"Whatever satisfies the soul is truth." --Walt Whitman

You might be wondering if you have the luxury to attend to your soul with the kind of demands life is most likely making of you these days. Be assured, tending the soul is not a cyclical job, best reserved for the easy times. For when the soul is left unattended, our lives become dry and dusty, we feel barren and parched. More often than not, in times of great difficulty, at some level, it is the soul seeking to be fed.

When you feel "stuck" and nothing seems to flow in your life, you can bet the soul is seeking your attention. The soul beckons us to see with new eyes, to alter our point of view. When all the lights are red, when doors close and the path ahead becomes obscure, the soul is inviting you to open to new possibilities, ones that lies beyond your ability to see from where you're currently looking.

The way of the soul is often radical as it has its own agenda that doesn't always line up with the desires of the personality. The way of the ego is perfection, as in zero tolerance for error. Its path is a straight and narrow one, and since there's no room for error, there's little room for learning and gaining wisdom.

Ah, but the soul is a student for learning and wisdom and any mechanism will serve its purpose. It's not fussy about which path we choose, as long as it serves to lead us to the unfolding of our own truth. The soul meanders, rarely following the beaten path, but seeks out the road less traveled.

Say not, "I have found the truth," but rather, "I have found a truth." Say not, "I have found the path of the soul." Say rather, "I have met the soul walking upon my path." For the soul walks upon all paths. The soul walks not upon a line, neither does it grow like a reed. The soul unfolds itself, like a lotus of countless petals. --Kahlil Gibran, The Prophet

Our souls hunger for what's most essential to our survival. It cares not whether its requirements are convenient for these personalities we inhabit. The soul takes on these earthly bodies and personalities in order to gain access to another classroom. It hungers for experiences available to the human part of being as our human journey provides many new portals to wisdom for the soul.

So the question arises:  

What feeds your soul? What sets your soul on fire? What gets you through the tough times and has you come out even stronger?

The answers to these questions are the medicine your soul is seeking. A worthy inquiry, indeed! Search your own soul for the answers.

Wishing you a soul searching and finding week!

 June 2009: Need a cure for winter? Try a massage 

Hello,On gray winter days, reaching for a chocolate bar or a glass of wine may seem like a quick fix for the blues. Why not choose a healthier antidote for the bone-chilling cold: a Revitalizing wake-me-up Indian massage or soothe away the edges with a earthy Hot Stone massage.

Winter can make you feel sluggish and tired, and a massage can be a real pick-me-up.Have a great month!  

Massage to Cure your Winter Blues:

·         Stay active! Put on your warm coats and jackets and get out into the fresh air.

·         Use full spectrum light bulbs in your home.

·         Eat your vegetables.

·         Socialize and enjoy the community events happening all the time in and around your area.

·         Think about prescribed massage therapy, supplementing vitamins or herbs to assist with your energy and emotions this winter season.

Do you want a result that's different than your current reality?

Fear. There, I said it. It's a four letter word that never seemed as peculiarly obscene as it does right now. It's hard to read the newspaper and want to leave your house in the morning, let alone have the energy to look for a new life. And that's what many folks are going to need to do. Find a whole new direction, a different path. But if the road less traveled wasn't easy to go down when everyone was blindly optimistic, how do you even find that path now?

For most of us, Plan A wasn't really all that much of a plan. While some people's childhood games of playing doctor actually turn into days performing brain surgery, the vast majority of us fall into our lives. We may have had a vague idea of life as a wall-street wizard, an advertising genius, a fighter pilot (well, ok, fighter pilots have to have a plan) but our actual life trajectory was more like Russian roulette than target practice. We rolled with the punches, we seized opportunities, we rode a wave, we paid our dues and found ourselves so far down a road it seemed stupid to change direction so we charged ahead.

Hope. Another four letter word that has gotten a lot of attention lately. In the world of life it takes strength, tenacity, imagination and supportive people to change and win. Is there a silver lining in this new world of the Plan B? I would say that while it's easy to say here's a chance to chart a new course, it's difficult to stay optimistic when we're being bombarded with so much bad news. What do we all have control over when the world around us seems to be spinning out of control? Our thoughts!

We all need to change our thinking. If you want a result that's different than your current reality, it starts with your thinking.

If we succumb to the fear we will be paralyzed. There's too much at stake to allow that to happen. If Plan A is what happened to us on the way to a life that no longer serves, start by taking a look at your choices and beliefs and feeling the feelings that are associated with them.Allow yourself to think about a new reality that's unchartered but not unfathomable. 

Wishing you a week of Hope and Success!

Do you wish the world were better?
Let me tell you what to do —
Set a watch upon your actions, keep them always straight and true;
Rid your mind of selfish motives; let your thoughts be clear and high;
You can make a little Eden of the sphere you occupy.

Do you wish the world were wiser?
Well, suppose you made a start —
By accumulating wisdom in the scrapbook of your heart;
Do not waste one page on folly, live to learn, and learn to live;
If you want to give men knowledge, you must get it, ere you give.

Do you wish the world were happy?
Then remember day by day —
Just to scatter seeds of kindness as you pass along the way;For the pleasures of the many may be oft times traced to one,
As the hand that plants the acorn shelters armies from the sun.Ella Wheeler Wilcox (1850 – 1919)

Spread the awareness that our most important abilities are PERSPECTIVE and CHOICE.

We all have the power to choose our perspectives.
By changing ourselves from the inside out, we can consciously generate a ripple effect that will change our relationships and the world community.

Wishing you a week of a better, wiser, happier world

Ready or not, some day it will all come to an end.

So what will matter?
How will the value of your days be measured?

What will matter is not what you bought
but what you built,

not what you got but what you gave.

What will matter is not your success
but your significance.

What will matter is not what you learned
but what you taught.

What will matter is every act of integrity,
compassion, courage, or sacrifice
that enriched, empowered or encouraged others
to emulate your example.

What will matter is not your competence
but your character.

What will matter is not how many people you knew,
but how many will feel a lasting loss when you're gone.

What will matter is not your memories
but the memories that live in those who loved you.

What will matter is how long you will be remembered,
by whom and for what.

Living a life that matters doesn't happen by accident.
It's not a matter of circumstance but of choice.
Choose to live a life that matters. 

Wishing you a wise choosing week!