How to Connect With Loved Ones in Spirit

Posted on by Tammy

by James Van Praagh

If you’re a fan of Elevated Existence Magazine, chances are you‘ve felt the presence of Spirit in your life. But there are times when that feeling isn’t enough — when you wish you could reach out to a particular person on the other side and ask them a question, resolve an unsettled issue or share the details about an important event in your life. You can’t call your deceased loved one on the phone, and you don’t always have access to a medium — so what can you do?

In my workshops and online courses, I teach dozens of techniques for raising your frequency to connect with Spirit. This particular exercise is one of my favorites, and it’s resulted in some amazing, healing conversations between my students and their loved ones on the other side.

It’s called “Letter to Spirit,” and no medium or experience is required. All you need is your strong, focused intentions, a clear, open mind, and a pen and paper. Here are the steps:

Prepare Your Space
You’ll be connecting with a specific person in the Spirit realm. To make this happen, you must first embrace the idea that the Spirit people are already RIGHT HERE WITH YOU. To visualize this, spread out your arms and your fingers, and use all of your senses to feel the Spirit world, right at your fingertips. Make some space in your mind and your soul — just like you would make space in a closet to prepare a room for a welcome guest. Invite your loved one in, and allow them to blend their thoughts with yours.

Do whatever you can to bring your loved one closer – display pictures, send loving thoughts their way, and set your intention to connect with them.

Make an appointment with Spirit
Now, set a time and place, and invite the Spirit of the person you want to connect with to join you. Make it official — put the appointment in your calendar and mentally extend the invitation to your loved one. When the time comes, spend a few minutes in reflection or meditation — open your mind and invite Spirit to join you. Then take a pen and paper, and write a letter to your loved one, expressing whatever it is that you want to communicate. When you’re done, seal the letter and put the person’s name on the envelope. Put your letter somewhere that makes sense to you — on your loved one’s favorite chair or propped up against a picture of the two of you together. Now it’s time to set the second appointment!

Channeling your response from Spirit
Set up a second time to meet in the same spot. This will be the time where you let your deceased loved one merge with you and respond to your letter. Set your intention, open your mind and let Spirit enter your mind. When you feel their presence, take your pen and paper, and invite your loved one to respond to your letter. Think of yourself as a conduit, and let the words flow. Don’t think — just write. When you’re done, take a moment to feel the love and support — or whatever emotions are flowing through you — then read what Spirit has written.

Over the next few days, you can expect to feel your loved one’s presence. Be aware of special signs. If the deceased loved technology, they might reach out by interfering with television or Wi-Fi signals or by flickering lights off and on. A nature lover might send a special bird or butterfly to signal that they are near, and an animal lover might cause your dog or cat to stare at an empty space, or behave oddly.

I encourage you to give this exercise a try! It will not only allow you to send and receive a special message, but it will open you up to the presence of the Spirit world that’s right at your fingertips.

If you’re drawn to exercises like this one, you can explore many more ways to bridge the gap between the physical and the Spirit world in my James Van Praagh Mediumship Certification course.

How Healthy Snacking Can Manage Weight

Posted on by Tammy

By Christine M. Okezie, CHHC

We are a snacking culture. Everyone is always looking for an easy grab and go, a treat for that 3 p.m. or 4 p.m. energy slump, or a tasty nibble while watching their favorite television show.

In fact, studies show we spend more time noshing on snacks today than ever before. With concern for the growing obesity crisis in America, there’s a lot of debate about whether or not snacking contributes to weight gain. One reason snacking has gotten such a bad rap is because the majority of snacks consumed these days are high in sugar, processed carbohydrates and additives, and have low nutritional value. So when it comes to snack choices, quality is priority No. 1.

We want to avoid all the packaged stuff available in the grocery store and instead create a whole, real-foods snack with healthy fat, fiber and protein. Foods high in healthy fat and protein will keep you full and satisfied by keeping your blood sugar more stable throughout the day — a great way to avoid those dips that can sap your physical and mental energy. With plenty of good nutritious choices to choose from, snacks can also play an important role in filling in important nutritional gaps.

Healthy Snack Options

Here are a few of my favorite snack options to go to during the day:

Raw Nuts and Seeds — Try a small handful of almonds and pumpkin seeds to curb cravings between meals.

Apples and Nut Butter — Cut up some apple slices and dip them in some almond or cashew butter and enjoy.

Edamame in the Pod — In the frozen food section, you can find a great snack that you can sprinkle with sea salt and watch a movie.

Carrots or Celery Sticks with Hummus — Enjoy a perfect blend of crunchiness and smoothness; make your own hummus or find spiced varieties made without preservatives at your natural foods market.
Trail Mix – Ditch the store-bought ones, which can have added sugar, and create your own custom blend of nuts, seeds and dried fruit from the selection in your local health food store’s bulk section.
Hard Boiled Eggs / Turkey / Grilled Chicken Breast – If you are really hungry between meals, there’s no reason you can’t eat normal meal things! These choices fill you up with protein and keep you in balance.
Smoothies – Who doesn’t want a milkshake experience in the middle of the afternoon? For a truly satiating option, blend ½ a banana, a handful of frozen berries, a handful of kale, a tablespoon of almond butter and 1 cup of coconut milk. For an added bonus, throw in a dash of cinnamon, which naturally stabilizes blood sugar.

Bringing In Awareness
Another important key in the snacking debate lies in the proper definition of a snack and how it fits into your daily lifestyle. The primary purpose of a snack is to curb the appetite between main meals, and when done right, snacking can prevent us from overeating. In other words, by eating small, high-quality snacks between meals, you won’t be tempted to overeat for your regular meals.

Careless snacking, on the other hand, done out of boredom, anger or stress without regard to physical hunger can easily tip the scale the other way. If we routinely choose unhealthy snacks and make equally unhealthy choices for meals, don’t be surprised if we start to gain weight.

To keep snacking in the right context of a daily routine, I advise my clients to prioritize their focus on their actual main meals, making them the most whole, balanced and delicious as they can be. That way, high-quality snacks stay in the right proportion for your personal needs and can be a complement to everyday eating.

So, what makes snacking a good or bad habit when it comes to weight and health goals? It’s paying attention to both the quality choices as well the context in one’s overall eating behavior. It’s important to decide which works best for us: eating three amazing healthy meals or eating small healthy snacks or mini-meals throughout the day. The truth is both strategies can work well for different people.

Regardless, the key is awareness. Don’t just snack for the sake of snacking. Listen to your body and fuel it when it needs it. The more you can be aware of your body, the more you can effectively determine why you feel the way you do, and the more successful you will be in making the food choices that truly serve you.

Christine M. Okezie is a graduate of the Natural Gourmet Institute for Health and Culinary Arts in New York, and the Institute for Integrative Nutrition. She founded her company, Your Delicious Balance, where she counsels individuals to heal themselves through real food and positive lifestyle choices. Her healing strategies are based on whole foods nutrition, and she guides her clients to adopt a plant-centered way of eating that offers anti-inflammatory and detoxifying benefits to the body. For more information, visit her Web site at www.yourdeliciousbalance.com or call (201) 889-5001.

Learning Self Love: Louise Hay Mirror Work

Posted on by Tammy

For nearly 40 years, Louise Hay has been teaching others about healing, the power of affirmations and learning to love themselves. One of the modalities she is famous for is her mirror work.

In her newest book, “Mirror Work: 21 Days to Heal Your Life,” she walks readers through 21 exercise to heal their lives and help them tap into self love.

Each day, Hay presents a different theme, a Mirror Work Exercise, a Journaling Exercise and a Heart Thought to support the reader throughout the day. There is also a meditation each day that can be read from the book or downloaded in an audio format.

“Each day that you practice this new way of thinking about yourself and about life will help erase the old, negative messages you have been carrying for so long,” Hay says in the book. “Soon you will be smiling more and finding it easier to look in the mirror. Soon the affirmations will start to feel true.”

The below adaptation is taken from the Welcome chapter, including an exercise from Day 1:

Mirror work — looking yourself deeply into your eyes and repeating affirmations — is the most effective method I’ve found for learning to love yourself and see the world as a safe and loving place. I have been teaching people how to do mirror work for as long as I have been doing? affirmations. Put simply, whatever we say or think is an affirmation. All of your self-talk, the dialogue in your head, is a stream of affirmations. These affirmations are messages to your subconscious that are? establishing habitual ways of thinking and behaving. Positive affirmations plant healing thoughts and ideas that support you in developing self-confidence and self-esteem, and creating peace of mind and inner joy.

The most powerful affirmations are those you say out loud when you are in front of your mirror. The mirror reflects back to you the feelings you have about yourself. It makes you immediately aware of where you are resisting and where you are open and flowing. It clearly shows you what thoughts you will need to change if you want to have a joyous, fulfilling life.

As you learn to do mirror work, you will become much more aware of the words you say and the things you do. You will learn to take care of yourself on a deeper level than you have done before. When something good happens in your life, you can go to the mirror and say, “Thank you, thank you. That’s terrific! Thank you for doing this.” If something bad happens to you, you can go to the mirror and say, “Okay, I love you. This thing that just happened will pass but I love you, and that’s forever.”

For most of us, sitting in front of a mirror and facing ourselves is difficult at first, so we call this process mirror work. But as you continue, you become less self-critical, and the work turns into mirror play. Very soon your mirror becomes your companion, a dear friend instead of an enemy.

Doing mirror work is one of the most loving gifts you can give yourself. It takes only a second to say, “Hi, kid,” or “Looking good,” or “Isn’t this fun?” It’s so important to give yourself little positive messages throughout the day. The more you use mirrors for complimenting yourself, approving of yourself, and supporting yourself during difficult times, the deeper and more enjoyable your relationship with yourself will become…

Your Day 1 Mirror Work Exercise

Stand or sit in front of your bathroom mirror.
Look into your eyes.
Take a deep breath and say this affirmation: “I want to like you. I want to really learn to love you. Let’s go for it and really have some fun.”
Take another deep breath and say: “I’m learning to really like you. I’m learning to really love you.”
This is the first exercise, and I know it can be a little challenging, but please stay with it. Keep taking deep breaths. Look into your eyes. Use your own name as you say I’m willing to learn to love you, [Name]. I’m willing to learn to love you.
Throughout the day, each time you pass a mirror or see your reflection, please repeat these affirmations, even if you have to do it silently.

Eva Longoria Talks Meditation & Wellness

Posted on by Tammy

In an interview with New York Magazine, Eva Longoria shared how she starts her day running for exercise, and the next stop after that is usually meditation.

“Everything is about balance,” she told the magazine. “I think people waste more time than they think. They think ‘I don’t have time to meditate, or I don’t have time to work out,’ and yet they have time to be on Instagram for 30 minutes — like, that could have been their meditation session. You have to prioritize your time and efforts toward wellness.”

She also admits she struggles to find time to meditate herself, and if she can do it three or four times per week she feels successful. Longoria told the magazine meditation is also a form of prayer, and that prayer itself is also a form of meditation.

“It’s focusing your mind on a higher power,” she said in the interview. “Some people think that meditating is chanting a mantra, but there are so many other things. You can meditate on a problem, you can meditate on love, there are so many different meanings. Sometimes people try to define meditation so strictly that it scares people away from it.”

Longoria also shared she has a bachelor’s degree in kinesiology, “which is the study of the body, the study of how things affect you — like lack of sleep, stress, and so on, so I’ve been pretty cognizant of wellness my entire life.”

Elevated Existence May 2016 Book Picks

Posted on by Tammy

Each month, a ton of new spiritual and self-help books hit the market. It’s easy to get overwhelmed or miss out on some new releases.

We created Elevated Existence Monthly Book Picks to help our readers narrow down their search, and make sure they don’t miss some great options!

The books for this month were chosen by our editor’s as their picks for May 2016. They are listed below in alphabetical order. Click on each title to go directly to Amazon and find out more about the book.

“Being True: What Matters Most in Work, Life and Love,” by Tami Simon — In this audiobook, the founder of SoundsTrue, Tami Simon offers essential lessons learned from 30 years of exploring spiritual wisdom. Broken into four sessions, the teachings cover being true as a process, and the five keys for living in integrity; spirituality in action, how we can apply our highest values in the workplace and in our relationships; and her most transformative encounters with spiritual teachers.

“The Code of the Extraordinary Mind: 10 Unconventional Laws to Redefine Your Life and Succeed On Your Own Terms,” by Vishen Lakhiani — Are you ready to break free from an ordinary life? This book explains how everything we know about the world is shaped by conditioning and habit, and most of us live based on limiting rules and outdated beliefs on a variety of topics, including money, love, work, parenting, sex, health and more. Learn the 10 Laws of an Extraordinary Life and replace the old, limiting models holding you back from a life of happiness and achievement.

“The Mastery of Self: A Toltec Guide to Personal Freedom,” by don Miguel Ruiz Jr. — In his newest book, don Miguel Ruiz Jr. carries on the work of his father by taking on the Toltec philosophy of the Dream of the Planet and the personal dream to explain how a person can wake up, liberate themselves from illusory beliefs and stories and live with authenticity.

“The More of Less: Finding the Life You Want Under Everything You Own,” by Joshua Becker — Are you ready for less cleaning, less anxiety and less stress in your life? Joshua Becker helps readers recognize the life-giving benefits of owning less; realize how the stuff we own is keeping us from pursuing our dreams; craft a personal, practical approach to decluttering your home and life; and more. Learn how to live more by owning less and understand why minimizing possessions is the best way to maximize our life.

“The Sacred Six: The Simple Step-by-Step Process for Focusing Your Attention and Recovering Your Dreams,” by JB Glossinger — Do you want to break free from the rat race and pursue what really matters to you? JB Glossinger did just that, exchanging corporate success for a three-hour workday and freedom to golf, write, spend time with family and guide others to realize their dreams. Now he is teaching the same simple tools he used to transform his own life including identifying the mission, values and goals and then designing an action plan with daily tasks to move forward. It includes practical exercises based on his core six principles to develop positive habits, eliminate blocks to success and making decisions from the true self rather than the ego.

“The Spiritual Child: The New Science on Parenting for Health and Lifelong Thriving,” by Lisa Miller — Psychologist Lisa Miller explains the scientific link between spirituality and health and shows that children who have a positive, active relationship to spirituality are 40 percent less likely to use and abuse substances; are 60 percent less likely to be depressed as teenagers and so much more. She translates her findings into practical advice for parents, offering concrete ways to develop and encourage their children’s well-being, along with their own.

“Super Mind: How to Boost Performance and Live a Richer and Happier Life Through Transcendental Meditation,” by Norman E. Rosenthal MD — clinical psychiatrist and New York Times bestselling author shares how Transcendental Meditation permanently alters your daily consciousness, resulting in greater productivity, emotional resilience and aptitude for success. He explores how the practice can improve one’s state of mind during the routine hours of waking life, placing one into a super-mind state of consciousness where one can perform at their peak level.

“The Tapping Solution for Teenage Girls: How to Stop Freaking Out and Keep Being Awesome,” by Christine Wheeler — Using the Emotional Freedom Technique or Tapping, teenage girls can reduce anxiety and overwhelm, boost their confidence and alleviate stress. Girls can use it to help them with schoolwork, tests, grades, planning for college, appearance and body image, dating, breakups and more!

Arielle Ford on Turning Your Mate Into Your Soulmate

Posted on by Tammy

Falling in love with someone is often the easiest part of a romantic relationship. Making the love last and creating a fulfilling marriage is often not as simple. Over time, reality can set in, we may take our partner for granted, push one another’s buttons and forget about the love that brought us together in the first place.

Known as the “Cupid of Consciousness” and “The Fairy Godmother of Love,” bestselling author Arielle Ford’s newest book, “Turn Your Mate into Your Soulmate: A Practical Guide to Happily Ever After,” is dedicated to helping couples rediscover and rekindle love, improve their romantic relationships and change their lives for the better.

And she also set out to bust the myth that once we find our soulmate — something she taught so many to find with her book “The Soulmate Secret” — that everything will be easy, with no problems or disagreements.

“Like a lot of people I bought into the fairytale myth of soulmates and happily ever after. If they are really your soulmate, they will know how to make you happy in every moment, and it will be really easy and effortless,” Ford tells Elevated Existence in the March 2016 issue cover story. “Then I manifested my soulmate, got married and found out it wasn’t true. I had no idea the person you thought was totally perfect when you were in the honeymoon phase, or the phase I like to call the ‘socially acceptable form of insanity,’ when you are literally crazy in love and your brain is flooded with all these good hormones like dopamine and oxytocin and adrenaline, wouldn’t last.”

Ford believes this phase is nature’s way of tricking us into mating so we keep the species going. But often around the 16- to 18-month mark, those “feel-good hormones” disappear, and we are left with a “perfectly imperfect human being to live with, and we don’t know how to do it,” she says, explaining we then start questioning if the person we are with is truly our soulmate because it just shouldn’t be so hard.

“I wrote this book because I really wanted people to know what’s true about love, soulmates and relationships, and what is really normal,” Ford explains. “I spent 130 hours interviewing the world’s top love, relationship and marriage experts, and then took their best advice and road-tested it in my own relationship. That is what’s in the new book.”

Elevated Existence interviewed Ford for the March 2016 issue cover story to get some of her best advice, tools and research when it comes to relationships, including how to communicate, what men really want and much more!

Here are some of the highlights:

“So many people think love is just a feeling. If I’m feeling love then there is love, but it’s so much deeper than that. Love is a behavior, a commitment, a choice, a decision and an action,” Ford says. “So there will be days when you don’t like your soulmate very much, but it doesn’t mean you don’t love them. Just like you might have a favorite dog or a cat, and you might love your pet, but there are days when they misbehave and you don’t like the behavior. But it doesn’t mean you don’t love them. So when your partner is doing something you don’t like, you have to just ask yourself, is this a reason not to love them?”

“You start off with chemistry, but that is actually not the most important thing to predict a long-term relationship,” Ford says. “You want connection, compatibility, communication, and most important, a shared vision for the future.”

“[Men] they are wired to win,” says Ford. “If you can set up a man to win, if you could let him know every day that he is your hero, you could get almost anything out of him. They will do almost anything for you because they want to win.”

For the full article, you can purchase the digital or hard copy of the issue, or subscribe to Elevated Existence’s Membership here!