Hello!
Please enjoy these blog posts then visit me at my new website, One Love Animal Connection where I combine my love of Spiritual Practices and the Divine with my love of animals and respect for all life.
I look forward to seeing you there!
xoxo
Rev. Karen
This practice is so easy that sometimes I forget how effective it is! Studies even prove it – people that write down their goals are one to one and one-half times more likely to achieve them. So, let’s do it!
While this practice is useful for any kind of goal or dream, I’d like to encourage its use with Divinely inspired goals, goals that are good for both you and others, goals or dreams that make your soul sing!
The whole process will probably take you less than 5 minutes, depending on how detailed you are with it. Once you have your goal or dream in mind, you want to do four things: say it, write it, read it and see it. Every Day.
1. Say it. Recite it from memory and repeat it, changing the words around if necessary until it sounds just right.
2. Write it. Once you’re happy with the wording, write it out 10 times. You might want to keep a journal so you can look back on previous dreams and how they’ve changed or materialized.
3. Read it. Read what you just wrote, out loud. Every sentence.
4. See it. Close your eyes and see what that dream looks like once achieved. Feel into it as well: what does it feel like once it’s real?
It’s okay and even encouraged to write the same goal every day for weeks, or really for as long as it takes. You may find the goal evolves a little bit every day and that’s a good thing; focusing on it daily helps us to be clear in what we really desire.
It really is that easy! Might as well start right now: what is your dream?
Do you want more joy in your life? Who doesn’t?! The good news is it’s quite simple to start allowing more joy in on a regular basis; we just have to get used to it. This is a great exercise to remember if we’re in a funk and want to get out of it. There is nothing wrong with feeling down, but eventually we’re ready to move on.
A quick note on negative and positive emotions – all are good and necessary. Negative does not mean bad; it is just relative to other emotions. It’s a scale, negative on one end and positive on the other, or terror and rage on one end and joy on the other end. The more we intentionally feel joy the more we move up the scale on a regular basis. Because most of us prefer to feel happy and joyful!
This exercise is so simple you can do it almost anywhere you are comfortable closing your eyes for a minute.
Bring to mind something that makes you very, very happy. It can be anything – a loved one, a pet, music, friends, art, mountains, food, elephants – truly anything; no one is judging you. Anything that just thinking about brings a smile to your face or makes you bust out laughing.
Once you have it in mind, set your timer for 17 seconds (“Siri, set timer 17 seconds”) and then just dive into that object of love and feel the joy; live it, feel it, surround yourself in it, swim in it and get it all over you! Feel the happiness and joy like it’s the only important thing in the world.
Once the timer goes off – how do you feel? Doesn’t it feel great to take the time to do nothing but sit and feel that joy? And it was less than a minute.
As you practice this more and more, you’ll find you instantaneously recall it throughout the day, lifting your mood more and more frequently.
Do this at least once a day every day for a week; two or three times a day is ideal. Feeling this every morning encourages good days to follow!
If you are determined to move forward into a greater life for yourself, but you are harboring grudges or resentments towards another, forgiving is essential. I know it’s not easy. I know you may not want to do it; I didn’t. I had heard people promoting the value of forgiveness for many years before I decided to take a serious stab at it.
After all, “He did it to me; why should I forgive him?” He needed to suffer, and I wasn’t going to let him off the hook, no way; he needed to pay! The problem is, he wasn’t paying for it. I was. In reality, he probably had no idea the series of events still played over and over in my head and he’d long forgotten them, so it certainly didn’t torture him at all.
I was the one paying for it, wrapping up good energy on past events that truly had no significance in my current or future life. And that’s why we need to forgive; we need that valuable, awesome energy to help us move forward, not hold us back. It doesn’t make the person’s actions okay or acceptable; it’s a matter of taking back our energy and our Power. Take your Power back and get rid of that icky energy.
There are many ways to start a forgiveness practice. What I’ll share here are three possibilities using prayer beads or malas. There is no magic number of times you need to do it; you just do it until you feel you’re done. It might take one day, two weeks or two months, but eventually the charged energy goes away when you recall the person. None of these three practices is any better than the other. Do the one that feels best for the situation.
First Option: This is particularly useful when you really wanted someone to change. Imagine the person in front of you, as if you are speaking directly to them. Speak sincerely. “Joe, I forgive you for not being the person I wanted you to be.” It allows for a space of letting them be them, and not someone they’re not. Repeat it over and over until you feel a shift.
It is also sometimes useful to combine it with the second option.
Second option: Again, imagine the person in front of you, as if you are speaking to them. Speak sincerely. “Joe. I love you, I bless you, I forgive you, I release you.” That’s it, over and over.
Combined it is even more powerful: “Joe, I forgive you for not being the person I wanted you to be. I love you, I bless you, I release you.”
The third option is my personal favorite as it helps me recognize that the faults I see in others are also my own, which helps me come around quickly to compassion or understanding for that person. Again, imagine talking directly to them. “Joe, I forgive you and myself for being ignorant (Choose appropriate quality). I love you as I love myself, for God is the love I am.” This also turns the situation over to the Divine Source that allows love to flow to and from all without judgement.
I’d challenge you to just try one for a week if there is someone that really triggers you. You don’t have to fully forgive them, but just see if it frees anything up in you to be open to starting the process.
Are you willing to be open to moving toward your greater life?
Announcing my February Empowerment Class!
I’m so excited to announce my February Empowerment Class is based on the book A New Earth – Awakening to Your Life’s Purpose by Eckhart Tolle! This book was instrumental in my spiritual evolution and “waking up” to a new idea of life.
Being present was a new idea to me at the time, at least naming it as such, and I learned very quickly how to be present when life got stressful. At the time I lived next to 60 acres of woods, so I was often present with the trees and paths anyway, but the exercises Eckhart offered took me to a different level. Learning to listen to all the sounds of the woods and enjoy them just as a sound, without naming the source, brought me great satisfaction in just being in the moment.
There are so many lessons I continue to practice what I first learned in this book; I think Eckhart does an amazing job of explaining things like attachment and acceptance and loss, the ego, the inner and outer body, and what is ours to do now.
This is why I want to share it with everyone that is ready to move forward with their lives; let’s do it and move on!
Find out more and sign up here.
Could you use a little help going deeper or getting unstuck? Karen works with people that are ready to move forward in their lives. Karen learned the power, joy and magic of committed spiritual practice and now helps others to as well. If you’d like to talk about it, sign up for a Spiritual Strategy Session with Karen here.
“What’s the world’s greatest lie?” the boy asked, completely surprised.
“It’s this: that at a certain point in our lives, we lose control of what’s happening to us, and our lives become controlled by fate. That’s the world’s greatest lie.”
~The Alchemist, Paulo Coelho
We never lose control of what is happening to us, but we lose the perception of having control over what is happening. Let me be clearer though – we can never control what another person does to us, but we can control our response and reaction, and thus the situation. Many people are unaware that there is a choice, that if we are being attacked in a physical, verbal or emotional way, that it requires a specific kind of response. But that’s not true. If it were true then everyone would react the exact same way to a specific stimulus, and we don’t. We are a product of so many things, including previous experiences, that we all experience the same event differently. This can be proven simply by asking four eyewitness what happened in an accident. There will be four different answers because they observe and report based on what is most important to them. The thing we need to try to understand is that what someone is doing to us is not about us, but about them, and although it may be very difficult and it feels like it’s about us, we must try to not take it personally. I realize this is not a quick or easy lesson to understand, but it’s worth the time to fully grasp it.
Back to the quote, losing control over what is happening and being controlled by fate is also about giving up, not believing we have a choice in how our future plays out. We do have a choice, and starting by understanding we have a choice in the moment leads us into understanding our perception shapes our future too. There are so many spiritual practices that can help with this; the one I want to share now is about writing your future.
Practice: You: the Novel. Consider a real situation you feel you have no control over. There is a good chance as you review this situation in your head, it never comes out in your favor. Let’s change that. Write down the situation, but as you’re writing it, write it in your favor. Change any details you need to change so you’re the winner, and feel the power of that! Really feel and imagine it as you write it, knowing that a new or different outcome really is possible. The situations you write about may not change immediately, but you will start to see unexpected outcomes, and as you continue this practice, things will begin to shift.
Here’s a video with more on the practice:
Create the life of your dreams! Please let me know how writing your life works out.
If you’ve ever felt like you don’t know how to get an answer on a pressing issue, or you are looking for some clarity, you might want to try automatic writing. I find it especially useful when I need a little direction, and some people use automatic writing as a regular practice. Whether frequent or occasional, automatic writing helps the flow of insights come to us in a way that our subconscious can’t filter out.
And it’s easy! It’s as simple as a pen and paper or a computer keyboard. My experience is that my flow from the Divine is interrupted less with a pen and paper, but if a computer is best for you, then you do whichever way is most comfortable.
The key with automatic writing is to never stop writing. The pen is always on the paper, or the fingers are constantly moving on the keys, no breaks.
If you’re new to this practice, start with 10 minutes. If you have a smartphone or home assistant, take a few deep breaths, then tell it to “set alarm for 10 minutes,” and go!
It’s best to know the leading question or phrase that you’ll start with, particularly if you do have a pressing question you want an answer to. When the timer starts, write out your question first, for example, “What is the next best action for me to take in my business?” and then never lift the pen up until the timer goes off. Don’t worry about punctuation, don’t dot your i’s or cross your T’s, no judgement of what you are writing, and don’t worry about how neat it is.
During the process, there should be no critical thought going on. Once you start with the opening sentence, just let it flow, no matter how ridiculous it might sound. Removing all thought about it really allows your Divine Wisdom to show up, so let it.
When you’re finished, take some more deep breaths, and if you need to, step away from your writing for a few minutes. Don’t step away too long, as you’ll want to reread and make notes on some of it before you lose the train of thought in the parts that are too illegible to read. Reading back over it, you’ll likely get some additional insights you didn’t even realize you wrote down!
This is really a good way to hear your deep Truth, so I recommend doing this frequently, especially when you’re in need of guidance.
This is a fun, eye-opening, heart-opening game. Just imagine: what if all of your bills were paid for the next year and you still had $100,000 to spend, would you know what to do with it? Learning how much money you can spend is a great way to expand your money mindset beyond just getting by.
Many of us are conditioned to dream small. Even when encouraged to dream big, we think we’d be okay if we could just pay our bills and have a little left over, “That’s all I need” right? Do you know someone who has said that? Or maybe you’ve said it yourself? And we think that is big enough.
But I want you to see how big you can really go! This is a 30-day game that will surprise you just partway in how big you need to think. This is important though: if we can’t even dream it or imagine it, we can’t allow it in, so let’s go!
Start on day one with a blank checkbook, or at least a blank check register or spreadsheet – you will need to keep track daily. Use your real financial situation; applying this to your real life makes it that much more real and possible.
On day one, the Universe gives you $100 for free! Spend it however you want, but you must spend it all. Write it down in your check register.
Day two you get $200! Hooray! Again, spend it any way you want, and keep track of it.
Every day the Universe doubles what it gives you, so on day three you get $400, day four is $800, and so on. Every day you must spend it all.
By the end of one week, on day 8, you’re receiving $12,800, how have you spent your money so far? Has it been fun money? Maybe paid off some bills? We’re beginning to get into the big money now, so you’ll need to get more creative in your spending. And yes, you can give it away, buy things, anything you want. You just can’t save it, for that will stop the flow from the Universe in this game – whatever comes in must go out.
At the end of two weeks you receive $819,200 and you’ve received a total of $1,638,300. What did you do with it? Can you dream big enough to spend it? You know, some people really do get this much money in two weeks, and they really do get to spend it. And they are really no different, no more deserving, no smarter, no more entitled than YOU.
We all equally deserve it, but do you believe it? Every day as you go through this spending process, truly take it to heart. There comes a point that all of your bills and housing and leisure needs are paid for, so who do you help? A relative? A close friend? Non-profits? Extravagant travel? What do you want your money, and your heart, to support? Or maybe you even want to start your own non-profit?
There are two key points I hope you take away from this game, from this experience of connection:
First, be open to any amount of money. You truly have no idea where money can come from. You don’t need to determine the source of your money; that is up to God or the Universe. I’m always a little surprised to find another check in the mail from some unsuspecting source. Please be open and know that it can happen. We all deserve this.
Second, what does your heart truly desire? If you’re willing to spend money on it, is it something you should consider supporting/doing now? I’m sure you’ve heard this before: “If money were no object, what would you be doing?” For real, what does your heart desire, and does it require a shift for you?
Have fun with this! I’d love to hear your results.
This Spiritual Practice is perfect if you are overwhelmed and stressed out with how much you have to do. You may have heard the phrase “give it to God”? Well, in this spiritual practice you will literally assign tasks to God!
This is one easy way to help regain a sense of time and control in your life. Oddly enough it’s by giving up control that you can start to feel it again.
Here is how the Spiritual To Do list works, and if you have a current to-do list, take it out and let’s go through it!
First, take a blank piece of paper and draw a line down the middle, dividing it into two parts. At the top of one side write “Me,” and on the other side write “God,” or Holy Spirit, Universe, or whatever you are most comfortable with.
Now, go through your tasks for today and assign to yourself ONLY the physical things that you must do. Everything else goes to God. (See photo for reference.)
For example, you will have to physically make the sandwiches for lunch, so that goes under “Me.” Same with the grocery shopping and posting a video to Facebook. However, you don’t have to try to decide what to write about next, so give that to God. You don’t need to figure out the next family trip – put that on God’s side. Now this is important: if information about the trip comes to you throughout the day, be sure to jot that down. Maybe someone at the store tells you how much they loved their last trip to some remote island, so make a note of it because that quite likely is God sending you a message about where to start looking for your vacation.
Maybe you need a home remodel contractor – that goes on God’s list to send to you; you don’t need to spend precious time trying to find a good one.
The tasks here are essentially split between physical, actionable steps – that’s you – and idea or lead generation – that’s God. Your job is also to be open to the signs and recommendations that appear, for if you miss that step, then you’ll have to take those to-dos back onto your side of the list. There is really no need to do that, so be aware and open!
Let life be easy; do only what is truly yours and turn the rest over to God!
My Car is a Temple, Yes, my car is a temple for spiritual practices with my prayer beads!
I want to share these simple spiritual practices with you because I know firsthand that if life is feeling hard, and if you want deeper meaning or connection in your life, a spiritual practice can make all the difference.
This spiritual practice uses prayer beads, or malas. I always have one or two sets of prayer beads in my car. It doesn’t matter how many beads are on them – it can be 55 or 77 or 101 or 108…If there are fewer beads, you just do more circuits.
I love doing something like this in my car because I spend so much time in there; I might as well make the best of it. It certainly lightens the mood when stuck in traffic!
The four practices I may do are: Forgiveness, Blessings, Gratitude, or Affirmations. It’s completely random which one I choose; I just do whichever one feels best at the time. I get in the car, get situated, turn on the GPS and pick up my prayer beads, then ask, “What do I need to do?”
Typically, I do affirmations or blessings. But just the other day I was completely triggered by hearing about an old friend and their actions, so I knew the second I picked up the beads that forgiveness was in order!
I won’t get deep into specifics about each of these practices; they all have their own blog/video because they can be practiced so many different ways. So please be sure to see my other posts about forgiveness, gratitude, affirmations and blessings.
Back to the day of forgiveness – I picked up my beads and immediately started in “X – I forgive you and myself for being a bitch, I love you as I love myself, for God is the love I am.” Harsh, I know, but that was the only word I could seem to find for her actions.
I was only 3 or 4 beads in before the awareness of the times I was a bitch came to mind. That’s the thing about this practice, you’re fully admitting that if you see and are triggered by something in someone else, you have the trait alive in you – latent or active. And while I suspect most people wouldn’t call me one, there have been moments. And so, the work here for me is to find why I was. Where do I see that in me and what does it teach me about what kind of healing I need to do?
Recognizing it within me helps to find the place of compassion or understanding for the other person, and that’s where forgiveness starts.
In this case I was complete with this forgiveness practice within 15 beads. But that’s not always the case; it can take days or weeks for the awareness to arise and forgiveness to take over, so don’t be hard on yourself. Just keep at it.
All that work done while on a drive! No extra time out of my day, no sitting in meditation for hours.
Blessings, affirmations and gratitude practices with your prayer beads are equally as powerful, so please be sure to check out those specific blogs.
How could your life change if you started treating your car as your personal temple?