware of how body language is really important, how you think about the impact of bad news on an individual more than just viewing ‘telling Mrs. Smith that she’s got lung cancer’ as a task.”

The surgeon and author talk to Mosaic about end-of-life care, writing and how doctors can be better communicators.

I ask several doctors to share their experiences and the patients that stick in their mind. One remembers a woman who came in soon

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after Christmas. She’d been in and out of the doctor’s over the last nine months or so, with general symptoms that are all too easy to ignore: feeling tired, swelling. Then she had suddenly become jaundiced and short of breath, so a relative brought her into A&E. It was one of those situations, the doctor says, where you pull the curtain back and immediately think, “This is not good.” “On very few occasions do you touch something and say, ‘This is cancer.’” When she examined the patient’s abdomen, it felt “rock hard.”

“She kept saying to me, ‘It’s going to be fine, isn’t it?’ And I’m saying, ‘We’ll do everything we can, let’s just do a few tests and figure out what’s going on.’ At that stage in my mind, I knew it was bad, but I still had to figure out exactly what flavor of bad it was.”

The woman was anxious to be home on New Year’s Eve to

make a call to family overseas.

But blood tests confirmed that she’d need to stay.

“She said to me, ‘Tell me the worst-case scenario.’ I looked at her. She looked at me. And in my mind, I was thinking, ‘She’s not ready for this diagnosis.’ Then her relative stepped in, and she said, ‘No, no, she means what’s the worst-case scenario regarding how long does she have to stay in the hospital?’

“At that moment, you realize that we all know exactly what we’re talking about, but we’re all accepting it to different degrees.”

Compartmentalisation seems to be important in coping – she mentions several times that bad news, death, is part of the job.

“You have to be strong for the family. I can easily go back into the staffroom and cry my eyes out, but at that moment I have to be there, I have to be the hand to hold or the shoulder for the patient to cry on.”

The doctor speaks of the first patient she cared for, a man with metastatic prostate cancer.

She was called into his room by his wife, and as she arrived, the man took his last breath.

His wife broke down onto the floor in front of her. “At that moment, you have to say, ‘I’m sorry, he’s gone.’ And you kind of just has to suck it up and be there for them at that moment because that moment is everlasting for them.”

It’s an office that could be anywhere, except for the clinical examination bed in the corner, complete with a curtained cubicle. The A4 sign blu-tacked to the door reads: “Room booked for breaking bad news all day.”

Six medical students sit listening.

“They’re real. They cry, they shout,” the facilitator, a doctor, tells the circle in front of her.

Nerves crackle in the air, a few people let out self-conscious laughs. The facilitator is referring to the two actors who have come to rehearse scenarios

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with the students, who are one year from being qualified doctors.

Understandably, they have a lot of concerns: about getting emotional, whether or not they should touch patients, saying the wrong thing, not saying the right thing, not saying anything at all.

How does a doctor train to break bad news? By acting the part.

The scenarios are given out. The students’ eyes hurriedly scan down their sheets of paper.

Cringes. Sharp intakes of breath.

One scenario is based around telling a parent that their son has suspected schizophrenia.

Another, that a person’s relative has unexpectedly died in hospital. One peer over his neighbor’s shoulder. “You got the short straw,” he says, shaking his head.

When the time comes, his neighbor heads for the door.

“You might want to take in some tissues for this one,” the

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facilitator tells him. “Yeah, for me,” the young man replies.

The rest of the group watch on a live video link, seated in plastic chairs in a half-moon in front of the screen. They touch their faces self-consciously, arms crossed protectively across their bodies. The speaker hisses.

In the room sit a couple. The woman fiddles with her handbag, refusing to accept the news. The man stares silently at his hands, fists clenched around his mobile phone. “Is that true, or just something you say?” he says aggressively to the young doctor. He’s just been told that his baby, born at just 26 weeks, has severe brain damage and is unlikely to survive.

The students’ eyes dart to each other across the room. A shake of the head, a smile, a wince, sensing their colleague’s pain – the pain they are all going to feel for themselves sooner or later.

Original article published at https://mosaicscience.com

Conscious Dating Makes all The Difference

"Our Souls Recognized Each Other"

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A Great Dreamer

By Kaya & Christiane Muller

Hundreds of thousands of our students all over the world are working to integrate divine qualities through their experimentations in their daily lives.

Here is a wonderful testimonial of the benefits of Traditional Angel Study in everyday life. Eleonora shares an example of her 8-year-old son with us.

“For some time now, our son, who used to dream only now and again, has begun to dream every single night.

Every morning he is so happy to tell us his message and to incarnate Angel work. We can feel that it is very important for him and every day I see him grow in divine intelligence and awareness. It is fascinating how studying symbolic language can modify who we are. We can really see that it is a computer code that comes from the depths of our soul. Here is one of his recent dreams. It’s a very simple dream: He saw himself with a hole in his right arm.

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Immediately, to de-dramatize this nightmare, we immediately explained this in a very simple way that was suitable for an 8-year-old boy. Our arm leads to and carries our hand; it directs it. This means that our arm directs and guides our way of giving and receiving and materializing. Our arm is related to the intention behind our behavior, and it continually serves to support as well. As it was the right arm, we told Edward that it referred to his concrete behavior and actions.

Then, to encourage him to think deeply, we asked him, “As there was a hole in your arm, do you think this dream represents something positive or negative?” Immediately, without any fear at all, he replied, “It’s negative.” Yes indeed! It is so beautiful to see that our children are no longer systematically afraid or anxious regarding the little negativities or difficulties in life.

With Angel Teaching, we develop a deep understanding that evil is educational, that it exists in our lives to teach us, to help us understand what aspects need to be improved and transformed, that the deep meaning of evil is to help good develop and expand. It is fascinating to understand this, and it changes our life completely.

As time goes by, I’ve been able to see how my children have become so much more right, so much stronger when confronted with complicated or

difficult situations. They find solutions more easily, and now they really understand that nightmares and beautiful dreams represent aspects of their own conscience.

in this life on the concrete level, of course. I was really moved to see such a young boy modify his behavior like this and with such multi-dimensional understanding.

We went on to explain to our son quite simply and openly, that in his concrete behavior, in the way he gave and received there were intentions that needed to be rectified. He listened well because a dream is far more interesting than mom’s pedagogy! (laughter). Dreams lead them to their own answers; dreams help build their autonomy, which is wonderful!

Later that day, he did a drawing. He drew an Angel and a demon. He crossed out the demon and encircled the Angel telling me that he had chosen to become an Angel. He added an inscription: “Thanks Mom for helping me understand my dreams.”

After this dream about the hole in his arm, the morning went by as usual until our son began to misbehave; he became selfish. Immediately I said to him, “You see your dream, your hole in your right arm, well, that’s it.

That’s it manifesting now. There’s a lack in your giving and receiving; a difficulty sharing with your sisters.” I didn’t need to add anything. Edward understood and immediately rectified his behavior.

Dreams are a real activation code related to our soul and past lives, and very often the result of our present actions, especially at a young age when everything is being reconstructed OMTimescom

For more info on Kaya and Christiane Muller: UCM School & Publishing House, www.ucm.ca BOOKS AVAILABLE : The Book of Angels, The Hidden Secrets by Kaya & Christiane Muller

The Book of Angels, The Divine Couple by Kaya & Christiane Muller

The Dictionary, THE SOURCE CODE, Dreams–Signs–Symbols by Kaya

Relationships

The interconnectiveness among all human beings and, consequently, the relationships among us are the focus of this section. The dynamics of the web of connections we make is one of the most prominent aspects of human existence: how we interlace with each other’s existence in a meaningful way.

Living with True Love

by Isha Judd

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When we don’t love ourselves, we abandon ourselves in our relationship, because we think we need our partner to complete us, and we are afraid to lose them. But if we are true to ourselves, we won’t

lose anything that is real, and we can grow together in a way that supports both partners to be the best of themselves.

When our relationship is no longer based in need, but rather on a desire to give, we can allow the other person to evolve and grow, and then we gain the freedom to do the same ourselves. This is real love, unconditional love, and it starts with self.

Some people get completely lost in their relationships and only have eyes for their partner. They do not love themselves, they do not speak their truth, and they compromise all the time, so as not to upset their partner.

They do what the other wants and not what they want themselves, and in doing so, they lose all their power.

Does this serve? No, it does not help them to grow. On the other hand, growing alongside another person in a relationship, together as individuals, is something very magical. To find love with another, remember that first one must have that experience

with oneself because our partner is our mirror. If there is a lack of love within us, this is what will be reflected us in our relationship. Often in relationships, one person is more interested than the other. Sometimes this varies over time, and the roles are exchanged. This happens because, in most relationships, we want our partner to fill a gap that is within us, and we mirror that need in the other person. At first, one of the two can appear to be very secure and the other, very needy and dependent, but this may change according to the circumstances.

We can grow together in a relationship, but only when we are careful not to lose ourselves. Then, we can have a beautiful partnership based on maturity and loveconsciousness, supporting each other in our greatness.

True love in its purest form is unconditional. That is real love. It comes from within and moves outward. True love gives, without needing anything in return and without

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compromising. This true love comes from a place of innocence. It is conscious love, and it is complete within itself.

The ideal relationship is like a chrysalis, nourishing the growth of each individual so that both can reach the perfection of their own brilliance, find their wings and display their true colors.

Then both partners will reflect more maturity and perfection to the other. When we hold ourselves like this in our constant evolution, we cannot lose anything that is real. We may endure difficult moments together. The seasons may change, there may be harsh winters and abundant springs, but the change of season only brings more maturity. The couple supports each other through all of this, and then all that remains is love. When we are fully aware, we are our own perfect partner.

When we are so anchored within, very deep in unconditional love, we can be with another person, but this is no longer based on need. In this case, love is focused on

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more growth, on being more and more love. It is no longer about completing ourselves with the other person because we are both complete within ourselves.

When a child makes a new friend, he doesn’t say: “Now, do you promise to be my friend forever?” No, he just enjoys the moment. He lives innocently. He plays innocently. He does not need to have a list of expectations and requirements. He just innocently has a friend who came to his heart and delighted him. They have found joy together, so they play and laugh in the each other’s company.

Isha Judd is an Australian humanitarian, spiritual teacher based in Latin America, author of “Love Has Wings” and “Why Walk When You Can Fly?”.

Watch “Why Walk When You Can Fly?” on iTunes. Her website is www.ishajudd. com. Watch more movies and inspiring videos at isha.tv Facebook: https://www. facebook.com/officialishajudd

We Engineer Second Chances

 You Deserve to TRY Joy

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Metaphysics

S ta n d i n g o n t h e Edge of Dreams

By Judi Lynch The power of the ability to recognize our heart’s desire in this life lives inside our dreams and actions. It can sometimes require great courage and faith to continue on without support from a friendly

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soul system surrounding us. Intuitive signs, messages, and signals can get crossed especially if there is dominant energy near defining us in negative or destructive ways.

We have to learn to pay close attention to our own inner guidance and spiritual network, so we are listening to our best possibilities in life.

invaluable tool in helping us cope. We can utilize the good energies of our waking dreams and life ambitions to help keep us motivated.

So many have been so close to success in lifetime goals but have given up after listening to the sound of doubt and skepticism from someone else.

Most of us have heard that calling inner voice leading us to the next adventure in life. We have choices in which ones to answer, but ultimately we learn to trust our own ingrained instincts to survive.

After all, some humans will follow others right off a cliff without looking ahead.

Events which change our lives forever and responsibility for others can really drain our resources and make us feel overwhelmed with fear. If you have a skilled personal life coach and/or supportive friends and family members you know how important it can be to have positive energy in your life. If we are connected to our source energy, we can learn how to balance our thoughts, emotions, and actions without too much drama. It takes time to learn how to monitor our attachments to overreacting to make intelligent choices and decisions when we feel of course.

Meditation and active visualization are great ways to calm anxieties and help confidence when we feel stressed in uncomfortable life situations. Whether we’re auditioning for a part in a play or applying for a new work position, it can be an

If we can keep remembering what brings us joy and sets our souls in forwarding motion, we can keep our focus clear. If we know why, how and where our inspirations and influences come from and where energy is flowing, we can assess what is positive and what needs to Omtimes.com

evolve. If we are honoring our own divine existence with compassion for ourselves and others, we learn to appreciate respect from others because we are respectful. If someone is sharing your space and is purposefully trying to harm or belittle your hopes and dreams, it will be a constant source of opposition to your progress.

As we go through lives, our dreams take different shape and form according to our choices and experiences. If your very soul has a vision of creating something incredible, then that vision is yours to protect and nourish to come to fruition if humanly possible.

We learn a myriad of skills that we use all through life as we go in ways we never imagined.

If we keep our minds and options open, we might just meet people who enrich our being with their suggestions and ideas which in turn sparks our own special creativity.

Seek out those who can help encourage and make your dream a reality. Many people give up right when they are on the edge of succeeding.

Motivation comes from not Omtimes.com

only those around you who inspire but from an inner knowing and confidence that we are amazing beings of light. Our consciousness is a miraculous energetic force of manifestation. What we think we become. In that statement, it stands to reason that if we let someone else define us or make decisions for us, we become as they want us to be.

In our dreams and aspirations, freedom of the soul is to express itself. If we believe that all of us are connected and working collectively to evolve this consciousness into new dimensions, then we can stand in our dreams flourishing together.

About the Author: Judi Lynch is a psychic medium, intuitive counselor, healing channel, and author. She is president of the Crystal Healing Foundation, Inc. a 501(c) spiritual charity and writer for OM Times Magazine.

She has authored two books, Friends with Lights and Conscious Ascension and has read for clients all over the world. To learn more or contact for a session see psychicmediumjudilynch.com

Personal Growth & Development

We grow as individuals as we face challenges and overcome life’s obstacles. This section is dedicated to helping you chart your course.

How to Let Go of A Fear of Rejection

By Marcia Sirota, MD.

Probably the scariest activity we could engage in is public speaking. People often rate this fear higher than the fear of death. It’s terrifying because it puts us in the position of being judged, found wanting, and then rejected.

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One of the most basic human fears is the fear of rejection; the fear that what we think, say or do might be unacceptable to others; the fear that we’ll end up alone.

That’s why so few of us relish the thought of getting up and speaking in front of a group of people. What if one or more of them disagree with us, is displeased with what we’re saying or tells us that we don’t know what we’re talking about?

When we’re putting our thoughts out there, whether in a post, a podcast, a talk or a lecture, or even just to one other person, there’s the always risk of being misunderstood, judged or rejected.

It can be so daunting that often, we’ll choose not to express ourselves; the fear of rejection makes it seem not worth the effort.

Human beings are communal animals. We thrive when we’re connected; when we feel a sense of belonging and interdependence.

We hate the idea of rejection

because it plays on our primal fears of being alone and perhaps unable to fend for ourselves.

Even the strongest, most independent person will often count on others for emotional and practical support.

It gets even more tricky when what we have to say goes against the norms. What if our point of view, our beliefs, our desires diverge from the status quo? It can be that much more challenging to speak our truth when the possibility of rejection looms large.

The paradox in all of this is that we can only feel like we belong when we’re real. When we’re not fully honest about what we think, feel and need, we won’t connect with others on more than a superficial level. To belong, we have to be truly ourselves.

So, how can we speak out when others might not appreciate what we have to say? How can we have an authentic voice, given the possibility of rejection?

Caitlyn Jenner said in an interview that she finally went through with her transition when she could no longer live Omtimes.com

as anything but her true self. I imagine that the fear of rejection might have played a role in her having delayed her decision until the age of 65.

Not all of us are such public figures with the expectations of millions on our shoulders, but still, the fear of rejection can loom large in our minds.

Every time we don’t say what we really think, don’t express what we really feel or don’t ask for what we really want, we’re avoiding the possibility of rejection.

Is there a way that we can overcome this fear and begin to feel more comfortable in expressing our truth, whether to an individual, a group or to the world? I think it comes down to taking responsibility for ourselves.

To be less concerned with rejection, we need to believe in ourselves and accept ourselves, so that if there are haters, they’ll have less of an effect on us. With self-acceptance, if we mess up, we can forgive ourselves and learn from our mistakes.

Still, we need to recognize that Omtimes.com

even the most confident person can feel hurt by unfair criticism.

If we trust ourselves to take care of ourselves when others are overly critical or rejecting, it will be easier to speak our truth.

We can be confident enough to listen to constructive criticism, astute enough to tell when people are hostile (and we need to get away from them) and selfcompassionate so that we don’t let our mistakes prevent us from speaking up in the future.

When we take responsibility for ourselves, rejection doesn’t have to be devastating, because know that we’ll always be there for ourselves. And when we’re not in a panic about the possibility of rejection, it’s easier to put things in perspective.

We can see that there will always be people who are happy with us, just as we are, and that there will always be those who are OK with what we have to say. We can see that even if some people feel the need to reject us, it’s highly unlikely that everyone will.

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Imagine yourself‌ driven from your home by war, broken lives floating on a Sea of Troubles, your simple prayer to find Kind Hearts, Kind Hands to help you on your journey.

Be the answer to a prayer.

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Finding the Perfect Life Mantra by Karen Ulvestad

The perfect mantra helps in personal growth, navigating life challenges, and reflects self-growth. Choosing the right mantra requires looking inward, and feeling. There are 4 easy steps to selecting a mantra or series of mantras to aide us through our daily lives.

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Life can be challenging. It has its moments of complete frustration and unadulterated joy. How we navigate these moments reflects our inner values and ability to cope with life’s expectations. It’s a dance of keeping perspective on the issue and taking care of self.

Choosing a personal mantra or set of mantras can help keep life events in their proper perspective in our lives. There are mantras written by other people and the ones that seem to come to us in a moment of need. Selecting the right mantra requires a few steps, which are offered below.

These are a starting point.

1. Is it easy to remember?

A mantra that is simple and to the point is easier to remember when it is needed. Its main purpose is to add in focus and creating calm in a situation that seems overwhelming. It is a select group of words that the brain connects with to calming.

Another use of a mantra is to keep the focus on a goal.

It becomes the words that encourage us to keep striving to lose weight, run the extra mile, or take the next step in a venture. Mantras can help us through the challenges that could overwhelm us.

2. Does it feel “right”?

Mantras are personal statements that resonate with the spirit or soul. These phrases or sentences reflect our personal self. It has to feel “right,” and have a connection with the individual using it.

These are not a “one-size fits all” word choice.

Sometimes, a mantra is written or spoken by someone else and resonates with our spirit or soul.

If it feels right, it is a mantra that inspires the individual.

Each of us is empowered to write our own personal mantras. The only perimeter is that it feels “right.”

3. Does it help calm or improve focus on a personal level?

This goes along with “does it feel right.” A mantra needs to

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be crafted to the individual.

Some are generic reminders, such as “I’ve got this!”, Or “I’m grateful.” Others reflect individual needs. The word choices empower the individual to remember to stay calm or think before lashing out. These are the important words in our monologue of self-talk.

A personal mantra does not need to be shared with anyone. It is the select group of words that are repeated silently in mind. These words can overcome negativity, assist in food choices, or help with anxiety. We all have a mantra.

It’s which one we choose to use that matters.

4. Does it mean something on a personal level?

Mantras can help us overcome life traumas or personal tragedies. They are the short, sweet, and to the point selftalk that helps us through these challenges. Often, they can remind us it’s okay to be ourselves, cry, or be joyful. Again, it is personal to each individual.

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To be successful, a mantra needs to have personal meaning for the individual.

Do the words touch the spirit or core essence?

Do the words help put perspective on the situation?

Do they help? Each of these questions is pertinent to a successful personal mantra.

It’s all about our self-talk, personal growth, changes, and self-worth.

********

Bio Karen Ulvestad is a Reiki Master/Teacher, intuitive, writer and Aroma Therapy student. She has been on this path for most of her life. Through the process of learning, she has come to the conclusion that all things are related. She strives to come from a place of balance, peace, and calmness.

Her book “Whisperings of the Spirit” is available at www.

Blurb.com

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WE ENGINEER SECOND CHANCES

Books

Your Holiness Discover the Light Within Debbie Ford A recently discovered unpublished work by the beloved spiritual teacher and #1 New York Times bestselling author in which she reflects on the astonishing holiness that resides in each of us.

On the fifth anniversary of her death and written during her long battle with cancer, Your Holiness is a thoughtful and poignant exploration of the godliness that resides in all of us.

Infused with her trademark frank honesty and keen insight, it is a blueprint for recognizing and accepting our latent spirituality. Debbie combines motivational prayers with deeply personal stories about her own spiritual journey—how she struggled and eventually found her internal faith—and translates her experience into a practical path for transformation.

Engaging and accessible, clear and unwavering, philosophical yet practical, Your Holiness is a gift to the soul that both guides and nourishes. At a time when so much in our world feels uncertain and suffering is widespread and persistent, Debbie’s voice is more essential than ever. Your Holiness grounds us in the here and now while delivering a timeless and empowering message of relentless love and strength.

For more information, or to purchase the book, click the cover or visit:

Amazon.com

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The price of the OM Times Book Spotlight Package is $250 USD.

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MAGAZINE

March B 2018 Contributors Writers Alan Cohen Barbara Wishingrad Brad Smith Carl Greer, PhD, PsyD Cathedral of the Soul Chrissie Giles Isha Judd John Holland Judi Lynch Karen Ulvestad Kartar Diamond Kaya & Christiane Mueller Marcia Sirota MD Shakti World Victor Fuhrman

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