To terminate is to end — to say no — to put a stop to something. By contrast, de-termination, means to continue – to not say no.

The inner voice is a tricky thing. We want to believe that it’s a positive voice, but it also houses all our fears, inhibitions, and the natural inertia that we experience as human beings. We often hear and listen to the inner part of ourselves that says “no”.

But, to be determined, is to set strong feet in the soil of your vision. We must work around the voice that says “no”, the voice of our fears. We must find the way to continue and take one more step.

We cheer for determination. And if you want to be determined you will have to be your best cheerleader. When we see that someone won’t give up, we respect that. It’s an admirable quality determination — a quality that little would get done without.

If you want to get something accomplished, anything, from finding a job to losing a few pounds, you must not terminate your efforts, you must be determined – you must root yourself on, and continue.

Read more from Dr. Craig on his blog.

An Intimate Evening with Two World-Renowned Spiritual Luminaries

What happens when two inspired spiritual leaders—who are also great friends—share the stage? On Friday, September 10, 2010 at 7 pm, Robert Thurman and Michael Bernard Beckwith will share an evening of lively and spontaneous conversation, spanning topics from the global to the personal.

Held at Portland’s Trinity Episcopal Cathedral and sponsored by Beyond Words Publishing and The Center for Spiritual Development, Transforming Awareness: A Dialogue with Michael Bernard Beckwith and Robert Thurman will be a conversation that explores the current chaos in the world and potential lessons we may learn. This event will also be filmed for a new documentary of the same name releasing this October.

These spiritual leaders first shared the stage in 2009 and their debut created a lasting impression and a call for more. Beckwith and Thurman are committed to illuminating how changes can happen—globally, locally, and personally—if we shift our focus from fear to hope. Reuniting these luminaries is sure to create an evening of entertainment that both informs and enlightens.

Robert Thurman is the author of Why the Dalai Lama Matters and the co-founder of Tibet House U.S. He is credited with being at the forefront of making Tibetan spirituality, philosophy, and art accessible and understandable in the West, through his writing, translation of important Buddhist texts, and activism.

Michael Bernard Beckwith is the author of Spiritual Liberation, founder of both the Agape International Spiritual Center and the Agape University of Transformational Studies and Leadership, is the co-founder and president of the Association for Global New Thought, and the leader of the Awakened World conference.

Tickets for Transforming Awareness are $25 for general admission, and $100 for VIP tickets. Visit BeckwithThurmanEvent.com for more information and to purchase tickets.

The Visionary Awards are judged by retailers and seasoned professionals who evaluate each title based upon content, presentation, and their own knowledge of the industry, as a guide to what best represents metaphysical, mind/body/spirit books, music, and products with positive energy and flair.

We were thrilled by the results–two winners and three runners-up!

2010 COVR Visionary Awards for Beyond Words Publishing:.

• Roll Around Heaven for Auto- / Biographical Book Category
• Infinite Possibilities for Conscious Living / Self-Help Book Category
• Frequency for Spirituality / Alt. Science & Spirituality Book Category
• Something Unknown for Video / DVD Category
• The Living Matrix for Video / DVD Category

The COVR winners are in bold.  All others are “runners-up.” We would like to thank all involved, especially our award winning author and filmmakers!

Yoga teacher Hillary Rubin teaches us to let down the masks that create your anxiety by being transparent in relationships – this builds trust & love.

For most of my life I put on masks to fit into circles of friends or to get a job and began to lose myself. I have found that as children we are seeking our identity outside as we are still forming physically, emotionally, and if we are lucky, spiritually.
I went from being the tomboy, to the tomboy princess to the NY fashionista to the LA yoga teacher. There are many more roles I play that we all play in life.  And the question is are they all you. I used to think not because I would hide who I was behind to fit in. Even as an adult I did this. Only my really close friends would see my quirky playful side and this was few and far between.
What has been happening for a long time and now brought to the forfront of my awareness is a low grade anxiety. This has been with me all my life and actually got in the way of my relationships growing more intimate. The feeling in my body was like my skin was too tight and I just had to get out. My practice of yoga and meditation helps for a bit and then it would come out.

OUCH, this hurt big time!

Being a health and wellness expert I felt this was a bit of a failure that is so not true. If you are on the path then there is always room for healing and growth. I was finding that my mind was too strong and I needed a stronger medicine. (I don’t mean real medication this is a metaphor for using a practice to help the situation.)
In my life having to drop the masks and revel who I really am always comes with a bit of fear. All of us want to be loved and when we stop trying to be what we think we have to be to anyone it is like floating in the air and wondering if you are going to crash to the ground.
One day I had a really interesting experience that brought this to a head — or you could say my “aha” moment. I was on the phone with a mentor who I really love and respect. I made a request for something and was really afraid of her feeling I was not honoring her. I was sitting in my fear totally afraid of how she was going to see me. As I was talking I noticed I was talking really fast and not present or breathing. She said to me, Hillary you know you have to take a breath when you are talking. I felt like an idiot being that I teach this to others. Then in a moment I realized I was afraid of what she would think.
It was painful for me. I did not take the time to value myself, put up a mask and it just got so tight I could not connect. In a moment I made a choice to shift my mindset. Breathed. Then said, I want to be really transparent with you. This is my fear and what is really going on that I was not telling you. I shared from my heart. Then the relationship was woven tighter as there was trust met by her love. This brought down the mask I was holding on and there was a huge relief. My skin was breathing and I was seen.

Awareness will help you see how you are hiding.

Later the same day I was talking to a new friend and I could feel I did not have any masks with her. Interesting I thought – no masks. What is different? Why do I feel more connected to her? I was breathing, not grasping and totally present. I even chose to not drive and talk and sit on the grass and connect with her.

Can you relate? Do you hold yourself differently when you feel that someone does not see you. Do you hold yourself differently when someone does see you? Do you hold yourself differently when you are honest with yourself?
What came of this was that the stakes I created were higher with one than the other. I put one person actually in a position that could do “something” for me and gave my power away. The victim mask was what I was using and it caused me a misalignment with my expression. A huge realization that brought me to my truth that I have the power to be myself or try to put on someone else’s shoes. It does not work! And I mean NEVER!!!

When there were no stakes, nothing to grasp and just connect with my new friend I was more present with my heart. This was my choice of course. I felt that I had to be a certain way to connect to  my mentor and was just being myself with my friend.

Notice the labels I give also place a different vibration that creates a mask that I choose to put on. (can you see where you do this in your life?)  As humans we cannot get away from the identity game or mask playing. Watch for where you place your trust and if you are met by love. This is a huge step and you can do it.

Watch to see in your own life where you play off of another’s energy that brings you anxiety and takes you away from your essence or soul. Take a deep breath find something you can connect to like feeling the clothing on your body to get present. Then check in to see if you are moving away from yourself or towards yourself.
This takes time and you can do it. Play with this at work, home, family, even in the supermarket so you can see all the roles you play and where you feel the best in your skin.
Remember that we all wear masks and underneath we can always find who we really are at our core – love, beauty, joy, peace and good.

Your partner in transformation,

Hillary Rubin

Read more from Hillary on her blog HillaryRubinBlog.com and buy her Yoga Foundations with Hillary Rubin.

While the news headlines seem to be talking about BP’s share prices, arguing over Obama’s clean energy proposals, and needing to find blame, we might take a moment to remember the water. Dr Masaru Emoto (author of The Hidden Messages in Water) wrote this post and this prayer back in May, but it is worth remembering and revisiting.

I saw news in this morning about oil spill in Gulf of Mexico. In the news, the Japanese TV crew chartered a boat and got the scene where the huge amount of oil was spilled in the gulf of Mexico. They departed from the mouth of Mississippi River and they got the scene after 1 hour. Huge amount of oil is gushing out everyday and the reporter said it is just a matter of time that the oil is reaching the shore.

After the reporter arrived the scene by a boat, she scooped sea water with a cup and she checked what’s inside. Then there was a young fish carcass in the cup. It was only one small scoop but the fish carcass was there. I shuddered to think how many lives are lost by this oil spill in the entire ocean.

Then, when they were on the way back, they encountered dolphins at ocean area where they should have never been seen before. The dolphins were running away from the scene where the oil spilled and they were moving towards the shore. What will happen if oils are surging ahead to the shore. The answer is obvious.

As a water researcher, I have been always thinking why the oils and water cannot be combined. Perhaps scientists can answer this question with using an equation however, it is difficult to understand and I think their answer cannot answer my essential question “Why is that?” So, from a viewpoint of a water messenger, I would like to mention my opinions regarding this question.

“Water is the principal of all things.”

Nobody will deny this word which was said by Thales, the Greek Philosopher in 2500 BC. All things were created by blueprint of creator in water and we can say that water should be able to combine with all things. In another word, water likes everything.

However, water cannot combine with oils, meaning water dislike oils. Maybe, it is not appropriate to use the word “like” or “dislike” because water does not have emotions. The noble role of water is to maintain and protect life phenomenon in great nature so water can refuse to things to disturb its role.

There is another phenomenon that water does not appreciate. It is a gap issue on energy. Water does not discriminate anything and go with the spirit of conciliation and peaceful co-existence. If there is a situation of unbalance of energy happened, water is warning us by becoming Tsunami, Hurricane or earthquake.

By the way, why are oil products giving human bodies bad effect even though Oils are products of nature which originally stayed in underground. My answer is this.
I think oils are liquefied organism which was accumulated in the underground since this earth created and any organism contains spirits of our ancestor or animals.

I think all the living organism which have not been able to ride on Noah’s Ark when Atlantis and Mu were vanished, were lost in the underground and they have became a part of petrol. So, my idea is that petrol oil has Hado of much fear and grudge and they affect human bodies negatively.

Of course it is an idea without scientific proof and I am ready to receive any criticism on this.

Recently the birth of alternative energy which can be replaced by oils have been announced in Japan. It is actually energy extracted from water which demonstrated my idea to extract energies from water that I have been telling for 20 years. It is the technology to extract safe energy called oxy-hydrogen gas from water. You can see the technology from the following video.

Oils are necessary for human beings but if you think about ecological view point, it is not favorable. That is what most of people think but because there are not really other alternative energy sources not many people pointed objections to that. However, finally we have the technology to get an
alternative energy that can be replaced by oils.

“Water is a mirror of our mind” that is what I was taught by water and it is now important to support this technology to be used everywhere in daily life.

I believe lot of people who involved fishery industries in Mexico Gulf are suffering now but as for economic issues, U.S government and other countries will support them and give an utmost response to it. Important thing is that we learn from this mistake and make sure this type of things will never happen in the future and protect nature environment thus we have to take this technology to get energy from water very seriously. I really hope this technology will be available and used for everybody as soon as possible.

Now let’s give energy of love and gratitude to all the living creatures in Mexico Gulf by praying like this.

To whales, dolphins, pelicans, fishes, shellfishes, planktons, corals, algae and all creatures in the Gulf of Mexico.

I am sorry.
Please forgive me.
Thank you.
I love you.

Masaru Emoto
May, 9th 2010

Like many others, I am privileged to see auras and sense energies. I don’t need to be with a person to get their energy or to know when they are thinking about me. This has helped me over the years to see who is coming from an authentic place of love and who is not. It has often saddened me to discover that some of those who profess to spread the light and be messengers for spirit and the angels do not always shine the brightest light.

I do believe though that spirit know what they are doing. I feel that in some instances spirit choose certain people not because they are spiritual or coming from a place of love or that they are truly messengers of the Divine, but because they are business people and can get the word of spirit out there in one way or another, either through teaching, books, or through creating products.

I realized this for the very first time almost 20 years ago, when I saw a spiritual teacher address an audience of around 1000 people and yet his energy field was much smaller than it should have been, considering the work and message he had been sharing. I was shocked, but I knew that there was a reason for it – there is a reason for everything.

So, before you judge another for who they are and how they are living their lives, here are three thoughts for you to mull over.

WE ARE ALL ONE! Everyone is a part of you, so if someone does something that you do not agree with or does something bad to you, remember that this person is helping you on some level to shine your light even brighter. So bless them!

LOVE IS IN EVERYTHING YOU WISH TO ATTRACT! Yes, love really does make the world go around, but it also means that when you come from a place of love that this is what you attract to you. It doesn’t mean you won’t attract the opposite of love as well. Still, remember that spirit know what they are doing and sometimes the opposite energy comes to you so that you can transform it into love and you are essentially healing negative energy. So all you healers out there now know why you get dumped on!

EARTH IS A SCHOOLROOM! The only lesson you have in this school is that you are here to learn more about yourself and you do this by being in relationship with everyone and everything around you. Notice how you react in your world and make an intention to come from a place of love, to give love, to share love, and to be love – that goes for loving yourself too!

WE ARE ALL SPIRITUAL TEACHERS FOR EACH OTHER! Remember that!

Learn more about Elizabeth at her website SealedwithLove.com.

I for one have felt so heavy lately, that I declared today “beauty only day” where I would focus on what’s right in the world. I helped my children the other night pick out five things that are lush and vibrant in their lives that they can’t live without – music, both listening and making, was on both their lists, as was being in nature, reading books, and doing art or crafts. Ahhh, relief. Something our hearts could hold onto to get us through all the multitudes of challenges coming through at this time.

Once we moved into this space, stress seemed to leak out of us, and we were left with clearer, more purposeful ideas of how we would respond to the issues of the world, and we actually found joy in taking the actions we chose. We felt inspired, power-full, and like we were finally partners in the healing and shifting that we feel is happening on so many levels.

I reached out to Don Goewey (pronounced go-wee), author of Mystic Cool, who is the master of transcending stress to ask him what practices we could put into place that would help all of us reduce our stress related to these challenging times, and to the oil disaster in particular. His response is below.

The Brain Power To Prevail

By Don Joseph Goewey

The people of the Gulf Coast have every reason to be concerned. You have every reason to be angry. You have every right to demand action.

But don’t let fear, stress or enmity take hold of you. Although you have a right to these reactions, they won’t be of much help to you. They will flood your brain with stress hormones, and that’s not so good. Here’s how it happens:

Stress hormones literally cause higher order brain function to shrink. You need higher order brain function now more than ever. These amazing neural networks turn you into the smart, intuitive, creative, fast learner who solves problems. When these functions derail, you become reactive and make mistakes.

A brain flooded with stress hormones shifts your emotional set point to negative. Overwhelm, depression and pessimism take charge of your mental state. You need your emotional set point turned to fearless self-confidence, optimism and resilience. The situation you face needs people who won’t give up on life.

Stress hormones also make you suck at relationships. Fight or flight takes over making you prone to attack and defend indiscriminately. You need to love one another and help one another. You need to band together at the grass roots level and be one voice that speaks to the world.

In addition to all the above, a brain under stress pulls energy away from long term systems like the immune system, reproduction and growth. You get sick more easily and your body ages prematurely. 80% of serious illness was preceded by a high level of stress in the previous year. Stress reactions also burn up your energy and cause sleeplessness. Transcend stress and fear and you build the physical, emotional and spiritual energy to move whatever mountain has to be moved.

You don’t want the problems stress, fear and enmity cause. You want the solutions a powerful brain offers, so you can prevail over the circumstances you face. And that will take brain power. Click this link for a set of simple tools that will light you up with the emotional, social and practical intelligence to make a difference for yourself, your family and your region. The means to a powerful brain is actually quite simple. It involves approaches anyone can do and takes practically no time at all.

The world needs people who can show us how to meet and overcome disaster. There is more of it to come as we pay the price for disrespecting Mother Nature. That’s part of why our hearts are 100% with you. We know we’re next.

While I believe that the Earth is much older and wiser than any of us, that she can heal in her own sweet time and at her own pace, and that she will endure no matter what, I also began wondering what I could do.

I could give offerings and ask forgiveness for my human brothers and sisters who are making such grievous mistakes.

I could learn from my own mistakes, and make choices and take actions that would have me living in much better alignment with the Earth. I could change my ways, let go of systems that don’t work, and begin living in a more sustainable and honorable way. And then teach my children that, and speak about it to others so they may feel inspired to do the same.

I could join with people, who need comfort, and offer up prayers – for those things in our society that are out of alignment to fall away; for people’s hearts to open and shift their ways if they are disharmonious with the Earth; and for the Earth herself, if only to offer the message “I hear you. I will look inward and shift my ways. And I bless you.”

The mere act of connecting with the Earth – slowing down to watch her movements and moods – causes something within our hearts to awaken. We are connected.

In the film The Living Matrix, there was mention of a project – the Global Coherence Initiative. After speaking with Filmmaker Greg Becker, he mentioned that this Initiative might just be doing some work around the oil calamity. I looked it up. This project, launched by the Institute of HeartMath®, can be described below:

From their website: www.glcoherence.org

The Global Coherence Initiative is a science-based initiative uniting millions of people in heart-focused care and intention, to shift global consciousness from instability and discord to balance, cooperation and enduring peace.

The Global Coherence Initiative is designed to help individuals and groups work together, synchronistically and strategically to increase the impact of their efforts to create positive global change.

Together we will:

• Increase personal coherence for the benefit of ourselves and the planet
• Help shift the planetary consciousness baseline from self-centeredness to wholeness care
• Increase connection and social harmony
• Empower our ability to navigate through global changes with less stress and more ease
• Empower environmental responsibility and stewardship of the planet

The Global Coherence Initiative will include an important scientific measurement component. Advanced sensing technology, now being developed at the Institute of HeartMath, will allow us to observe changes in the earth’s magnetic field and test the hypothesis that the earth’s field is affected by mass human emotion, positive or negative. The Global Coherence Monitoring System (GCMS) will consist of approximately 12 sensors strategically located around the world. This system will enable a new level of scientific inquiry into the relationship between the earth’s magnetic field, collective human emotions and behaviors, and planetary changes.

The GCMS will allow us to test the hypotheses that:

• Strong collective human emotions are reflected in the earth’s field.
• Groups of people in heart coherence can affect the earth’s field.
• Changes in the earth’s field predict earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and similar planetary scale events, in order to give people advance warning

Our long-term goal is to correlate the following: coherence-level data collected from the GCI community with changes in the earth’s magnetic field, along with changes in various social, environmental and health outcomes.

I signed up myself, and have yet to explore the vast information shared on this site, and have yet to enter into the Global Care Room where I can join others in Heart Coherence sessions. At least I can offer good, heart-centered energy instead of fearful and angry energy. Perhaps that alone will make the Earth’s job of healing that much easier.

It has brought me such deep and aching sadness to see birds blinded and covered in black oil, turtles littering beaches, and globs of brown goo washing up onto beautiful shores. I find it absolutely mystifying that people cannot see the larger picture – their actions and ways of being are killing our home. Their home. Their children’s homes. You would think that would enter their minds. Someone on Facebook mentioned that they thought we should fill up a few barrels of oil and go dump it into the bathtubs and swimming pools of the children of BP Execs. As tempting as that is, we would be hurting the innocent and would be no better than they.

But what will it take? What will it take for people in such positions to take off their blinders and look at how their actions ripple out into everything else? Do you think they would be horrified to know that their own children or grandchildren will be scouring dirty, junk-laden waters in order to bathe, drink, and wash clothing? Or sifting through trash heaps in search for food? There are countries where millions of people must do this for survival at this very moment, and we do nothing to change our methods or intentions.

My frustrations echo the disconnect from Nature and the life web that our culture is experiencing. How can we become closer to the Earth and her life? How can we live more sustainably, in harmony and balance with the rest of our Earth neighbors? How can we open ourselves up so we recognize the blinders that are over our eyes?

I asked Catriona MacGregor, author of Partnering with Nature, to comment on the oil spill, and what she would guide people to do in response.

“They Know Not What They Do”: What the Oil Spill Reveals About Our Ethical “Gulf”

The recent oil spill in the Gulf is one of our worst environmental disasters with thousands of gallons of oil pouring into the ocean every day harming thousands of living things from Sea Turtles to Dolphins. This occurrence reflects our society’s disconnection from Natural Laws and lack of regard for life. Since all life is sacred and connected, we not only harm other species, we harm ourselves.

The oil spill — and other man-made damage to other life — affects us at a deep level. More and more people are experiencing a profound sadness and sense of loss when our actions harm other species. Since we are connected to other life forms not just at a physical level, but also at an energetic and spiritual level, it is no wonder that we experience emotional and psychic pain when we destroy life. In Partnering with Nature: The Wild Path to Reconnecting with the Earth, I refer to this rising syndrome as “eco-anxiety.”

Human beings are inextricably tied to other life. With each species that disappears from the Earth, we lose a little bit of ourselves. Yet, by adopting the ethical construct that all life is sacred we can save the Earth.

Please join me in fostering a new ethic and taking action by:

• Following natural laws to develop sustainable non-polluting technology: a field known as bio-mimicry (essentially mimicking how nature does things). Solar cells are an excellent example of bio-mimicry where we learned from plants how to get energy directly from the sun.

• Demanding that your tax dollars and government subsidies be taken away from expensive, dangerous and polluting fossil fuel industries and investing instead in a sustainable technology like solar. For example, giving subsidies directly to homeowners and business owners to install solar panels. Once installed, the energy from the sun is FREE.

• Considering that not only is all life sacred, but that we need to believe and act accordingly in all ways.

• Honoring and giving thanks to nature and other living things. By being a witness to and honoring the Earth and the animals impacted by this oil spill, we acknowledge their worth.

• Making changes in your own life and praying that others see that nature, the animals and trees, are but extensions of the same divinity and love that exists within each human heart.

• Knowing that there is always the opportunity for redemption in every moment, for the animals, for you, for me and for the Earth.

Catriona has been a voice for animals and wild places all her life. Catriona leads Vision Quests and Nature Quests to help people connect to nature and their own unique path in life. [Learn more at www.naturalpathfinder.com] She is the coauthor of Healing the Heart of the World: Harnessing the Power of Intention to Change Your Life and the Planet, along with Carolyn Myss, Jean Shinoda Bolen, Masaru Emoto, Fritjof Capra, Thich Nhat Hanh, et al.

I’ve seen some interesting feedback on Facebook and Twitter about the oil spill, and one of the questions running around is “What is your idea on how to fix the oil leak in the Gulf?” Some responses were serious, and some not so, like “take all the execs of BP and plug it up with them!”

People are upset. And I would hope, people are also working to find solutions. Last night I watched Cousteau’s grandson go diving in the oil infested waters, and he likened the oil burning through the ocean above him to dark clouds in the sky. It was shown that the leak is 25 miles deep, and is now hallmarked as the largest oil spill in history, exceeding the Exxon tragedy.

Those are tough words to hear.

And, it’s easy to fall into hating the people responsible for such a massive disservice to our planet. Who in the world would bless them? In light of what I spoke about earlier in the week about this issue, I remembered the lessons from Pierre Pradervand, author of The Gentle Art of Blessing. I know I have to shift my own thinking out of the ruts of hate, and into something more beneficial to everyone, especially the planet. I need to make an effort to stay out of the lower energies, and raise mine up. I asked him how he would respond to this crisis, thinking that shifting my thinking — and helping others to — might help the planet in the long run.

Here is his response:

“There are basically two ways of responding to a drama of any kind, be it the recent oil leakage in the Gulf of Mexico, war and terrorism, social injustice, you name it: cursing or blessing. “Cursing” means directing thoughts of condemnation and judgment at people or events. The result of such an attitude is that it very literally builds up like a cement wall — only the wall is a mental one of rejection and condemnation — making it much more difficult for the individuals or group causing the problem to change, as they become defensive. The other response is to bless, to shower them with love, to see them in their divine nature, which is the core of every single individual on the planet. In other words, we bless to reverse the false material appearance and see the spiritual reality, which is always whole and good, behind the veil of material appearances.

In my spiritual work for the Gulf situation a moment ago, I blessed the CEO of BP and all those in positions of responsibility in the company in their deep integrity, their spirit of public service, their openness to inspiration (so that they may find concrete, creative solutions to the spill,) their humility and openness to learning and hearing what others say, their deep innocence, etc. This may not be apparent when one reads the media, but, at another non-material level, this is what is going on. Claiming the power of good and right action in the face of its glaring opposite is one of the most potent tools for transforming the planet today. Then you might continue by blessing the marine life in its integrity too, its ability to protect itself against harmful influences of any kind, and rejoicing that true Life cannot be touched by evil of any kind, that its wholeness is guaranteed by its very essence.

Create your own blessings in like manner for any situation. For over 20 years I have been receiving feedback from the whole planet, from people in innumerable cultures, from death row in Texas to the furthest reaches of the Sahel, saying that BLESSING WORKS. It heals (even physically), it regenerates and rejuvenates, it uplifts and soothes, it adjusts wrongs and strengthens right. Friend, become a world healer through blessing.”

Learn more about Pierre’s work at www.gentleartofblessing.com.