Spiritually Speaking No. 1 – Mantra
A foundational practice of all spiritual paths is to harness the mind in order to focus on Reality or Truth. The constant voice in your head is not you. The you that is YOU is not your mind.
Spiritually Speaking is a blog that guides you in a weekly practice to ignite the soul. Michele Hebert shares her practices from across her training, from her teachings with Walt Baptiste to her time with Swami Veda Bharati. Start your yoga journey by practicing each week’s teachings.
A foundational practice of all spiritual paths is to harness the mind in order to focus on Reality or Truth. The constant voice in your head is not you. The you that is YOU is not your mind.
Devotional love is highly personal and yet in a mysterious way the more we experience it in our meditations and in our hearts the more we experience it in our outer life.
Understanding the concept of the interconnectedness of the universe is for most of us a huge shift in perspective— the idea that we are intrinsically connected to everyone and everything
Learning to rise above negative emotional states – to be an observer – is a gift given us in spiritual teachings. Recognizing negative emotions are arising in the moment is foundational on the journey of self-mastery.
Walt Baptiste taught that we are sleeping spiritual giants. Once we step onto the spiritual path there are guideposts and practices to help us evolve and we begin to experience life in new and wondrous ways
In deep meditation, light is not something you achieve with the act of doing. Divine light comes to us when we are clear, open and ready to receive. However, the following concentration practice is helpful in sharpening your focus and heightening your awareness of an image within.
Do you remember the last time you were angry? Did the anger come on suddenly? What was the trigger? There is a world of difference between reacting to a given situation and responding to it.
We have no trouble loving friends. The challenge is to be able to have this sensitivity, openness, and kindheartedness towards strangers and towards the people we judge. Judging others is often limiting and can inhibit the light in yourself and in the other person.
What is the difference between knowledge and wisdom? Knowledge you receive from the outer world Wisdom you receive from within
How do you fan the flames of this passion for life and the Source behind it? How do you open up to the breathtaking moment instead of the illusion of sameness? It happens in a natural way when you touch that place within yourself from which all joy emanates.
The greatest act of creation is man’s ability to recreate himself. You have the capacity right now, in this very moment to transform yourself on the deepest level. The essential ingredient is a burning desire to do so. This desire comes from the Soul level.
Too often it is the material world that steals us away and demands all of our attention. When we lose our balance, we usually know it. We become disconnected from our spiritual essence and lose our peace of mind, our most precious possession.
Hippocrates said, “The natural healing force within each one of us is the greatest force in getting well.” Within you is a great healing intelligence that you can access at will.
Late one evening, while strolling in the Piazza del Popolo we came upon a church whose doors were open and out of them came beautiful singing that wafted through the piazza. We were drawn to enter and discovered the church filled with with men and women of all ages, swaying…
Self mastery and self-management are quickly becoming valued attributes in our increasingly outward directed society. The enlightened leader is the one who has a connection with his/her spiritual essence and makes a conscious decision to grow and evolve and become a better person within himself by taking up practices that…
The greatest act of creation is man’s ability to recreate himself. You have the capacity right now, in this very moment to transform yourself on the deepest level. The essential ingredient is a burning desire to do so. This desire comes from the Soul level.
One of the many gifts of nature is that in its very essence it is present. Nature has its own consciousness. Sometimes when I’m at Rancho la Puerta, I gaze at Mt. Kuchuuma and I could swear the mountain is breathing. When we go out into nature we are lifted…
A practical mystic is someone with both feet firmly on the ground yet actively involved in their daily spiritual practice. My spiritual teacher Walt Baptiste often said that he wanted his students to be successful in both the material world as well as the spiritual. The idea of balancing both…
After reading my book The Tenth Door, many people ask me: How did you find the kind of discipline that was required to do what you did? At first, I was taken aback because I didn’t think of my love of yoga and the love for my teacher as discipline.
Who doesn’t enjoy belly laughing? What’s more fun and bonding than having a good laugh with someone? This spontaneous expression of joy turns out to have a cascade of positive effect on your mind as well as your body. And more good news is that there are no negative side…
You may have heard the saying “the mind is a wonderful servant, but a terrible master.” Well the same can be said for our emotions. One of the ultimate challenges in life is to learn to master our emotions so that they enrich our lives rather than rule our lives.
We all have had first hand experience of stress. It effects us on all levels: physically, mentally and emotionally. It can wreak havoc on the nervous system and zap us of our precious life force. It depletes the adrenal glands and can leave us exhausted coloring our world view and…
Did you know that in a typical day you think approximately 60,000 thoughts? What is even more astounding is that 90% of those thoughts you thought yesterday. Most of us would like to thinks we are constantly expressing creative thoughts and ideas, but apparently that is not the case! Psychology…
The word Health comes from the old English word Wholth. It refers to the well-being of the whole person: body, mind and spirit. With the advent of mind-body medicine, the western world is embracing what Eastern Wisdom traditions have been teaching for thousands of years–that mind and body are inseparable.…
How can we expect the world to be peaceful if we are not examples of this within ourselves? How can we expect the world to be at peace if we are not at peace? When we experience the deep peace at the core of our being, we become one with…
Through cutting edge research in neuroscience and what we have learned from the most successful leaders of our time, we now know that self-mastery practices such as meditation are strongly linked to unprecedented levels of achievement. Studies show that consciousness-based practices actually change the workings of the brain, for significant…
Do you look for happiness in the achievement of your goals or by living true to your values? According to happiness research 50% of our happiness quotient is a setpoint–what we are born with. Some people have high set points and some have low setpoints. Only 10% of happiness comes…
There is a wonderful story about the Buddha on his death bed. His devotees were around him, and one summoned the courage to ask him who he was.