Physical Well Being - Nutrition

"The earth is but one country, and mankind its citizens." --Baha'u'llah

As discussed in my previous post (part 3) - based on the medicine wheel, a human being is made up of four parts: the physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual. The whole is always greater than the sum of the parts. Each of the parts are fully integrated to make up the whole human being. If one part is not "working" properly, then the other parts will be adversely affected. To fully realize the benefits of prayer and meditation one must pay attention to the physical part of their being.

One thing that is of utmost importance to our physical well being is nutrition. The B vitamins are crucial to our mental well being. So we should make sure that we are not deficient in our B vitamin intake. It is always better to ingest nutrients from natural sources such as foods, however in this day and age it is not always possible to get all that our body needs from foods. Therefore we need to take supplements. Also, the B vitamins must be balanced according to the natural way (to much of one B vitamin can cause a deficiency in another B vitamin). If one is going to use supplements - look for the words "from natural sources" printed on the label. This will ensure that you are getting the proper balance. You can use soy lecithin and brewer's yeast to meet all your B vitamin needs on a daily basis. Latest HEALTH NEWS.

I invite you to take a look at my NUTRITION GUIDE. Thank you for your time and have a wonderful day!! --Larry

Online Marketing and Spiritual Transformation

Building Online Business with Positive Personality by Khadijah Ibrahim

Copyright (c) 2009 Khadijah Ibrahim

A lot of people have always wanted to have successful online businesses as they realise that a lot of successful internet marketers are earning at least a six figure incomes. However they fail to realise the personality behind those six figure incomes.

This is the reason why when these people encountered the first sign of obstacles or roadblocks, they would easily give up and then wonder why they were not successful.

The truth is that behind those six figure incomes are hard work, patience, determination, persistence, honesty and not forgetting humility.

Hard work

When you saw successful people, you thought that they gained their successes overnight because you never knew them before they became successful. The truth is that these people had worked hard and had been through a lot before enjoying the success as you see them today.

The successful online marketers built their successful online empire from scratch where they had to build effective websites, create good products, bring in traffic to their businesses and maintain good relationships with their customers.

They had worked long hours and did not give in to instant gratification such as watching television or just wasting time doing nothing. There was always something to do in the process of building their online businesses until they reached success. Only then they would slow down a bit to enjoy the fruit of success that they achieved.

Patience

Successful online marketers are patient people because they know that success does not happen in one day. They stick with the same bandwagon regardless of the roadblocks they encounter, keep improving and finding alternatives over and around the roadblocks until they achieve their target or goal. They would never get distracted with the achievement of others and jump into a different bandwagon.

For example you start an online business teaching people how to make homemade chocolate. You do not stop building the business and start another online business selling flowers just because you see a friend's online business that sells flowers is successful. You should instead find ways to sell or learn from your friend the right method so that you could market your homemade chocolate recipes more effectively.

You should be patient to nurture your business and give the business time to grow.

Determination and persistence

Whether it is an online or offline business and even in life, determination and persistence are two must-have criteria to achieve success. Because without these two you would easily give up when problems arise and stop moving forward when you encounter with obstacles. When you are determined to achieve success you will find a way to make things work even in difficult situations. You will be persistent to do the job until it is completed successfully.

We would not have the leisure to use light bulbs in our house if Thomas Edison was not persistent and determined enough to find a way to make it work.

Honesty

I firmly believe that the root of success is honesty no matter what other people say. The main reason I believe this is that to be successful in anything you must first be honest with yourself.

You must honestly believe that you can achieve the goal you set, you must be honest with yourself that you will do the best to achieve your goal and you must be honest with yourself about the good things that you are going to do after you have achieved your goal.

These three main honesty principles will be the driving force for you to make a plan and keep you going to the point where you achieve success. Of course there are other things to be honest about, however when you have these three in place, everything else will definitely come in together.

Humility

Being humble does not mean underestimating yourself. It also does not mean you lose your self-confidence or even self-respect. It means that you are willing to learn from others especially those who have more experience and knowledge than you.

Even if you already know the subject, it would not do you any harm to listen and learn from others because you may have missed out a few things the first time you learnt it.

Being humble also means your willingness to ask when needed as the truth is that you actually gain more from the power of asking rather than losing such as the term that people always use 'losing face.'

When you have all these six characters inside, you will start building a positive personality that successful people have and you would be on your way to create a six-figure income for yourself.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Khadijah Ibrahim is an internet marketer, author, trainer, NLP practitioner and certified handwriting analyst. Her purpose is to help as many people achieve their dreams. For more information on how to build online business with positive personality visit http://www.makemoneywithpersonality.com END

Please visit my Spiritual Transformation Store for books, music, and DVD's: MY STORE
(select the Shop tab at the top of the page – then scroll down to my Amazon Spiritual Transformation Store - for music click on DVD's.

Thank for your time and have a wonderful day!! --Larry
I invite you to explore my SOCIETY GUIDE.

“The Earth is but one country and mankind its citizens.” --Baha’u’llah

Role of Consciousness in Living a Spiritual Life

The critical role of consciousness in living a spiritual life to deal with the challenges ahead by Bob Calkin

It's inconceivable to me that the universe of which the Earth is a tiny part all happened by chance. It makes more sense to accept there is a mystery which we probably won't uncover, but that the universe's evolutionary thrust is driven by a sacred intelligent energy that is inherent in the way the universe functions. The role of human beings in this cosmic drama is to evolve in order that the universe will know itself. We are the universe becoming aware of itself.

As it is there is reliable scientific theory that the universe has evolved to its present state and continues to evolve. The course of evolution is towards more and more complexity. Human consciousness also evolves being able to handle more and more complexity and to also increase its span of care and concern.

However, it is also clear that even though human consciousness has evolved towards greater complexity and care and concern there is something problematic about human consciousness.

In the western developed world we have created a civilization that confers many benefits but at the same time the Earth's ecology is under serious threat, so much so that our civilization might not survive this century, there is major social division within societies and within the wider global community and there is widespread psychological alienation. Moreover the economic model that emerged out of the 1930's depression and after the Second World War has collapsed.

All of these issues pose major challenges which the current dominant consciousness will not be able to solve.

What then do we make of the sacred intelligent energy that drives evolution of the universe?

Evolution will continue no matter what and the Earth will continue (at least for the next few billion years) but our current human civilization may not unless we evolve beyond and transcend the current dominant consciousness. This means that human beings mightn't be able to fulfill their mission of helping the universe know itself to be replaced by some other form of consciousness.

The stakes are extremely high and they have probably never been higher for human civilization. One of the critical issues is the creation of a new economy, but the danger is that we will create an economy that continues to defy the laws of nature and that will not repair the damage caused to the ecology.

It's around this issue of economic reconstruction that questions of consciousness arises. How do we understand the consciousness that has given rise to the modern world and a consciousness that will take us beyond our current challenges? Along with many others I call the current dominant consciousness modernist consciousness.

Modernist consciousness is a term used by many to describe a whole range of cultural values, norms and practices. People whose consciousness is at this stage experience the self as a separate isolated individual. Modernism values wealth, status and the good life through material wealth and consumption. People are valued in terms of what they own and their income. Progress is achieved through science and technology and seeking the best solution is equated with what advances wealth and status. It values winning and striving for excellence and appreciates individual autonomy and independence, all organized within a meritocracy.

These are the things that people with this level of consciousness identify with. In the current financial meltdown all of these ideas and values are under threat and stand at the heart of the fears and anxieties that have arisen as people have seen their dreams and hope shattered. The danger is that those with shattered dreams will try to recreate the economic conditions that they have lost. The real solution involves building a new consciousness based around what I call a spiritual life of everyday experience.

Modernist consciousness is based on values of wealth, status and the good life based around conspicuous consumption which it is assumed are the core of human nature. Those with this consciousness fashion their lives around these values.

Developmental psychology has taught us, however, that there is no such thing as a universal human nature. Our nature as a human being evolves through different stages and there is no such thing as a permanent human nature common to all people. This has to be a source of hope for the future. There is far more to being human than as an economic optimizer as the economists would have us believe.

This consciousness created the modern world, but it cannot take us to a world that will work in harmony with and value the Earth and allow the Earth to heal, as well as valuing all living forms. It will not be possible to retain this form of consciousness and create a post financial crash economy and a mode of consumption aimed at reversing global warming and repairing the ecosystem services.

Einstein said that you cannot solve the problems created by one type of consciousness with the level of consciousness that created the problem in the first place.

What type of consciousness will be required to replace modernist consciousness? I call this ecological consciousness associated with a spiritual life based around the experience of everyday life.

This new form of consciousness will need to have the potential to solve a series of big questions. It will be needed to create a new economy that obeys the ecological boundaries of the Earth, protects the positive features of our civilization, addresses the social divisions that exist and heals widespread psychological alienation. How would we describe such a consciousness?

Ecological consciousness like all stages of consciousness has six themes:

• Ecological consciousness perceives our reality as human beings participating in universal life which is a conscious intelligent energy field, life has us we don't have a life, we are the dance, life is the dancer.
• Ecological consciousness recognizes that we have needs in order to serve universal life. In the modern world needs extend to education, health care, safe communities, opportunities to develop our competencies and consciousness and so on. Ecological consciousness sees these things as needs that it requires in order to serve universal life but does not covet them, identify with them or become attached to them.
• Ecological consciousness embraces a relationship between ourselves as human beings and the way we make a living in a way that promotes living in harmony with and valuing the Earth and all living forms, and that is an expression of the purpose we fulfill on behalf of life, where service is the prime concern.
• Ecological consciousness adopts a life style that makes as few demands on the Earth's resources as possible and weighs up how all activities impact upon the Earth, other people and other living forms. Above all ecological consciousness abandons the pursuit of wealth and status except as a means of supplying our needs in accordance with the Earth's ecology. This is a revolutionary and radical idea.
• Ecological consciousness adopts an attitude of abiding in all and everyone abiding in it as a basis for its relationships with others.
• Ecological consciousness engages in political, social and economic events. It does so aware that people are at different stages of consciousness so as to manage the spiral of development for the benefit of all, and in a way that facilitates the growth and development of all. It tries where possible to promote amplified ecologically conscious people into positions of leadership. Ecological consciousness looks to the possibility of converting itself into a world wide movement pledged to influence the course of events.

There are clearly huge gaps between modernist consciousness and ecological consciousness. Is the gap so great that it's unbridgeable?

The answer to this profoundly important question needs to be considered in relation to the severity of the challenges we face, the likely outcome if we don't face them and the fact that as human beings we are programmed to evolve and develop. It's important for as many people as possible to face up to the nature of the challenges and to accept that modernist consciousness will hinder our chances of preserving our civilization. Recognizing that we must face this challenge and lead a spiritual life based in everyday experience is one of the critical challenges that we face.

We know enough about consciousness, about how it develops and how people can make real and lasting change. There are also enough people whose consciousness is bordering on ecological consciousness, even though the present numbers who have reached this stage is relatively small.

This suggests that it will be possible for enough people to take on board the evolutionary challenge of developing ecological consciousness to lead the way to a new economy that obeys the laws of the Earth's ecology, that is able to respond to the grievous social division and to healing psychological alienation to be hopeful that we just might have a chance.

In later articles I'll deal with how you can ecological consciousness can be developed. In the meantime to learn more visit my website http://www.bobcalkin.co.nz.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Dr Bob Calkin has launched a new website to assist people live a spiritual life through the engagement with everyday life. If you feel that you would like to experience in a heightened way the wonder of the sunrise, the awesome beauty of the outdoors, the wonder of this beautiful Earth, to be at one with others and the Earth and all living forms, to feel gratitude and to feel blessed by an energy or ‘u

Please visit my Spiritual Transformation Store for books, music, and DVD's: MY STORE
(select the Shop tab at the top of the page – then scroll down to my Amazon Spiritual Transformation Store - for music click on DVD's.

Thank for your time and have a wonderful day!! --Larry
I invite you to explore my SOCIETY GUIDE.

“The Earth is but one country and mankind its citizens.” --Baha’u’llah

How To Meditate

"The earth is but one country, and mankind its citizens." --Baha'u'llah

PART EIGHT: How to meditate.

Here are some ways in which you can achieve a meditative state, thereby arriving at the center of the medicine wheel. You can start by saying prayers. The best prayers to use are the revealed prayers, those prayers given to us by the Manifestations or Prophets of God. After saying the prayers one should remain in a state of silence for a few moments. You may also chant the prayers (much more powerful), or chant single words like OM, or chant single versus taken from the holy books (scriptures). I find it most beneficial if I chant for ten minutes or more. You should chant until you feel relaxed and your internal dialog is silenced. Or you can put on a CD, sit in a comfortable chair, close your eyes, and concentrate only on the music. I recommend new age or classical music, something soothing or music that elevates your soul. I highly recommend Enya. More on how to meditate in my next post. Please visit my Spiritual Transformation STORE for more information on prayer, meditation, and self-improvement. (select the Shop tab at the top of the page – then scroll down to my Amazon Spiritual Transformation Store - for music click on DVD's.)

Sixteen Principles for Recreating the World: (another set of three)

-Morals and ethics. Sustainable human and community development requires a moral foundation. When morals decline and basic ethical principles are violated, development stops.

-Learning. Human beings are learning beings. We begin learning while we are still in our mothers' wombs, and unless something happens to close off our minds and paralyze our capacities, we keep on learning throughout our entire lives.

-Sustainability. To sustain something means to enable it to continue for a long time. Authentic development does not use up or undermine what it needs to keep on going

("Sixteen Principles" taken from "Recreating the World a practical guide to building sustainable communities" by Michael and Judie Bopp - e-mail: fourworlds@telusplanet.net)

I invite you to explore my SOCIETY GUIDE.

To be continued next post, thank you for your time and have a wonderful day!! --Larry