Our autumn issue is out now. We are sharing an excerpt of Waking Up From The Dream by Gareth Duignam. To say we loved this book would be an understatement! Seek it out…it may just change your life…
Gratitude
Positively Newsworthy: The Little Things is an addition to the Positively Newsworthy section of our magazine. In The Little Things, our editors share positive thoughts, reflections, and everyday moments of gratitude and hope that have uplifted them each season. Read their Autumn 2020 offerings below!
Sneak Peek From Autumn 2017’s Spirituality & the City: ‘We Are Grateful For…’
Here is a sneak peek of our most recent Spirituality & the City series, where six people talk about the things that make them grateful. You can read the other stories in the series by picking up a free copy of our Autumn 2017 issue from one of our wonderful stockists across Ireland. Alternatively, you can subscribe to the magazine and have the Autumn issue – as well as the next three magazines for the year ahead – delivered right to your door!
Daizan Kaarlenkaski
Change is my true friend and teacher, and the very core of Life itself. When it appears, in any way it presents itself, from challenging to deeply satisfying and everything in between, what is your reaction? Change could involve the loss of a loved one, challenges in your own health, losing your career, getting married and having children, having to sacrifice your old self-centred ways, or being moved to an unknown situation that challenges your current way of being. When things make you very uncomfortable, when you feel like you have absolutely no control over the outcome of anything, will you shut down and distract yourself with something else? Or will you face this discomfort, hear it, feel it, deeply allow it, and grow in wisdom, compassion and truthfulness? Nothing in this life is guaranteed, and even the greatest difficulties can be used for the highest thing, for your own freedom.
If you enjoyed this sneak peek, check out the full article in our Autumn 2017 issue, available in stockists throughout the country now.
By Vanessa Shipman
I am thankful to be here, right now, for my two feet standing on solid ground and for the heart pounding in my chest. I am thankful for the last 12 months, all of them, easy and hard, that oiled that lock in my heart making that key a little easier to turn. I am thankful for the life force that runs through me that connects me to all nature on this planet. I am thankful for the knowledge that everyone is good and for the soulmates you drop in front of me and for the hands to greet them and the eyes to see them.
I am thankful for my tears that mingle with the raindrops to wash away my sadness. I am thankful that I can feel that sadness. I am thankful for the love of others and thanks for loving me. Thanks for knowing that I am enough and for waiting on the other side of that knowing so that I can join you there. Thanks for your patience because this travelator moving under my soul is moving backwards and it feels like it is taking forever.
Thanks for letting me know that there is no rush and that everything is as it should be. And thank you for giving so many portals for finding my own wisdom for seeing the true beauty in all nature, even me! And thanks for those little hands that pull me from my speeding mind, to feel the earth beneath my feet and literally smell the flowers. The flowers whose colours had blended grey in the background of the whirring wheel that is my mind until those small, wise souls drag me back into the place where my own soul resides, to smell the flowers.
Thank you!
By Jai Kartar Kaur Mohan
The Christmas season can be special, even for someone like me of a non-Christian faith. Gratitude, charity, and interconnectedness are all in the air. There are higher levels of consciousness in action. Don’t compare yourself negatively to others. Rather, take the cue to actively seek the positive, admire the light where it shines and listen for the soft sound of the bell.
If I were to have a collection of keepsakes to proudly put on display, I would collect bells. My associations with bells are positive ones. For me, bells ring in gratitude. Do you remember this line? “Every time a bell rings, an angel gets his wings.” This quote is from It’s a Wonderful Life, the classic 1946 movie starring Jimmy Stewart. The film is all about the human journey of learning to be grateful. Even the title of the film is a declaration of gratitude!
Oh, beautiful bells! My soul listens for jingle bells dashing through the snow, magical flying reindeer making musical landings on rooftops, the doorbell ringing followed by a warm greeting. I recall the tinkling of the chimes I sometimes play in yoga classes to gently awaken restful yogis from their deep relaxation. I recollect the jingling of the cat’s bell, announcing her arrival, and her deep purr as she rubs against me.
In the movie, The Polar Express, a boy receives a special gift, a Christmas bell. Only those who still believe in Santa can hear it. It’s a heart-warming reminder that we cannot experience prosperity if we aren’t grateful.
Gratitude opens the door to prosperity. Someone ungrateful doesn’t recognise the gifts that are being given. If one decides to want for only one thing, he becomes blind to all of the other opportunities that are offered. Those opportunities will never amount to anything because they haven’t been taken. I imagine a bell on prosperity’s door. I’m able to ring it whenever I am grateful. The door is always answered when I come, hand in hand, with my dear friend, Gratitude. Even the one for whom the bell tolls at the close of life can graciously listen as they are being called home. For those left behind, the death knell reminds us to appreciate what we have, so temporarily, here on Earth.
A bell calls us to reverie. It invites us to cherish its dulcet sound for the fleeting moment that it is here. Take pause, notice, appreciate. Be grateful. I don’t have a fascinating ensemble of bells to display. Yet, in my heart, there is a symphony that rings out. A note of that symphony has been recorded every time that I’ve bowed to remember my Creator. Every time my eyes have widened in awe of life’s wonder unfolding around me. Every moment where I’ve paused to revel in gratitude.
In my heart there is a cascade of tinkling sounds that reaches out into Infinity. Listen. It’s in your heart too. Be great and full of love.
Sat nam.
Jai Kartar Kaur Mohan is a Kundalini Yoga Teacher & Teacher Trainer
www.wellwithin.ie
This is an excerpt from our Winter 2016 issue. Read the rest of the article by subscribing soon so we can post you a copy or by picking up a magazine from one of our lovely stockists all over Ireland. Tell them we said hello!
By Jai Kartar Kaur Mohan
The Christmas season can be special, even for someone like me of a non-Christian faith. Gratitude, charity, and interconnectedness are all in the air. There are higher levels of consciousness in action. Don’t compare yourself negatively to others. Rather, take the cue to actively seek the positive, admire the light where it shines and listen for the soft sound of the bell.
If I were to have a collection of keepsakes to proudly put on display, I would collect bells. My associations with bells are positive ones. For me, bells ring in gratitude. Do you remember this line? “Every time a bell rings, an angel gets his wings.” This quote is from It’s a Wonderful Life, the classic 1946 movie starring Jimmy Stewart. The film is all about the human journey of learning to be grateful. Even the title of the film is a declaration of gratitude!
This is an excerpt from our Winter 2016 issue. Read the rest of the article by subscribing soon so we can post you a copy or by picking up a magazine from one of our lovely stockists all over Ireland. Tell them we said hello!
This is taken from the winter 2015/2016 issue of Positive Life. Subscribe | Stockists
By Sarah McLean
Almost every moment offers an opportunity to be grateful. While practicing gratitude takes a bit of attention and time, scientists at the University of California have discovered that those who do, thrive.
Grateful people enjoy lower levels of stress and depression, are more empathetic and generous, place less importance on material goods, are more satisfied with life and benefit from more vitality and optimism. Here are some easy ways to get your gratitude groove on.
- Remember all who work on your behalf. As you go through your day, remember those who make your clothes, grow and pick your food, provide you with water and electricity, and those who built your car, house and place of work. Take a moment and look at the work that went into any item. Even this magazine. Many hands are a part of your life.
- Attend to present moment. When you’re mindful, you can appreciate everyone around you and the environment you’re in. Right here, right now, your life is taking place. Savour life by slowing down to pay attention to each moment. On your way to school or work you might notice the clouds form in the sky, or the sunlight reflecting off of the leaves of a tree. Awaken to nature’s beauty and appreciate it.
- Keep a gratitude journal. Before bed or first thing in the morning take a moment to jot down a list of people, things or experiences you’re grateful for. This will train your attention to look for what you’re grateful for all day, every day.
Take a moment now to appreciate your life. This makes the world a friendlier place.
By Mary Berkery
“The meeting of two personalities is like the contact of two chemical substances: if there is any reaction, both are transformed.” – C.G. Jung
Intimate relationships can be a source of much joy and much pain. So how can we constantly see the beauty in them? Perhaps you’re in a difficult time in your intimate relationship or even questioning what is it about. Perhaps there is a need to look differently as to what intimate connection is about. Being in a relationship is not only about having a companion, or forming a close partnership, it’s where connection between another is direct, unrehearsed, fresh and heart-to-heart.
Elizabeth Gilbert, author of Eat Pray Love, says in her second book, ‘Committed’, “To be fully seen by somebody, then, and be loved anyhow, this is a human offering that can border on miraculous.” Jett Psaris and Marlena S. Lyons, authors of the book, ‘Undefended Love’, say “The way that you felt about yourself when you first fell in love is the way you can feel all the time “
But how do we make these statements the reality of our relationships?
1. Like it all! Conflicts call out the beauty and at other times the beast in us! No matter how painful, there is something to learn, to integrate and transform. Problems that arise can be welcomed as opportunities to move to deeper connection. Couples consciously working on this will discover more about themselves and their partner or loved one, learn to engage with them in a deeper dialogue and discover ways to express the most profound and untamed aspects of the psyche.
2. Use ‘I’ statements instead of ‘You’ statements. Say how you feel i.e. “I feel frightened, I feel angry, I feel ashamed.” Conscious relationships don’t put responsibility on the other for how they react. Move attention away from the other to what is happening for you. It then becomes an opportunity for reclaiming lost and forgotten places of your own soul. Speak what is happening with courage and honesty. Take time to reflect when issues occur and then come back to talk about it, and to listen to what went on for the other person – without judgment. This truly allows deep healing and trust in sharing frightened parts of your personality.
3. Practise gratitude. Regularly share with your partner what you appreciate about them. It could be that they remember to get the Saturday newspaper, how they look so attractive or honouring their courage to be real. Look at the other as a reflection of God and as a being of light and teacher in your life. Also see yourself in the same. To break the habitual judgments, practice appreciation, mentally and verbally.
4. Have love dates. Create evenings dedicated to taking the time to love, to talk, to meditate together, to give each other a massage, to prolong lovemaking. You may find that much could conspire for not doing it but do it anyway! It feeds the roots of connection and creates safety for rich sharing, emotionally and physically.
In enhancing your ability to see the beauty in your relationships, I wish you the courage to share from your loving heart, to brail your way with what you are feeling, so as to discover the hidden depths and beauty of your being in a relationship. It takes courage and patience but the rewards are plenteous.
mary@maryberkery.com
This is taken from our autumn 2015 issue, out now. Subscribe to have the next four issues delivered direct to your door.