Havanna Travel

Say the phrase Mercury Retrograde and watch people cringe.

“The last time Mercury went retrograde, my computer crashed and I lost my data.”

“Mercury went retrograde and my application got lost in the mail.”

The stories are legion.

It’s true!
Computer glitches and communications foul-ups are much more likely to
occur during the time that Mercury’s motion is retrograde than at other times.

So, should you go into hiding when Mercury goes retrograde?

Few of us have the ability to disappear from our lives for three-and-a-half weeks
three times a year.

But you don’t have to dread this event. True, I would opt for a different time to
launch a direct mail campaign. But if you work with the energy, you can make it your
friend.

When Mercury moves retrograde, it appears to move backwards - as seen from our
perch on planet earth.

The key is to remember the significance of Mercury’s retrograde motion.

Mercury is the planet of communication, thought, and mental energy. During
Mercury retrograde periods, the energy is flowing inward and backwards. As a
result, it doesn’t function as efficiently in the everyday world as it normally does.

There are many reasons why the Mercury retrograde period is not a time to push
forward.

Your mental energy is channelled into an inward direction now. As a result,
communications are less clear. There is a greater tendency to hear what we think we
heard rather than what the other person said.

Items involved with communication and local transportation, such as telephones,
computers and cars, are more apt to have glitches. (Remember to back up the
computer and double-check your appointments).

Lastly, your perspective is likely to change when Mercury changes direction and
resumes its direct motion.

Which is why most astrologers counsel their clients not to sign important contracts
during that period.

But Mercury’s retrograde energy is an asset for many things. Use it for what it is
designed to do and Mercury becomes your ally.

Here are nine ways to make Mercury Retrograde work for you. Note that many
suggestions begin with the letters re. Think re for retrograde.

1. Re-connect.

This is the time to look up old friends and family. You’ve been meaning to call Aunt
Martha, or get together with your old high school buddy. Do it! Now is the time
to pick up the telephone. Chances are they will be receptive and you’ll be glad you
did.

And you, yourself, may hear from long lost pals now.

2. Re-search.

While it is not the time to go forward with grand plans, this is a superb time to
research facts and ideas you can use later.

3. Re-view.

Take that application or take your business plan and give it a second look. Chances
are you will see things in a different light. And that can give you ideas to strengthen
it. And that second look will ensure you have covered the bases.

4. Re-do.

If you were too hasty the first time, or you chose not to follow my advice, you may
find yourself having to redo that report. But each time you redo, you refine.

5. Re-fresh.

Your brain and your body were not designed to function 24/7. Taking a little time to
kick back and relax refreshes you and ultimately makes you far more productive
than trying to plow straight through.

6. Re-solve.
Go back and clean up old relationships that ended badly. You can resolve many
issues now - even bury the hatchet.

7. Back Burner items.

Now is the time to get to projects that have been pushed into the background.

8. Re-organize.

Mercury Retrograde is an excellent time to clean out old closets, old files, old
agendas, throw out what is no longer useful to make room for the new.

9. Re-contact.

Are you in sales? Then, this is the perfect time to re-contact old leads.

If you must take on a new job or a new project during this time, know that it will
change. A lot. So stay loose and flexible. Because your perspective will change also.

But if you had previously began a project, applied for that position, contacted that
key lead, Mercury Retrograde will not affect you.

Use the Mercury retrograde time in a positive way, and you’ll be refreshed and
renewed and ready to move forward when Mercury changes course.

Ellen Zucker is a practicing astrologer with an interest in business and career matters.
Subscribe to her *free* weekly astrological newsletter. Celestial Currents comes
to your inbox once a week. http://www.celestialcurrents.com

What is my Higher Purpose in Life? You have probably asked this question many times, not knowing if you would receive an answer. The answer is quite simple.

Your higher purpose in life is to know Peace in each situation.

Your higher purpose in life is to see the beauty that surrounds you.

Your higher purpose in life is to pause for a moment to see the grace of a single blossom.

Your higher purpose in life is to be still and in the quiet of the moment, know that you are: One with all things.

Your higher purpose in life is to share where you are, so others may take courage in whatever they are experiencing.

Your higher purpose in life is to see with a sense of wonder, how all experiences and all events are so wisely orchestrated for your healing by a “Higher” Power.

Your higher purpose in life is to let yourself be, with all gentleness, and will all acceptance of whatever you are doing or feeling.

Your higher purpose in life is to take time to listento what is truly being asked in each situation. Listen for the call for Love and you will hear it.

Your higher purpose in life is to share your gifts of being and to see and receive the gifts all others would offer you.

You think your purpose in life is what you do, but, your purpose in life is being who you are. The greatest healing that you will ever offer to anyone are the moments you share who you truly are, and those moments you truly live — free of judgment, free of condemnation, and free simply to BE.

Your purpose in life is to allow a Higher Power to gently guide you to where you need to be and to whom you need to speak. This purpose may seem directionless, but be assured, this purpose is fully Directed.

Your purpose in life is like the purpose of all othersIt is the purpose of fully being who you are in each and every momentfully here, fully Now, fully connected and filled with the Light of God.

The following publications are only a few of the many noteworthy sources for discovering your purpose in life:

Title/Author(s)

• Conversations with God: Books I, II, III, IV - Neale Donald Walsch

• A Course in Miracles - Helen Schucman and William Thetford

• Love is Letting Go of Fear - Gerome Jampolsky, MD

• Sacred Contracts - Caroline Myss

• Why People Don’t Heal and How They Can - Caroline Myss, MD

• Return to Love: Reflections on the Principles of a Course in Miracles - Marianne Williamson

• Illuminata: A Return to Prayer - Marianne Williamson

• Self-Esteem: Loving Yourself and Emotional Self-Sufficiency - Marianne Williamson

• How to know God: The Soul’s Journey into the Mystery of Mysteries - Deepak Chopra, MD

• The Power of Unconditional Love, Ken Keyes

• Molecules of Emotion: Why You Feel the Way You Feel - Deepak Chopra, MD

• The Power of Now: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightment - Eckhart, et al

• There’s a Spiritual Solution to Every Problem - Wayne W. Dyer, PhD

• You Will See It, When You Believe It - Wayne W. Dyer, PhD

• The Transformative Power of Crisis–Our Journey to Psychological Healing and Spiritual Awakening - Robert M. Alter/Jane Alter

Dorothy M. Neddermeyer, PhD provides mind, body, spirit healing. As a inspirational leader she empowers people to view challenges as an opportunity to grow emotionally and spiritually. http://www.drdorothy.net

The history of astrological development is as foggy as the history of mankind. Definitely, there is a theory of biological evolution developed by Charles Darwin and others, stating that all species of organisms arise and develop through the natural selection of small, inherited variations that increase the individual’s ability to compete, survive, and reproduce. Also there is a not-fully-proven theory of an astrology development that our ancestors observed- they observed the star sky, wrote down everything, that occurred there, and as a result they came to the conclusion that, supposedly, some configurations in the sky correspond to some proceedings on the earth.

I do not wish to go deep into scientific disputes, but the theory of Mankind as a result of natural selection seems to me unreal. For the tens of centuries reflected in history, people changed very little. In the same way I do not consider possible the occurrence of astrology just from observation. Certainly, a lot of imperative astrological observations have been done in the past, especially in Babylon. However their purpose was not the discovery but only the acknowledgement of astrological laws.

We can ask then, from where have these laws come? I would answer: they have been the result of the practical appendix of certain philosophical-religious concepts. Of course we can continue from where these concepts came, etc. If we continue to do this we will go too far from our sphere of interests in a practical astrology.

There are many blank spots in the history of astrology. When you try to understand it very often there is an impression, that there once existed an extensive knowledge that was gradually forgotten. For example, there exists the evidence that the very deep and detailed understanding of astronomy (that is, actually, astrology as the astronomy at that time was an integral component of astrology) were around in Egypt in days of the Pyramids’ creation, that is about 2400 BC. Around that time (1650 BC) they created complex calendars and it looks like later on the Egyptians began to forget the astronomical basis of those calendars.

It is possible to tell that astrology has come to Europe (we shall concentrate on the European branch of astrology as the closest to us) from the Egyptian, Babylonian, and Persian sources. The middlemen in this process, also interpreters and distributors of astrological knowledge in the first century AD., were the Greek philosophers. The Greek books were a source of astrology for the civilized world of those times, including the Roman Empire. Astrology played an important role in the Roman Empire and by IV century AD, was finally stated as a public science.

However after the Roman Empire collapsed around 500 AD and the rise of the barbarian kingdoms in Europe (present-day Italy, France, Germany, etc.) the astrological tradition in Western and Central Europe stopped. And in the east, in the Byzantium Empire, religious and political conditions completely suppressed the practice of an astrology.

Then onto the stage came the Arabs. In 711 AD their empire extended from the territory of present Spain in the west up to India in the east. In VIII century the Arabian governors and leaders of the Muslim world motivated the intelligence of the country to study the Greek language and assimilate the scientific achievements of other nations. So Greek astrology along with other Greek sciences became a component of the Arabian Islamic science. In this condition astrology continued to develop, while in Europe during the six centuries, from 500 to 1100 AD, the practice of astrology was extremely complicated.

One of the major reasons for the decline of astrology in Europe was the degradation in the field of mathematical and other scientific formations that followed the fall of the Roman Empire. However by 1100 the West has realized, at last, the necessity of the development of a science - in the same way as it occurred in the Muslim East in VIII century. The mass translation of Arabian scientific (including astrological) texts to Latin language had begun.

The result became the revival of interest in astrology in Europe, which prolonged up to XVII century.

If you would like to learn more about astrology, especially mystical parts of astrology, visit the http://www.astrology-wisdom.com site.

Willie Krut is studying astrology and readily likes to share his knowledge. To subscribe to the free Willie’s Newsletter, visit http://www.astrology-wisdom.com

Self-esteem is something that we all wish we had more of. Some of us go through our entire life feeling “self-esteem deficient”. The constraints placed on us by low self esteem can feel so impenetrable that we find ourselves shrinking back from our dreams and accepting something less than desirable. This often results in feelings of emptiness, sadness, deprivation and a life not fully lived.

Although a great deal has been written about the problem of self-esteem, here I wish to bring to light a new perspective that I trust will give you hope in freeing yourself from a life of quiet desperation. In order to begin this journey I ask you first to note that we have entitled this book “Esteem for the Self” and not “Self Esteem”. Before you read on please take a moment and observe for yourself, which of these terms feels most appealing to you.

Most people feel that the former i.e. “Esteem for the Self”, somehow sounds and feels better to them. Take another moment and see if you can determine why this is. As we move along in this journey I think the reasons will become increasingly clearer to you.

Now, I think you have already recognized that the expression “Esteem for the Self” is what most people call “Self-Esteem”. As we will discuss later we choose to reverse the order of the words for a very important reason. The term “Self-Esteem” usually connotes something you either have or don’t have enough of. It therefore implies that, if lacking, something went wrong somewhere in your life and that there is very little one can do to go back and change it.

This often leaves one feeling helpless, frustrated, angry and or feeling in someway defective. Unfortunately these feelings themselves aid only to further deplete self-esteem.
This is made clear by just allowing yourself to feel some or all of these feelings and then noticing what they do to your feelings about yourself. In all cases one experiences a further depletion in one’s self-esteem.

An interesting observation however emerges from this last exercise. That is that if these, so called negative emotions can make self esteem plummet, then is it possible that corresponding positive emotions can make self-esteem rise? Well let’s try it. Here are some positive emotions: joy, love, happiness, inner peace, feeling grateful and forgiveness.

Allow yourself, if you can, to feel some or all of these and notice how they make you feel about yourself. What did you notice happened to your self-esteem? Well if you were able to genuinely connect to any of these positive emotions I think you will readily see that not only did you feel better but you probably also felt better about yourself; that is your self esteem rose.

An interesting parallel is also observed between one’s level of self-esteem and the subjective experience of one’s energy level. If you observe what happens to your energy level as your self-esteem fluctuates, you will observe that energy goes up with self-esteem and vice-versa.

Another way of saying the same thing is that one feels lighter, more buoyant, more optimistic and more excited about life as self-esteem rises. Conversely one feels heavier, more weighed down, more tired and more pessimistic as self-esteem goes down.

So in effect, negative emotions appear to drain you of energy and positive emotions help to re-infuse you with energy. The energy we are talking about is what we call “vital life energy” or more simply the energy of life. So what is really happening then when your vital life energy is being drained from your life?

Well it means that the vital life energy that was meant to support you in living a full, healthy, happy life is disappearing. In other words there is less life in you as the energy becomes progressively depleted. Again another way of saying this is that you are aging or dying. So are you beginning to recognize the real impact of negative emotions on your life? How do you feel about it? Watch out for those negative emotions because they’ll get you every time!

(Kindly proceed to Part 2 of this article)

Nick Arrizza M.D. is an Energy Psychiatrist, Healer, Researcher, Speaker, developer of the powerful Mind Resonance Process(TM), and Author of “Esteem for the Self: A Manual for Personal Transformation” (avaialble at: http://www.telecoaching4u.com/ebook.htm) He holds international telecoaching and teleconference sessions on healing mind, body and spirit.

Stress and anxiety seem to be the health issues we are dealing with these days. So many people dealing with too much work, too many bills, not enough peace and quiet. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if you could get away, to a beautiful place of peace and quiet, for even just five minutes a day?

During this article, you will learn how to create an Inner Sanctuary. A place where you can go, that no-one else can visit. You won’t be disturbed by the phone, or the kids, or traffic, it won’t cost you anything to go there, and there’s no travel. You can spend as little or as much time there as you choose, and visit as often as you like.

The Inner Sanctuary is not a cure-all for the stress of daily living, it is important to develop a number of tools to help you live a healthier life. However, the Sanctuary is a very helpful and powerful tool and is easy for anyone to use.

Creating your Inner Sanctuary is a very simple exercise. You don’t even have to know how to meditate. By simply using your imagination, you can develop the most wonderful place, solely for your use.

Here are some guidelines to help you:-

• Choose a place of nature, a forest, a beach, a desert, whatever feels peaceful to you.

• Include running water somewhere in your place, a waterfall, a pool, the ocean are all wonderful choices.
• If you live in a mainly hot climate, make sure there is plenty of shade and cool in your sanctuary. Likewise, if you live in a cold area, have lots of snuggly areas, you could even create a cosy little cabin with a fireplace, or choose somewhere warm like the beach.
• Remember that you can add or change areas to your Sanctuary, any time you choose.

Once you have designed your sanctuary, try it out. Using your imagination, feel yourself walking around, breathing in the clean, fresh air, floating in the water, washing off the cobwebs and tiredness under the waterfall. Sinking deep into the cool earth to be replenished, nourished and nurtured. Recognise that there is no time here, no pressure, no expectations. This is a place of healing and nurturing, pure freedom. Breathe slowly the whole time you are here, this regulates your body’s rhythms and calms you down.

Take your time developing your relationship with this place. This is always meant to be a place of peace, healing and joy for you, so make sure you use it to clear away any stress or frustration. Swimming, wading in water or standing under a waterfall is a wonderful way to clear away the dust and dirt of living. Once you’ve cleared up the stress, spend a bit of time enjoying the peace of your sanctuary before returning to the physical world.

After a while of visiting this Sanctuary, you will find that you can visit it for just a few seconds at work when you are feeling harrassed, or in a traffic jam where feelings of frustration build so quickly, and harmony is restored.

Now that you have your Inner Sanctuary, it is important to make use of it. Not just in quiet times at home, but also in your toilet break at work and other times of stress. The more you use it, the better you will get at dealing with stress and frustration.

Daniella Breen B.Sc. (Psych) has been practicing meditation for most of her life and has been a Meditation Instructor for 9 years. You will find some of her Guided Meditations available free to copy at http://www.ShamanGoddess.com and at her forum linked from that site. Finally, Daniella does design personal meditation for specific issues or focuses. This service is also available at her site.

Part One

Choose a nature scene. For instance scenery of mountain, meadow or ocean to picture and imagine during your session. You might consciously choose a particular scene and find that when you close your eyes and relax a different scene pops into your mental vision. That is fine, go with the new scene but once you have started the meditation stay with that scene for that session. Choose whatever scenery accommodates your feelings for that day.

Allow your eyes to close.

Exhale contracting the abdomen gently.

Inhale by expanding the lower abdomen like it was a balloon.
Inhale, Inhale, Inhale, Inhale
And exhale contracting the abdomen gently

Breathe slowly and rhythmically
Observe how the body releases tightness with every exhalation

Continue inhaling and exhaling being aware on the inhale that the oxygen is relaxing your muscles from your toes to scalp as well as deep to your core

Relaxation flowing deep, deep, deep right to the space between your atoms

Watch the breath like it is a wave that is breathing you

Feel relaxation deepen with every breath as if your body is spreading and melting out

Observe the breath happening

On the inhalation, observe the energy of the oxygen that you draw through your body from toes to scalp

On the exhale contract the abdomen gently and feel the deepening and strengthening sense of peace and relaxation

Sense any areas of blockage and direct relaxation there
Like finding a closed door and opening it

Release your consciousness of the breath when you sense the body is totally open

Now maintaining your body’s sense of deep peace and relaxation, imagine yourself in a mountain, meadow or ocean setting. Use all your senses to develop the image. Start with whichever sensation feels the strongest. Depending on how you process mentally this will be either visual sensations or kinesthetic (a feeling of knowing)sensations.

For example, can you feel sunshine just the right temperature warming and relaxing your body, is there a gentle caressing breeze?

How does the earth or sand feel beneath your feet or are you lying in a meadow amongst flowers and grass?

What scents are you aware of - salty ocean air, fragrant flowers, crisp mountain air.

Are there sounds around you? The breaking of waves on the shore, bird calls, the singing of a breeze through trees or tall grass, friendly animal sounds.

If you touch different elements what texture or sensations does that feel like? What shade and color is everything?

Keep developing a scenic image through your senses for the set meditation time.

If you have difficulty getting a sense of a fantasy image, you can use a familiar image such as your home or car. When you have the feel of picturing a familiar image, place your familiar object in a fantasy setting.

Continue this lesson for seven days.

This exercise will develop your ability to access information and knowledge through your five physical senses and increase your psychic intuitive capability.

“The best way to predict the future is to create it.” Peter Drucker

Excerpt from Relaxation Magic - Hypnosis, Meditation, Visualization

http://www.lulu.com/maryannlaraia

Certification
Hypnotherapy Training Institute of SD, CA

Advanced Hynotherapy Diploma 1989/Basic Hypnotism Diploma 1988

Hypnotherapy
KWAFC Kent WA 1990 - 1995

Private Practice

Encinitas, CA 1995 - 1998 / Hartford, CT 1998 - present

Related Education

Chapel of Awareness Encinitas CA 1996 - 1998

Meditation classes with the focus on healing

Cabrillo College, Aptos, CA 1982

Physical Effect of the Religious Experience
Study of what happens physically in the body during altered states

Builders of the Adytum LA, CA 1975 - 1980

Lessons on Meditation, Kabala

For information on modern technology which enhances hypnosis, meditation and visualization please go to

http://www.hypnosisimprovelife.com

“…They could not strengthen their mast, they could not spread the sail” (Isaiah 33:23 NKJ).

“So in life there are higher and lower currents. Too many of us use only the lower sails, and catch only the winds blowing along earthly levels. It would be an unspeakable gain to us all were we to let our life fall under the influence of these upper currents.” Dr. Miller.

What a beautiful thought this is! Sometimes we come to a point in life where we can’t strengthen our mast or spread our sails. We are torn from our moorings and at loose ends, wind-bound by circumstances. It might be a death in the family, an illness, a great disappointment or a dry spell in our spiritual life.

What are the lower currents in our lives that would make us lose our moorings? Have we jettisoned the jetty, so to speak? When we decide that we are in charge, that we are the master of our fate instead of choosing the Master of our fate, then we have severed the tie that binds us to our precious Father. We have chosen (and it is our choice, let us never forget that) the lower currents of life that carry us on a not-so-merry way of a worldly life.

What are our moorings? First, there is God: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. In our eagerness to rid our lives and country of any accountability, the first Person we get rid of is our Judge. In so doing, we rid ourselves of our Keystone, our Rock of Ages. We are like children who fire our parents. I recall years ago one of our almighty pundits writing that anyone who viewed God as Father was a tad mad. Well, Jesus was accused of that, too, so those of us who view God as Father are in impressive company. Other moorings are our family, teachers, friends, good books and good music, etc.

What are our upper currents? That which inspires us to reach beyond ourselves to heights where we see our Father and our brothers and sisters!

You have brought books, CDs, those old cassette tapes, searched the internet, and maybe even attended seminars, but yet you find yourself falling short of your desire or you don’t even come one step closer to what you tried to achieve. You lose any inspirational thoughts you once had and sink back to where you came from. You may even ask yourself “Why do I keep failing? Am I supposed to just remain who I am today?”

Do not lose hope and sight of your goal. If you have obtained self improvement resources before, you have a desire to improve. You have a desire to free yourself from debt. You have a desire to look your best. You have a desire to be intimate in your relationships.

Here is a fantastic analogy and inspirational thought to help you see the problem. By not defining the problem correctly you can not provide a correct solution, leaving you to wonder your whole life about “what could have been”. Think of the books you read, the CDs you listen to, the seminars you attend, as a spark. This spark has an extremely powerful potential. It has the potential to ignite and create fire. Can you see the relation between the spark and the resources you read and listen to? These self improvement guides create an internal spark of motivation in you. They temporarily inspire you and pump you up, gearing you towards your goal and setting you on the correct path.

However, it isn’t too long until you find yourself not moving forward on the path toward your goal, or that you have totally diverted away from the path. You may have even lost ground by feeling so beaten up after failing you enter into a state of depression and fear. What you need is to turn the spark gained from the self improvement resources into a roaring fire. A fire so powerful and independent that it will continue to burn without ‘outside help’ in keeping it that way. To learn what can fuel that spark into a fire, ask yourself, “this internal desire I have to improve, where is it coming from?” Is it that you’re tired of worrying about being able to put food on the table, provide clothing, and shelter? Are you sick of arguing with your partner or friends and you want to have more intimate relationships? Are you ashamed of how those extra pounds make you look?

Now that it is apparent as to why you want to improve, make it a strong fear. Using a relationship example; let’s say you are struggling to have a loving, conflict-free, and open relationship. Create or bring out the fear that one day you’ll lose contact with the person. Make the fear a real possibility. If you continue to have average or poor communication with this person, it is a reality that you could break-up or lose contact altogether. This is your fear. This is your fuel for the spark to ignite it into a roaring fire and keeping it burning strongly.

So the next time you feel you do not have what it takes to accomplish that elusive goal, remember the inspirational thought of fearing what could be. Pull out that fear and use it to drive yourself. By asking yourself “what could be”, you will prevent yourself saying later “what could have been”.

Sign-up now to your free 7 part self development course “Become a Superior Earthling”. If you’re after more inspiration, check out our inspirational articles, thoughts, and stories section. Effective Communication Skills Copyright Joshua Uebergang.

Recently one of my son’s favorite TV stations conducted a survey of children. They asked kids which superpower they would rather have: the ability to fly or to be invisible?

To me it seemed to be a no-brainer–to fly most definitely!

First of all, I think the ability to fly offers a lot more opportunity for fun, adventure, and freedom. Just think about being able to go anywhere, anytime you want, without worrying about traffic, road conditions, or gas money!

While being invisible offers a range of opportunities as well it just seems so sneaky to me that I feel uncomfortable even thinking about it.

My son agreed with me. He thought flying would be a lot more fun. No surpise there as he is a physical child who enjoys being on the go.

Then I really started to think about the question. What does our choice say about us? I think I would really want to know why a child would choose invisibility over flying. I would fear that a child who chose that option either already felt invisible or wished they were. I would worry about their self-esteem and security in social interactions.

Of course, on the other hand, there are certain practical considerations. There are a number of instances where invisibility could serve many purposes for good on a small or large scale.

Apparently this question has been around for some time. A public radio station did a program on superheroes some time ago and took a survey asking which power their audience would prefer, the power to fly or to be invisible.

Men overall, voted that they wanted to fly and women that they wanted to be invisible. Why? So that the men could fly their kids to school and soccer instead of fighting traffic and women wanted to be invisible so that they could sit in on conversations and hear what was being said about them. No one wanted to use the super power to help others.

I find that survey even more disappointing than the one for kids. But not surprising. I am not a cynical person (except when it comes to my students’ excuses for not doing their homework) in general but more often when I hear some act of courageous good I am surprised rather than affirmed.

So while this could certainly appear to be a superficial question, something like the Barbara Walter’s “If you could be an animal, what would you be” type, but I think it could lead to a much deeper discussion. What do you think?

Which would you rather be? Which superpower would you rather your child have?

Stop by Words of Inspiration Online and vote in our poll!

Deanna Mascle is an inspirational freelance writer. You can find more inspiration at Inspiration by Dawggone and her inspirational ezines Words of Inspiration Online and Daily Quote Online.

After centuries of false notions, the ideal of human power and potentiality was reborn in a period known as the renaissance. The dramatic transformation of worldview from the medieval era went hand in hand with a number of discoveries, innovations and inventions. The world was no longer flat and men and women were encouraged to broaden their thinking and create an open outlook. As we reflect on world history we know that periods of Renaissance were essentially periods wherein our right of freedom to think and express broke through old moulds of thinking and behaviour.

The “Information Age” has placed at our finger tips the ability to find out what is happening anywhere in the world, how to bake a cake or assemble a car; the history and meaning of words; the meaning of life; ready access to complex theories from our greatest scholars to those of our new thinkers. It provides us with art, history, everything imaginable and in every form possible, and even a ‘DIY’ guide to achieve enlightenment. But in this WEB of information we are yet to find our OWN truth and, further, find the time to live it! During the Renaissance, individuals with a medieval mind-set were left behind. Now in the Information and Communication Age, “medieval” thinkers are threatened with extinction.

Renaissance comes from the combination of the French verb renitre, meaning “to revive” and the noun naissance, meaning birth. And so after generations of knowledge and information, more of us are answering an inner call to rediscover, re-turn, re-vive, re-new our lives. Old paradigms are crumbling and new ones are being rapidly constructed in their place. The message is loud and clear, change or else the world will surely change you.

This ’spiritual’ Renaissance asks us all to begin an inner journey, one where we take time to absorb all that history tells us about ourselves, and to discover and honor the leader within. Leonardo Da Vinci, the Renaissance pioneer, taught us ‘curiosita’ - an insatiably curious approach to life and an unrelenting quest for discovery and learning. He taught us to question profusely and to change the form of questioning from time to time. For example, instead of asking how we can get to water, he said ask how we can get water to come to us. This was the start of the underwater pipeline.

This week let us question old attitudes and archetypes and turn a new page. The Renaissance that is dawning today is to seek the secret key to this happiness. This spiritual awakening is taking many out of the “box” and into the sphere of an open-hearted search to feel God’s love in their life. It will be the time where the African saying “it takes a village to raise a child” becomes a reality as each of us lives by values.

Om Shanti

(I am a peaceful soul)
Tel: +973-17-712 545
meditate@batelco.com.bh
www.bahrainmeditationcentre.org