We must make efforts to curb our out of control consumerism and learn to live in harmony with the earth and our values. Constantly buying more is not only destructive to our wallets it’s destructive to our family life, when finances need to be budgeted. It also isn’t helping our planet with the trash produced by this continual cycle of buy and throw away that we have been living for at least the last decade.

What I am seeing through this coverage is a new way of supporting each other, a simplified way of living with reality checks. Churches here in the Tampa/St. Petersburg area are creating Sunday sermons on topics such as personal debt, and classes on handling finances, others are offering classes on saving on groceries, some have launched websites of tips and inspirations for surviving this economic downturn. I think this is a coming together of spirituality and every day life. We are learning to support each other with both practical knowledge and spiritual understanding through an economy that has everyone concerned.

One of my sources for this piece was the St. Petersburg Times. To read their full article click this link. who listed the following churches offering programs, sermons and informational support. Temple of the Living God, Chabad Lubavitch, an Orthodox Jewish group with a center in St. Petersburg. Their website offers a variety of information and tips on household budgeting and saving money. The Mormon community offers members who approach their bishop assistance in the form of food or financial assitance through a long standing private church program. This was quite amazing to read about, church members fund this program and they forgo two meals a week and donate the money they would have spent on those meals to the church program to assist those in need. Others who offered sermons and classes were First Baptist Church of Indian Rocks and Pasadena Community Church.

My own church, Harmony Metaphysical offers past sermons on You Tube, another church I found via the web in Tallahasse offers pod casts. So churches are reaching out to their congregations to offer support, spiritual advice and practical life advice in many forms that support our every day life. I love my church and spiritual energy of Harmony’s sanctuary, but when I can’t make it there, I know I can enjoy a quiet few minutes of support and spiritual guidance through one of many sermons our church has worked to place on You Tube.

In this changing world and upside down economy everything helps, from the love we share with each other, to the financial skills we hone and improve, to our budgeting research, to insight offered from our spiritual home. It melds together into a beautiful support that helps us in trying times like these. One of my favorite budget and finance sites is Wisebread, click here to visit their site. Blessings to you.

Photo By Fiancailles Flickr

It doesn’t mean we wont lose our job or suffer loss, we very well may, just as I did. My belief and trust in God didn’t keep my parents from dying of cancer. What it did do is give me the strength to survive, to move through the worst pain I’d ever experienced in my life. There were hours and days when my life seemed too painful to go on. The pain of my mother’s loss was debilitating, devestating and I couldn’t even pick up the pieces. Death felt in those moments preferable to the intense pain of grief and loss I was feeling.

Losing our sense of security in the world, a job for many, my mother for me, often feels like the end of the world; and it is the end of the world we’ve been living. Our sense of protection and security is stripped away. We are left vulnerable, exposed and wondering how we can possibly go on, how we will support ourselves. Who will be there for us in our darkest hours?

At first it seems as if no one is there. It feels as if we’ve been abandoned, at least it did for me. The spirit of God is always with us, sometimes our pain is simply so deep we can’t even comprehend that we have support. I certainly couldn’t. My perception has deepened and today I realize in my darkest pain I was supported and you will be too. It may not be evident at all times but in small moments, in calm silence it will show its self and I pray you will realize you are supported.

Clutter By: BonBonMom Flickr

The next stage after her husband’s retirement was a six month trip around the world. They kept a pace that amazes me even today, they were in city after city, country after country exploring, meeting other travelers, writing, and occasionally resting and relaxing.

Stage three, re-entry into life in the US, via a lake community in northern Maine, near their families. They bought a tiny lake front cottage that had been in the family for years. They spent the summer months preparing the house for winter living and buying the necesities they would need to live through winter in the far reaches of northern Maine. They survived and even thrived, working from home with their web based business and their writing careers while David took classes online. They survived some real challenges..plumbing or a lack of after a winter freeze took out their toilet and shower. Thus began the bucket brigade and a search for an eco toilet. Just when they thought they had survived the harshest conditions northern Maine was hit with spring floods.

Having grown up in Maine they were well aware of the conditions and had planned extensively, they had most things online so documents and business information were safe and secure. They had personal belongings ready to go and even the dogs belongings and food packed. News coverage said they had about 36 hours til they would need to depart and they were in the final stages of preparation when they awoke to several inches of freezing water on their floor and the dog waking them up. At that point they literally had minutes to get out as their SUV’s tail pipes were nearly underwater outside. With a row boat they made several trips with their dog, their computers, and what little belongings could be stuffed into backpacks quickly, knowing they had to get out before the cold water became dangerous to them and before their cars were unable to be driven. As it was, by the time they got out one vehicle was underwater to the tail pipe and couldn’t be driven. It was abandoned there.

What is my point in all this? My point is that this couple have done enormous downsizing. Compared to the average American they are living like the travelers they are. But what they learned is that they still had more downsizing to do. With the loss of their lake house in Maine, they decided to take the plunge and move to the tropical reaches of Florida. They researched, did their homework and went through the challenging process of buying a home in a downturned economy. They are now moved in and have spent the last few weeks sorting through their military shipment that arrived shortly before Christmas. Belongings they had not seen in nearly two years.

Even with the extensive downsizing they’d done in Arizona, they discovered that the energy and time required to own a house full of belongings is simply too much for the scaled down life style they desire. They are now in the midst of their third downsizing and they are feeling the energy of what it takes to release these final things. They sort through things, wondering, why did we keep this in the first place? I think we can all relate to that when we open a box of belongings we have saved and put aside for even a couple years.

Their ultimate goal, I think… being only an observer and friend in this situation is to own a house for the time being, finish the downsizing and create a means to have a very simple stateside residence that they can come home to between world adventures and jobs that may eventually take them to other continents. So what is my point in sharing all of this?

It’s the realization of the energy we use and consume in owning so many belongings. We are a society of people who consume and buy at a feverish rate…at least we did until the economy tanked and now I believe we are all considering our purchases and real needs. I’m as bad as the next person, seriously, I own a home and it’s filled with stuff. My fortune or misfortune to deal with is that it is mostly a house filled with the belongings and furniture of my father, who died unexpectedly five and a half years ago. When he died I was living overseas as a teacher in a one bedroom apartment in Berlin. So my belongings were never until now very extensive. My life, money and energy was spent on travel and overseas life. My father had beautiful things that I have come to treasure, and I have over the past five years done my own downsizing, from my father’s original 4,800 sq feet house to a more manageable 2,300 sq ft home.

I have donated literally truck loads to charity, I have given excess furniture to family members and friends. I have tried to lovingly give my father’s belongings to those who loved him, or would most benefit from them. It has been an exhausting and time consuming process. It was painful and emotional, so I can dearly understand Myscha’s days of struggle with the energy and challenge of their downsizing project.

Just today I spent about and hour and a half in my closet pulling things out and folding them into bags for charity and for friends. I feel like a pretty normal American woman and within an hour I filled to the brim two large garbage bags of shirts, pants, jackets and sweaters that I either never wear, that are too large, or just no longer my style. It is an embarrasing realization to see how much excess the average person has. Seriously how many shirts can we wear? We all have our favorites and mostly the rest get worn occasionally, ditto for pants and jackets. I counted, I have eight light zippered sweatshirt jackets in my closet. How did that happen? I love them all, so those I kept, but it just gives me pause to think about the excess. What does it do for us? Today by the time I
finished I was feeling the emotion and energy of sorting through my belongings. Clothes are a reminder of where we’ve been, who we’ve been and who we are now, so clearing them out was emotionally freeing.

What are you holding on to that doesn’t serve you? Are there things you need to clear out of your life to make way for new life, new energy, new adventures or simply the space to walk through your house without clutter.

Money By: Tracy O Flickr

Abundance flows through us. Our thoughts, our attitudes, our efforts, our energy all effect the flow of abundance in our life. The best attitude is gratitude. Each time money flows to you say “Thank You.” Think Thank You and maintain a grateful attitude. If you receive eight hundred dollars, but you feel you need fifteen hundred to be secure don’t put your energy into what you feel is lacking. Focus your thoughts on being grateful for what you have received and what you can do with this current abundance. A thankful and grateful attitude allows more abundance to flow to you and through you.

Creating abundance requires an open heart and mind. The direction you think abundance will come from may not be the direction it comes from at all. Remain flexible and open to all avenues. For example in my own life I’ve spent time, energy and effort going through the process to substitute teach. I’ve completed all paperwork, submitted all references, licence and just about stood on my head to be approved. It has been nearly three months and I am still waiting for my processing and to be finger printed. After three months of expended energy and effort I still have not earned any money subbing.

Instead I’m keeping myself open to other avenues of revenue. One fell into my lap through a friend’s phone call. She and her husband have begun selling their enormous collection of Cd’s and books on Amazon.com. In one month they have earned two hundred dollars. Like me they are trying to downsize and release excess stuff. After talking to Myscha I realized this could be a good way to downsize my very large book collection and create some additional cash. Within thirty-six hours of listing items I sold three books. The flow has begun and it didn’t take three months.

I’m not saying my original plan of subbing won’t work. I’m saying staying open to all options is the best plan in these challenging financial times. If I had closed my mind to to everything else I wouldn’t be downsizing stuff I’ve needed to clear out and I wouldn’t have this gentle flow of abundance from a source I never expected.

An open mind and a willing heart are key. Be willing to think outside the box. Be willing to live outside the box! Be willing to create opportunities in unexpected places. Abundance flows from spirit and there are many avenues it can use. Don’t stay attatched to just one.

Reverend Dee Jay recommended starting our 2009 affirmations with I am. For example, I am healed, and I have good health. I am abundant and I am creating greater abundance with my writing. I am creating a workshop to help others in grief begin to work through the healing process.

Writing my affirmations and listing the things I want to release gives me clarity and reminds me how far I have come from the moment I found Harmony back in the spring of 2006. Harmony is my spiritual home, it’s the place that reminds me I’m responsible to create the life I want and to be grateful every day for the gifts spirit provides. Thank you Reverend Dee Jay and Harmony for creating a healing, loving spiritual home for all of us. I love being a part of Harmony.

A family that subscribed to our magazine conducted an interesting experiment. They put the rice in two glass jars and every day for a month said “Thank you” to one jar and “You fool” to the other, and then they tracked how the rice changed over the period. After a month the rice that was told Thank you started to ferment, with a mellow smell like that of malt, while the rice that was exposed to You fool, rotted and turned black. Pg 97

To give your attention to something is a way of giving energy. By receiving attention , life can get the energy to move in a better direction. Pg 98

With our economy in such flux and with the emotional upheaval so many people have experienced I was reminded by The True Power of Water just what we as people can do to focus our energy and our intentions to begin bringing love and calm to the distress and upheaval we see and feel. This morning as I read pages 90 to 104, I was reminded that we can create with our focus and our intention. We can begin to create a calm, healing around us by focusing our gratitude on everything good around us. Energy goes where we put our attention. We want to give energy and focus to the good in our world and in our lives. Focus on gratitude, Be grateful, be filled with love for everything in your life. Being grateful creates an energy that eventually opens the door to more good in our life.

For example, my house needs to sell, so rather than focus my energy on feeling a desperate need for a sale, I focus my energy on gratitude for what I have, for having a beautiful place to live, for having the abundance of owning a home and I release it to spirit. Another example, with the economic situation many families are feeling strapped financially and are not able to meet all their financial obligations, rather than focusing energy on all the things that are not paid, and getting more distressed focus on what you have paid. If you paid your rent, or your phone bill, think of the money you used or are using to pay this bill and say a prayer of gratitude for the fact that this money is in your hand and that you are using it to pay something that needs to be paid. A grateful attitude for the abundance in our life helps create more abundance.

There will naturally be moments of distress and stress. I can attest to this…laughter with a house for sale and still for sale long beyond what I can afford. But what I am seeing in my own life, with my own intention and gratitude is a subtle positive shift in my abundance with keeping my focus in GRATITUDE and using my thoughts in an uplifting way to say THANK YOU for everything I can pay and for EVERYTHING I have. I can assure you with two houses of bills this is a real test of my focus and intention.

There are more days than not that I could just spin out in the anxiety and stress of paying for two houses. Instead I’m learning and seeing positive results by saying THANK YOU to God and the universe for everything in my life. When I awake in the morning I say a prayer of gratitude for my house, the man in my life, the money I have, for my family and friends. I refocus through the day, for a minute or so and I say another prayer of GRATITUDE and THANKS for all these things and for any abundance that I find coming into my life on that day. I know there will be readers rolling their eyes, some in my own family I’m sure, but it’s working.

GRATITUDE is THE RIGHT ATTITUDE to change our experience, to change our lives. We know that greed and corruption are not working, we can see that every day on the nightly news. We see the direct result of the economy in our investments and our bank accounts. We know what doesn’t work, so lets focus what can work. AN ATTITUDE OF GRATITUDE AND LOVE.

For many people working a job they dislike is a reality. I can remember a close friend of mine going through a stage where he hated his job. He literally felt ill on Sunday night thinking about going to his job on Monday. Fortunately his situation was temporary and he later earned the job he dreamed of when he passed the foreign service exam and began the journey of working in the diplomatic corp in embassies around the globe. Now he and his wife and daughter move from country to country approximately every three years after a six month stint of language school in the United States between posts. It took him approximately seven years of taking the test before he passed. He was determined and he never gave up. He was clear that he would become a diplomat and do the work he felt was his calling. He now travels the world and loves his work.

I too have that focus and determination in my writing career. I spent years writing on weekends, holidays and summer vacations. I was fortunate that in 2002 I had the resources and support to take a year off from my teaching job and focus completely on my writing career. In that year I accomplished a great deal on my book. It gave me a sense of being near to my goal. It brought me to the point of being ready to write my book proposal, which would be submitted to potential publishers and agents. Just at the time I was beginning the search and the proposal process my father took ill unexpectedly and died of Non Hodgkins Lymphomia. He knew he had cancer for only a few days as everything happened incredibly fast.

My world turned upside down in a matter of 24 hours. I flew from my home in Berlin, Germany to be with my father and didn’t have an opportunity to return to my home, fiancee and two cats for six months. It was a living hell. I was absolutely living a life of quiet desperation. On the surface it looked like I had aquired the American dream; a beautiful house, money and resources. Never in my life, before or after have I felt so desperate to escape the misery I woke up to every day.

Handling the loss of my father was shattering for me. He was 59 and my only remaining parent. My mother had died unexpectedly and quickly six years before from cancer that was detected only three months prior to her death. I felt like I was drowning every single day. I can remember days so deeply painful that I literally considered packing a suitcase, driving to the airport and checking the international flights and choosing something appealing and never looking back and never returning. My life was in so much chaos I just wanted to escape and never return.

My step brother told me later he thought often I would pack up and move back to Hawaii, my former home before heading off to live in Berlin, Germany. At times I know that would have been a far healthier option for me. Some of the chaos and stress I created with my choices, but much of it was foisted upon me with being the executor of a very complicated estate. It took nearly two years of constant attention, meetings, phone calls and paper work to unravel everything. It was literally my living nightmare. There are moments that I can see in retrospect where I had choices. Where I could have reduced the stress and moved out of some portions of the nightmare. It wouldn’t have been over but it may have been easier if I had followed my intuition and not let my fear override my options.

It’s normal to be afraid, certainly when you are facing life situations where you literally have no experience and no knowledge of the situation. I was forced to depend upon the experience and knowledge of professionals around me. Sometimes that paid off and sometimes it created a new disaster. What I walked away with in the end was a knowledge that even well meaning professionals can make mistakes that cost you tens of thousands of dollars and energy and time beyond your worst nightmare. I also learned more deeply to trust myself.

For me it’s over. I made some huge errors in judgement and I trusted people who certainly didn’t deserve my trust. I was in a situation with few options and a limited group of people to use as a resource. Some of those I trusted wrongly were employees of my father, others were hired professionals who made some grievous errors. Who would have dreamed in the midst of a mind boggling estate and business challenges beyond my imagination that two of those I was trying to look out for would turn out to be working against me.

One never knows what life will bring and how things will wrap themselves up in the end. I know today that I’m on the path of healer and writer. My life focus is centered on publishing my book on healing grief and relationships. I am fortunate, eventually I found my way through the hell of estate issues, closed my dad’s company and moved back into my own life and skin. I’ve lived what I hate and now I’ve begun to live what I love. It hasn’t been an easy path, rather it’s been a deeply painful path with moments of wondering how I could go on, and how I could get through it. In the end it’s been my faith, intuition, determination and my strong belief in my life’s work that’s kept me on my path through the hell storm of change I faced.

I know what it’s like to live in quiet desperation and I am grateful for reaching the other side and finding a place where I feel alive, joyful and grateful for each day. As I write this the sun is rising and I know I am blessed. I will post this to my website, see the man I adore in a couple hours and move into my day knowing spirit is guiding my life. If you are living some form of the desperation I faced. I pray you too will find your voice, hear the whispers of your intuition and find small ways to begin finding joy again. It can be done; I’m living proof and inspiration.

Flickr photo: from Skettalee

These are intense times and you may find your emotions zooming up and down and also allow fear to creep in as you watch the chaos of the stock market. There are things you can do to support yourself in staying peaceful. The more you can stay peaceful, the more you will be an energy match for the good you want in your life. So I have given some tips below on how to do that plus a look at what is happening astrologically. Finally there are some simple Feng Shui cures you can install in the financial sector of your home.

Here is a look at the financial crisis through the eyes of astrology, Feng Shui and spirituality plus suggestions of what you can do to cope.

1. Do everything possible to not buy into fear and panic.  Just remember that your thoughts and intentions create the reality you experience and no matter what everyone else is experiencing you can still be in peace and live a happy life. How to do that? 
   1.   Do your spiritual practices daily, whatever they may be, to keep your connection with source.
   2.   Ground your self each day, cleanse your aura and surround it with light so that the chaotic energies of others around you can not penetrate your energy field
   3.   Take negative friends, family or naysayers out of your life for now until things change and it is easier to stay positive and not buy into their fear.        
2.  Treat yourself to those activities that cause your body to relax and your brain waves to go to alpha.  This could be a walk in nature, a fishing trip, a bubble bath, a massage, body work or the Lightbody Activation – anything that feeds your soul.  The more you can remove your mind from your finances and vibrate at peace, the more you will be an energy match for the good outcomes you want to attract.
3.  Feng Shui the financial area of your home.  This would be the far left hand corner of your house as you stand at your front door. There is a vortex of energy in that corner and how it vibrates impacts the details of your finances.  There are three things you could do.  First, make sure there is no clutter there. Clutter contributes to both stuckness and chaos in your finances. Now add a rock or some other heavy object to symbolically stabilize your finances.  Third, to  increase your investments to their original value or higher, add something purple or an item that represents abundance, such as gold coins or a very valuable or expensive item.  Say a prayer or chant that these items activate your finances in a good way.  Surrender it all and focus on gratitude for all you already have – family, health, friends, etc.

Astrological Energies Now Unfolding:

Astrologically, what is happening is a cleansing of the old ways of greed, dishonesty and imbalance.  Pluto, the planet of transformation, has activated the energies that rule all that is now unfolding.  The sign Capricorn, which Pluto is now influencing,  rules government, big business, CEO’s and the traditional way.  It will be in this sign for the next 16 years.

Pluto is just finishing its sojourn in Sagittarius, where it has been for the last fourteen years, transforming religion and travel. Now its assignment is to transform all that Capricorn rules, plus all that it rules. Pluto has rulership over finances, particularly big money, crime, hidden things, debt and other people’s money.  So you can see how the times are ripe for imbalances in government and big business to be exposed. Pluto tears down old ways to rebuild in a new in and better way.  This deep transformation is simply what we are now seeing.  This cleansing is facilitating the consciousness shift we are now experiencing.

What You Can Do To Help:

In your prayers and meditation, you can help this process by visualizing a gentle transformation where all people on the planet work in co-operation and harmony for the good of all. A good time to do this is on Saturday October 25^th at 9:00 am in the Pacific time zone, 12:00 noon Eastern Time Zone.  There is a world wide meditation for the world soul.  To see how to participate go to this link: http://www.childrenoflight.com/wwm13.htm  There are lots of details on what to do, but just doing the two invocations near the bottom of the page at the appropriate time in your time zone would be a very loving contribution to Mother Earth.

Use those suggestions above that call to you and feel yourself more in charge of the unfoldment of your life.

Blessings to All!!