Browse Tag by spirituality
Contemplative Practice, Emotional Support, Facing Challenge, Grief, Healing, Mindfulness, Peace, Personal Growth, Resilience, Self-care, Spiritual Practice

Married to Amazement: The Gift of Curiosity

Artist: Henri-Edmond Cross

My friends tell me that I ask great questions. It’s no wonder that I became someone who asks questions as a healing practice.

The truth is I’m just endlessly curious. I love learning about people, about life, and especially about spiritual things. That’s probably why I read so much.

Recently, it occurred to me that I could intentionally use curiosity as an approach to problems and challenges.

So much of life is mystery, isn’t it? How do you face the mystery of life? The issues, questions, challenges? I don’t know about you, but the mysterious makes me curious, and curiosity is at least a much more interesting approach to the mystery of life than fear.

Curiosity used in this way might look like:

  • an openness of heart
  • an open-mindedness to the experience of life
  • a continuing acknowledgment of all that you don’t know; living from a place of humility
  • a willingness to be surprised by life
  • a willingness to be patient with yourself and with life’s complexity

Poet Rainer Maria Rilke wrote,

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Chronic Illness, Communities of Care, Disability, Facing Challenge, Healing, Peace, Personal Growth, Resilience, Trauma, Wellness

Three Lies We Tell About Health & Healing

While in community recently, I had the eye-opening opportunity to witness many misconceptions about healing and the healing process. Sadly, many so-called healers even hold these beliefs, and perpetuate them to their clients and the broader community. I decided to share these misconceptions here and also share what I’ve learned to be true.

Misconception #1: “If you live with a disease, you are unhealthy. If you are physically “well,” you are healthy.

Health is more than the absence of disease. You might have heard this statement before, or seen it floating around the internet. It’s worth reflecting on. Health is more than just being free of disease in the physical body, and it’s not a one-time event that happens and lasts forever. Health is the sum of all the factors of our lives that intersect and form our well-being. How are your relationships? Do you feel held in community? Are you fulfilled and satisfied with how you spend your days? Are your material needs being met? How are you treated in the broader society in which you live? Do you reside in a safe and supportive environment? Do you live in a state of chronic stress? What is your relationship to your past; are you living in unforgiveness or bitterness?

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Facing Challenge, Healing, Nature, Peace, Personal Growth, Resilience, Self-care, Spiritual Practice, Spirituality, Wellness

Rooted in the Source: Spiritual Connection and Resilience

One of the most important things you can do right now is to locate your true Source and keep drinking from that well. In “normal” (non-pandemic) times, we enter into our relationships and lean on each other to varying degrees, ebbing and flowing in that way based on who has energy to give, the dynamics of our relationships, how we manage stress, etc. But in these times, everyone is under intense, chronic stress in different ways. Everyone is a pot leaking water, and you are a pot leaking water, too – so if you need to truly be refilled and replenished like never before, you can’t look to another leaking pot. You have to go back to the water source.

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Peace, Personal Growth, Self-care, Spiritual Practice, Spirituality

Dancing with Fear

photo by Aperture Vintage

Everyone is dancing with fear right now. It’s unavoidable; it’s in the atmosphere; it’s a constant thread woven through the media reports we’re consuming to stay informed; and having fear is understandable given the haphazard, disorganized government response to the coronavirus in the U.S.

But the challenge of this pandemic is also presenting us with an opportunity – the opportunity to develop as skillful a relationship as we can with fear. If we can do that, we’ll have a strength and skill that we can continue to make use of even when this crisis is over. Here are some of my suggestions for how to do it:

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