I Gotta Feeling Black Eyed Peas live Chicago September 2009

Being Truly Thankful
Beyond Counting Blessings

When we are in the state of thankfulness, we are in a higher state of awareness, gratitude at our doorstep.

Often when we practice being thankful, we go through the process of counting our blessings, acknowledging the wonderful people, things and places that make up our reality. While it is fine to be grateful for the good fortune we have accumulated, true thankfulness stems from a powerful comprehension of the gift of simply being alive, and when we feel it, we feel it regardless of our circumstances. In this deep state of gratitude, we recognize the purity of the experience of being, in and of itself, and our thankfulness is part and parcel of our awareness that we are one with this great mystery that is life.

It is difficult for most of us to access this level of consciousness as we are very caught up in the ups and downs of our individual experiences in the world. The thing to remember about the world, though, is that it ebbs and flows, expands and contracts, gives and takes, and is by its very nature somewhat unreliable. If we only feel gratitude when it serves our desires, this is not true thankfulness. No one is exempt from the twists and turns of fate, which may, at any time, take the possessions, situations, and people we love away from us. Ironically, it is sometimes this kind of loss that awakens us to a thankfulness that goes deeper than just being grateful when things go our way. Illness and near-miss accidents can also serve as wake-up calls to the deeper realization that we are truly lucky to be alive.

We do not have to wait to be shaken to experience this state of being truly thankful for our lives. Tuning in to our breath and making an effort to be fully present for a set period of time each day can do wonders for our ability to connect with true gratitude. We can also awaken ourselves with the intention to be more aware of the unconditional generosity of the life force that flows through us regardless of our circumstances.

Celebrate your Greatfullness!

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Walking with Awareness
Mindful Walking

While walking, each step we take can lead us to becoming more mindful of ourselves and our feelings.

Many of us take the benefits of walking for granted. Each day we limit the steps we take by driving or sitting for long periods of time. But walking even a few blocks a day has unlimited benefits – not only for our health, but our spirit as well, for as we walk, we connect with the earth.

Even when walking on concrete, the earth is still beneath us, supporting us. Walking lets our body remember simpler times, when life was less complicated. This helps us slow down to the speed of our body and take the time to integrate the natural flow of life into our cellular tissue. Instead of running from place to place or thinking about how much more we can fit into our day, walking allows us to exist in the moment.

Each step we take can lead us to becoming more mindful of ourselves and our feelings. Walking slows us down enough not only to pay attention to where we are in our body, but also to our breath. Taking time to simply notice our breath while we walk, through the length of our inhales and exhales, and becoming attuned to the way in which we breathe is taking a step towards mindfulness. When we become more mindful, we gradually increase our awareness of the environment around us and start to recognize that the normal flow of our thoughts and feelings are not always related to where we are in the present moment. Gradually we realize that the connection we have with the earth and the ground beneath our feet is all that is. By walking and practicing breathing mindfully we gain a sense of calm and tranquility -- the problems and troubles of the day slowly fade away because we are in the ‘now’.

The simplicity and ease of a walking practice allows us to create time, space and awareness of our surroundings and of the wonders that lie within. Taking a few moments to walk each day and become more aware of our breath will in turn open the door for the beauty of the world around us to filter in.

Blue Moon Lodge: Being the Transformation

Try a Spiritual Progressive Approach to Thanksgiving This Year a note from Rabbi Michael Lerner

No matter how difficult it may be in a world filled with pain and cruelty, there are moments when it is important to stop looking at all the problems and focus on all the good. And that's part of what Thanksgiving could be about for you this year. L...

Blue Moon Lodge: Being the Transformation

Let Go of Everything

If you have the courage to let go of everything, while practicing the art and science of stillness, you might get a sense or an intimation of what the experience of someone like the Buddha may have been like when he was sitting in deep meditation. But you have to authentically do it. Give yourself the freedom to imagine what it would be like to let go of absolutely everything—to have no desire left for anything other than utter and unconditional release.

~ Andrew Cohen

OpEdNews - Article: The Importance of the Compassionate Mind; The Dalai Lama

OpEdNews - Article: The Importance of the Compassionate Mind; The Dalai Lama

Dear Friend, A day to give thanks: Thanksgiving Day in the United States and – did you know – in Brazil is celebrated on the fourth Thursday of November as a day of gratitude for the nations’ harvests. The holiday dates back nearly four centuries to the pilgrims in America, and just four decades in Brazil, where in 1949 the Brazilian ambassador in Washington D.C., so liked the holiday that he took the idea home, where it was promptly adopted. Thanksgiving was celebrated in Canada on the second Monday of October this year, as it has been since 1957, to offer thanks at the end of the harvest season. Chung Ch’ui in China and Chuseok in Korea are major three-day national thanksgiving harvest festivals whose date of celebration varies slightly each year during the nations’ harvest seasons. Among other countries that celebrate a national day of thanks are Australia, part of India, Japan, Liberia and Malaysia. Many other nations hold a variety of events to express gratitude for their nations’ harvests.Institute of HeartMath® Feeds Food for Thought with Science of Thanksgiving GratitudeMeasuring someone’s gratitude is quite literally possible with today’s cutting-edge science and technology. So how exactly do you measure gratitude – scientifically? Offering some food for thought this Thanksgiving – apart from turkey and mashed potatoes – theInstitute of HeartMath® (IHM), a recognized leader in researching the physiology of emotions, is serving up a belt-buster when it comes to the latest understanding of gratitude. The institute has been studying human emotions for nearly 20 years – among them gratitude and appreciation – emotions that are at the heart of an American holiday whose roots date back to 1621. According to research at IHM, true feelings of gratitude, appreciation and other positive emotions can synchronize brain and heart rhythms, creating a bodywide shift to a scientifically measurable state calledcoherence. In this optimal state, the body’s systems function more efficiently, generating a greater balance of emotions and increased mental clarity and brain function. The level of coherence you experience during feelings of appreciation can be measured by sensitive instruments. Coherence also can be measured using heart-rate variability (HRV) – the naturally occurring beat-to-beat changes in heart rate, which can be see in an electrocardiogram (ECG). This method of measuring appreciation is much more precise than attempting to guess by observing how much someone is smiling. Measuring coherence can accurately show heart, brain and nervous-system interactions that are sensitive to changes in emotions. While an individual – smiling or not – is experiencing coherence, the heart rhythm appears as a smooth wavelike pattern on an HRV graph. Contrast coherence with incoherence, created by negative emotions such as frustration and anger, which can often disrupt the synchronization of the body’s systems and create jagged or chaotic patterns on a graph. Advanced research at the Institute of HeartMath and elsewhere has provided evidence that gratitude is not simply a nice sentiment or feeling. Sustained feelings of gratitude have real benefits, including the following: Biochemical changes – Favorable changes in the body’s biochemistry include improved hormonal balance and an increase in production of DHEA, the "anti-aging hormone." Increased positivity – Daily gratitude exercises can bring about a greater level of positive feelings, according to researchers from the University of Miami and the University of California, Davis who studied this process in 157 individuals over 13 days. Boost to the immune system – The IgA antibody, which serves as the first line of defense against pathogens, increases in the body. Emotional "compound interest" – The accumulated effect of sustained appreciation and gratitude is that these feelings, and coherence, are easier to recreate with continued practice. This is because experiencing an emotion reinforces the neural pathways of that particular emotion as it excites the brain, heart and nervous system. The downside is that you also can reinforce negative emotions. Thankfully, gratitude and appreciation can create their own positive psychophysiological holiday in your body – without the necessity of a feast. For some this holiday, the appreciation equation might be something like gobble + gobble = thank you and naptime. Sincere self-evoked feelings of gratitude and appreciation, however, are the only ingredients needed, as explained by IHM founder Doc Childre and Director of Research Dr. Rollin McCraty in the e-book, The Appreciative Heart: the Psychophysiology of Positive Emotions and Optimal Functioning. This publication, which can be downloaded from a special link (http://www.facebook.com/InstituteofHeartMath) by liking IHM’s Facebook fan page, explains how emotions are reflected in heart rhythms and creating a change in those rhythms can result in quick and substantial changes in whatever emotional state you may be experiencing. The Institute of HeartMath is helping more people experience the benefits of the sincere feelings Thanksgiving celebrates by providing the following helpful exercise: Appreciation Exercise Instructions: Take a few short appreciation breaks during the day. During each break take one or two minutes to breathe deeply through the area of the heart. While doing so, try to hold a sincere feeling of appreciation in your heart area. This can be appreciation for a family member, friend who helped you with something or even a wonderful vacation, etc. Why it works: The exercise of activating a positive feeling like appreciation literally shifts our physiology, helping to balance our heart rhythms and nervous system, and creates more coherence between the heart, brain and rest of the body. Gratitude is a simple and effective practice and the benefits are real and attainable, thanks to modern science. Gratitude creates a healthier, happier and more fulfilling state of being for anyone who takes a few moments to feel and reflect on it. Here in America, where the nation prepares to celebrate its 123rd "official" Thanksgiving Day, all of us at the Institute of HeartMath would like to wish you and your families a happy Thanksgiving – wherever, whenever and however you celebrate your bounty. With care,Sara Childre, PresidentP.S. You can follow the Institute of HeartMath on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube for more resources and updates. The institute also offers free tips and tools for parents, teachers, caregivers and those who work with children on its HeartMath My Kids! Facebook page (http://www.facebook.com/HeartMathMyKids).

Taurus Full Moon, 11.21.2010

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Taurus Full Moon, November 21, 2010

"Finally the truth. . . .Harry understood at last that he was not supposed to survive. His job was to walk calmly into Death's welcoming arms. Along the way, he was to dispose of Voldemort's remaining links to life, so that when at last he flung himself across Voldemort's path, and did not raise a wand to defend himself, the end would be clean. . . .:Neither would live, neither could survive." J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.

The Angel of Death by Evelyn De Morgan

I love the synchronicity that has the last Harry Potter movies opening just before this full Moon in Taurus. The tension between Taurus and Scorpio is that of life and death, for Taurus celebrates the return of life while Scorpio releases what has died. The tension is also one of values and integrity vs. selfishness and domination. Like Harry's final revelation about Voldemort, the real solution to the problem of evil/the Shadow is to release the darker emotions within ourselves. We need to let go of the pain, the insistence on being right, the resentment, the hurt of betrayal. These are the emotions that feed the Shadow and produce evil deeds. In the end, it is our choices about how we use our unique energies and talents that will make the difference in our lives. And we can't make conscious future choices if we're unconsciously carrying the past.

This Taurus Full Moon on November 21, 2010 (12:27pm EST/ 9:27am PST) is at the last degree of Taurus, the culmination of the sign, where we either "get' the essence of the sign or fail to. So this full Moon we have the essence of the Scorpio Sun and the Taurus Moon, distilled and refined, lighting up a new awareness if we can attune to it. It is up to us how we choose to work with these energies.

The Taurus Moon moves us to explore our values and priorities, as well as our talents and resources. The Moon reflects the unconscious emotional patterns of the sign it's in. A Taurus Moon is an Earth Moon, and so the earthy side of our nature is brought into focus. A Taurus Moon wants to establish security and comfort in life, and in our society wants to possess things to feel secure. But do things really give us security? As people realize that they have no money to continue to "shop "til you drop' will you feel less secure? Or does a grounded sense of Self give you more security? I believe (as a Taurus) that it is our values that give us a sense of Self, especially if we take our standpoint on them. If you value truth, be truthful. If you value peace, do not get into conflicts. If you value Love, be Love. We can do this without being weak. Our values are our strengths.

The Moon in an earth sign, especially in Taurus, is associated with Gaia and Demeter, both Earth goddesses. The Taurus Moon wants us to enjoy and appreciate the beauty of the Earth, the initial blossoming of the Earth that comes in April - May, Taurus' month. The Earth is especially fruitful and beautiful as it comes back to life after the winter. There is a feeling of contentment and peace in May as we watch the plants and trees growing green while bushes flower and warm winds blow. Taurus grounds the Aries' fire and makes it concrete.

This Taurus Moon is asking us to think about our priorities concerning the Earth, our Mother, as well as our bodies. Do you feel the contentment and peace of an early May day in your body and in your heart ? What do you need to do to take care of yourself? And what do you do to take care of Mother Earth? If you value your body and our Earth, are you doing everything you can to take care of them? A full Moon in the last degree of Taurus wants to know what you value and what you're going to do about it. Whichever house contains the last degree of Taurus, as well as any aspects to natal planets it makes, will tell you what area of life and what values you will be concerned with.

An earth Moon wants to feel useful, it wants to be doing something, whether planting a garden, cooking a meal or making love. Earth Moons help us get into a more natural rhythm, the rhythm of life, not machines. Everything in nature is in constant motion, and even slow and placid Taurus keeps growing and moving, even at a slow pace. Take your time this full Moon to feel your body; go out into nature and feel how solid the Earth is. When we feel this solid, when we know what we value, we know our self-worth. And when we know what we are worth (not possessions but our soul's worth) we create beauty in everything we do. This full Moon in Taurus let your senses out to play and create beauty!

Taurus is a sensual, fixed earth sign, and it can get lost in the physical world when we forget the soul. But Taurus is also the sign of the great spiritual Teachers (Buddha reached enlightenment during May's full Moon), and when we combine the spiritual and the physical, we get the best of Taurus' gifts. Taurus wants to bring spirit down to the Earth, to fill the Earth with the deep spiritual essence of the Universe. So remember that your body is the temple of your spirit and honor it tonight.

The Pleiades by NASA

This full Moon falls very close to where the Pleiades, the Seven Sisters, shine in the night sky. The constellation of the Pleiades is part of every culture's mythology, and many stories regard the Pleiades as the place where our ancestors came from. Although we now know that the stars of the Pleiades are younger than our own Sun, there is a symbolic truth in this belief because our solar system revolves around the central Sun of the Pleiades system, Alcyone. The Pleiades is also referred to as the Crown Chakra of the Milky Way galaxy, with the center of our galaxy forming the Root Chakra; the Pleiades are also located at a point of intersection between the galactic and super-galactic planes. Many people believe that we are now coming to the end of the 26,000-year Great Year and so the death and rebirth we are experiencing is not only societal but galactic. We are at the beginning of a new Cosmic Year and like all births we have to go through the labor of giving birth. How much pain we experience is up to us and our choices.

This full Moon is a good time to become aware of what we hold most dear. What will we do to protect it? If we hold our families dear, it's time to share your wisdom with them if they need it. If you honor and cherish the Earth, do whatever you can to protect and defend it. We have to change the way we live. Our consumer lifestyle is not sustainable, and yet the developing worlds want to emulate us. If we really are concerned with protecting the Earth, we need to learn to live with less and move gently over the Earth our Mother. It has to begin somewhere -" and since we recognize the urgency, we are the ones to do it.

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Scorpio New Moon November 5-6, 2010

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"I wonder why people are so fascinated by the dead and yet can't bear to discuss their own mortality, the inevitability of their own death and more to the point, if their actions and life choices really do matter in the hereafter? . . . [Why this] fascination with reaching those who have gone before us why? To make sure they arrived safely? To finish unfinished business? To somehow ensure ourselves that there is life after death? And yet, when it comes to participating in discussions about our own mortality, that tends to be off limits. We don't really spend any "quality time" . . . reflecting upon whether the choices we make actually matter to our soul and our own inevitable journey into the hereafter. It's as if others can die, but we won't. " Caroline Myss

Scorpio New Moon 2010 by Cathy Pagano

The Scorpio New Moon, occurring on November 5th at 9:52pm Pacific time and on November 6th at 12:52 Eastern time, is very powerful this year because it sits alone in the sky. It makes no major aspects to other planets, and so we are left alone with ourselves to dive deep and explore the scorpionic themes of death and rebirth. The new seeds we plant must gestate in darkness for a while.

With the Sun in Scorpio, we've reached the death aspect of the cycle of the year here in the Northern Hemisphere. And the truth is our culture has a hard time facing not only the concept of death but its reality. Death is viewed as "Evil' by Western religions, and perhaps because of this attitude, we have created a culture that is killing the world.

What we are afraid of fascinates us. Why else could Hollywood sell all those stupid horror movies that leave horrific images imprinted in our soul's vocabulary? How could we allow our corporations to poison our food, the air, the oceans and waters all in the name of progress and profits?

Why do we fight death in all the wrong places?

We do not take death as our advisor, as don Juan taught Carlos Castaneda to do. We do not ask our death to give us strength to live fully. We do not say "Give me liberty or give me death!" Western culture has cut death off from life, unlike the ancient Goddess religions which knew that life and death and rebirth are part of the life cycle. When we reject the cosmic laws of our human nature and deny the place of Death in Life, we find ourselves living in a meaningless world. When that happens, the worst of us comes out.

That's what Scorpio's work is all about the struggle to let go and let things die; the struggle to release old emotional wounds that keep us from transforming our egos and connecting with the Self. That's why Scorpio is such a powerful and intense sign Scorpio deals with stuck and festering feelings that have turned into the dragons and horrors of our lives. That's the work we all must do at this time of year to release what no longer serves our lives.

As Ms. Myss goes on to say, our fascination with Vampires is an interesting example of this fear of death. Our society gets so caught up in trying to stay young until we die that we've put all our value on staying physically "alive' without regard to our soul's health.

" the Vampire - which is actually an aggressive, dark force, is now viewed as the archetype that promises PHYSICAL immortality blended with romantic love. Ha. The truth is the Vampire sucks the blood out of a person's 5th chakra, absconding with her or his will power, possessing their "immortal soul". Kids are now enamored of this dark archetype, as if they are under a massive collective dark spell in which it is THEY who cannot see their image in the mirror. It is the society that cannot see that it has become soulless, having sold itself for false values of immortal PHYSICAL life and an obsession with vanity and youth." Caroline Myss

I looked into the vampire craze myself a few months back and discovered that while Ann Rice'sInterview with a Vampire was published in 1976, most of her other books and shows like Buffy the Vampire Slayer came out in the late 80s and 90s, while Pluto was moving through Scorpio. Pluto in Scorpio(11/83 to 11/95) worked on bringing up the dirt on sexual perversion, greed and power so we could transform our old and outdated emotional attachments to sexuality, power and money. While many of us found this a transformative time, the media took the most negative aspects of this "looking into the dark' and ran with it. You can see that our cultural view of sexuality has changed since then due, in part, to the sex appeal of Vampire heroes. Our little girls dress up like "hookers' now for Halloween! Where did we gone wrong?

The Pluto in Scorpio generation are now young adults and their interest in vampires might be due to trying to redeem the Dark within themselves and within the culture. Most of the new Vampire series make some of the Vampires good, while just as many are still evil. Depending on the writer, there is a struggle going on between good and evil in these books. But our media-controlled society seems to have taken a wrong turn and focused on the blood and sex and immortality.

I agree that it is a fascination with physical immortality that has many people hooked. I myself would opt out of that one. I believe there are many other more interesting worlds to discover and experience, so no I don't want this particular body and ego to be immortal. But that's because I've worked on becoming conscious of my soul. And if we can get our society to understand the soulful qualities of life once again, perhaps our fascination with the "living dead' will turn to a deeper sense of Life. Otherwise, we will continue to live in a dying world, sacrificed on the altar of Capitalism.

Scorpio is the sign that deals with death and transformation, as well as the taboos (vampires) that we fear. Money, sex and death are just part of Scorpio's repertoire. Scorpio is a watery, fixed sign and it deals with the emotional values we attach to the ideas of money, sex, power and death - values that we share with our culture and which keep us from discovering our own unique take on these issues.

The Scorpio struggle is not with Death, but with those very emotions that hold us to a life that no longer serves us. Shame on my baby boomer generation for refusing to grow old gracefully! Instead, we often act more childish than our children when we fear the physical slowing down that comes with age. We DO NOT take Death as our Advisor! And so we continue to allow politicians to instill fear in us of terrorists, of diseases, of poverty which in turn keeps us from the freedom that Scorpio promises. For it is emotional freedom and trust that allows us to open ourselves to the deep intimacy that is another of Scorpio's treasures.

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Interconnected Experiences
Noticing Synchronicity

Synchronicity may appear random, but at closer look you will see that the universe is giving what you asked for.

When events appear to fit together perfectly in our lives it may seem at first that they are random occurrences, things that are the result of coincidence. These synchronous happenings, though, are much more than that, for, if we look at them more closely they can show us that the universe is listening to us and gently communicating with us. Learning to pay attention to and link the things that occur on a daily basis can be a way for us to become more attuned to the fact that most everything happens in our lives for a reason – even when that reason is not clear right away.

When we realize that things often go more smoothly than we can ever imagine, it allows us to take the time to reflect on the patterns in our lives. Even events that might not at first seem to be related to each other are indicators that the universe is working with, not against, us. This idea of synchronicity, then, means that we have to trust there is more to our lives than what we experience on a physical level. We need to be willing to look more closely at the bigger picture, accepting and having confidence in the fact that there is more to our experiences than immediately meets the eye. Being open to synchronicity also means that we have to understand that our lives are filled with both positive and negative events. Once we can recognize that one event is neither more desirable nor better than the other – they all have an overall purpose in our lives - then we are truly ready to listen to the messages the universe gives us.

While we may not be able to see everything in our lives as being synchronous, we can certainly use hindsight to be more aware of how the universe guides us. This sense of wonder at the mysteries of the universe and the interconnectedness present in our lives will help us see our overall ways of being and will in turn make it easier to work more consciously towards our spiritual evolution.

Making Time for Reflection
Going on Retreat

Putting our trust in the retreat process will make space and dedication for the necessary work we have to do.

Giving ourselves time to reflect and heal can be a powerful way to process the things that are happening in our lives, and one of the best approaches to do this is by going on a retreat. Going on a retreat means that we have set the intention to heal and learn more about our spirit, and doing this is a decision that we make for ourselves.

Since everyone sees and experiences the world differently, it is important to choose a type of retreat that works best for us. Even though a friend or loved one may recommend something, we have to trust our intuition and select a path that really connects with what our soul needs most at the time. The most essential thing is to be willing to respect our unique stage of development and to be patient with ourselves since any thoughts or issues that arise are simply part of the process of healing. Just remembering that a retreat is an intense period of time where serious soul searching takes place can help us allow whatever may happen to us to fully unfold. Going on retreat may sound like a vacation, but most retreat experiences ask you to look deep inside of yourself, and sometimes this can be uncomfortable or stir the pot of our soul.

Putting our trust in the retreat process will make space for the necessary work we have to do, making it easier for our hearts and minds to explore wholly the innermost reaches of our soul. By paying attention to these messages, we pave the way for greater healing and transformation, since spending time in contemplation at a retreat will give us the gift of insight and understanding that we can use in all aspects of our daily lives.

A Native American grandfather was talking to his grandson about how he felt.

He said, "I feel as if I have two wolves fighting in my heart.

One wolf is the vengeful, angry, violent one. The other wolf is the loving, compassionate one."

The grandson asked him, "Which wolf will win the fight in your heart?"

The grandfather answered: "The one I feed."

~ Native American Story ~

flickspire - The Simple Truths of Service Movie

flickspire - The Simple Truths of Service Movie