​It’s easy to fall into habits or routines.
 
Sometimes our routines give us a way to relax and bring fun and enjoyment in our lives.
 
For example, we might go to our favorite place for lunch, or take the same yoga class in the evening, or hang out with people we know well.  
 
When the vibration is high, it can be a great practice to do the same thing over and over.
 
The same goes for our thoughts: when our thoughts are positive, it feels good to bring in the same mind loops over and over: peace, love, joy, fulfillment.
 
And yet sometimes, we attach to thought loops that aren’t positive at all: in fact, they’re very stuck, even very negative.
 
And we run these thought loops over and over again.
 
We might worry a lot.
We might have anxiety.
We might be angry, and loop that anger over and over.
We might feel betrayed
We might feel victimized, or abused.
 
Just as you wouldn’t go to a lunch place that served spoiled food, you wouldn’t want to enter into a mind with these negative thought loops.
 
Just as you wouldn’t go to a yoga class where the teacher is rude and condescending, you don’t want to let your mind go into thought patterns that make you feel bad.
 
So much of group thought nowadays is this kind of negative, blaming, victim mentality. You see it on social media. You see it in the news.
 
The thing is, you don’t have to go there. Even though it may seem like this is all that’s swirling around, this is not so.
 
You can free your mind.
You can attach to high vibration, instead of low.
You can free yourself from negative thought looping, simply by deciding to do so.
 
If you find yourself in habitual negative thoughts that don't make you feel good, take a  look at what you’re really doing.
 
Being angry with others is poison to yourself.
Putting others down makes you feel worse.
Gossip dishonors you.
Playing the victim keeps you stuck.
 
Free your mind.
Attach to higher vibration, and see how you are changed. 

​Each of us enters this world as Soul, packaged in a human container, and organized with a particular personality.

We’re not going to change any of it very much: the spirit, body, and mind have to learn to work together in this lifetime. So… don’t fight your personality so much!

If you are a consistent, regular person who does best with an organized practice, go do that. If you are a wiggly, in-the-body person who has trouble sitting on a meditation cushion, don’t sit. Go for a walk, or go dance, or do chi gong. Move through your meditation.

If you are a person who loves to study and read, do that. If you are a person who likes to work from audio, do that. And so on.

My own practice has become like a strand of pearls: a very full day, with each break from work or family dedicated to being one of One, to the fullest extent I can.

When I have three minutes, I might breathe, deeply and gratefully. When I have ten minutes, I might meditate. When I have twenty minutes, I might head out into nature. When I have an hour or more, I might meditate or write or listen to music or… so many ways to open to the Divine. If I have a lot of time, I might head out to the nature around us: the forest, the Pacific Ocean, all the beautiful places here in the Northwest.

I don’t worry about a regular, consistent schedule, because life isn’t arranged that way. Instead, I focus on showing and connecting as often as I can: if I have a little time or a lot, I will dive deep into that space where everything is healed, renewed, become whole. The more room we make for such a life, the more such a life arrives to us.

And while I’m not yet able to live every minute consciously… I am able to bring consciousness to many, many more minutes of my day.

I invite you to let go of all shame, guilt, or unworthiness about how your spiritual practice “should be.”

Do what you can. Connect where you are. Begin to live in Divine space, in the way that is best for you.

How to know if you’ve reached bliss?

Sometimes bliss comes as total body-mind euphoria, an ecstatic altered state, what we think of when we hear the phrase “blissed out.” Other times, bliss is a smaller wave of yummy, feel-good style happiness.

Here, 15 signs you’re there.

• Your jaws are relaxed; you can easily smile. You may have trouble NOT smiling!
• You laugh freely. In fact, you may find yourself laughing without any reason.
• It's easy to close your eyes, yet you feel alert.
• Your body may tingle or vibrate, especially down your spine, neck, or head.
• You have a feeling of expansiveness in the chest.
• You have a feeling of lightness or floating; there is no sensation of heaviness.
• You feel deeply relaxed, yet in a highly alert state.
• Your heart feels at peace.
• You feel safe in the environment you are in, no matter where this is.
• You feel expanded in your connection to the world and to the space around you.
• You feel a rush that is not an adrenal rush, but an euphoric rush.
• You don’t feel physical pain, or your pain is lifted or blocked.
• You feel a sense of divine grace, of being in the presence of the universal Divine.
• You experience a state of altered consciousness; an ecstatic state.
• You may experience bliss for a few minutes, hours, days, or an entire lifetime.

Bliss may last for a moment, or it may last for lifetime. It may return again and again, even when it’s not sought out or expected. Extreme experiences of ecstatic bliss may result in an altered state that changes a person forever.

All the mystics, the great spiritual teachers: Jesus, Buddha, Mohammed—they felt bliss all the time. Those beings existed in a state of never-ending bliss. Infants, children, the elderly, the mentally disabled, those who have been enlightened by great sacrifice or pain, they also may exist primarily in a state of bliss.

Bliss is a state that is removed from our current reality, but it doesn’t have to be. To be alive is to hold the possibility of bliss in the next moment.

Breathe in. Hold. Breathe out. Close your eyes and do it again. This is the first step to a happy life.

Have you been sleeping lately? My deepest hope for you is yes.

In sleep, we are healed. In rest, we are healed.
​
So often, more important than anything else you do, our need to rest must be acknowledged.

Try it, for two days. Sink into slumber early. Take a warm bath. Turn off the TV and computer and smart phone, all distractions that exhaust us, and just crawl gratefully under those covers an hour, two hours early.
Sink into your dreams, and be informed by what is revealed to you there.

When we allow rest, we allow healing. When we allow dreams, we allow the Universe to come to us in ways that are miraculous, Divine, and extraordinary.

Allow this for the next two days, and notice how much better you feel, how much better your life seems.
​
In rest, we are made whole.

I am noticing, and noticing again, the amazing shifts that are happening all around us. We’ve talked already about how some of you struggled and wailed through the past... and now you’re moving along like gangbusters, facing your life in a new way.

Others of you are just starting to feel the effects of awakening now, as in right now, this moment. What I am seeing most here is folks who are breaking karma—actually trouncing long established patterns and saying “no more” to these patterns in their lives.

If this is you, you may be:

• Moving to another location.
• Moving to another living situation.
• Quitting a job that no longer serves.
• Ending a romantic relationship.
• Ending a habit or addiction.
• Ending a habitual thought pattern.
• Breaking off relationships that are toxic and negative.
• Breaking away from ways of living that are dull, numbing, boring.
• Refusing to accept situations that are low vibration. Turning away from low vibration media.

With all this refusal, space is created for a new kind of living. This may include:

• Stepping into your own personal spiritual practice.
• Finally understanding who you really are.
• Accepting the truth of yourself as Divine.
• Allowing yourself to live without fear.
• Allowing yourself to expand into who you can be.
• Loving yourself.
• Loving all those around you.
• Feeling gratitude for the smallest things.
• Being in awe of everything.

It feels like, no matter what stage you’re at: the creation or destruction, the Shiva or Kali, the wave building or the wave receding, we are moving in a deeper, more magical, more mystical way—we are moving in our true natures, or toward our true natures. Celebrate this! Rejoice! It’s been a long time coming.