The concept of surrender is often confused with submission. No matter how you define it, or under what conditions, surrender is a willful, not a passive act. The element of choice in surrender is an important consideration when we are discussing its expression in our lives.
Personality undoubtedly influences people’s experience of stress. Those who have perfectionistic tendencies (obsessional) and those with a tendency to put the needs of others ahead of their own or seek the approval of others (dependent) are particularly vulnerable to stress. Having these personality traits is not a bad thing...
Anxious people tend to perceive their world in a more threatening way. That is, the more anxious a person is, the more likely they are to notice threatening things around them. This is called the threat bias.
All creation either evolves or devolves. You are once again in a cycle of the waking up of consciousness. Therefore it is time to move forward, in love and trust. Come out of your minds and heads into the realm of your heartfelt states of being. In other words...
One person loses their job and experiences stress, fear and anxiety. Another person loses their job and is excited about the new possibilities opening up for them. What’s the difference? The external life circumstance is the same. However the internal response is different.
- By Jan Frazier
The phenomenon of fear is surely one of the most impressive proofs of the mind’s power to convince us of the reality of its contents. If a person could reduce all possible episodes of fear down to those threats that are imminent, life would be very much less a scary place.
- By Karen Hering
Some of the most hope-filled people I have known have been those for whom favorable outcomes might be described as a long shot at best. This tendency of hope’s to show up in the bottom of our suffering is said by some to be the meaning of the Greek myth of Pandora’s...
- By Alan Cohen
We generally think of security as protecting our body and possessions from people who might violate them. Yet when we live in fear or a constant need to protect ourselves, we violate our spirit—a far greater injury than any that might occur to our possessions. Real security operates at a much deeper level than...
Dear God, we ask for guidance, love, and your healing power for all the people who are close to us. We ask for special healing to be sent to all -- to get through the next week with their trials, their tribulations, and their heartaches. We ask this...
- By M.J. Ryan
Certainly, not everyone is frightened by change. But for those of us who like predictability and routine, times of great change can bring on intense fear. That’s why it’s crucially important to recognize what we’re feeling and have coping strategies in place.
In the West, we place our cemeteries away from our everyday lives, as if there were an impermeable barrier separating life and death. We pretend that death will go away if we just ignore it. We know that this isn't true, but...
Whatever pain someone was experiencing, Charmaine had gone through it, and much more. With so much compassion she would talk about the power of forgiveness and the risk to bring healing to any emotional pain.
These coming years will be unique within humanity’s living memory in that our history will witness the transition from the final era of a now fading world paradigm to a new, upgraded one. Many people have long suspected the coming of such an interval — a phase shift...
In our travels, most of us have gone through tunnels. They take us from one place to another by going through something that the road couldn’t otherwise go around, like a mountain. Often these windy roads seem like they are leading us straight...
- By Guy Finley
The more clearly we can see that it’s impossible to reach a place of rest by rushing to get there, the sooner we’ll arrive at the true solutions that allow us to relax, slow down, and realize the relaxed pace of an inwardly liberated life.
Once in a while, a person will have a defining moment -- an experience -- a bit of wisdom or inspiration that pops into their heads and hearts and changes their lives. I had one of those moments recently on the Rogue River in Oregon. It helped to change in a very positive way my relationship with Barry, my beloved of 46 years.
- By Alan Cohen
Are you worrying about how something important to you will turn out? I know the answer. You’ve got to believe me. I see so many people stuck, confused, or fearful about what will come next. Eventually they somehow handle their issues, and the universe gives them a hand with the details...
"Do you really think the world is going to end?” she asked. I was stunned. She couldn’t have known that, in a recent e-mail to a friend, I confessed how strange it was that suddenly all sorts of individuals I was encountering in my everyday life were bringing up the subject of apocalypse. I’d joked that...
His Holiness the Dalai Lama speaks of counteracting forces for the disturbing emotions. These counteracting forces are specific mental states that we cultivate to oppose the ones that are not realistic or beneficial. Worry can't abide in a mind that is...
Guilt! It may not be a four-letter word, but its effects on the body, mind and emotions are deep. It used to be accepted as a way to keep us on the path, but upon reflection I realized that its effect is the complete opposite...
"We are what we eat" they say. I would add that we are what we think and what we listen to. Everything that we are exposed to registers in our brain and adds to our complex programming. It all registers...