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  • How to reconcile CwG with my Christian friends?

    How can I lovingly respond to friends who tell me that the only way to access God is through Jesus Christ and that I will be condemned if I don’t accept him as my Lord and Savior? I love Conversations With God and still attend a Christian church, but I am beginning to feel alienated there. Please help!… Patt

    Dear Patt… My father, who believes as your Christian friends do, once told me he was worried about my Soul. I told him as earnestly as I could that God and I have a wonderful, loving, close personal relationship and he need worry no more! I think it helped ease his mind.

    Living in Nashville, the city some refer to as the Buckle of the Bible Belt, I sometimes find myself in conversations about my CwG work with fundamentalist Christians. When this happens, I make an effort to relate to them in terminology that they can understand. I look for common ground in these discussions because the foundational principles of Jesus’ teaching and Conversations With God are not so very different, although CwG offers us a much larger view of Life and how it works. Knowing that each of these discussions is an opportunity to gently introduce people to CwG and to help expand their spiritual awareness, I try my best to be impeccable with my word and as loving as possible.

    Since you are being proselytized to, Patt, you may want to suggest setting judgment aside and listening with an open mind when discussing each other’s beliefs. Then speak your truth, but soothe your words with peace and loving kindness. Don’t be surprised, though, if, as time goes on, you feel yourself being pulled more toward other people who share your beliefs. You may even find that a different church or spiritual center more deeply resonates with you, and please don’t feel guilty about it if this happens. You may make wonderful new friends who will support you on your life’s journey and in your spiritual growth.

    (Annie Sims is the Global Director of The Conversations With God School, is a CwG Life Coach and author/instructor of the CwG Online School. To connect with Annie, please email her at Annie@TheGlobalConversation.com.)

    (If you would like a question considered for publication, please submit your request to:  Advice@TheGlobalConversation.com, where our team is waiting to hear from you.)

     

  • Unveiling the modern goddess

    My sister had just exposed to me this new point of view:  Affirmations For the Everyday Goddess by Pamela Wells.  Very thought-provoking affirmations.   This “Goddess” stuff was new to me.  I hadn’t really been exposed to or been around (in my mind’s current awareness anyway) Goddess thinking; however, I dug that title for sure.  It was new and refreshing to me.

    She was sharing how she really related to this certain Goddess and had her little statue in her kitchen window.  The following day I visited a Unity Church as a guest of a friend.  While we were in their gift shop, I looked over on the countertop while checking out and commented to Mary, “Look, there is a book on Goddesses.  That’s what my sister was just speaking to me about.”

    Well, as there are no accidents, this woman promptly turned around and said she was the author of the book.  It was one of those times when one ‘knows.’  God is there as miracles are happening left and right.  So I bought three of her books and had her sign them.  She then gave us, Mary and myself, a little sharing of her life and insights right there in the front of the bookstore.  It was a special moment for all.

    The book is called:  “Unveiling the Modern Goddess: Thru Symbolism, Chakras & Myth” by Karen Marie Castle.  (Purchase the book on Amazon)

    She shared with us how if she had not gone ‘inward’ (a deep meditation), that this book would not be here.  She had this unexpected transformational experience during a Holotropic Breathwork session that lead to a whole different path in life for her, as detailed in her book.

    I appreciate the colors of the cover of her book and her sharing her healing as she weaves her story around the ancient myth of the Goddess Inanna, who appeared to her during that meditation.

    Personally, I am very grateful this book on “unveiling me as a Goddess” came into my life.  My sister is the same one that years ago gave me my first Conversations with God, Book 1.  That sat on my shelf for a few years because I thought the title was kind of weird.  As the renowned and highly respected author/mentor/friend of that book and Conversation of God series of books, Neale Donald Walsch, says:  “When the student is ready…the teacher will appear.”  Jill led me to Conversations with God and now to adoring my Goddess within.

    Thank you, Jilly!

    I love you eternally.

    An excerpt from the back cover of Unveiling the Modern Goddess:  Thru Symbolism, Chakras & Myth, by Karen Marie Castle:

    “The mystical story of the Goddess Inanna can guide us to achieving our greatest potential.  Unveiling the Modern Goddess:  Thru Symbolism, Chakra & Myth explores our own journey through life. Utilizing the chakras energy system and the symbol of Inanna’s myth gives us clues to understand our life development and indicates where we need to heal and thus become a more whole human being.  Underlying this powerful understanding is a message for all women to come forward and take responsibility for our Mother Earth and for our children.  Women are being called as beacons of light for our human evolution.”

    (Mel Dee lives in the United States and is a nursing student, part-time bartender, part-time house attendant (a one-on-one mentor in their/our evolutionary process),animal lover, soul lover, people lover and peace lover!  She also volunteers on the site www.changingchange.net as a spiritual helper.)

    (If there is a book, movie, music CD, etc. that you would like to recommend to our worldwide audience, please submit it to our Managing Editor, Lisa McCormack, for possible publication in this space. Not all submissions can be published, due to the number of submissions and sometimes because of other content considerations, but all are encouraged. Send submissions to Lisa@TheGlobalConversation.com. Please label the topic: “Review”)

     

  • What would love do now?
    Wear a pink tutu in Times Square, of course!

    51-year-old Bob Carey, standing 5-foot-10-inches tall, and weighing more than 200 pounds, is appearing around the country in only a pink tutu and creating a 61-page book of his self-portraits in an effort to support his Beloved Other, Linda, who has advanced breast cancer.

    His extraordinary journey has taken him to the Grand Canyon, Coney Island, Times Square, The Washington Monument, a cow pasture in the midwest, and Giants Stadium, just to highlight a few.  You can view some of the images from his self-published book here:  Tutu Breast Cancer Project.

    Linda Lancaster-Carey, 51, who was diagnosed with cancer in 2003, says, “He’s not afraid to put himself out there. It’s his own body, with all its imperfections.”  The Careys say laughter has always been at the heart of their relationship and that the photography allowed Bob Carey to focus on something other than his own fear and anger surrounding his wife’s illness and the loss of his father to lung cancer and his mother to breast cancer.

    The Careys’ story demonstrates the level of unconditional love that so many people desperately yearn for but fall short of time and time again in their relationships, a level of love and commitment that perhaps may have not have been as fully experienced but for Linda’s illness.

    I imagine there was an earlier time in Bob Carey’s life where he would not have even considered donning only a pink tutu in the middle of Times Square, much less actually do it.  Even now, some members of the media have been less than kind, colorfully pointing out the flaws in Carey’s physique, to which he replies, “The photos are about transforming into somebody I’m not. It’s about being vulnerable.” Carey is also feeling pushback from critics who question his actions, women who are put off by the pink tutu and those who have grown tired of the “pinkification” of October, which has been designated as Breast Cancer Awareness month.

    In the midst of darkness and pain and uncertainty, Bob Carey answered the question, “What would love do now?”   He pushed past the illusions of fear, embraced his vulnerability, and stepped into his next grandest version of himself, gifting to his wife and all those whose lives he touches the remembrance of his own sufficiency and divinity.  His act of self-definition now spans the country, if not the world, so others, too, can remember more fully who they are:  as sufficient and divine.

    Conversations with God, Book 1, reminds us:

    “What you do for your Self, you do for another.

    What you do for another, you do for the Self.

    And this is because you and the other are one.

    And this is because…

    There is naught but You.”

    Perhaps the Careys’ story will serve to inspire us all today to do something extraordinary, something silly and unexpected, an expression of pure givingness to our partner, and thus to ourselves — or to ourselves, and thus to all of humanity — as a demonstration of our Highest Self and our deepest affection and in remembrance of who we really are.

    Yes?

    (Lisa McCormack is the Managing Editor & Administrator of The Global Conversation.  She is also a member of the Spiritual Helper team at www.ChangingChange.net, a website offering emotional and spiritual support .   To connect with Lisa, please e-mail her at Lisa@TheGlobalConversation.com.)

     

  • In your opinion, who won the debate between Joe Biden and Paul Ryan? And why do you think so?

  • MUST YOU LOSE YOUR JOB
    IF OBAMA IS RE-ELECTED?

    Mr. David Siegel has made a billion dollars. You may remember him as the man who came to national attention this year when he announced he wanted to build the biggest house in America—a 90,000-square-foot home inspired by Versailles. Follow this link if you think I just made that up.

    Now he will be remembered also as the man who sought to persuade his employees to vote against Barack Obama by telling them that some of them would have to be let go if the President is re-elected and raises taxes on the super-rich, as Mr. Obama has said he wants to do to return the U.S. economy to a sound footing.

    Mr. Siegel is the founder/owner of a company that leases high-end time-share homes to persons looking to vacation in luxurious surroundings. His company, Westgate Resorts, is based on Florida and is one of the largest, if not the largest, firms of its kind in the world.

    A few days ago Mr. Siegel, who employs something like 7,000 people, sent a memo to those who work for them, saying that “If any new taxes are levied on me, or my company, as our current President plans, I will have no choice but to reduce the size of this company. Rather than grow this company I will be forced to cut back.”

    Mr. Siegel presumably feels that an increase in the amount of taxes he pays will affect his overall wealth and his company’s health in such a way that he will have to fire people to maintain things at their present level.

    This is a fascinating point of view for a man who was worth, a few years ago, a billion dollars. Perhaps he might choose to not seek to complete the building of the Biggest House in America (did you follow the link and look at the picture of what he wants to create?) and take some of that money and make it available to his employees, so that he doesn’t have to fire them because he is paying more taxes.

    Mr. Siegel, in his memo, asked his employees how they would like it if they had to pay 50% of what they earned in taxes. Wouldn’t that be a disincentive? Wouldn’t that take the wind out of their sails, and the oomph out of their desire to work as hard as they are now?

    Well, it might if their annual income was $50,000 or $75,000 or $100,000. It might even if their income was $200,000. But would it if their annual income was 50 or 75 or 100 million? I mean, how much is enough? If you were earning $50,000,000 a year and you thought that using half of it to help those who are less fortunate, by funding through your taxes government programs designed for that purpose, was being asked of you, would you say, “No! I have to earn as much of that $50-million as I can! You don’t understand! I’ve got a 90,000-square foot house to finish building!”

    Indeed, the central question before humanity at this point in our history is: How much is enough? Before I start giving back…yes, even if I have to give back half…how much do I need to make just to keep for myself? Five Million? Ten? Fifty? A hundred million?

    Now you might argue, “But I shouldn’t have to give any of it back. It’s mine. I earned it, with the sweat of my own brow. And I did it all by myself. Nobody else helped me. None of my employees helped me.  None of my customers helped me. I got no help or incentives or tax write-offs in any form from my government. I did it all alone, all by myself. This country was built on freedom. I should not have to give half of it back to the government to help the Have-Not’s. They can go out and make their own hundred million, just like I did!”

    You might argue that. In fact, that is essentially what Mr. Siegel was arguing when he sent his memo to his employees a few days ago. In that memo, he gave a name to those who his tax dollars would be helping. He called them: “the unproductive.”  (Check the last paragraph of his memo.)

    Here is the full text of that memo, as posted at Gawker.com. Give it a read, then leave any comment you may have below.

    =================================================

    Subject: Message from David Siegel
    Date:Mon, 08 Oct 2012 13:58:05 -0400 (EDT)
    From: [David Siegel]
    To: [All employees]

    To All My Valued Employees,

    As most of you know our company, Westgate Resorts, has continued to succeed in spite of a very dismal economy. There is no question that the economy has changed for the worse and we have not seen any improvement over the past four years. In spite of all of the challenges we have faced, the good news is this: The economy doesn’t currently pose a threat to your job. What does threaten your job however, is another 4 years of the same Presidential administration. Of course, as your employer, I can’t tell you whom to vote for, and I certainly wouldn’t interfere with your right to vote for whomever you choose. In fact, I encourage you to vote for whomever you think will serve your interests the best.

    However, let me share a few facts that might help you decide what is in your best interest.The current administration and members of the press have perpetuated an environment that casts employers against employees. They want you to believe that we live in a class system where the rich get richer, the poor get poorer. They label us the “1%” and imply that we are somehow immune to the challenges that face our country. This could not be further from the truth. Sure, you may have heard about the big home that I’m building. I’m sure many people think that I live a privileged life. However, what you don’t see or hear is the true story behind any success that I have achieved.

    I started this company over 42 years ago. At that time, I lived in a very modest home. I converted my garage into an office so I could put forth 100% effort into building a company, which by the way, would eventually employ you. We didn’t eat in fancy restaurants or take expensive vacations because every dollar I made went back into this company. I drove an old used car, and often times, I stayed home on weekends, while my friends went out drinking and partying. In fact, I was married to my business — hard work, discipline, and sacrifice. Meanwhile, many of my friends got regular jobs. They worked 40 hours a week and made a nice income, and they spent every dime they earned. They drove flashy cars and lived in expensive homes and wore fancy designer clothes. My friends refinanced their mortgages and lived a life of luxury. I, however, did not. I put my time, my money, and my life into this business —-with a vision that eventually, some day, I too, will be able to afford to buy whatever I wanted. Even to this day, every dime I earn goes back into this company. Over the past four years I have had to stop building my dream house, cut back on all of my expenses, and take my kids out of private schools simply to keep this company strong and to keep you employed.

    Just think about this – most of you arrive at work in the morning and leave that afternoon and the rest of your time is yours to do as you please. But not me- there is no “off” button for me. When you leave the office, you are done and you have a weekend all to yourself. I unfortunately do not have that freedom. I eat, live, and breathe this company every minute of the day, every day of the week. There is no rest. There is no weekend. There is no happy hour. I know many of you work hard and do a great job, but I’m the one who has to sign every check, pay every expense, and make sure that this company continues to succeed. Unfortunately, what most people see is the nice house and the lavish lifestyle. What the press certainly does not want you to see, is the true story of the hard work and sacrifices I’ve made.

    Now, the economy is falling apart and people like me who made all the right decisions and invested in themselves are being forced to bail out all the people who didn’t. The people that overspent their paychecks suddenly feel entitled to the same luxuries that I earned and sacrificed 42 years of my life for. Yes, business ownership has its benefits, but the price I’ve paid is steep and not without wounds. Unfortunately, the costs of running a business have gotten out of control, and let me tell you why: We are being taxed to death and the government thinks we don’t pay enough. We pay state taxes, federal taxes, property taxes, sales and use taxes, payroll taxes, workers compensation taxes and unemployment taxes. I even have to hire an entire department to manage all these taxes. The question I have is this: Who is really stimulating the economy? Is it the Government that wants to take money from those who have earned it and give it to those who have not, or is it people like me who built a company out of his garage and directly employs over 7000 people and hosts over 3 million people per year with a great vacation?

    Obviously, our present government believes that taking my money is the right economic stimulus for this country. The fact is, if I deducted 50% of your paycheck you’d quit and you wouldn’t work here. I mean, why should you? Who wants to get rewarded only 50% of their hard work? Well, that’s what happens to me.

    Here is what most people don’t understand and the press and our Government has chosen to ignore – to stimulate the economy you need to stimulate what runs the economy. Instead of raising my taxes and depositing that money into the Washington black-hole, let me spend it on growing the company, hire more employees, and generate substantial economic growth. My employees will enjoy the wealth of that tax cut in the form of promotions and better salaries. But that is not what our current Government wants you to believe. They want you to believe that it somehow makes sense to take more from those who create wealth and give it to those who do not, and somehow our economy will improve. They don’t want you to know that the “1%”, as they like to label us, pay more than 31% of all the taxes in this country. Thomas Jefferson, the author of our great Constitution, once said, “democracy” will cease to exist when you take away from those who are willing to work and give to those who would not.”

    Business is at the heart of America and always has been. To restart it, you must stimulate business, not kill it. However, the power brokers in Washington believe redistributing wealth is the essential driver of the American economic engine. Nothing could be further from the truth and this is the type of change they want.

    So where am I going with all this? It’s quite simple. If any new taxes are levied on me, or my company, as our current President plans, I will have no choice but to reduce the size of this company. Rather than grow this company I will be forced to cut back. This means fewer jobs, less benefits and certainly less opportunity for everyone.

    So, when you make your decision to vote, ask yourself, which candidate understands the economics of business ownership and who doesn’t? Whose policies will endanger your job? Answer those questions and you should know who might be the one capable of protecting and saving your job. While the media wants to tell you to believe the “1 percenters” are bad, I’m telling you they are not. They create most of the jobs. If you lose your job, it won’t be at the hands of the “1%”; it will be at the hands of a political hurricane that swept through this country.

    You see, I can no longer support a system that penalizes the productive and gives to the unproductive. My motivation to work and to provide jobs will be destroyed, and with it, so will your opportunities. If that happens, you can find me in the Caribbean sitting on the beach, under a palm tree, retired, and with no employees to worry about.

    Signed, your boss,

    David Siegel

    ===========================================
    I can totally understand how Mr. Siegel’s “motivation to work and to provide jobs will be destroyed” if his only motivation has to do with his income. But what if his motivation has to do with making the lives of others better? What if that was, in fact, his prime motivation…not merely a secondary outcome? And that, my dears, is the difference between a person who is motivated by humanity’s Old Cultural Story and a person who is motivated by our New Cultural Story.

    A person whose prime motivation is generated by The New Spirituality could probably find a way to keep his plant or his office open, and everyone there fully employed, and somehow get by on half of his multi-million-dollar-a-year income.

    You think?

  • Chop wood; carry what?

    There is a Zen saying, “Before Enlightenment chop wood carry water; after Enlightenment, chop wood carry water.” In my twenties and thirties I was part of a local Zen Buddhist center.

    I say “part” because I wasn’t a consistent practitioner—I was never one for organized groups. Nevertheless, I was very much drawn to the dim, candlelit mornings held in silence, the light incense of Sandalwood and Pine, the creak of bare feet on a worn and wooden floor, and the unique sense of “togetherness” that sharing meditation with other human beings can engender.

    When I first found Zen Buddhism, not much “Life” had happened to me. I appeared each morning at 3:50 a.m., fresh-faced, dressed in appropriately dark and comfortable clothes. I smiled sweetly and observed silence and moved with a conscious and quiet grace. I raked and cleaned and watered and sat and stood and bowed and breathed and chanted and gonged and even practiced meditation at home when not at the Zen center. Inspired by the emphasis on Compassion in the teachings of Buddhism, I became a vegan, entered massage school, and took up many gentle pastimes that fed my soul.

    But time passed, and more Life happened, and soon I began to digress. I massaged my aching kneecaps whenever my teachers weren’t looking. I eased ever-so-slightly to the right or left of my cushion to give my body a break, daring my shadow on the wall directly in front of me to give me away. I skipped the Wednesday night Dharma talk and instead went out with friends and drank wine late into the summer nights. Stress and Life’s unfolding “story” spun me not toward the skills I had acquired, nor toward my own heart, but instead, toward everything “unskillful” and drama-producing.

    By my early thirties I was a Zen student poor in practice but rich in rebellion. My dear Zen teacher would observe me coming and going a year or two at a time and simply shake her head. She once said I was like a helium balloon that she wished she could tie a small rock to, so that I wouldn’t keep floating away.

    But she also had this to say, once I had returned for the umpteenth time, my face full of shame, my eyes constantly brimmed with tears, having experienced a divorce after 9 years of marriage, burying my beloved dog, three more romantic relationships and breakups, and my first healthy dark night of the soul: “This is good. You’re not as shiny now.”

    She said this as she held my face in her hands and we looked into each other’s eyes. “Now you can relate to others, and this is where true compassion begins. Now Compassion is not just a precept on the pages, but a way of Being.”

    And she was right.

    As hard as those decades were, I wouldn’t trade them for who I have become, and who I am remembering I’ve always been…

    All of us just want to know that we are not alone on this incredibly difficult, and extraordinarily beautiful, Mystery that some call Life, Life-ing.  Or God,
    God-ding.  Or Human, Being.

    I know you as Myself. And I love you.

    — em claire


    The Day Is Cold

    Today I want to give up.
    After reading Raymond Carver.
    After too much wine last night.
    It’s not yet 9 a.m. and the day is cold.
    Closing my eyes offers an abyss;
    a place to fall into.

    But isn’t that what it is?
    Everyone stumbling;
    drinking; spilling.

    Everyone wanting to be saved

    Just a little?

     

    “The Day is Cold” em claire
    ©2004 All Rights Reserved

    (Em Claire is an American poet whose work appears in the book Silent Sacred Holy Deepening Heart. She may be reached through www.emclairepoet.com)

     

  • A Billion Friends and Zero Connections

    On October 4th, 2012, an unprecedented event occurred across the world. This event was not a day of political change or economic change, but this was a day of a social change. Through the incredible progress of technology, October 4th marked the day that will continue to define lives and generations. For on this past Thursday, the social media network Facebook officially registered its billionth user. Stated from a BBC article published on October 5th, Facebook now has “over 1.13 trillion ‘likes,’ 219 billion photos, and 17 billion check-ins.” With users logging in from all over the globe, Facebook and social media has become one of the most popular forms of communication on the planet.  

    From observing this massive expansion of social media, it would seem as though our society is more connected to each other than ever before. Through Facebook and other social network sites, we have been given more opportunity to communicate and interact with others than any other generation has. We can post, print, and tag on each other’s wall instantaneously, and comment on their activities just as fast. And yet, for all of the connections that social media creates, we feel even more separated and disconnected than ever before. Why is that? 

    How is it even possible that a billion people, who have engaged in social networking to create meaningful connections with others, still feel so separated from each other? In essence, it begins with the most basic element: the message. In the simplest truth, the purpose of having conversations and being connected to others is to send and receive our messages. As these messages that we type, text, and tweet serve as our verbalized thoughts and desires, every word is being sent out for the world to lean and listen. So, what are the messages that we are sending out? Are they ones that continue to separate us, or are they ones that actually might bring us together?   

    If you ever felt the messages you posted online only created further division, further guilt, further fear, then know that you CAN change the message that you put out into the world. By simply being aware of messages that either bring people together or drives them apart is a step in a new direction. Social media doesn’t have to be used to boast accomplishments and events of one over another, but rather can be used to bring the two together. We have the ability to connect with the billions of other social media users, as long as we are willing to create those connections. You CAN choose, in every post, in every tweet, to bring a message of unity and understanding into everything you say and write. You CAN choose to promote love and unity, and let your words reflect it. Your message is a reflection of Who You Are, and your expression of Who You Are. It’s just your choice on the extent you want to express it. 

    As Facebook now has a billion users, social media is becoming more complex and interconnected than anything else we have ever known socially. As each of its billion users will choose the message they send out into the world, they will decide which path they will follow. But as we decide our own path, we can start to choose messages that create those deeper connections and higher conversations that will interact with billions of other users. So next time you go to update your status, remember the words you send will be literally sent into the world. Check your messages often. 

    (Lauren is a Feature Editor of The Global Conversation. She lives in Wood Dale, IL and can be reached at Lauren@TheGlobalConversation.com.)

               

     

  • Get out of that box!

    Last week we spoke about “turning on” your health & wellness by taking a whole being approach. This week we will dive into some practical ideas in and around that old familiar saying “you are what you eat.” Much of what goes into us on a daily basis from a traditional diet may not be beneficial, and just because it’s edible doesn’t mean that it should be eaten!

    Over the last 25 years I have tried various ways of eating, from the super healthy to the not so much. Predictably, some ways have worked great and some have not. Like many, I was on the yo-yo plan of gaining & losing weight. Most of the diets I tried were simply unhealthy no matter what my weight was…and sick & skinny was certainly not my goal. I long ago ended the diet mentality in exchange for creating a lifestyle of health and wellness. After years of experimentation, learning and paying attention to what works, I have found solutions that are a fit for me and I know work because they keep me fit. Remember that you must find what works for you, so take the following suggestions below not as gospel, but rather as ideas to set you on a course of personal exploration. Pay attention to how you feel, as this is always the best guide!

    Here are some simple suggestions that have worked for me and may help you, too.

    Remove processed foods from your diet – Get out of that box!

    If it comes in a box, bag, or a can, instead of right out of the ground, you probably want to limit or avoid it. Most of these so-called foods have been processed in some way and probably not in a way that is going to be healthy for you. Processed also usually means a whole bunch of extra stuff added that have little or no benefit for your body. And far too often, when it says “all natural” on the side of that box, it just means added junk your body doesn’t want or need. Lots of things are considered natural that you wouldn’t dare put in your body…like arsenic!

    Instead of reaching for that box, fill up on fresh organic foods which are packed full of living enzymes. Live Enzymes are referred to as the life force or energy of whole food. Processed and cooked food no longer contain this life energy which we need daily to be well. Other so-called food may sustain you, but it’s not going to do much in creating health or in keeping you well. If you begin eating processed-free foods, you will quickly notice your energy level increase, and perhaps, like me, some of those stubborn pounds will begin to melt away.

    Get raw! Eat at least one raw meal a day 

    Raw simply means uncooked. Along with losing much of its life force, the process of cooking whole food removes up to 80% of the available vitamins & minerals; and if that isn’t bad enough, those precious live enzymes die off, too. Most conventional foods these days have very little nutritional value to begin with, so cooking it makes it worse. I suggest having at least one meal a day that is uncooked (or cooked below 118 degrees). This could be a big colorful salad, lightly steamed veggies, or a fresh blended veggie smoothie.

    How about a Juice or Smoothies?

    I drink 2 or 3 green smoothies a day. I make them fresh in a powerful blender with only organic raw and fresh ingredients. (By the way, this does not include what some smoothie bars make.  Most of them are full of sugar, processed powders, and junk). If I am still hungry after my smoothie, I add salads, steamed veggies, kale chips, flax crackers, nuts and seeds etc. The idea is to get as much nutrient-dense and nutrient-rich foods in you every day as possible. If you desire to lose weight, using smoothies where the fiber remains in your drink, rather than juicing where the fiber is removed, is a far better path for weight loss and great for overall health.

    If you are going for a juice, use can use the same organic ingredients, like kale, spinach, beet, cucumber, celery, carrot, apple, ginger, lemon and so much more. If you really want to optimize your health, invest in your own juicer or high-speed blender and then get busy in the kitchen coming up with your own marvelous creations. AND DO SHARE! Wheatgrass shots are also packed full of nutrition. If you can’t handle the taste, chase it with a little bit of freshly squeezed orange juice or add it to your favorite juice blend to hide the taste.

    Here are some of my creations. These are blended drinks rather than juiced and are about 2 to 3 cups in volume.

     Mornings:

    Romaine lettuce

    flax seeds

    chia seeds

    hemp seeds

    blueberries

    strawberries

    grapes

    or your favorite fruit

    small handful of raw mix nuts

    1/2 Hemp milk unsweetened

    1/2 Coconut water

    Lunch / Dinners:

    mixed greens, spinach, kale, veggies of all kinds

    flax seeds

    chia seeds

    hemp seeds

    small handful of raw mix nuts

    salsa – use all different kinds like mango or pineapple for variety

    dash of cayenne pepper

    raw garlic

    nutritional yeast

    shot of liquid aminos

    In the lunch and dinner smoothies, I use either my lemon-aid recipe below or low-sodium organic veggie broth for a more soup-like flavor.

    JR’s Lemon-aid mix: 4 lemons squeezed to 1/2 gallon of fresh spring or filtered water with 4 squirts of liquid stevia. Liquid stevia is an ideal sweetener. It is 300 to 400 times sweeter than sugar, yet nourishing to the pancreas. Lemons are full of benefits for the body too, and help in detoxification…who doesn’t like a cool glass of lemon-aid on hot day? I also steer clear of things in a can. Soda is on my “avoid at all cost” list! My lemon-aid mix is great to drink all day, so it makes that task easy. I also enjoy green tea or just plain hot water as well. Great to help aid in digestion prior to eating.

    Remember that you want to pack in as much nutrition into each meal to give you and your body the tools to create energy and great physical health. These nutrient-dense smoothies have also provided something I had not experienced before…the feeling of being full and satisfied. I will tell you that I understand the pain associated with feeling hungry after eating a regular meal and the emotional ups and downs that can be experienced when you are trying to lose weight but having little success using traditional methods. My smoothies have allowed me to lose weight effortlessly, increase my energy & overall health, and end the whole food drama in my head. What a gift!

    We will talk more about exercise in upcoming articles, but just a note to say that including daily movement is also very important. My favorite exercise is my yoga practice, and I love walking too. Just a 20 minute walk a day can make all the difference in your health. Get out and soak up some vitamin D and get that heart & butt movin! You can do it!!

    These simple suggestions can begin you on your way to better health. All that is required from you is your willingness to get out of that box and get into making some healthier choices. Keep it simple and remember – what would love do now? Make each and every choice out of this question and watch you and your health thrive. Until next week, cheers! – JR

    (J.R. Westen, D.D. is a Holistic Health & Spiritual Counselor who has worked and presented side-by-side with Neale Donald Walsch for over a decade. He is passionate about helping individuals move beyond their emotional and spiritual challenges, transforming breakdowns into breakthroughs. His coaching provides practical wisdom and guidance that can be immediately incorporated to shift ones experience of life. As is true for most impactful teachers, JR’s own struggles and triumphs inspired him to find powerful ways of helping others. Sober since June 1, 1986, JR’s passion for helping individuals move through intense life challenges drove him to also specialize in Addiction and Grief Recovery. J.R. currently shares his gift of counseling & coaching with individuals from around the world through the Wellness Center, Simply Vibrant, located on Long Island N.Y. . In addition, he works with Escondido Sobering Services and serves on the Board of Directors for the Conversations with God Foundation. He can be contacted at JR@theglobalconversation.com, or to book an appointment, write support@simplyvibrant.com.)

     

  • If only you were ‘this,’ then I could be ‘that’

    By the time Jenny Lee was 28 years old, she’d already had 26 plastic surgeries:

    Breast implants (twice)
    Cheek implants
    Chin implant
    Lip implants (3 times)
    Nose jobs (3 times)
    Breast lift (3 times)
    Liposuction on her arms, hips, thighs, stomach & knees
    A full body lift
    Botox injections
    Veneers

    Why?

    Her answer to this one-word question is simply, “Because my husband told me that my breasts were too small and my nose was too big.”

    In an effort to achieve her perception of perfection – (including a belief that these choices would somehow become the source of her partner’s happiness) – Jenny Lee attempted to literally recreate her body, thus hoping to recreate her reality, through a painful journey of surgery after surgery after surgery.

    The cruel twist in this story is that after Jenny had the breast enlargements and the plethora of other procedures, instead of finally receiving what she desired most, her husband’s love and affection, she was met with a new unwelcome response from him:  resentment and jealousy… because now, ironically, she was receiving too much attention from others.

    Reading this story about Jenny caused me to reflect upon why women – or anyone, for that matter – began perceiving themselves as less than whole and adopted belief systems which embraced the notion that certain conditions create happiness, not only within ourselves, but within others:  “If I have thinner thighs or less wrinkles, I will be worthy of love”…”If he was taller and had more hair, he would be perfect”….”If she would look this way, I would feel that way.”

    We cram our feet into uncomfortable shoes.

    We stuff our legs into binding pantyhose and hip-slimming Spanx.

    We pluck our eyebrows and color our hair and bleach our teeth.

    We only feel pretty when we have make-up on…and we have become experts at “Photoshopping” out our perceived flaws.

    Why are we doing this?

    What is it that we are imagining ourselves to need?  Or be lacking?  Or simply not remembering?

    “Communion with God” says “need” is not only the first illusion, but the grandest illusion, the illusion upon which ALL other illusions are based.  The illusion of need manifests in all areas of our lives, but it becomes particularly painful when it permeates the most sacred space of intimacy within a partnership of souls.  Some people feel unworthy to stand before their beloved other unclothed.  Some people withhold from their lover the most sensual physical experience of love.  Some people go so far as to undergo 26-plus cosmetic surgeries to “fix” what they think is “broke.”

    What can we do to change this?

    As our society continues to shift and inch closer to the understandings and concepts held with the New Spirituality, will we remember that it is through the transformation of our thoughts about Who We Really Are, rather than our ideas about who we think we should be, that we will be presented the grandest opportunity to experience ourselves as whole and perfect….and as God?

    Or is it perhaps that an alteration of our physicality is just another path to a spiritual transformation?

    (Lisa McCormack is the Managing Editor & Administrator of The Global Conversation.  She is also a member of the Spiritual Helper team at www.ChangingChange.net, a website offering emotional and spiritual support .   To connect with Lisa, please e-mail her at Lisa@TheGlobalConversation.com.)

  • Hey, wait a minute! No place called Hell??

    (Part 2 of a 5-part series)

    Conversations with God famously said that there is no such place as Hell. Could such a thing be true? According to the late Pope John Paul II, it is. His Holiness John Paul II told a papal audience on July 28, 1999 that there is no such place as Hell.

    The pope said people must be very careful in interpreting the biblical descriptions of hell, which he said are symbolic and metaphorical. The “inextinguishable fire” and “the burning oven” which the Bible speaks of “indicate the complete frustration and vacuity of a life without God,” he said. In other words, Hell is a state of mind, or a state of being, not a physical or even metaphysical “place” to which people who are “bad” are sent by God.

    And when this state of being is not something to which God sends souls, the Pope declared. Such a state is “self imposed,” the pontiff said. Surprising a worldwide audience, he announced that “Damnation cannot be attributed to an initiative of God, because in his merciful love he cannot want anything but the salvation of the beings he created.”

    Eternal damnation “is not a punishment inflicted by God from outside,” the pope went on. “But man, called to respond freely to God, unfortunately can choose to refuse his love and pardon definitively, removing himself forever from joyful communion with God,” the pope said.

    Then what is this doctrine of Hell, or Hades, or Damnation that so many religions on earth speak of? Is it real?  To what does it refer? For it is not only Roman Catholics who speak of eternal damnation. This teaching, I want to repeat, is meant to “indicate the complete frustration and vacuity of a life without God,”John Paul declared. I agree with the holy man’s assessment that a life without God can sure seem like hell.

    “More than a place, hell is the situation in which one finds himself after freely and definitively withdrawing from God, the source of life and joy,” the pope said.

    Interestingly, in none of his remarks did this pontiff assert that any person who did not accept Jesus Christ as his Lord and Savior would be seen by our Deity as “freely and definitively withdrawing from God.” This seemed to leave open the question of whether Muslims or Jews or Buddhists or members of any other religion or belief system can “get into Heaven.” The Pope also said nothing about a person’s behavior while on earth as prohibiting that person from not refusing God’s “love and pardon definitively,” and therefore not “removing himself forever from joyful communion with God.”

    In other words, presumably a person could be “bad” while here on Earth and still “get into Heaven” by simply accepting “God’s love and pardon.”

    The Pope also strayed from standard Christian theology (and several other major theologies as well) in another shocking way. If you ask any minister, any ulama, any priest whether there is any question that horribly bad people who are not contrite, never ask forgiveness, and remain ugly and cruel to the end, go to hell, they would say, “Well, of course they do! What do you think we’ve been trying to tell you???” But the Pope had a remarkably different response. Said he: Whether or not any human beings are in hell “remains a real possibility, but is not something we can know.”

    Not something we can know??? Wow, what a major concession from the spiritual leader of a worldwide church with billions of members that has been teaching just the opposite–that we can be sure of this–for centuries.

    In sharing his thoughts about all this in July, 1999, Pope John Paul II—then in failing health—seemed to be having final reflections on the matter of hell and damnation in the final months before his death. In those remarks to a weekly papal audience, his comments came remarkably close to mirroring some of the messages in Conversations with God, which also teaches that there is no such place as hell…and that deep unhappiness can result from a life (on Earth or in the hereafter) without God, but that a life lived within the embrace of God and inside the acceptance of God as a real and authentic Presence in the Universe and in one’s own experience can never produce unhappiness—no matter what such a life holds.

    Yet there is one message from Conversations with God that the Pope did not mirror. The Pope did not say what CWG says unequivocally: God will never forgive anyone for anything.

    And we will discuss that teaching in our next entry here.

    (Neale Donald Walsch is the publisher of The Global Conversation internet newspaper and the author of the Conversations with God series of books. His latest book, The Only Thing That Matters, releases this week from Hay House and is now available in print or audio form from Amazon.com at this link:

    http://astore.amazon.com/wwwnealedonal-20)