May Cause Miracles Live Seminar: Week 2

Posted on by Tammy

In week 2 of the “May Cause Miracles” live seminar, bestselling author Gabrielle Bernstein led the group in a meditation to start off the discussion. Based on Kundalini yoga, she explained this method was a good “inner conflict resolver,” and nice to balance out the prana or energy of the body.

“When you are in conflict in your mind, in conflict with yourself, or created stories about yourself that don’t serve you, your energy is in conflict and off balance,” she shared. “Also, your life is then in conflict and in an unbalanced state.”

Meditation helps us to create balance and bring us back to a state of peaceful energy, and week 2 of the 40-day journey found in the book is focused our examining our perception of ourselves. She asked the audience to place their palms facing the torso at the level just above the breast – fingers together and thumbs facing up – and to shut their eyes or keep them slightly open.

“Breath in – 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 – where the stomach extends, and then breath out to the same count where the stomach contracts,” she instructed. “Then hold your breath for a count of 15, and start breathing in again for another round. If you can’t hold your breath for 15, do it as long as you can, and then start breathing in again.”

The audience did a few rounds of this, and Bernstein advised taking this meditation into our practice this week to help with self-soothing and resolving inner conflict.

Changing Self-Perception
The second week of “May Cause Miracles,” looks at the way we attack ourselves with our thoughts and intentions, and how our self-perception can create illusions about the world we live in. Everything around us is a reflection of our own belief systems. In order to change the story we tell ourselves, we need to look at the story and recognize what we have been perpetuating, Bernstein explained.

“For me, from age zero to 25, the story was, ‘I need to be heard. I’m not good enough. I’m incomplete without a romantic partner. I’m not good enough unless I’m an entrepreneur and really successful. I don’t need any help.’ In this I was selfish, and it led me to drug addiction. But that story also cracked me open because I was able to look at it and recognize it, and realize I could choose a new story,” she said.

In the book is a prayer from “A Course in Miracles,” which she read out loud:

I am responsible for what I see.
I choose the feelings I experience and
I decide upon the good I would achieve.
And everything that happens to me
I ask for, and receive as I have asked.

“Can you see how you participated in your life’s experiences?” she asked the audience. “We say, ‘it’s his fault,’ or ‘it’s my mom’s fault.’ Get over that. It’s not about anyone else this week. Yes, people put stuff on us, but it’s because we choose to let them – we choose to engage. We have to take responsibility.”

Even if something happened to us as a child, we have the choice today to continue to live the story or to rewrite it, Bernstein told the audience. “Be a loving elder sister or brother to that inner child and choose to rewrite the story,” she said.

The affirmation for the first day of the week is, “I am responsible for what I see.” This invites us to see how we have been unkind to ourselves, and to uncover the negative story we created about our life and ourselves. It’s about recognizing how we have been abusing ourselves without judgment. Since this week can be heavy for some, Bernstein encourages readers to incorporate acts of self-care throughout the process.

“Acts of self-care were not my priority for a long time. It was about producing, creating and getting the message out, and as a result I was cutting off so many opportunities,” she shared. “It’s very easy for us to get into achieve mode and forget about self-care. Clean up your diet, take a bath with essential oil and sea salt, dance by yourself in your apartment, eat slower – there are so many ways to be kind to yourself that don’t cost anything.”

Gratitude and Forgiveness
By Day 11 of the 40-day practice, we are invited to welcome in gratitude with the affirmation, “I am grateful for this moment.” If we can’t find anything to be grateful about, we can simply be grateful for the work we are doing with the course, said Bernstein.

“Every day I wake up, and I’m grateful for my spiritual practice,” she noted. “When you get really deep into it, you realize that nothing else matters.”

On Day 11, she introduces an affirmation that she encourages everyone to use from this day on when they find themselves thinking fear-based or negative thoughts. The affirmation is “I forgive myself for having this thought. I choose love instead.”

This shifts us into a new focus, and retrains our mind to choose love instead of fear. Slowly we begin to change our feelings about ourselves and about the world around us – and this is reflected in what we see and experience.

“Our feelings about ourselves are reflected back to us,” Bernstein noted. “If I support myself, and think the universe supports me, oh my God the support is unbelievable,” Bernstein said. “The dollar sign or the love is way bigger than you can expect. That comes with a lot of self-love and a serious spiritual practice. It’s not because you have done something special – it’s that you are vibrating with the cosmos.”

This is what meditation and yoga does for us – it helps us tap into that energy, she noted. But we need to be a match for it, and we need to vibrate with the cosmos so we can help the rest of the world.

Read our coverage of “May Cause Miracles Live Seminar: Week 1.”

For more on Bernstein, her books and her work, visit www.gabby.tv.

The New York Open Center Launches “The Leadership Institute”

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Dedicated to fostering the ongoing development of innovative business leaders, empowering them to effect positive change in themselves, their organizations and the world, the New York Open Center launched The Leadership Institute. It will offer a curriculum of classes, coaching, executive forums and more.

“This initiative is indicative of the broader growing interest in all forms of personal development,” said Jayne Gumpel, Founder and co-Chairman of The Leadership Institute. “In fact, many of the most innovative and successful companies of our time – companies like Google, Nike, General Electric, Deutsche Bank – are now including mindfulness and meditation practices as part of their day-to-day activities.“

The Institute will offer workshops led by renowned educators and innovators in the fields of business, branding, finance, psychology and entrepreneurship, and unique offerings such as one-to-one leadership coaching, peer development forums, customized consulting programs and monthly networking events.

“When our needs are met at work – professional, physical, mental, emotional and spiritual – we are more effective, more efficient, and have greater capacity for success; in short we are happier. Research shows that when we are happy at work sales increase by 37 percent and productivity by 31 percent,” said John Margaritis, Founder and co-Chairman. “It’s not about abandoning profitability, but about enhancing profitability with methods that can expand and enrich the whole of our being – and our contributions to the world.”

Margaritis noted CEOs who participate in monthly peer forums grow their businesses 2-1/2 times faster and increase their employee retention by up to 50 percent.

“The overall Leadership Institute approach and program – from the classes to the coaching – will inspire and empower participants to become more productive, more focused on their craft and better leaders for their organizations,” said Greg Monaco, Founding Partner of Monaco Lange branding agency and teacher of “How to Become Unforgettable,” a Leadership Institute Course taking place February 26.

For more information, visit www.leadoc.org.

Embracing the Unknown with Faith

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By Alice Grist

How often do you hear the words “everything happens for a reason?” All too often we take those words lightly. They are frequently thrown around, but we rarely stop to think exactly what they mean. If things happen for a reason, what is that reason, and why is this true?

This is something I recently had a bit of a ‘to-do’ with my husband about. He is not as spiritual-minded as me, and when I uttered my favorite phrase, “everything happens for a reason,” he was quick to respond with, “what about atrocities, death, war, pestilence and all things evil?”

And yeah, I shuddered, because I don’t want to sound glib. I don’t want to be insensitive. But I do believe that these things happened for a reason, too. I am sure that everything always does.

When things happen for a reason in our own lives we may have to sort through a rainbow of grief and trauma before that reason becomes apparent. Sometimes the reason is so magnificent, it cannot be seen for years to come and requires much retrospect. Sometimes the reason is so lost in a sea of sadness, we simply cannot see it, or maybe we never will. But there is always a reason. This life is complex and often chaotic, but holding faith in an underlying order, an often unseen order, can render our lives a little bit more comfortable.

Of course, it’s not for me to guess at reasons for horrific events, but whether the reasons affect you directly, or affect the wider scheme of humanity, all we can do is hold out faith that each of our life difficulties is sent to make us stronger and wiser as individuals and as a species. That faith will be tested, of course, but by holding a belief in a greater scheme of things, we can find a bit of beauty and magic in even our darkest days. Spirituality can help light shine through from even the most awful times.

If you need some proof of this, look at your past difficult experiences and see where they made you stronger, better and happier even. Look to the little things that happen every day, that ripple out and change the world as we know it.

Just recently my husband lost his job, but I didn’t panic. I embraced it. I was coming to the end of my maternity leave and he had no holiday left. His sojourn from work allowed us to have a last little bit of time together with our baby before we both returned to work. And following our little bit of baby time, out of the blue, a new job popped up – one he is far happier at, although he would not have looked for it had the universe not forced him into that situation.

So, like I said, everything happens for a reason…

Alice Grist is the author of “The High Heeled Guide to Enlightenment,” and “The High-Heeled Guide to Spiritual Living. She is the publisher of John Hunt Publishing’s Imprint, Soul Rocks Books, which publishes spiritual books for a new generation. Her third book, “Dear Poppyseed: A Soulful Mommas Pregnancy Journal,” will be published this year. She is a regular contributor to The Huffington Post and The Conversation, and lives in the U.K. For more information, visit www.alicegrist.co.uk.

Dr. Fuhrman Introduces a New Salad Dressing: Sesame Ginger

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Bestselling author of books “Eat to Live” and “Super Immunity,” as well as his newest “The End of Diabetes,” Dr. Joel Fuhrman offers a number of healthy food products on his Web site www.drfuhrman.com. This includes a line of no oil, no salt, no preservatives, vegan and gluten free salad dressings – and the newest addition is Sesame Ginger.

The ingredients are all natural, and heart-healthy nuts and seeds are used instead of unhealthy oils. The new Sesame Ginger includes a blend of fresh ginger, sesame seeds, almonds and carrots. Other flavors include Tuscan Herb Dressing, BlueberryPom and Almond Balsamic.

Love Your Body Once and For All

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By Lindsey Smith

So often, we lash out at our bodies. We are always looking for a better figure, a better completion, or a better feature. This cycle of psychosis can be exhausting and leave us feeling depleted physically, mentally, and even spiritually.

However, learning to appreciate our bodies and ourselves is one of the highest forms of self-love we can express to both others and ourselves. By appreciating who we are, we in turn, give others permission to do the same. This then eventually starts a ripple effect of personal transformation, acceptance and self-love.

Here are some fun and unique ways to shed the comparisons and start appreciating who you really are:

1. Create a beauty jar or journal. While I absolutely love my gratitude and success journals, I recently got the idea of creating a beauty jar or journal for a client of mine. Every time you hear yourself lash out at your body, instead, think of one thing you like and appreciate, and put it in a jar or write it in a journal. Over time, you will have built up a collection of amazing attributes you have. This is something you can call upon as a “body confidence boost” when you are feeling discouraged about your body for any reason.

2. Practice Mini-Meditations. I used to think meditating meant sitting on a meditation pillow or a rock in solitude for 30 to 60 minutes with my legs crossed and my palms faced up. After many years of practice and meditation, I soon realized you can meditate just about anywhere and anytime – grabbing a cup of tea, dropping the kids off at school, or even checking e-mail. Meditation is a moment-by-moment experience and choice. Practice taking mini-meditations throughout the day by acknowledging your breath and slowing down. When things get stressful, take 20 seconds for a mini-meditation session. This will help you re-center and re-focus.

3. Have FUN. Do one thing you absolutely love to do every week that you rarely get a chance to do. If you love jumping rope, jump rope. If you have fun dancing, go dancing. If you love knitting, then knit. This will help break up monotonous routines and re-focus your energy on something that truly makes you happy.

Lindsey Smith, known as the “food mood girl” works with people who have a habit of looking to food for all the wrong nutrients: comfort, reward, fun and acceptance. Through speaking and coaching she motivates, equips and inspires people to sort out their relationships with food so they can live a healthy, balanced life. She is also the author of “Junk Foods & Junk Moods: Stop Craving and Start Living!” Connect with Smith via her Web site, www.FoodMoodGirl.com, on Facebook and Twitter @LindseySmithHHC.

Reader’s Digest “Foods That Harm, Foods That Heal”

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The all-new “Foods That Harm, Foods That Heal” is based on the newest health and nutrition research to uncover the link between our health and the food we eat, according to Courtenay Smith, executive editor of Reader’s Digest. This 2013 edition is a complete update from the first edition published in 1997.

“This is a complete guide on what to eat – and what to avoid – for everyday ailments, long-term conditions and overall health concerns,” she said. “Some people may be surprised to learn that a food that’s generally healthy may still be a bad choice for them if they take a certain medication or are at risk for a family illness.”

The book examines and helps consumers discover the connections between diet and chronic conditions such as heart disease, cancer, diabetes, arthritis and other serious illnesses, as well as the impact of food on stress, insomnia and other common complaints.

Divided into three sections:

Nutrition: This section examines the ways food can help – or hinder – our health, breaking down the details on nutrition, food safety and eating to heal. Special features include the potential dangers of pesticides and other chemicals; a look at genetically modified crops, prebiotics and probiotics; dietary supplements and if we really need them; organic foods and if they are worth the cost; eating fast food on the run; the best cooking methods; and dietary restrictions such as dairy-free, vegan, vegetarian or gluten-free.

Foods: The second section offers an A-Z guide to more than 175 foods that harm and heal – from acorn squash to zucchini – plus simple ways to eat, cook and store each one to maximize its healing potential. Special features include a look at caffeine; eating healthy while traveling; super foods and if they live up to the hype; and the best ways to beat cravings.

Ailments: A condition-by-condition guide to what you should eat – and avoid – to prevent or treat 100 ailments, from acne to ADHD; depression to diabetes; the cold and flu; food poisoning to fever; PMS, menopause, stress and several other diseases. Additional features include a description of the glycemic index and how to use it; warnings about medicine and food interactions; and a look at special nutrition needs during pregnancy and breastfeeding, infancy and childhood, and senior years.