Inspirations - Page 6
This Week's Inspirations - Page 6
A Secret Garden: Your Gut Microbiome
To have a thriving garden, the gardener must tend to it with loving care and attention. Similarly, we must nurture and cultivate the ecosystem within our own bodies — the gut microbiome. Like a flourishing garden teeming with diverse plant life, the gut microbiome is a complex landscape of bacteria, fungi, viruses, and other microorganisms that play a major role in our health and vitality — from digesting food, absorbing nutrients, and supporting immune function to maintaining mental clarity and emotional balance.
The Whole Is Greater
Women’s circles are formal or informal gatherings in the interest of bonding, sharing energy, and creating ritual. The origins of women’s circles are ancient, but their applications are as modern as the women who participate in them. There are no hard and fast rules as to how to form a women’s circle or how to run one. Some circles invent their own agendas, rituals, goals, and ceremonies, while others borrow ideas from sources as far-ranging as Buddhist or indigenous cultures. Some circles are open to new members at all times, while others prefer to practice with a set number of members, closing the circle once that number is reached.
Vagus Nerve Wisdom
Within the intricate web of our nervous system lies a hidden gem, the vagus nerve. Aptly named after the Latin word for "wandering," the remarkable vagus nerve — the longest cranial nerve — meanders its way from the brainstem through the body, touching various organs and systems along its path. Beyond its role in regulating bodily functions, from heart rate and digestion to immune response and emotional regulation, the vagus nerve plays a pivotal part in our body's ability to heal and restore balance, making it one of the most effective ways we can naturally relax and feel more at ease.
Revealing Your True Self
Identity is an elusive concept. We feel we must define ourselves using a relatively small selection of roles and conscious character traits, even if none accurately represents our notion of “self.” The confusion surrounding our true nature is further compounded by the fact that society regularly asks us to suppress so much of our emotional, intellectual, and spiritual vibrancy. Yet we are, in truth, beings of light — pure energy inhabiting physical bodies, striving for enlightenment while living earthly lives. Our true selves exist whether we acknowledge them or not, often buried under fears and learned behavior. When we recognize our power, our luminosity, and our divinity, we cannot help but live authentic lives of appreciation, potential, fulfillment, and grace.
Running Away Versus Moving Forward
There are times when change — moving to a new city or a new home, or changing careers — is the right thing at the right time. But there are also times when the urge for change is really just a desire to run away from problems that need to be faced. Recurring problems often are the ones we avoid dealing with. For example, we might have issues with coworkers that seem to arise at every job, or we repeatedly get into unhealthy relationships. A move might temporarily distract us and even cure the problem for a time, simply by taking us out of the situation. However, the problem will eventually appear again in our new situation.
Gems for Dreamers
Moonstones, gems named for their resemblance to the familiar glowing orb in the night sky, offer us more than mere beauty. Their association with moon goddesses throughout the world may explain why moonstones’ qualities seem to reach out to assist all those who find themselves under the moon’s light, from travelers and those at sea to lovers and dreamers. Throughout the world, moonstones have been imbued with mystical properties that extend the fabled powers of the moon into daylight hours.
A Citizen of the World
As the technology of travel grows ever more refined, the world grows smaller. Whereas a journey of a hundred miles once took many days, we can now travel across the globe in mere hours. The four corners of the earth are accessible by plane, train, and ship, and there are few pleasures in life as soul-stirring and transformative as travel. In a new land, the simplest of joys can be profound — meditation takes on a new quality because the energy in which we are immersed is unfamiliar. Our sensory experiences are entirely novel. Yet, the relative ease with which we can step out of our own culture to explore another means that we are ambassadors representing not only our own way of life but also our culture. As a conscious citizen of the world, you can add value to the places you visit while simultaneously broadening your own perspective.
Power in Honesty
Promises are easily made. Keeping them often proves more difficult because when we are pressured to strive always for perfection, we find it simpler to agree to undertake impossible tasks than to say no. Likewise, there is an infinite array of circumstances that conspire to goad us into telling falsehoods, even when we hold a great reverence for truth. When you endeavor to consistently keep your word, however, you protect your reputation and promote yourself as someone who can be trusted. Though your honesty may not always endear you to others — there will always be those who fear the truth — you can nonetheless be certain that your integrity is never tarnished by deceit. Since frankness and sincerity form the basis of all life-enriching relationships, your word is one of your most precious and powerful possessions.
Fuel That Nurtures
At its simplest, food is fuel. Though our preferences regarding taste and texture can vary widely, we all rely on the foods we eat for energy. Most people are aware that it is vital we consume a diverse assortment of foods if we aspire to maintain a state of physical well-being. However, the intimate connection between diet and our mental well-being is less understood. Just as the nutritional components in food power the body, so too do they power the mind. Some foods can impair cognitive functioning and sap our energy while others heighten our intellectual prowess and make us feel vigorous. What we eat and drink can have a powerful effect on our ability to focus, mental clarity, mood, and stress levels.
Using Your Pain to Help Others
Pain is a fact of being and one that permeates all of our lives to some degree. Since the hurt we feel may be a part of the experiences that have touched us most deeply, we often don’t want to let it go. It is easier to keep our pain, where it acts as a shield that shelters us from others and gives us an identity from which we can draw bitter strength. However, pain’s universality also can empower us to help others heal. You can channel your pain into transformative and healing love to help individuals on a one-to-one basis and spread a tide of curative energy throughout the world.
Raise Your Vibration
Everything in the universe is made of energy. What differentiates one form of energy from another is the speed at which it vibrates. For example, light vibrates at a very high frequency, and a rock vibrates at a lower frequency — but a frequency nonetheless. Human beings also vibrate at different frequencies. Our thoughts and feelings determine the frequency at which we vibrate, and our vibration goes out into the world and attracts energy to us that is moving at a similar frequency. This is one of the ways we create our own reality, which is why we can cause a positive shift in our lives by raising our vibration.
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Energetic Sweeping
In some of our lives, sweeping has become an activity performed without much thought. In many cases, sweeping is a lost art, replaced by the noisy, efficient vacuum cleaner. But in several cultures and religions, sweeping the front and back porch every morning is regarded as an important cleansing ritual that prepares the ground for new energy on every level -- physically, spiritually, emotionally, and mentally. It is often employed to sanctify a space and prepare it for a ceremony. This seemingly simple action has the power to clear away the old and make space for the new. It stirs up the energy in a place, clearing out the astral buildup that is the natural by-product of the presence of humans.
The Status Quo
When our lives are going well, and sometimes even when they aren’t, we may find ourselves feeling very attached to the status quo of our existence -- life as we know it. It is a very human tendency to resist change as though it were possible to simply decide not to do it, or have it in our lives. But change will come and the status quo will go, sooner or later, with our consent or without it. We may find at the end of the day that we feel considerably more empowered when we find the courage to ally ourselves with the universal force of change, rather than working against it.
Doing Our Best Work
In the great symphony of life, we all have important parts to play. While some people are best suited to be conductors or soloists, their contributions would be diminished considerably without the individual musicians that lend their artistry to the fullness of an orchestra. The magical accents of the percussion section might sound random and out of place without the music they accompany. But any one member of an orchestra, doing less than their best at their particular part, can destroy the harmony of the whole piece, such is their importance. So although we may not receive the same amount or quality of attention as another, all of our contributions are valuable and integral to the success of the whole.
Saying Yes to the Universe
The hardest thing about saying yes to the universe is that it means accepting everything life puts in front of us. Most of us have a habit of going through our days saying no to the things we don’t like and yes to the things we do, and yet, everything we encounter is our life. We may be afraid that if we say yes to the things we don’t like, we will be stuck with them forever, but really, it is only through acknowledging the existence of what’s not working for us that we can begin the process of change. So saying yes doesn’t mean indiscriminately accepting things that don’t work for us. It means conversing with the universe, and starting the conversation with a very powerful word -- yes.
Creating Community
Since the modern Western lifestyle can isolate us from one another, it is often difficult to forge meaningful connections. Self-protection and mistrust prevent us from reaching out to neighbors and peers, and we consequently feel like we don’t truly belong anywhere. Yet creating community can be as simple as reaching out within our own neighborhoods. To form the bonds that eventually solidify into long-lasting friendships, we must first be willing to rise above the walls of suspicion and doubt dividing us from the individuals who inhabit our neighborhood, block, or our building. We are taught from childhood to fear those we do not know, but community is as much a part of survival as safety. When we take a proactive approach, we can harmoniously unite our neighbors and build a network of support that contributes to the well-being of all involved.Let It Roll off Our Back
One of the most difficult challenges in life is learning not to take things to heart and hold on to it. Especially when we’re younger, or if we’re very sensitive, we take so much of what comes our way to heart. This can be overwhelming and unproductive if it throws us off balance on a regular basis. When we are feeling criticized or attacked from all directions, it becomes very difficult for us to recover ourselves so that we can continue to speak and act our truth. This is when we would do well to remember the old saying about letting certain things roll off us, like water off a duck’s back.
No Going Back
There are times when we feel that we are spinning our wheels in the mud in terms of our spiritual progress. This can be especially true following a period of major growth in which we feel as if we’ve gained a lot of ground. In fact, this is the way growth goes -- periods of intense forward movement give way to periods of what seems like stagnation. In those moments when we feel discouraged, it’s helpful to remember that we don’t ever really go backward. It may be that we are at a standstill because there is a new obstacle in our paths, or a new layer to get through, but the hard work we have done cannot be undone.
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