| Articles
& Education
Finding
Peace Amid the Chaos NEW!
by Janice Lynne Lundy
Don't
you just love it when life throws you a curve? Just when you think you can
rest on your laurels, or take a break from life's intensity, you are dealt
another “something” to deal with. Today, more and more people are
being asked to face what may seem like insurmountable challenges: a
diagnosis of a serious illness, job loss, or a divorce, not to mention
children who find themselves drowning in troublesome seas. Add any one of
those to the fast pace of our lives, multitasking a myriad of roles and
responsibilities, and we have a recipe for stress levels that can soar,
taking us into the stratosphere of chaos.
Like
many of you, I am fairly adept at the circus act we call life: juggling
more balls than we can feasibly handle, all the while hoping that we are
doing a decent job of it. It's when one more ball is thrown into our
finely tuned balancing act, and we are asked to maintain the same rhythm
and performance as before, that trouble sets in. For me, this manifested a
few years back when I was feeling a bit under the weather, so I decided to
pay my internist a visit. He gave me the surprising diagnosis of high
blood pressure. This juggler had too many balls in the air and she was
teetering, the balls were beginning to tumble to the ground all around
her. What was I to do? Medication was
a probable solution to my situation, but that would be addressing only the
symptomatic part of the problem. This diagnosis felt to me like a wake-up
call; a signal to find a sense of balance in my life so that I could
return to a place of peace within me that had somehow disappeared.
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_________________ The Art of Meaningful Conversation
by Jan Marie Dore
The degree of meaning and fulfillment you experience in your life is a
direct result of your level of engagement and conversation with the world
around you and with yourself.
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____________________
Why Do We Publish?
by Michael LaRocca
A major "character" in Mark Salzman's first autobiography is his father. Sometimes his father paints. But his father hates
painting. He likes it when his painting is done. He likes having painted. But the act of painting itself is, in his opinion, a big pain in the backside.
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Article
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Gratitude: The
Secret Behind Creativity
by Nancy Marmolejo
When you think of being more creative, what comes to mind? Most people
think in terms of artistic skills, but creativity manifests itself in a
number of ways beyond the obvious. Picture creativity like a jet stream
that flows all around us: when we step up to the flow and dip our hands
in, we easily grab wonderful ideas, refreshed insights and innovative
actions. At times, things get in our way and we lose our contact
with the creative flow. We consider ourselves in a rut, not creative,
unproductive, dull.. There is a simple practice that magically
ignites the creative juices and brings joy to all parts of life. It takes
practice, commitment, and an open mind.
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Angel to Angel
by Skye Thomas
Years ago, my minister spoke to us about how you could solicit the help of
your guardian angels to help with conflict resolution. She told us stories
about how she and others had successfully asked their guardian angels to
speak to the enemy's guardian angel. The idea being that when you find
yourself in an argumentative situation with someone, that you could
request that your guardian angel talk angel to angel with their guardian
angel about finding a win-win situation. She gave us examples of times
when after asking for the angels to help mediate the problem, that the
other party suddenly softened and the solutions began to easily show
themselves. As she told the stories of her successes with this approach to
problem solving, I began to think about how to use it in my own life. Click
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____________________
A Writing Exercise That Increases
Awareness And Description Skills
by Catherine Franz
Practice attaching words to feelings requires time to do. Without a system
that helps you monitor that time, the minutes or hours could feel
unproductive. With the right exercise, you can then use that time
wisely, as well as save you time and frustration. Click
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____________________
Are You Starving Your Soul? Reclaiming
Your Creativity
by Edward Toupin
The
soul is your compass, your battery, your guide, your best friend, and your
worst enemy. It is that little voice in your head and that funny feeling
in your stomach. The soul is the wild roar for a victory and the deep sob
for a loss. It is the tears of anguish and excitement. It is
everything that you could ever want to be, but just don't know it yet.
Your soul is your spirit to achieve, and be, and live beyond the wildest
dreams that are indeed within your reach.
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____________________
How To Get Slightly
Famous in Print
by Steven Van Yoder
Early in my career, I wrote an article for a small business magazine about
self-publishing as a marketing tool for businesses. Because I specialize
in helping businesses get into print, the article only took a few hours to
write. A few months later it was published. Almost immediately, my phone
began to ring and my email box filled up with inquires.
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____________________
Spirit
Writing For The Ungifted
by Bob Olson, OfSpirit.com Editor
If you're the type who
can't predict tomorrow's date with a calendar in your hand, have never had
a dream visitation from a deceased loved one, or wouldn't recognize a sign
from spirit if it knocked you over, Spirit Writing might be for you.
Similar to Automatic Writing, but without the "automatic,"
Spirit Writing is a method of communicating with spirits through writing
(with a pen, keyboard, crayon or any writing tool you prefer).
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Article
____________________
The Healing Powers of Journaling
by Christin Snyder
For the past several years, I have found joy working as a motivational
writer and speaker. One of my greatest passions has been the gift of
sharing my deep love and respect for the written word. Words are powerful.
They provoke thought, stimulate creativity, and most importantly, they
hold within them the power to heal. Most people do not realize the
incredible life-changing potential writing has.
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Creativity: It's Only Human!
by Melanie Votaw
When
I was in school, the class I dreaded most was my eighth grade art class.
The teacher put down my every attempt at completing an assignment. I
simply couldn’t produce art the way she wanted it. Luckily for me, I had
already proven myself in other creative areas besides the visual arts –
such as writing and dance. Yet, that art teacher was successful in
convincing me that I had no talent whatsoever for painting, drawing, or
anything remotely related to them. Imagine my surprise when years later, I
published my nature photography and became – of all things – a
volunteer art teacher!
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____________________
Journaling
Techniques
by Christin Snyder
So far we have discovered many of the benefits journaling provides. Some
of them include: at-a-glance records of health/diet issues,
spiritual/emotional healing, dream interpretation, and creative
inspiration. The list is ongoing, but the point is they can be of
great benefit to anyone who uses them.
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Get To Know Yourself
by Kimberly Fulcher
Eight Baby Steps To Knowing Your Self
Who are you? What do you stand for?
What do you believe in? What engages your passion? What brings
tears of gratitude and joy to your eyes? Do you know, or have you
lost yourself? In my work as a professional coach, I’ve helped
many people rediscover themselves. The first step on the road to
rediscovery involves spending time with you, which is why I liken the
process to dating yourself.
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__________________
Writing As Therapy To Keep Writing
by S.J. Connolly-Reisner
All writers have struggled with situations that hinder their productivity.
I’ve heard a lot of writers say that they don’t know where to go with
their stories, have no new ideas, are too affected by their mood to write,
or they simply do not have the time or energy to write. I’ve seriously
thought about this over the years, and came to realize that the
stress of daily happenings, disorganization, and underdeveloped time
management skills are the main reasons surrounding these complaints.
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__________________
Loads Of Goals But No Place To Go
by Asoka Selvarajah, Ph.D
All the personal growth literature tells us we should have goals to work
on, affirmations to repeat, and that we should be constantly visualizing
our future each day. All well and good. So...
Click
Here To Read Article __________________ Writing
The Rainbow
by Eleyne Austen Sharp
If you were to disregard all of the file folders, books and scribbled
Post-It notes, one of the first things you'd notice about my office is my
fondness for The Wizard of Oz. Along the walls and bookshelves are
postcards of Dorothy and The Wicked Witch, a stuffed Scarecrow and a
Cowardly Lion hand puppet. There's also an 18-inch rainbow on my
desk. It's really a candleholder, a simple black ornamental bridge
with small glass votives of red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and
violet. To me it is a symbol of hope and inspiration, a reminder of
how color became my muse.
Click
Here To Read Article__________________ Calming Tips For Hyperactive
Children
by Jeannine Virtue
Parents of hyperactive children know the "Would you please just
settle down?!" phrase well, and likely use it on a regular basis.
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__________________ Manuscripts Wanted: Questions You
by Vic Peters
There are days when I feel as if everyone I know is a writer, and that
they are all looking for the same thing, to be heard. The pursuit of
finding someone to accept a manuscript for publication is at best
disheartening. Many begin to feel that continued rejection is about as
miserable as a writer will ever feel – it is not. Signing with the wrong
publisher not only brings misery in a new and clever package, but it can
also quite possibly destroy the inclination to write.
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____________________ How To Write A Children's
Book In 30 Days Or Less!
by Caterina Christakos
The first time I attempted to write a
children's book it took me three months and several years of promising
myself I would do it "one day." In that time I managed to wash
the dog a million times, rearrange my closet, get my apartment so clean
that they should have done a commercial about it and procrastinate in ways
that gave the word a new name.
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____________________
Begin Your Dream Project TODAY!
by Asoka Selvarajah, Ph.D
Have you ever dreamed of writing a book? Or
starting your own business? Or enrolling in an Art course? Or
whatever?.....
If the answer is yes, then why haven't you?
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____________________ The Hour Of Power
by Asoka Selvarajah, Ph.D
Aristotle said that if you gave him a lever big enough, he could move
the world. The same principle of leverage applies in your life. In this
case, we are talking about the use of a small amount of time each day to
revolutionize the results you get from the rest of your day and your life.
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|
The
Olson Interviews
Recommended Books
Bob
Olson, OfSpirit.com Editor:
Writers of spiritually-related subjects should celebrate:
finally the link between right-brain writing and left-brain publishing has
been met. As editor of OfSpirit.com, I have read shelves of books on both
writing and publishing, but never has an author so brilliantly matched
these two separate processes to authorship with a style and order that is
practical, honest and useable.
I constantly hear the frustrations of OfSpirit.com’s network of
spiritual writers who are trying to pierce the publishing industry’s
requirements and protocol. Creative people sometimes lack the business
know-how to translate their valuable messages into the proper format
necessary to prove the marketability of their manuscripts. Like any
business, publishers are as much concerned about how well their books will
sell as they are about how well they are written, maybe more. Spiritual
Writing teaches writers the realities of this business and how to
package your book and yourself to increase your chances of success.
Spiritual Writing is written by Deborah Levine Herman with Cynthia
Black. Herman is a contributing editor to The Writer’s Guide to Book
Editors, Publishers and Literary Agents and has co-authored Write
the Perfect Book Proposal and You Can Make It Big Writing Books.
Cynthia Black is the president and editor in chief of Beyond Words
Publishing, an industry leader for the past eighteen years in publishing
spiritual books that inform and inspire. She is the editor of two
women’s anthologies, Our Turn, Our Time and Midlife Clarity.
Both Black and Herman are frequent speakers and presenters at book fairs,
conferences and seminars.
More
Recommended Books
Click on the book links below to read more
about—or buy—the recommended book from Amazon.com (the Internet's
largest bookstore):
Love To Write? Why Not Share Your
Writing With OfSpirit.com Visitors?
We invite you to contribute articles and
other educational and entertaining information about the various
categories listed to the left, or other categories not yet listed. There
are actually about 100 different categories that will be listed on
OfSpirit.com from Acupuncture to Hypnosis to Massage Therapy to Yoga to
Zen. You may suggest category titles that have not yet been posted.
Articles
may be submitted by clicking here.
More Articles
& Education
Finding Your Voice
by Denise Lima
Are there times when you sit at the computer mentally willing the words to
appear? Instead a blank page would return the glare. Words would elude
your thoughts. Your mind is filled with characters and story lines, where
do you begin your children fiction article?
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___________________
Why
I Write: Thoughts on the Craft of Fiction
by Will Blythe
From sea to shining sea, in
bookstores and homes, and even in those Swiss chalet style condos dotting
the purple-mountained majesties, the shelves of America are groaning under
the weight of "how-to-write" books. These sprightly, optimistic
manuals suggest some odd, unspoken consensus that imaginative writing is
an activity well worth pursuing for us Americans, perhaps as a kind of
graphomaniacal self-therapy. Evidently, it's no longer enough to read
stories; we must write them as well. Everybody in the pool! But given that
we all seem to want to know how to write, shouldn't we first take a
step backward, away from the water's edge, and ask the big question
lurking furtively behind the how, which is why even attempt
to write literature in the first place? Why, oh why? That's what this book
is about.
Click
Here To Read Article
____________________
The Illustrated Discovery Journal:
Creating a Visual Autobiography of Your Authentic Self
Authentic Style
by Sarah Ban Breathnach
One of the truths I learned on my Simple
Abundance journey is that you cannot begin the search for
authenticity, you cannot embark on a spiritual path within, and not see it
reflected on the outside. We're talking about style, fitness, and beauty.
Girl talk. Sister stuff. Soul speak. Chick concerns. The eternal question:
How do I look?
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____________________
The Heart of Survival: Cancer and
the Spiritual Path (Using Writing To Heal)
by Linda Marks
Everyone has a story. And as we develop
intimate friendships, move beyond the professional into the personal with
co-workers and as helping professionals, have the privilege of listening
to the deeper truths of those who walk through our doors, we discover the
courage, strength and power of spirit that underpins many of our lives.
Cancer is a modern day epidemic. It is complex, multifaceted, scary and
only partially understood. A diagnosis of cancer is a life-threatening
crisis. As with any crisis, it can also open a door to an emotional and
spiritual journey for those who are able to view it as one. Margie Levine
is a cancer survivor. Margie Davis is a personal essay writing teacher
whose close friend was diagnosed with cancer. Both Margies have written
powerful, practical new books from the heart that are resources to all
whose lives have been touched or scarred by cancer...
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____________________
Leaving
A Trace: On Keeping a Journal
Starting
Out: Getting Lost on Purpose
by Alexandra Johnson
JOURNALS. THEY BECKON everywhere. Stacked
in neat rows in drugstores, fanned in pale rainbow hues in display
windows, pyramided in bins at Wal-Mart, stocked near cash registers in
bookstores. On corners of almost every major city, specialty journal shops
have popped up overnight, as quickly and inevitably as Starbucks. And at
midnight in a speck of a prairie town, someone can order dozens from
catalogs. A single click on the Internet connects another country —
France for handmade diaries, Italy for paper the color of fresh cream.
Staring at the electronic images, a browser tries imagining a journal's
weight in their hand.
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___________________
Journal to the Self: 22
Paths to Personal Growth
THE 79¢ THERAPIST
by Kathleen Adams
For nearly 30 years I have had
the same therapist. This therapist is available to me 24 hours a day and
hasn't gone on vacation in almost three decades. I have called upon my
therapist at three in the morning, on my wedding day, on my lunch break,
on a cold and lonely Christmas, on a Bora Bora beach, and in the dentist's
reception room.
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___________________
Self-Healing Basics
by Cristin SnyderAll
beings require equality. There must be a balance between the
spiritual, emotional, and physical being. When the balance is off, we are
off. We feel the repercussions through physical pain, discomfort, anxiety,
anger, and depression. When we go to the doctor to seek pills for physical
ailments, typically we are focusing treatment on the symptoms and not the
underlying problem.
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___________________
Writing With Heart
by Kay Marie Porterfield
Before you dismiss the idea that the
language of the heart is just another sticky sentiment like those
expressed in many valentines, think again. Did you know that the
heart’s electromagnetic field is actually 5,000 times stronger than that
of the brain or that it can be detected between five and ten feet away?
Click
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___________________
Are You Living Your Career Dreams
by Charlene Rashkow
Inherent within the human spirit is the desire for fulfillment, a longing
to carry out our creative aspirations by reaching new heights of
accomplishment. Yet often the yearning can be suppressed by fear.
Perhaps we aren’t feeling good enough, smart enough or able enough to
pursue and fulfill our dreams. Click
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____________________
4 Ways to Find Answers to Life's
Questions Using Intuition
by Lynn Robinson
My favorite definition of intuition came
from a 15-year-old girl I know who said, "Intuition is where, like,
you know something, but like, where did it come from?" I believe that
intuition is a reliable inner resource for wisdom to guide our lives.
Fortunately, everyone has it, and we are capable of developing it for
practical use in everyday life as well as for discovering and achieving
life goals. Learn to listen to your intuition and learn from it by tuning
in to these four cues.
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