SPIRTUALITY THE HUMAN QUEST

THE HUMAN QUEST

by Lana Santana

In this era, spirituality is now the main focus for many self-aware people. With the Covid pandemic threatening our friends and families, the meaning of living and how we live, what is important and what is not, and most significantly, finding that divinity inside ourselves have taken front seat for many people. Spiritual enlightenment has become an evergrowing topic of discussion and interest and has taken on a greater awareness and interest. We find comfort in knowing and acknowledging there is a being higher than us, someone who is divine, who watches over us and gives us hope. It’s what drives us no matter what confronts us each day and moment of our lives. For many, our love for God becomes the common thread that connects, binds, and gives us purpose. Over the years, multiculturalism has brought on a heightened interest in religions which stemmed from Asia, such as Buddhism, Hinduism, and Taoism to name a few, as well as our Indigenous spiritual beliefs. Why? Simple, because these religions awaken our spirituality, through its meditational practices. They create that oneness our souls crave. In discussing the topic of this article, one phrase stood out for me; “no matter what our religion, we hold something in common.” When the editor and I were discussing which angle I should use in this article, that statement just stood out for me and boom, the divine spoke, this is the topic. What is that something in common? Our spirituality, sense of community, and love. First, let’s understand what is spirituality? According to my guru, spirituality is that oneness someone has with their Supreme being and themselves. It’s the connection of their soul and the greater being which causes us to feel compassion, love, to be kind and to be true to ourselves. In a nutshell, to be a good person. In reflection, I grew up in a dual religion home, my mom being Hindu and my dad being Presbyterian. My teaching? there is one God. No matter what our religious persuasion, we pray to the same omnipresence. We may refer to him in different names due to language, Allah, Bhagwan, Yoruba, Dio but, they all translate to one word, God. He still remains that one Supreme being. It’s like the different way apple is said in different languages, pomme, manzana, sagwa, different ways of saying it doesn’t change what it is. Growing deeper into the essence of life, I came to this understanding. It’s like the many roads that lead you to Edmonton, no matter which

one you take, you end up in Edmonton. Similarly, no matter which form of worship you practice, it’s that one place you will reach, connecting with our creator. Our desire to connect and be one with our creator is what we share and what connects us. The fact that we are all created by that one God, makes us all one in God and why this search exists. If we examine the doctrines and teachings of all the different religions, you will realize that they all carry the same teachings. It’s just said differently. My mom once said, “God did not make religion, he made man and gave us guidelines to live with each other in peace and love. It is man who made religion.” If we all look into it, you will see. In my spiritual journey and growth, I soon realized that in several months we will all share some observances. Isn’t that an indication of our connection? Take for instance the month of March, this month there are many observances from different faiths. From March 2 to March 20 is the Baha’is holy time known as Ala meaning loftiness. Bahai’s fast for this time leading to their New Year on March 21. According to an article in www.Bahai. Org, the significance of fasting is to awaken man and this awakening “causes the heart to become tender and the spirituality of man increases.” Lent is also being observed from February 17 to April 3. In essence the entire month of March, many Christians, especially Catholics, Anglicans and Orthodox will be fasting, preparing themselves to observe the time Jesus was crucified. It is a time of prayer, abstinence and worship in order to deepen their relationship with God.

On March 11, Hindus around the world observe MahaShivratri. They fast and pray as a way to purify themselves before the day. It’s a day to honor and celebrate Lord Shiva. Again, fasting is done as a spiritual act to purify mind, body and soul to receive the grace of God. It is also performed as a way to build their relationship with God. I could go on a little further into the commonalities in our doctrines. Yes, our holy books teach the same principles and give us the same moral codes to live by.

Love one another, as we want to be loved, do unto others as we would want then do unto us. Honour your mother and father Respect the creation of nature around us To ourselves and humanity be truthful and trustworthy, be charitable, be kind and compassionate Have faith and pray You reap what you sow Be peaceful and slow to anger Do not harm fellow man Do not judge Forgive as you want to be forgiven and finally, live by the essence of our scriptures.

All these are the principles by which man was told to live and all these are found in our holy books. They may be said differently, the lessons may be different, but the meaning and philosophies are the same.

So, this month, we have a very high level of deepening spirituality happening universally. There is more reflection and awareness of self and those around us. There is that continued search for purpose, divinity, hope and spirituality because we all know, these will ultimately give a deeper meaning to life, Our spirituality interweaves us and inspires us to view our lives and how we live through different lens.

Lana Santana is the Founder and Executive Director of The Fort Saskatchewan Multicultural Association. Lana has been a journalist, politician, recruitment officer and a manager of an unemployment relief program in her home country of Trinidad. She’s a volunteer, and aspiring writer of her first novel, a compilation of poetry and children’s books.

CLOSING THE GAP

by Katherine Loranger

So here you are, in the first two articles in this series you identified your longing and discontent with your current relationship results, and you created your ideal vision or list of 50 things you’d really love for your relationships. At this point you may notice that there is a gap between your current reality and what you’d really love to create. A couple of things can be coming up for you right now. You might notice yourself feeling discouraged or even frustrated, or you might be feeling really excited and optimistic. You might even be wavering in between these two ends of the spectrum. No matter where you are, know that you are in the right and perfect place and that this is what it looks like while it’s all coming together! Today, I’ll be sharing with you how to cross the gap between where you are now and where you want to be, and how you can start to shift your relationships in the ways that you identified at the beginning of this series.

10. Connect to your vision. One of the most powerful tools in bridging the gap is to have a clear and compelling vision of the woman (you) in your vision. You want to really imagine how she feels, what she thinks, how she responds to her life. What does she wear? What words does she use? What is she thinking about when she goes to pick up the kids, or is doing dishes, or is interacting with others? How does she feel in her body? How does she treat herself? What does she say to herself? How does she interact with her children, her partner, her family, her friends, her clients, her co-workers, her stakeholders? How does she

show up for herself? What is she focusing on? If you aren’t quite sure yet that’s ok, the trick is to be consistent with connecting to your vision, the more you do it the clearer it will get. 11. What are you focusing on? I’m sure you’ve heard the expression “where attention goes energy flows.” This is so true and it’s how the universe knows what interests you. There’s a great quote that describes how this works: What you focus on you find What you focus on seems real What you focus on grows

What you focus on ultimately you become

There is a part of our brain, the reticular activating system (RAS), whose job is to mediate or manage our overall level of consciousness.

There’s so much information available to us in any one moment that our conscious mind can’t possibly navigate or comprehend it all, it would be overwhelming! Our RAS filters out all that information and brings to our attention the things that we’ve told it to look for. So, if we tell ourselves “I’ll never find love, all the good ones are taken”, or “I can’t trust people or they will betray me” then our RAS is going to look for evidence to support that. That’s why it’s so important to get clear on what the woman in your vision is telling herself and what she believes, so you can start to tell yourself those things right now, directing your RAS to find evidence to support those beliefs.

12. Navigating Fear. Know that as you embark on this

Sometimes being process, it’s normal for fear to come honest with up. Remember the upper limit problem I ourselves can be uncomfortable shared with you last month? Fear doesn’t mean it’s impossible, it just means it’s something you haven’t experienced yet. You’re leveling up your internal thermostatic setting.

Make friends with your fear and know that everyone has fear, the only time you don’t is if you’re staying in your comfort zone. There is a difference between having fear and fear having you. 13. Forgiveness. One of the things that can put a kink in the hose, so to speak, is if you are holding on to resentment, regret or anger. Remember, what you focus on will grow and what you focus on tells the universe what you want. Releasing any anger, regret or resentment through the practice of forgiveness is something we do for ourselves. Forgiveness doesn’t mean we’re saying that what someone did was ok, or that we will even continue to have them in our lives.

What forgiveness does is open up the flow of life’s energy to us, so it’s available to us as we build our dream and vision. And sometimes, the person we most need to forgive is ourselves.

Know that throughout your life you’ve shown up the best you could at the time with what you had available to you and that as you know better you can do better. 14. Gratitude. Expressing gratitude for what you love about your relationships right now is another way that you can tell the universe

“Yes, I want more of this!” Gratitude also helps to shift your perception and re-calibrate your focus to one that is more harmonious with abundance, love and your vision 15. Repeat. Continue to cycle through these steps, as you do so you will gain even greater clarity on what you would really love in your relationships and you’ll be able to consistently start showing up as the woman in your vision who has those results that you desire. As you start to lean into these tools, hang on because this is where the magic starts to happen! One of my clients recently shared an example of how this process is working in her life. After getting clear on the quality of relationship she’d love with her husband she tuned into how she would be showing up as the woman who already had that relationship. One of the things she realized was that the woman in her vision would be focusing on, and verbally expressing, gratitude to her husband for the things he was currently doing. So, she tried this, she started saying “thank you for taking out the garbage, thank you for walking the dogs, thank you for picking up the kids, thank you for making dinner, etc.”. She focused on what was already working and as you can probably guess, he started showing up differently as a result. She shared with me that she feels so much more supported by him and that their relationship is getting even closer as a result. Next month in my final article in this series I’ll be sharing my own authentic and heartfelt experience in moving through a basic form of these steps. I sure wish I’d know then what I know now, that there is a faster and easier way to manifest the relationships I wanted!

Katherine Loranger, Founder, Katalyst Coaching As a certified Transformational Life Coach, Katherine helps people create full spectrum success and lives that they truly love living.