Spirituality | Wellness | Happiness

Breathe Into Your Brilliance! Lois Kramer Perez will be holding an hour long guided meditation entitled "Breathe Into Your Brilliance" on the 28th of August at Jacobsen Landscape & Design Gallery in New Jersey. Perez invites meditation enthusiasts in the garden to "Breathe Into Your Brilliance as she guides participants through the meditation. This is open to beginners or long-time practitioners of meditation. Lois Kramer Perez was previously in the fashion industry before leaving the limelight to begin her new life devoted to creating change for person and place. A graduate of the Fashion Institute of Technology and the Feng Shui Alliance School, this Bergen County resident is always finding new things to learn and experience which she passes on to her student and clients. Lois has developed effective yet simple techniques which offer her clients tools for awareness, clarity and empowerment. She embraces diverse energy modalities such as feng shui, personal meditati...

When you meditate, you shift your focus. Instead of paying attention to the surface of the mind, which teems with constant change, you go deeper to experience silence. In and of itself, silence is pointless. Life is about action and response, not silent detachment. But inner silence is something far more profound: It is awareness being aware of itself, also known as wakefulness, or mindfulness.In its silent depths, your mind knows everything thats going on. Time collapses into a single focal point, where the one unshakable thing you know is I am. This isnt passive knowledge. It is the center of everything, the source of all the activity that springs forth as thoughts, sensations, and external events. Silence is the womb of creation.Once you have authorship of yourself, you come out of silence into activity to write your own story. There is no difference between sitting in meditation and living in the world. Both are expressions of awareness, the one silent, and the other activ...

The 12th "Middle Way Meditation will take place at Johannesburg Meditation Center (JMC), Halfway House, on August 21-25, 2011. This meditation program started off as an experiment for a living of harmony in the Republic of Africa. The program called "The Middle Way is created to be used in Republic of South Africa after it has been adapted successfully in many countries around the world. At the end of the program, the meditation practitioners who came from many different backgrounds have changed themselves into a positive way. Tentative schedule for this year's retreat is as follows: Sunday 21st 16.00-17.00 Check-in at JMC 18.30-19.00 Light Dinner 19.00-20.00 First Orientation Monday 22nd 05.30 Up 06.00 Loving-kindness Meditation (I) 07.30 Breakfast 09.30 Session 1: Understanding Nature of Body, Mind & Emotion 11.30 Lunch 14.00 Session 2: Appreciating the Nature, Feeling the Body Centre 15.30 Afternoon Stretching Exercise 16.00 Refreshment Break ...

This morning I picked up " The Mystical Mind ," a book I've read several times. With every re-reading I get something more out of it. It's a terrific blend of neuroscience, philosophy, and mysticism. I was planning to write something new about stimulating ideas I came across in the Consciousness and Reality chapter. Then I decided to check blog posts about the book that I'd shared back in 2007. (See here , here , here , here , and here .) Reading them over, I saw that just about everything I was planning to say, I'd already said. So if you're looking for some non-religious "spiritual" inspiration which harmonizes with modern science, click on those links. That said... there's always more for me to say. And to quote what others say. Today I was struck by how the authors, Eugene d'Aquili and Andrew Newberg (both are medical doctors), linked two Big Questions: how there is something rather than nothing, and the nature of subjective awarenes...

Does any vote really make a difference? Arent you already doing enough for the world without giving in to this pointless ritual? Does voting make you a good citizen but a bad saint?To be spiritual is to realize many things, and one is that everyone is connected. When you act, you affect every moment of your life. You also affect every moment in everyone elses life. Because we are all connected, you cant turn your back on that fact. Being connected creates a new kind of power for the individual.It may seem that a simple social act like casting a ballot is a tiny gesture. In an atmosphere of intolerance it can seem like a fruitless gesture as well. But it isnt. The way of peace says that no action is more powerful than action from the soul.Yet this is a theoretical statement until we know what the soul is and how to reach it. Only then can an apparently simple act like casting a ballot turn out to have real power.Adapted from Peace Is the Way by Deepak Chopra (Harmony Books, 20...

The Watchung Reservation is the perfect setting for adults to enjoy a tranquil evening in a Nature Walk and Guided Meditation Program being offered on two evenings in August at Trailside Nature & Science Center. Adults, 18 and older, are invited to join a naturalist on a walk in the Watchung Reservation to experience the sights and sounds of a summer evening and then return to the Trailside Visitor Center for a relaxing guided meditation session. This program is being offered on two consecutive Wednesdays, August 17 and 24, from 7:15 8:45 p.m. Each session is $12 per person for Union County residents and $15 per person for out-of-county residents. Participants are welcome to attend one class or both. "This Evening Nature Walk and Guided Meditation Program is a wonderful opportunity for adults to experience the beauty and tranquility of the Watchung Reservation and to gain insight into methods of relaxation, said Freeholder Daniel P. Sullivan, liaison to the Parks and Recreati...

Every time someone leaves a comment on one of my blog posts about how their religious practice, meditation approach, or whatever, is just absolutely wonderful, how it's benefited them so much , and that I'm a fool for not jumping into the spiritual pool they they find marvelously refreshing, I think... OK. It's great that you enjoy what you're doing. But what does this have to do with me? Or anyone else? Some people really like to drink whiskey. Others, wine. Still others, beer. Then there's teetotalers who won't touch a drop of anything alcoholic. Each person could eloquently praise the glory of how drinking such-and-such, or abstaining, leads to good feelings, happiness, bliss, a pleasant life. Yet whatever pleases one person, whatever works for them, might not be my cup of tea (or a stronger concoction). Hardly anybody disagrees about this when it comes to beverages, food, music, art, vacation spots, computers, cars, TV shows, movies, or other lifestyle cho...