WGCW-TV in Savannah, the local home of Sex And The City, is going where many network and cable stations fear to tread. The CW Network affiliate is airing PETA's controversial Sex And The Kitty public service announcement next week to help raise awareness for animal family planning. The humorous ad, which shows kitties getting jiggy, has been banned by MTV and most networks for being "too steamy."
PETA warns that one unspayed female cat can produce 36 cats in just one and a half years, and an unneutered male can father limitless litters of kittens. Over 2.4 million unwanted kitten are born each year. Most Will be put down.
Like Samhain (Halloween), Beltane marks a time when magic abounds and the veil between the spirit and earthly worlds is at its thinnest. But while Samhain honors death and protects against wandering spirits, Beltane celebrates life and protects against, well, faeries. Seriously. And after their long winter respite, said faeries apparently grow quite mischievous.
Fortunately, just as Jack-o-lanterns and costumes shield the living from Samhain's walking dead, Beltane is similarly filled with protection rituals. While young lovers offered May flowers to profess their affection, placing rowan branches or primrose flowers along windows and doors on the first of May was also said to protect the home from encroaching faeries. Similarly, children would wear protective daisy chains around their necks and coal might be tossed in with the butter, which is a favorite faery abode. In keeping with the Samhain dumb supper tradition, leftover food from Beltane Eve was also buried or placed outside to soothe the thwarted faeries.
In spite of these protections, there was always chance of being caught outdoors on Beltane Eve, when the Queen of Faeries would ride out on her white horse, enticing people into a Faeryland from which they couldn't return. (Anyone sitting beneath a tree was said to be particularly vulnerable.) Fortunately, if you hid your face, the Faery Queen would pass you by, but just in case, attaching bells to your heels or ringing a wind chime was said to further protect.
The word Beltane derives from the Old Irish Beltene, meaning "bright fire," and just as ancient Celts would drive cattle between Samhain bonfires in purification, so would cattle be driven between Beltane blazes to protect and purify the coming harvest. To this day, many Pagans leap the Beltane fire (feel free to substitute a candle) to wish upon the coming season. Traditionally the first cook-fires of summer were lit from the Beltane fire, and individuals would bring smoldering pieces into their home as blessing.
Careful of those faeries, however! As conventional wisdom believed faeries couldn't start their own fires, custom discouraged gifting Beltane fires among neighbors, lest he or she be a faery in disguise. Our advice? Stick to the candle variation. And best of luck with those Beltane wishes!
This photo illustrates rather graphically a point I once made to my stepson, that you should always be nice to people because you never know when you'll meet them again. According to the rules of karma, it may wait until a next life to get back at you if you don't play nice, but these days it often works a little faster than that.
Of course you should always be nice to people. Period. But when you're explaining this concept to a teenager, whose eyes glaze over as you explain the finer points of being a good member of the human race, appealing to their self-interest can help drive the point home.
In this case, my stepson (who, it should be noted, is now much older and wiser) thought it was a good idea to break up with his girlfriend via text message. Exploiting the brevity of the medium, he sent two words to this poor, unsuspecting girl: "You're Dumped."
I tried explaining that this might not have been the most tactful approach. I asked him how he would feel if a girl did the same thing to him. And I offered alternative lines (to be used strictly in person) that would get the message across, but in a much nicer way: You're too good for me. I feel we're growing apart. I'm not sure what I want right now, so don't feel it's fair on you to continue this relationship. Etc.., etc...
Thanks to his teenage years, this appeal to his better nature was met with rolling eyes, so I decided to change tactics. I explained to him that the older you get the more you realize how small the world really is. The friend you shunned at school may turn out to be your new boss, and the girl you dumped by text message may turn out to be the heart surgeon who literally has your life in their hands one day.
Seeing this picture, brought memories of that life lesson back. In this fast paced world, karma doesn't always wait until the next life to bite you in the proverbial ass.
With Sex And The City's Carrie Bradshaw taking to the New York streets again in her skyscraper high Manolo Blahnik shoes, it's time to learn an essential equation which could turn stiletto wearing into a science as well as an art.
The equation was formulated after a SITC-loving publicist, working at London's Institute of Physics, pondered the physical limitations of Bradshaw's stiletto shoed feet (or should that be feat?).
"I sat there thinking: How can she wear heels that height? There must be some kind of formula that says you can only go so high before you fall over," Dianne Stilwell recalls.
A colleague, Professor Paul Stevenson, of the University of Surrey, came to her aid, formulating an equation that would answer Stilwell's curiosity. (It should be noted, that when he's not pondering the physics of stilettos, Professor Stevenson turns his mind to more traditional scientific pursuits, such as researching nuclear structure theory.)
The equation he came up with to explain the secret of stilettos was:
H=Q x (12+3S/8).
In this equation H represents the height of heel, S represents the length of the shoe in terms of UK shoe sizes (a limitation given that Carrie may not know this), with Q representing a variety of sociological factors.
The key to this equation, is the value of Q, which takes into account the probability that wearing the shoes will turn heads (P), the number of years experience you have wearing high heels (Y), the cost of the shoes in British pounds (L), the time in months since the shoe was the height of fashion (T), and the units of alcohol consumed (A), and is defined by the following sub-equation: Q=[P •(Y+9)•L]/[(T+1) •(A+1)•(Y+10) •(L+£20)].
It should be noted that the equation only applies to stilettos, since shoes with wider heels are much sturdier. Professor Stevenson also feels that before publishing his work in a scientific journal of record he should find a way to express within the equation the curve of increased pain that higher heels induce.
If you’d like to give Professor Stevenson's formula a whirl before purchasing your next pair of shoes, click HERE for an international shoe size conversion chart and HERE for a currency converter. However, those who are more spiritual than scientific may want to achieve balance in their stilettos by tweaking their root chakra. If that’s your chosen stiletto-heeled footpath, click HERE.
We've all experienced it. You're in mid-conversation and all of a sudden you forget a word or name. It's on the tip of your tongue, you've used the word numerous times in the past, but for some inexplicable reason you just can't recall it.
Surprisingly, a new study reveals that you should stop right there, since straining to recall something in this way may actually reinforce the "mistake pathway," making it more likely to happen again.
In the study, which was published in the Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, a group of thirty students were asked to perform word retrieval exercises. They were given a series of definitions, and had to come up the corresponding words.
They were then asked do indicate whether or not they knew the answer, or if it was on the tip of their tongue (TOT). If the answer was TOT, students were given either 10 or 30 seconds to recall the answer. In follow up tests performed two days later using the same set of definitions, those given more time to recall the answers in the previous test were more likely to get stuck again.
"We know this is how the brain works, it reinforces whatever it does. So [the study results] completely make sense," says researcher Karin Humphreys of McMaster University in Ontario. "But at the same time, it's so counterintuitive to how we feel, we should learn from all our mistakes."
So next time, rather than torturing yourself with the prolonged anguish of attempting to recall an evasive word, save yourself the frustration and just go look it up on Google. You'll be doing yourself (and your friends) a favor.
I've never subscribed to the philosophy of debt, which seems to be one of the leading sources of misery in the Western world. I've always valued the peace of mind that zero debt gives me far above the stuff that going into debt allows me to buy.
I'm not naive, I know for some it's hard to escape debt since a minimum wage hardly covers even the necessaries of life (which is obscene, and a whole other story). But most of us do have a choice: A new car and new debt vs. keeping your old car, and your peace of mind. A new flat screen TV and new debt vs. keeping your old tube TV, and your peace of mind. It's a question of values, and what you value more.
Americans are tempted and brainwashed into debt from a very early age, with credit and debit cards marketed to kids, and obligatory student loans ensuring that we embark on our adult lives chained and enslaved by our society of debt.
We all know to stay away from loan sharks, but few question the wisdom of "respectable" institutionalized debt, such as car loans, which are likely to be our biggest monthly expense after rent or mortgage payments.
We're conditioned to believe we can have the car we "deserve" now, rather than merely the one we can afford. Worse still, we are told if we don't drive the "right" car it'll harm our personal and job prospects, the “right” car for our social group inevitably being one that’s more expensive than we can really afford.
This form of corporate-driven peer pressure is truly insidious. Few realize that by subscribing to this philosophy, and something as seemingly innocuous as a modest monthly car payment, they may well be trading in their future financial security.
Do the math. If you saved up and bought a more modest used car cash down, and put the $400 a month the average American spends on their car payments in a high yield mutual fund that earns 12% annually, after 30 years you'd have a nest egg of well over $1 million.
So what does that BMW say about you now? Is the luxury car company really selling you "sheer driving pleasure" or "sheer debt forever?"
Getting headaches lately? Master Hypnotherapist John Kappas believes that headaches are created because the sufferer is struggling to make a decision, and that making decisions (and a little hypnotic relaxation) can help ease the pressure in your head.
Some people tap their way out of a headache, with EFT (Emotional Freedom Technique). I always believe that you should check your blood sugar levels when you start to feel a headache coming on. Often times people forget to eat regularly, and experience headaches from low blood sugar. Check if you are hydrated too. Then try some deep breathing exercises and some stretching to ease tension and get oxygen circulating. The smell of mint can also help ease tension headaches. Try dabbing some essential oil on your temples, or burning some in an infuser.
If all else fails, give trepanation a whirl. Click HERE for illustrations showcasing the history of the mind-blowing procedure and useful tips to help get you started.
"You can't take it with you," is a platitude that's often wheeled out when referring to wealth and earthly possessions. But the meaning of this worn out phrase is driven home at the point when you have to clear out an elderly or recently deceased person's home. All the things that they saved for best and never used, are sent to be used daily by strangers via Goodwill, and often the only footprint left from such precious life is the trinkets that are left behind.
Having been brought up by parents who grew up during World War II when commodities were scarce, I was always taught to treasure and value my possessions. Perhaps too much. My books were treated with such reverence that they appeared as if unread, my toys always looked like new, and everything was carefully and neatly put away in cupboards and draws.
When I grew up and left home, my things began dictating my life as I struggled to move my vast collection of stuff around with me. In a sense I became entombed by my things, as opposed to the pharaohs who entombed themselves with their things. But unlike the pharaohs, when I chose to move on to my next life across the Atlantic here in America, I had to leave the things I'd grown over-attached to behind. This separation from my stuff of life, though painful at the time (since it also represented stability and security), was the most freeing experience. It's one that has profoundly changed my life.
I vowed I would never again accumulate enough stuff to entrap me. It's enough to go through life weighed down with emotional baggage, without physical things adding to your load. And now, after my Granny moved into care at the start of this year, I'm seeing that the burden of her stuff has been passed on to my parents to bear. Every spare day my Mother and Father make the two hundred mile round trip to the place my Granny once called home. They spend their days there sorting through rooms full of stuff, making piles for family members, Goodwill and the trash collector. How sad, that in the twilight of my Granny's life it's her things that demand the bulk of their attention. But it's work that has to be done since the house she can no longer afford alongside nursing home fees must be cleared in order for life to move on.
Moving to America gave me a unique perspective on how much stuff actually gets in the way of life. The only things I miss from the stuff I left behind in England is my music collection. Not the physical vinyl, paper and plastic of my records and CDs, but the melodies and lyrics that made up the soundtrack of my young life. With any new music now compressed into MP3s, the most valuable possession to me is the data in my computer's hard drive, which also contains photographic memories and echoes of my thoughts, such as the words that are printed here. I often joke that my computer's memory is an extension of my mind, and my mind and my computer's carefully stores memories (which are religiously backed up) are the only two things that I really wouldn't care to lose.
Tips On How To Avoid The Accumulation of The Clutter of Life
Rent if possible, don't buy.
If you do buy, once you've stopped using it, pass it on.
If you're only likely to use something once, see if you can borrow one first. Or go halves and share an item with a friend, that way you're not only sharing the cost but the storage responsibility.
Think before you buy. Do you really need it? Where will you put it?
If the answer to either of the above is "no" or "don't know" then leave it in the store. You need your money more than Walmart.
Buy fair trade or from charity, or at least ethically sound, stores. That way, when you do spend money, it's not just paying for stuff, but is improving other people's lives too.
You don't live in your own museum. Use and enjoy the stuff you do have. Everyday is a “best” day.
April Fools' Day is upon us, and whether you're pouring salt in the sugar bowl or tasting some suspiciously salty cereal yourself, the day's developments are worth taking with, well, a grain of salt. So, how did this springtime foolery begin?
Stories of April Fools' Day's origin are as riddled with tricksters as the holiday itself, but the most credible explanations involve the transition from the Julian calendar (in which the New Year coincided roughly with the celebration of the vernal equinox from March 22nd to April 2nd) to the Gregorian calendar we use today. Those who opposed or had simply not yet heard of the New Year's change, became fodder for the faux New Year's pranks that ultimately begat today's April hoaxes.
By this explanation, April Fools' Day traditions first appeared in France, where Charles IX decreed January 1st as the New Year in 1564 - 18 years before the official transition to the Gregorian calendar. In France, the fooled fellow was known as an April fish or poisson d'Avril, in a nod to Pisces, the recently completed zodiac sign, and a popular French prank involved placing dead fish on the backs of friends. Sound suspiciously unsubtle? French children now attach paper, fish-shaped stickies to their friends' backs, while French bakeries offer fish-shaped sweets in April celebration.
In the United States, what we lack in April Fools' history, we make up for in large-scale modern pranks. In 1988 physicist Mark Boslough published an article claiming the Alabama Legislature had changed the value of Pi to 3.0. Ten years later, Burger King claimed, via an ad in USA Today, to have developed a "Left-Handed Whopper" whose condiments dripped out the right side. Amusingly, not only did customers order said burger, but some requested a traditional "right-handed burger" as well.
The definitive American pop culture prank, however, may be the full-page ad placed in the New York Times in 1996, claiming Taco Bell had purchased the Liberty Bell to reduce our nation's debt, renaming it the Taco Liberty Bell. Without missing a beat, then White House Press Secretary Mike McCurry responded that a similar arrangement had renamed the Lincoln Memorial as the Ford Lincoln Mercury Memorial.
Perhaps Mark Twain said it best, "The first of April is the day we remember what we are the other 364 days of the year." We at Daily Mantra hope you enjoy!
Crucifixion, resurrection... chocolate-bearing bunny rabbits? In the immortal words of Eddie Izzard (from his "Church of England Fundamentals" rant in Dress To Kill), "Kids eat chocolate eggs [at Easter] because of the color of the chocolate and the... color of the wood on the cross? Well, you tell me!" Agreed, Mr. Izzard, it's a quandary, but the following background may shed some light.
To ancient Pagans, the Vernal Equinox (or Ostara, later "Easter") celebrated the fertility and rebirth inherent to the coming spring. As an obvious symbol of fertility, eggs were a significant part of this celebration. In France, decorated eggs were given to new brides in the hope of a fertile marriage, while Pagan Celts incorporated eggs into their magical fertility rituals. In Germany, farmers' wives distributed bowls of eggs among the field workers to attract a rich harvest, while in Russia eggs were decorated to symbolize abundance and good fortune. The coloring of these eggs can be traced as far back as ancient Greece, where red eggs symbolized rebirth, and green eggs represented the budding plants and flowers.
So how did the eggs and the bunnies intertwine? (I mean, beyond the amazingly fertile sex-lives-of-rabbits thing.) According to legend, the Pagan goddess Ostara, for whom the Vernal Equinox is named, saved the life of a bird with frozen wings by turning the bird into a rabbit. Having once been a bird, however, the rabbit continued to lay eggs, which he decorated and presented to Ostara in gratitude.
As perhaps Eddie Izzard said best, "Bunny rabbits are for shagging, eggs are for fertility, it's the spring festival!" We at Daily Mantra, hope you enjoy.
What does it mean to be human? The Humans Project is asking this seemingly simple question and inviting all members of the distinctly dubious race to answer it in their own words (click HERE to view video).
It's not like I haven't been paying attention in class, but after a lifetime of searching, I still can't come up with a definitive answer. It's not like we have a monopoly on language, art, or love, all of which animals seem more than capable of. I guess uniquely human enlightenment is a journey rather than a destination, since perhaps we're the only species that's daft enough to spend a lifetime looking for answers to unanswerable questions.
How many times have you heard a single friend say, "if only I had a boyfriend/ girlfriend/ soul mate my life would be perfect." I've always thought that logic was flawed. That's way to much pressure to put on a potential partner. If you expect a "soul mate" to come along and make your life perfect, in reality the only thing you'll achieve is to frighten him or her off.
It makes far more sense to put your own life in order, and make it as perfect as you possibly can before you search for a special someone to enjoy your life with. That way you're more likely to attract someone who sees you for the fulfilled and healthy individual that you are. After all, do you really want to be with someone who's attracted to your neediness? Furthermore, if a "soul mate" fails to come along, with your house in order you're in a better position to enjoy the life you have. It's a win-win strategy.
So when the Daily Mantra's like-minded MySpace buddy Dvorahji, a fun-loving guru from the school of common sense, posted her Ask Dvorahji: Where Is My Soul Mate video on our page, I had to both laugh and marvel her infallible, down-to-earth wisdom. In the YouTube clip (if player fails to load click HERE to view), the eccentric (in the best possible way), self-styled "final guide for the spiritually challenged and confused" reads out a letter from an 84-year old woman called Sarah who wants to know where her soul mate is.
"The problem is everyone is spending so much time looking for a soul mate that they are absolutely not enjoying their life," Dvorahji responds. "Why waste a another moment looking for a soul mate." Dvorahji certainly didn't. Life's way too short. She went out and bought a soul mate for $250 from a puppy pound in a Wal-Mart parking lot. Who ever said soul mate's only come with two legs?
This wonderful short called Carried Away (if player fails to load, click HERE to view), by animator Zach Parrish, reminded my of a recent trip to the Point Dume, CA. After a heady walk along the breathtaking State Beach there, I returned to my car as the sun was setting and saw two very elegant older ladies reclining on deck chairs merrily blowing bubbles with very young hearts.
Next time life is getting you down try some bubble therapy for yourself. A website that amusingly offers "homemade bubble solutions" suggests using 1 part liquid dish washing detergent to 12 parts water. For those who are more serious about their bubbles, a few drops of glycerin or a dash of corn syrup is also recommended to increase size, elasticity, and durability. And, according to a bubble expert at Flora's Hideout, "Don't throw any leftovers away either. The longer your solution sits, the better it gets."
Check out this animated short about evil in western civilization from Ancient Greece to the present day (if player fails to load click HERE to view). The filmmaker, who is known only as YouTube user Omaggs2000, explains it was, "intended to show what people have believed in and pointed to as evil throughout history. It was meant to get you to think about what evil really is. It is meant to show that when we get too obsessed with 'evil' we might end up taking part in it ourselves."
"One has to separate evil and human cruelty," explains Omaggs2000. "Human cruelty is people not being nice to one another. Evil is something else, it is something we have created, a word and a concept for things that are not acceptable. It is a label for things that we do not understand and don't want to understand. But is evil really ever a complete explanation for anything? A lot of bad deeds has been done in the name of good. The people that did them meant good, are they evil?"
Finally, Omaggs2000 wants you to know that the video is not meant to
A: Blame religion for all the evil in the world.
B: Claim that God is dead. (It is simply a reference to the philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche, look him up.)
C: Offend anyone, race, religion, gender or sexual orientation.
D: Claim that Elvis was evil.
E: Be an exact and complete account of the actual events that has taken place throughout history.
What is Love? Ah, that universal question, which has haunted philosophers through the ages. On February 14 we celebrate Valentines Day and honor the loved ones in our lives. But Love is so much more than paper Valentines cards, a box of chocolates or naughty lingerie. Love is the deep, deep bond that holds our little planet together, and there is no time more important to think about Love than right now.
Existentialist Rollo May once said, "Hate is not the opposite of love; apathy is." We can see all around us the evidence of the power of love to move us to do things for other people. We sacrifice ourselves for our loved ones and work to overcome all kinds of obstacles for the sake of love. This power is not only true for romantic relationships, but for other kinds of love too. The ancient Greeks said that there were four different kinds of love: Agape, a pure and selfless love, Eros, a sensual love of beauty, Philia, a brotherly and virtuous love, and Storge, the love between a parent and child.
When we broaden our understanding of love, we can see our behaviors as being motivated by the different kinds of love in our lives. We compost, because we love mother earth with the soulful love of Agape. We work to end homelessness, out of a deep feeling of Philia for our fellow human beings. We strive for healthy relationships within our families, building up from the basic foundation of love laid down by Storge. We increase the beauty in the world around us by creating beautiful pieces of artwork and sensuously honoring the physical, sexual love of Eros in our lives.
Apathy traps us in miserable, loveless lives and robs us of our power to change situations for the better. Apathy causes people to stay home on voting day, to throw away useful things that could be reused or recycled, to plop kids in front of a video instead of playing with them, and to walk right on past a fellow human being in need.
John Lennon had it right when he said, "All we need is love." We need the big, universal love and the focused, interpersonal love, and all the different kinds of love in between, to get us through the changes on humanity's horizon. Perhaps the most important kind of love is self-love, because when we love ourselves and we understand that the whole world is interconnected as one, we can see that sending love out into the world is the same as loving ourselves. So this Valentines Day, send a paper heart to yourself and initiate some magical, positive changes in the world through the power of love.
Procrastination is the Rodney Dangerfield of human experience. It's something you'll never get respect for, it's under-appreciated and underrated. If you tune into your need to procrastinate however, you may just find it serves a purpose. It may just be your mind's way of telling you it's not quite ready to do the task at hand.
Next time you get the urge to procrastinate, don't fight it, but work with it. Surrender to your need and go do something else, but do something rather than nothing. We're not extolling the virtues of being a couch potato, but sometimes your mind does need the freedom to wonder.
Try performing some mindless task, such as doing the dishes or cleaning the bathroom, while giving your unconscious mind the brain-break it needs to do its thing. You may start on your intended task two hours, or even two days later, but you'll do it better and more efficiently, and you'll have a clean toilet to boot!
Need procrastination inspiration? Try hitting these appropriately mindless (in the best sense of the word) sites:
Most of us know Imbolc by its more mainstream moniker, Groundhog Day, a day on which a prophetic Pennsylvanian groundhog alerts us to the coming of spring. Less well known, is that this unusual holiday is grounded (ahem) in rich Pagan history.
The word Imbolc derives from the Gaelic "Oimelc" (ewe's milk), referencing the seasonal lactation of pregnant ewes as spring approaches. In Ireland, Imbolc honored the Goddess Brigid in her maiden state, as she lured the youthful Sun God's return with candlelight and "Brigid's Crosses" (equilateral crosses encased in circles, representing the Wheel of the Year). Eventually Christian traditions integrated Imbolc, renaming it Candlemas and shifting the candle-lighting focus to the Virgin Mary.
What does this have to do with a groundhog? By Pagan legend, Brigid's snake would emerge from her womb (do with that symbolism as you like) on Imbolc to determine the proximity of spring. To the same end, in Brittany, grain sheaves were thrown on a fire - with the pace of the burn representing the speed of spring's approach.
So sure, our groundhog tradition has the seasonal fortune-telling angle covered, but this year maybe round out the holiday with additional Imbolc rituals, such as fashioning a Brigid's Cross to hang protectively over your door, tossing coins in a well for fortune, or cleaning your home, both physically and spiritually with a smudging of sage and sprinkling of lavender or rosemary water. Then settle into a candlelit purification bath, and await the forecast on spring.
Having trouble sticking with your New Year's Resolutions? Carter Shepherd and Carolyn Cummings, co-authors of the new spiritual book, What They Want You to Know...Messages from Beyond the Grave, have passed on a list of seven tips to help you make lasting changes in your life.
Step One. Don't Replay the Record. The key to change is to do new things, and in order to make room for the new the old must be cleared away first. Shepherd and Cummings offer a visualization tool to help us break old habits: "visualize the incident bogging you down, embed that incident on a vinyl record, then pick up a heavy rock and smash the record so that you never play it again."
Step Two. Ownership. You can't change what you don't own, so take ownership of the things in your life you know you have a responsibility for. If a particular issue is difficult to resolve, look at the situation again and see if you can understand your role in it in order to take ownership.
Step Three. Intention. Our intentions shape the decisions we make and the actions we take in the world. However, we may be deceiving ourselves and others when we say we have certain intentions, when our true intentions are quite different. Cummings says, "Remember the Universe cannot be fooled - your 'declared' intention may be totally different from your truth."
Step Four. Believe the Universe Wants What is Best for You. According to Cummings, people block the innate goodness of the Universe because they are unable to believe in such powerful, unconditional love. It can be difficult to believe that you deserve the love of the Universe, but a strong sense of self-worth can arise from seeing the natural goodness in everything around you.
Step Five. Thank the Universe. More than just simple gratitude, Shepherd and Cummings say that the attitude with which you give thanks sets up the gifts you will receive from the Universe in the future. Give thanks from a position of empowerment and deserving, which also comes from a strong sense of self-worth.
Step Six. Remove the Clutter. "Order begets order," says Cummings. Clutter and mess are a source of distraction and can signify a victimized attitude and scattered priorities. Choose things that are important to you, hold on to them and give away the rest. Living a materialistically simple life can simplify and clear up your emotional life too.
Step Seven. Play. Remember to keep your work/life balance in check by keeping the fun alive. This is probably the easiest tip to follow, but by no means the least important. Doing things that are fun and enjoyable will help you feel good about yourself, which fosters the strong sense of self worth required to tackle more difficult tasks such as taking ownership or setting an honest intention.
If you want some help kick-starting your resolutions this year, but are overwhelmed by taking on all seven tips at once, try focusing on one each week. Be gentle with yourself, and remember that even if you do slip up one week, you can always get back on track during the next. Nurture yourself and your brand new seedling changes, and as you watch those changes grow and take on momentum remind yourself that you set that change in motion. From a place of self-worth and empowerment you will have the strength to take on anything life sends your way.
It may sound like a cheesy old horror flick, but it's basically what researchers are saying about the purpose of our scariest nighttime dreams; they help us deal with reality better. An article in Psychology Today talks about experiments that kept rats from reaching their REM sleep (the cycle when dreams occur). After such specific sleep deprivation, they were unable to gather the sense to be wary of predators or take care of themselves properly. Even when they were given stimulants to counteract the sleep deprivation they performed no better, so it seems it was not sleep deprivation alone that made them unable to cope, but more specifically the dream deprivation.
There have been many theories about dreams. Some think they help us with problem solving and emotional challenges, or that maybe they are just a result of the brain trying to make sense of the electrical activity that occurs while it restores itself during sleep. Others think dreams allow us to explore our darkest desires. But Finnish psychologist Antti Revonsuo tells us, "The primary function of negative dreams is rehearsal for similar real events, so that threat recognition and avoidance happens faster and more automatically in comparable real situations." People who have made it through scary situations often describe that it was like a dream. Maybe this is why.
"Nowadays, the evolutionary footprint is clearest in the dreams of children, who often dream about being chased by monsters, much the same way we were once chased by predators," says Revonsuo. "You insert a modern danger into that ancestral key and get a bizarre combination," says Revonsuo. "We dream of being chased, shot, or robbed, getting into traffic accidents, a burglar in our house, or perhaps smaller mishaps such as losing our wallets--and that prepares us for our waking life."
Robert Stickgold, a sleep researcher at Harvard Medical School, believes that dreaming is more than just rehearsal. He says it allows us to integrate and consolidate knowledge. During sleep, our brains are making sense of the world, discovering new associations, and looking for patterns. "That's how we create meaning," says Stickgold. "Our brain puts things together."
Though there are no absolute conclusions, we may find that all of theories are somewhat correct. But there is something inspiring about our dreams, whether good or bad. As the article says, we don't dream about other people's adventures, or about fictional superheroes battling monsters. We dream about ourselves. We are the heroes of our own dreams. And for that, we may find ourselves grateful for a nightmare or two.
We speak about Peace on Earth over the holidays, and we say we want an end to war. We may even judge the leaders we deem responsible for war. But are we willing to make peace in our own lives by forgiving those we believe to have wronged us?
As above, so below, the spiritual saying goes. As locally, so globally, and as personally, so politically, the Daily Mantra might add. As long as we are not at peace individually and within our own hearts, for just that long, war will prevail.
The road to peace takes courage and honesty. It also often requires inspiration. Our consciousness is collective; any path walked by another person before us makes that path more easily traversed by the rest.
The 2006 anti-death penalty documentary The Closure Myth features the moving story of a mother named Aba Gayle, a trailblazer on the path of peace. Following the murder of her beloved nineteen year old daughter (see photo), Aba Gayle supported the prosecution's decision to seek the death penalty for the responsible party, a man named Douglas Mickey.
Despite the closure and relief she was promised by those in charge of her daughter's case, seeking punishment brought her no comfort whatsoever. Vengeance and bitterness only led Aba Gayle to experience ever-greater distress.
After years of intense suffering, this bereaved and tormented mother experienced a spiritual transformation. Stemming, in large measure, from her work with the exercises in the book A Course in Miracles and from the support of her spiritual community, the Santa Rosa Church of Religious Science, this transformation led her to do what once seemed unthinkable-contact and forgive the man who deprived her beautiful daughter of life.
What happened next is best conveyed by Aba Gayle herself. If peace is truly what you crave, I highly recommend reading her own account of her story.
Forgiveness takes those who practice it into unforeseen territory. If you wish to be not just a peace-talker but a peacemaker, if you wish for the certain knowledge of your own innocence and worthiness, I recommend the way of forgiveness and a teacher named Aba Gayle.
So, have you made any New Year's resolutions lately? If you have chosen a goal or two for 2008, it is important to take the time to nurture those goals like baby seedlings in springtime. It's not enough to write them down in your journal, close it up and forget about them for another year. Reviewing your goals on a regular basis serves two purposes: to remind yourself of the specifics and to re-evaluate whether they are still appropriate goals for you. Sometimes new paths present themselves as you progress towards your goal, and that new path may actually be a better fit for you than your original goal. Making the most of goals involves finding a balance between single-pointed focus and openness to new opportunities.
In order to make sure that your goals actually get the attention they deserve, schedule time for them. If your goal is to get fit, join a fitness class that happens at the same time every week so that you will make time for it in your busy life. If you want to be a musician, join an ensemble. Then you will be motivated to go make music with friends instead of letting your fellow group members down by staying home in front of the TV instead. Remind yourself of the reasons why this goal is important to you, and how working towards it improves your daily life. Take the time to appreciate the changes you feel when you work towards your goals, and use those feelings to fuel your continued efforts.
"The obstacle is the path." – Zen Proverb
Coming up against difficulty or opposition does not necessarily mean that you are on the wrong path. If you get stuck in your progress or stumble on an obstacle, sit down and look at your goals again. Is there another route that will lead to the same end goal? Sometimes stepping back and working on another aspect of your goal can allow other opportunities to arise. And remember that obstacles are a normal part of life and are to be expected. It is by overcoming obstacles and problems that we learn and grow in life, gaining valuable skills and experience along the way. When you know you are on the right path, working towards a meaningful goal, you can undertake the work presented by any obstacle with joy and gratitude.
Is 2008 the year? You know, the one where you quit smoking, get fit, kick-start your career, or de-clutter your house? The dawn of the New Year is traditionally a time to set goals for the year ahead, but why should we bother with making resolutions?
"If you aim at nothing, you'll hit it every time"
- Author Unknown
Sitting down and working out what your goals are is a practice in self-exploration that will help you understand yourself better. Having specific, meaningful goals for yourself will also help you focus your energy on working towards those goals, and will help you make decisions in your life that foster the achievement of those goals rather than letting yourself be subject to the whims of others or the unpredictable winds of chance. Setting and completing achievable goals is also a good way to build self-confidence. Achieving things that are personally meaningful and important to you provides a boost to your self-esteem and improves your self-image.
Since part of the key to using goals as useful tools in your life is choosing personal, appropriate and achievable goals, how do we go about choosing them? Goal setting is a very future-oriented activity, which means that it is easy to find that there is a disconnect between your goals and your daily life. You may have a goal to quit smoking, but when you come back to the present moment after thinking about your future non-smoking self, your current identity as a smoker takes over again and urges you to have another cigarette.
According to motivational blogger Steve Pavlina, the key to setting goals that are realistic and meaningful to you in the present moment is to ask yourself how working towards this goal will change your current existence. The past and the future really only exist in our imagination, but the present moment is all we ever really have. When our goals improve the quality of our life in the present moment, it doesn't matter whether the goal is even achievable in our lifetime or not, because it is worth working towards for the benefits we gain right now. The goals of cleaning up our greenhouse gas emissions and living more simply may seem so huge they are unachievable, but when we can see tangible benefits in our lives from making small changes we are more motivated to keep working towards our goals.
Want to have an out-of-this-world fantabulous day? If so, try priming the bliss pump with some gratitude mantras sure to boost your spirits...maybe even through the roof!
One that I heard about recently originated from a woman who'd reached a state identified by others as enlightenment. When asked how she'd arrived at this peaceful and joyful frame of mind, she explained that she'd simply repeated the same two sentences over and over to herself: "Thank You. I have no complaints whatsoever."
I tried this mantra on for size over the following week. Every time I heard myself - either out loud or inwardly - pass judgment upon myself, someone else or any external circumstance, I realized that I was, in essence, complaining. This awareness reminded me to return to the two simple statements: "Thank You. I have no complaints whatsoever." At some point, this expression of radical gratitude kicked in on an emotional level. My sense of thankfulness became immense and very, very happy.
Here's a similar practice that also yields powerful results. Years ago, I upped my spiritual practice to help me recover from a supposedly incurable chronic illness. Finally, after practicing a regimen of radical forgiveness for a bit longer than a year, I experienced a total remission of all of my symptoms. When they appeared to return again just days later, I felt a bout of despair coming on and quickly telephoned a very wise woman for advice. After telling me about Midwestern water wells that require a bit of apparently fruitless pumping before any water begins to run, she suggested that I "prime the pump" of my consciousness to reactivate my experience of wholeness, health and well being.
Here's what she told me to do: Repeat the phrase, "Thank You, Father" over and over again in your mind. (For anyone with an aversion or allergy to patriarchal language, terms like Goddess, Spirit, Universe, Mother, Atman, Divine Self or Divinity work equally well; it's the gratitude for the gifts that's important, not how we conceptualize the Giver.) Whenever you find yourself feeling fear, you can know that you've wandered off into an unreal, imagined future. Similarly, whenever you find yourself feeling resentment, you can know that you've strayed away into a no-longer-existent past. When either happens, just exclaim aloud, "Phewie!!" and return happily to repeating, "Thank You, Father. Thank You, Father. Thank You, Father, etc.," in the present moment.
I followed my friend's advice and not only received permanent healing from the chronic illness in question but also, at the very same time, unsought healing for a debilitating ripped disc in my spinal column. Thank You, "Big Guy or Gal Upstairs" indeed!
As many yoginis and reiki practitioners know, the term chakra, derived from the Sanskrit word for circle or wheel, refers primarily to any one of seven energy centers in the body. These nodes or hotspots begin at the base of the spine and culminate either at the crown or hovering somewhere above it. The energy-literate among us are also likely to know that each chakra has an associated color and sound and governs different aspects of being. The fifth or throat chakra, for instance, which relates to communication and creativity, is associated with the color blue and linked by some to the sound of running water.
Knowing the nuanced differences among the Tantric, Hindu, Tibetan and New Age variations on this energetic model is one thing. Actually having healthily functioning, activated and balanced chakras is something else altogether. While the Daily Mantra has no intention of administering a pop quiz on the theoretical underpinnings of the chakra system, we happily direct you to this useful test that can aid you in evaluating the current state of your own chakras.
Should you discover an imbalance, help is on the way. Exercises and suggestions regarding how to open, activate and balance the chakras abound. Especially appealing, in this regard, is Rachael Hertogs' short film (click HERE to view) providing stunning visuals and soothing instructions for stimulating the chakras via meditative mental suggestion.
Some posit that the chakras correspond to various parts of the endocrine system and have as much a physical as a psychical impact. Given this possibility, all the more reason to attend to your chakras and attempt their attunement.
You may have heard people in movies say they laugh at danger, but laughing at anger might be more prudent. When we are confronted with angry, mean people, we may be able to use laughter to lighten the mood and break the tension. “Disarm you with a smile” say the Smashing Pumpkins. Though if you follow their advice, be sure it’s not an evil or malicious smile, but a sincere one that comes from knowing that anger is temporary and sometimes unjustified. When we know that there is more to life than the anger of the moment, we can step back and laugh at our circumstances.
In addition to easing tension, it can be better for our health. According to an article from the American Heart Association’s website, “Theoretically… if laughter releases protective chemicals in the body, laughing during anger may counteract potential adverse effects to the [heart]. While stress may be associated with a sense of urgency, anger and hostility…a ‘hearty’ laugh often coincides with a feeling of well being and euphoria.” The article goes on to warn us though, “We don't know yet if forcing yourself to laugh when you're angry is beneficial, but there may be effective, practical ways for people to lessen their discomfort or hostility…we may be able to find ways to take ourselves less seriously."
It is good to keep in mind that in some cases, laughing might just make the angry person angrier, so we need to use discretion. It is likely funnier (and safer) the further away they are--similar to comedian George Carlin’s theory that says the further away a person is, the worse the name that we call them.
So next time you find yourself being yelled at, take a moment to consider laughter as an appropriate, and more enjoyable, response.
WGCW-TV in Savannah, the local home of 
This 
Carrie Bradshaw taking to the New York streets again in her skyscraper high Manolo Blahnik shoes, it's time to learn an essential equation which could turn stiletto wearing into a science as well as an art.
We've all experienced it. You're in mid-conversation and all of a sudden you forget a word or name. It's on the tip of your tongue, you've used the word numerous times in the past, but for some inexplicable reason you just can't recall it.
I've never subscribed to the philosophy of debt, which seems to be one of the leading sources of misery in the Western world. I've always valued the peace of mind that zero debt gives me far above the stuff that going into debt allows me to buy. 
Getting headaches lately? Master Hypnotherapist 
"You can't take it with you," is a platitude that's often wheeled out when referring to wealth and earthly possessions. But the meaning of this worn out phrase is driven home at the point when you have to clear out an elderly or recently deceased person's home. All the things that they saved for best and never used, are sent to be used daily by strangers via Goodwill, and often the only footprint left from such precious life is the trinkets that are left behind.
April Fools' Day is upon us, and whether you're pouring salt in the sugar bowl or tasting some suspiciously salty cereal yourself, the day's developments are worth taking with, well, a grain of salt. So, how did this springtime foolery begin? 
What is Love? Ah, that universal question, which has haunted philosophers through the ages. On February 14 we celebrate Valentines Day and honor the loved ones in our lives. But Love is so much more than paper Valentines cards, a box of chocolates or naughty lingerie. Love is the deep, deep bond that holds our little planet together, and there is no time more important to think about Love than right now.
Procrastination is the 
Most of us know 
Having trouble sticking with your New Year's Resolutions? Carter Shepherd and Carolyn Cummings, co-authors of the new spiritual book, 
It may sound like a cheesy old horror flick, but it's basically what researchers are saying about the purpose of our scariest nighttime dreams; they help us deal with reality better. An article in 
We speak about Peace on Earth over the holidays, and we say we want an end to war. We may even judge the leaders we deem responsible for war. But are we willing to make peace in our own lives by forgiving those we believe to have wronged us?
So, have you made any New Year's resolutions lately? If you have chosen a goal or two for 2008, it is important to take the time to nurture those goals like baby seedlings in springtime. It's not enough to write them down in your journal, close it up and forget about them for another year. Reviewing your goals on a regular basis serves two purposes: to remind yourself of the specifics and to re-evaluate whether they are still appropriate goals for you. Sometimes 
Want to have an out-of-this-world fantabulous day? If so, try priming the bliss pump with some gratitude mantras sure to boost your spirits...maybe even through the roof! 
You may have heard people in movies say they laugh at danger, but laughing at anger might be more prudent. When we are confronted with angry, mean people, we may be able to use laughter to lighten the mood and break the tension. “Disarm you with a smile” say the 