Wicca Spirit Newsletter Devotionals and Meditations

Whether you want to deepen your marriage, attract a mate, or just get along better with your boss, it always helps when you bring Spirit into your relationships. Many times we get caught up in "taking care of business" in relationships and we go through the motions, forgetting all about Spirit.

When you bring Spirit to your relationships, you are drawing from a power that is infinite. How can we do that more? Here are some starters:

1. Listen

Really listen. Don't try to "do active listening," or any other listening technique. When you're concentrating on a technique, you're not listening. Just take in what the other person has to say. Receive the meaning of the message, without immediately jumping to respond to the message. Listening helps you connect with people. Spirit loves to show up when people are connecting.

2. Practice Non-judgment

You never know how something might serve the ultimate good in the long run. It is not up to us to decide that the other person is right or wrong, good or bad. This does not mean you cannot assess things in your relationships. You can assess whether someone is being sincere, honest, trustworthy and so on. We just don't have to assign a value judgment to that, by saying it is good or bad. It just IS. And what you make of it - is up to you.

3. Seek to Understand the Other

Don't worry about being misunderstood. When you drop your concern about that, and get curious about understanding the other person, two things happen. First, you stop stressing yourself about what others think of you. Second, you show the other person that they are important to you. When the other person sees that they are genuinely important to you, they will generally return the feeling. Not to mention, being able to understand another person just feels good, and feeling good always brings Spirit to relationships.

4. Be Honest

If someone likes you for something that you're not, then it's not you that they like. Be who you are. Most people will respect you for your honesty, even if they don't agree with you. But don't go along with others just to please them, if it doesn't please you too. People will sense your discomfort and yet may not know why, which will create tension in the relationship where it's not necessary. Be true to yourself by speaking up and telling the truth about who you are and what you desire. I always say, "If you're not being true to yourself, you're not being true to anyone else."

5. Eat Together

You've got to break bread together. And it can't be just a hamburger in the car on the way to a show. There is no substitute for sitting down and sharing a meal with a person. Animals will not eat when they are threatened. When you eat with someone, you are showing them that you trust them. And when two people are trusting each other, THERE is Spirit.

6. Stop Analyzing the Relationship

Stop analyzing, stop worrying about the future of your relationship and just BE in the relationship. Enjoy the relationship here and now. The here and now - is your bridge to the future. If you are spending your todays worried about your tomorrows, you're not here, in today, doing what it takes to build something that can endure.

7. Say Thank You

The more you are thankful, the more you will have to be thankful for. And of course, people usually like being thanked. Saying thank you is like returning what's been given to you, with interest, except it doesn't cost you anything. Most of the time, thanking someone will make you feel just as good as the other person feels hearing it, sometimes even better.

8. Look to See What You Can Learn

When we are open to learning, we are expanding. When we are expanding, we are growing. When we are growing, that's the work of Spirit. There is always something more for us to learn. When we stop learning, we stop growing, and when we're not growing, we're dying. Learn, and live!

9. Be Selfish

I'm talking Selfish, NOT selfish. Self with a big "S," not a small one. What you are doing in the relationship needs to be more important to you than what the other person is doing in the relationship, if you want Spirit to show up. You can't control the other person. You can't always know what another person's intentions are. But you can control yourself, and you can know your own intentions. When you concentrate on your own desires, intentions and actions, rather than those of the other person, you are taking responsibility for your part in the relationship. No one else can do that for you.

10. Know that You Are Beautiful

The spirit inside of you came from The Divine Light. If you are alive, you have light inside of you, and that light is beautiful. When you see the beauty in yourself, it's easier to see it in others. Enjoy the beauty that is in you. Admire it. Let it make you smile, the way the beauty of a child or a sunset makes you smile. Your sense of beauty will become contagious.

Remember that the purpose of relationships is spiritual growth. Every interaction is one more opportunity to become more of who you truly are.

Spirit is the breath of life in relationships. Without it, we fall short of connecting with others. Bring more of Spirit to your relationships and watch how much easier it is to get along, and to find fulfillment in all your interactions.

—-

Walking Meditation

Anthony Flanagan,

http://buddhism.about.com

The traditional pose of the Buddha is often that of a seated cross-legged figure, with hands placed symbolically in a number of different ways (see Mudras). It is easy to forget therefore the significance of walking meditation, a form of meditation practiced by the Buddha and his immediate followers, and still an aspect of the living tradition.

Walking meditation is often used between periods of sitting meditation. A sitting meditation of an hour to ninety minutes can be followed by a period of walking meditation. It is usual to walk at a slower pace than one might normally, though as naturally as possible too. The focus should be on the movement of each foot, broken up into three stages: lifting, moving, placing.

Being Aware of Each Step

The mindfulness applied to each step is the same process exercised in insight or vipassana meditation more generally. The simple objective is to be aware, noting each sensation as it occurs. Of course, as in sitting meditation, the mind will wander hither and thither and has to be brought gently back to the object of meditation, in this case the movement of each step. Through simple awareness, the mind ceases to hear its cravings for this or that and concerns itself only with what is.

Perhaps the most difficult aspect of walking meditation is finding a suitable place to practice it. Ideally, a long, even pathway in a quiet area offers the best advantage. Obstructions and/or distractions will inevitably make concentration more difficult. In the modern age, walking meditation can even be practiced on walking machines and form part of other activities conducive to physical fitness.

Buddha, the Great Walker

When longer periods of sitting meditation are practiced, walking meditation can help in dissipating tiredness and lethargy, and at the same time give some physical relief from the pain in the knees that long periods of sitting can induce.

The Buddha spent much of his life walking. Indeed, in the history of mankind, he was one of its great walkers, spreading his teachings as he wandered through towns and villages throughout the Ganges basin - talking the talk and walking the walk!

—-

Elder's Meditation

"If we keep everything in balance, we are in harmony with ourselves and are at peace." --Fools Crow, LAKOTA

As within, as without, our present thought determines our future. If we want peace outside ourselves, we must first have peace inside ourselves. It's not what is going on but how we are looking at what is going on. We need to keep ourselves in balance. We must be careful to not get too hungry, angry, lonely or tired. We must know the times - time to work, time to rest, time to play, time to sleep, time to pray, time to lighten up, time to laugh, time to eat, time to exercise. There is a saying "The honor of one is the honor of all." This means when we work with all, we need to also work on one. We need to take care of ourselves. You cannot give away what you don't have.

"Great Spirit, let me walk in balance today. Remove from me resentment, self pity and self seeking motives. Let me love myself so I can love my neighbors."

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