Know the Flow: 180 Blogs to Spiritual Awakening

By Carmien Owen

Are you looking to turn your life around 180 degrees in 180 days or for inspiration on how to build upon the blessings already in your life?
Take an inspired spiritual journey and get clarity for life.
Significantly influenced by wisdom and insights from amazing spiritual teachers such as Ernest Holmes, Rumi, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Mahatma Gandhi, Jiddu Krishnamurti, Michael Beckwith, Eckhart Tolle, Amit Goswami, and Louise Hay, Know the Flow offers spiritual teaching applied to real-world experiences. Know the Flow captures the story of a seeker discovering his purpose in life and so much more.
Open your heart to this original approach to practical mysticism, and discover your purpose through real-world spirituality. Turn your life around 180 degrees through 180 short spiritual stories!
What a delightful book Carmien Owen has created. His ability to relate full life lessons in interesting and meaningful ways is both fulfilling and enjoyable. I, for one, intend to use many of his stories and ideas in future talks.
Dr. Kenn Gordon, Spiritual Leader, Centres for Spiritual Living

An insightful and refreshing look at the presence of the Divine in everyday life and how our perception of it is transformative.
Rev Dr Patrick Cameron, Spiritual Director, Centre
for Spiritual Living Edmonton

• Language: English
• Publisher: Balboa Press
• Release date: Aug 30, 2013
• ISBN: 9781452579481

Carmien Owen

Carmien’s purpose is to inspire people to awaken to their spiritual magnificence. He is a licensed spiritual coach and currently serves out of Edmonton, Canada. His primary passion is the pursuit of spirituality, and he does that through extensive practice, study, songwriting, teaching, public speaking, and developing the spiritual vehicle at www.knowtheflow.ca.

Book preview

Copyright © 2013 Carmien Owen.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

Balboa Press books may be ordered through booksellers or by contacting:

Balboa Press

A Division of Hay House

1663 Liberty Drive

Bloomington, IN 47403

www.balboapress.com

1-[phone]

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

The author of this book does not dispense medical advice or prescribe the use of any technique as a form of treatment for physical, emotional, or medical problems without the advice of a physician, either directly or indirectly. The intent of the author is only to offer information of a general nature to help you in your quest for emotional and spiritual well-being. In the event you use any of the information in this book for yourself, which is your constitutional right, the author and the publisher assume no responsibility for your actions.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

ISBN: 978-1-4525-7947-4 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4525-7949-8 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-4525-7948-1 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2013914288

Balboa Press rev. date: 8/29/2013

Table of Contents

Introduction

2009

A Tidal Wave of Vision

A Calling: Let Us Leverage the Law of Collaboration

Integrity

One Word Ministry: Divine

Thinking, Believing, Perceiving, Experiencing

Hope and Vision

A Spiritual Snapshot from the Past

Money and Monkeys

The Journey of Meditation

Hours of Prayerfulness

Mindfulness and the Monkey Mind

Compassion

A Bigger Idea—What Do You Think?

Celebrate Success

Revealing our Hidden Dis-Ease

Hiding from Hidden Beliefs

Why Is This Happening For Me?

Helplessness and Anger

Good News

More Good News

Buying into the Emotion

The Peace after the Hurricane

Seeking Help

It’s Time to Meditate

Trouble at the Border

Perfect Creative-Expression

An Unimaginable World without You

That Place Where Humility and Passion Meet

Living by Spiritual Principles

Faith, Part One

Faith, Part Two

Faith, Part Three

My Manifesto

of Mystery

What does it

mean to be One?

Religion versus

Spirituality

It Might Just Rain?

Friends of Past

and Present

Guiding our Children

In a Perfect World

Just Listen

I Had to Laugh at

the Divine Design

No Concern of Yours

Fierce Grace

Fearlessness

May I

From Belief to Be-Life

Perception

Language

Regardless

Freedom

Delays

So Powerful

Change

Self-Honesty

Remembrance Day

Lead from the Heart

2010

Vulnerable

The Next Step

The Objects that Stand in the Way

The Universe Hears I Am

The Spiritual Practice of Seva

Blessed if I Do and Blessed if I Don’t

The Power of the Mind

Celebration of Divine Flow

Learning How to Read

Attachment and its Insidious Ways

12 Steps

Random Musings on Grace

Storytelling

Seeing Through the Eyes of Love

How the Internet has Personally Touched Me

Connections of the Heart

My Eulogy

Untreated Fear and Anger

A Second Life Demonstration

Purpose

Living in Grace

Feelings

Intention and Meditation

Humbled to Witness the Gift in Cancer

Reflections of a humbling experience

Now on Twitter: @KnowTheFlow

The Art of Perception

The Experience of Surrender, the Deepening of Faith

The Game of Spiritual Risk

Celebrating Manifestation

Lessons of Relationship

Personal Learning in Relationship

The Empty Box of Zen

Sweet, Raspberry Abundance

I Passed my Practitioner Exam!

Preparing for a Spiritual Retreat

Life is a Teacher, Retreat, a State of Mind

A Sign

God is Every Where and Every Time

Meditation, a Powerful Tool for Transformation

God is in All, Especially the Unpleasant Stuff

Some Pleasant Stuff

Touching the Heart

Yoga and a Journey through Healing

Love Simply Is

My New Favourite Meditation

Connection and Service

Acceptance and Being

Infinite Tide

Acceptance and my Evolving BS

Meditation Stories

Being and Repression

The Dalai Lama Tweets. How Cool is That?

Acknowledgement

Some Progress in Burma

Spirituality and Social Media

Becoming One with that which I Meditate Upon

2011

The Quality of Compassion

What’s My Purpose? A Way to get Clear on Why

The Humbling of Purpose, the Insight of Visioning

U2 and their Platform: Please Remember the 3,000+ Non-Violent Protesters in Burmese Prisons

Revealing Eternal Presence Meditation

Purpose, Excitement, Revelation and Authority

Neutralizing Negative Reactions

Thank You for Noticing

A Recap, a Celebration!

What is Your Meditation Practice?

A Message of Hope—it is Time to Meditate

More Meditation…

Why Do I Meditate? (Part I)

Why Do I Meditate? (Part II)

Why Do I Meditate? (Part III)

A Virtual Vision and Manifestation

Who’s Driving the Car?

Old Memories—Cirque du Soleil

Know the Flow has a New Home

Reflections of a Friend

World Peace Is Possible Now

Ministerial Studies: Minister as Writer

Sudden Awakening, Harsh Lesson

The Symptoms of Enlightenment

Feeling Ageless

2012

Reprogramming Water Memory

Adversity in Awakening

The Food Is Good Here

Insomnia and Meditation

Relationships and Impermanence

Compassion in Transition

A Magnificent Vision for the Centres for Spiritual Living

The Amazing (Meditation) Race

Lesson in a Lesson

Teaching Your Child to Meditate

See Our New Spiritual Leader—Dr. Kenn Gordon

A Spiritual Perspective on Same-Sex Marriage

An Awesome Attitude of Gratitude

Building a Vision, Feeling the Fire

Awakening by Association

The Power of Prayer Partnership

A 2,500 Kilometer Mudslide Adventure

I Am, Therefore I Think

One More Piece of Perfect

Live Your Purpose, Be Happy

Sexual Assault and Spiritual Responsibility

A Spiritual Being Wearing a Human Suit

Perfect Passionate Purpose

The Discipline to Meditate

A Conversation about the Truth with Myself

Release

Preparing

WISE—Willingly Invoke Spirit’s Expression

Balanced Awakening

2013

Forgiveness Meditation

Becoming Love

My New Purpose Statement

News Spiritual Practice

Acceptance and Same-Sex Marriage

A Taste of Acceptance

Unending River (Song)

Recent Contemplation about the Divine Masculine

Preparing for Emergence

Getting Father’s Day

Afterword

Introduction

This book contains 180 blog entries that span nearly five years of my journey of spiritual awakening. Reading an entry a day offers six months of inspirational material. These blogs have been significantly influenced by wisdom and insights from amazing spiritual teachers who have all changed my life and helped me discover my purpose. Reading an entry a day will work well to help support the practice of contemplation. And besides, there’s something inspiring about the idea of a spiritual turnaround that is influenced by the number 180.

As you share in this journey, you may find yourself pausing from time to time when something I faced resonates with you. After all, each blog resulted from my experience of life as I awoke to my spiritual magnificence.

Similarly, you could sit down and read through this book with a focus on the journey of awakening. From this vantage, the reading experience is more like watching a soap opera or reality show, but from a spiritual point of view. The concept of publishing a blog also offers inspiration for anyone. Know the Flow started off as an online journal for someone who was struggling to follow the suggestions of his teachers to maintain a journal. Not only has the Know the Flow blog been a critical element of my spiritual awakening, but it is now a book and so much more.

This book is a collection of blog entries that were expressed by someone who started life with an unquantifiable sense of emptiness but who then turned inward to take spiritual responsibility and ended up realizing his purpose was taking him to something greater. The curious reader might start by taking in the first few entries from early 2009 and then immediately turn to the last couple of entries written mid-2013 to get a sense of the transformation that unfolded. After this, a chronological review of the book would be like taking a trip with the destination already charted.

And yet, the story has only just begun. I’ll be spending the coming year shifting into preparations for the launch of a new Centre for Spiritual Living. My blogs over the next year will be capturing the essence of that journey, along with deeper spiritual realizations and teachings as they occur. After the summer of 2014, I’ll be rolling my sleeves up as I launch a new spiritual community. In other words, those who really resonated with the book will be able to continue connecting with the energy and expanding vibration at www.knowtheflow.ca.

How did this all begin? I had been exploring various metaphysical teachings for over twelve years when I started blogging at Know the Flow. In retrospect, I suspect that the tipping point to my starting a blog was that I managed to convince myself that it would be a way of committing to the spiritual practice of journaling. Many of my teachers had, over the years, talked about the potential and power of a journal for any seeker serious about the journey of awakening. As is often the case with spiritual practices, no matter how often I was given this advice, I struggled to keep a journaling regimen. I was, like so many who have gone before, a poor student at taking good advice. This particular apathy was soon to be challenged.

At the beginning of 2009, I started the Practitioner Studies course with the Centres for Spiritual Living¹ to train as a spiritual coach. In making the choice to become a Licensed Professional Practitioner, I knew the time for commitment had come. I would have to get serious about daily meditation, affirmative prayer, a spiritual practice that focuses on positive outcomes and the Law of Attraction, and journaling.

My professional experience as a business analyst and with technology perhaps had something to do with the idea that starting a blog would be a way to maintain the spiritual practice of journaling. I could also sense that a desire to write was starting to resurface after many years of dormancy. As is often the case, those around us can have a great influence on our journeys, even when those experiences feel adverse at the time.

Writing first beckoned to me as a sixteen-year-old living in Great Britain. My high school English teacher had tried to dissuade me from taking O-Level English. She was convinced that my English was not good enough and that I should take the easier exam. It would turn out that something mysterious was at hand, and after ignoring her discouragement, I obtained my best O-Level result in the English language.

Looking back, I recall that exam clearly—the two essay questions constituting 80 percent of the total grade. I don’t remember the questions themselves, but the feelings as I read and answered them are with me still. Apparently, an inner urge to write first sprouted on that hot summer day, and for the next two hours words flowed through my pen like water over a Zen waterfall. I am grateful to that English teacher for her discouragement. Until the day of the exam, I had spent many years not engaging with the subject, but in her own way, she was looking for me to experience success.

With youth offering a multitude of distractions, I set down the pen, and it wasn’t until I was around twenty-five years old that the desire to write reemerged. After years of enjoying fantasy and science-fiction, I decided that I wanted to become a published fantasy author. I was broke at the time, but empowered by the local radio station’s free classified service, I put out an impoverished call for a typewriter. A sweet old widow kindly offered me her husband’s old machine. With her generosity as my inspiration, I spent a hot and sweaty summer banging away at keys.

In thinking back to that effort, I have the feeling that the lack of response from literary agents really came down to my having written a really bad book. However, what I do realize is that this event was symbolic of something more profound. Undiscovered soul-purpose was just beneath the surface.

My desire to write was rekindled with the idea of using a blog as a way to journal in my Practitioner Studies course. The event that clearly comes to mind was a day retreat with other students. I remember the workshop attendees being asked to write about soul-purpose and the hushed silence that followed my sharing of what I’d written. The facilitator looked me square in the eyes and suggested that I consider writing more. During the ensuing discussion, someone suggested that I start a blog. It was inevitable that a seed planted in the soil of encouragement and watered by belief would absolutely manifest.

My first affirmation on this particular journey was to be open to what would emerge. I did have a few moments of wondering how uncomfortable it might be to bare my spiritual contemplation to the public. I suspect that the desire to express myself so publicly was a sign that I was destined to become a minister. At the time, however, I reasoned that with hundreds of millions of web pages in existence, one more website would be like a twig in the forest.

Blogging quickly became my journaling practice, and a way to connect with what was flowing through my life emotionally, mentally, and spiritually. I was expressing with love. My spiritual practice was soon in full bloom.

The original name for the blog was Conscious Calling; however, after a few months, Know the Flow surfaced as the name that felt right. I was realizing that the experience of journaling was about my coming to know the flow of the consciousness in my life. The greatest gift of maintaining a journal is reading previous entries and spotting the trends and beliefs that surface over time. Keeping a journal can offer powerful clues from the subconscious, subjective mind. I was directly experiencing what spiritual teachers had been telling me for years. I was also uncovering an added dimension; in a blog, visitors can comment and a discussion can emerge. Over the years, there have been times where my heart has been cracked open by the comments that have been shared.

With a couple of years of blogging under my belt, a soul-purpose of writing was fully established. In addition, my understanding of meditation was deepening. As you’ll soon discover, it wasn’t long before I started to contemplate writing a book on meditation.

The ambition of becoming a published author drew me to attend a writing workshop at the 2011 I Can Do It Conference in Toronto, Canada. What I remember most clearly from that day is that if an aspiring author wanted to get a book published, particularly in the nonfiction field of metaphysics, they should think about starting a blog along with connecting to a potential audience through Facebook and Twitter. With my heart in my mouth, I realized that I had already been using these technologies. What remained was for me to shift into a mode of intention.

Inspiration exploded through me, and on the way back to the airport, a flood of ideas came to mind as I sat in the back of a taxi. I started to passionately scribble ideas for paying a professional to migrate the blog from a free hosted service to a custom designed site. I had a vision of a platform with recorded meditation podcasts along with words. And as is always the way with unfolding purpose, Spirit revealed talented web and graphic designers.

When initially considering this idea of turning Know the Flow into a book, my major obstacle was in determining why someone would want to pay for what they could get on the Internet for free. Three answers surfaced. First, many of us enjoy holding a paperback or e-book as we read. Second, the editing process would force a focus on the most inspiring and vulnerable posts. But it was the third answer that excited me the most. In preparing the manuscript, I reviewed nearly seven hundred blog entries from January 2009 to the present. What quickly become obvious was that I was reading a journey of someone who had clearly dedicated his life to spiritual service. The blog entries from earlier years were a vulnerable and honest expression of what was going on in my life. I realized that I had thrown myself with authentic abandon into using writing as a tool for spiritual awakening.

As my spiritual awareness deepened, my entries started to shift from the processing of my struggles and those of the world around me to a way in which I could live out the practice of being a spiritual coach for others through writing. By the time I entered into ministerial studies in October 2011, it was becoming obvious that writing would be a key expression within my spiritual calling. What had started as a tool to support my awakening was gradually becoming a tool to inspire people in awakening their own spiritual magnificence.

Another realization that surfaced was that many of the words came from something beyond me. I believe that Spirit has known all along that Know the Flow would ultimately become a form of spiritual guidance in a published format. I encourage you to open your heart to this mystical experience.

Know the Flow was created as an online journal by someone with aspirations to inspire and serve, helping to make the world a better place for everyone. I didn’t spend time thinking about how I could accomplish getting this blog published as a book; rather, this book has evolved exactly as it was meant to—yet one more example of how the Internet is redefining the ways in which things are done in the world. Through it all, the most important evolution was that I came to know the flow and grow through giving from a place of love. In turn, I hope that my journey inspires you to know the flow within you. The truth is that you already have everything you need within for your own awakening.

2009

180_b_cairo.jpg

A Tidal Wave of Vision

Spiritual Coaching—

Wednesday, 21 January 2009 15:28

On this day I have witnessed a man exemplify what a vision and knowing can do. It is inspiring to see Barack Hussein Obama capture the moment as he does, present a vision, remind us of our responsibility, and then conclude with the inference that our vision is at hand if we will but know it.

On January 20, 2009, much of the world paused to witness history. A scan of YouTube statistics showed over forty countries had the inauguration video in the top-five watched clips of the day. People from across the world stood transfixed on a moment. It is almost as if a tidal wave of hope and vision had surged as a backlash to the tsunami of our time. I believe America has contributed to its perception as a powerful aggressor nation. I also believe people want influencers to be better.

You may now be sure of one thing: we each have a responsibility for what happens globally, and the more we live up to this, the greater the momentum’s success.

To those who would say the expectations are too great for one man, I ask, what is your vision for the world, and how will you realize it? To those who would doubt and say there is too much to fix, I ask, what is your affirmation for the world’s healing, awakening to consciousness, and realization of plenty for all?

As I look inward and contemplate this moment, I often find my eyes welling up. After contemplation, I have come to believe the inner me—that part of my experience that is God consciousness—feels the swell of awakening. Collectively, we have been stirred. This is neither chance nor coincidence, nor is this a time to set your consciousness up to provide a break to the tsunami’s force. This is a time to ride the waves like a ship, swaying with the consciousness about us, knowing your course is sure and your sails are as strong as they need to be. You must be clear about the moment you are in. If ever there was a day to know God consciousness within all, this is that day.

In all moments we have an opportunity to be mindful. Sometimes we must look to the eye of our own storms and ride through via a course of vision, mindfulness, and knowing. On this day, we are called once more to collectively hold consciousness of what we know to be so. If ever there was a day to turn hope into knowing, to hold the vision firm in our heart, to have conviction of its complete success, and to release this knowing into the universe, this is that day

180_b_cairo.jpg

A Calling: Let Us Leverage the Law of Collaboration

Vision—

Friday, 23 January 2009 15:44

On Monday, May 5, 2008, there was an article in a Canadian newspaper about two technology institute graduates who had come up with a way to help the homeless connect to the world. Assuming their plan goes forward, clients of a street agency in Edmonton, Alberta, will be given a contact phone number with an extension. Whenever these individuals deal with a doctor, a potential employer, family, or someone who might provide them with permanent housing, they are able to give that resource their phone and extension number so a future connection is possible. Dialing the number will direct the caller into the client’s individual voice mail. This simple and cheap solution could facilitate new opportunities and a dramatic increase in the quality of life.

The article also noted that the system runs on freely available software, developed through open source. The development of such programs is performed by computer enthusiasts throughout the world. The technology institute grads simply linked the appropriate programs with some of their own software code, and a new collaborative tool was born.

Contemplating such a beautiful idea being so easily and cheaply produced leads to wondrous possibilities. It could easily be argued that mass collaboration in the modern world is evidence of raised consciousness. With our world’s frequent focus on the negatives, one is sometimes required to make a conscious effort to dig harder to expose the light. And sometimes strenuous digging reveals a profoundly beautiful intelligence.

The software this solution was built on has its roots in an event that reaches back to 1991, a time approaching ancient history within the world of technological evolution. Before the World Wide Web had even been invented, a young programmer from Helsinki named Linus Torvalds created a simple version of the Unix operating system. He called it Linux and shared it with other programmers via an online bulletin board. By revealing his code to the world, Torvalds was able to eventually assemble a world-class computer operating system over the Internet. This action was the first of many steps that indirectly empowered these two young graduates to create this wonderful new phone system for the homeless.

In 1999 a Canadian mining company, Goldcorp Inc., had pretty much tapped out its reserves and was close to bankruptcy. The CEO took some time off for personal development and went to an MIT conference for presidents where he heard the story of Linux. On returning to Canada, he concluded that maybe the key to finding more gold would be to open up the exploration process in the same way. Taking all the data they had, going back to 1948, they put it into a file and shared it with the world as a part of the Goldcorp Challenge. With $575,000 in prize money and 55,000 acres of property to analyze, the race was on. For the first time ever, a company from an extremely secretive industry had bared all.

And the gambit paid off. Within weeks, submissions flooded in from around the world. As expected, geologists got involved. What was not expected was that of the 110 targets identified, 50 percent had not been previously identified by the company. And over 80 percent of the new targets yielded substantial quantities of gold. Today, Goldcorp is reaping the fruits of its open source approach to exploration, and what was once a failing $100 million company is now a $9 billion juggernaut.

As we move into this twenty-first century it’s clear to see mass collaboration is here to stay. Wikipedia, Linux, Facebook, Twitter, Second Life, YouTube, and the Human Genome Project are all examples of mass collaboration. In a perfect storm, a global platform has appeared. A new generation that grew up collaborating for growth has created the beginnings of a different economy that enables new forms of economic cooperation while driving deep changes in the world. From the first tangible evidence of social cooperation in the cave paintings and primitive tools left behind some sixty to seventy thousand years ago to this new interactive Internet, or Web 2.0, one common theme could be considered a law: groups with cooperative habits are more successful than those in isolation. I suggest this might be called the Law of Collaboration.

These examples of mass collaboration all have a common theme, yet they could be missed in this world of stories. One might even argue these stories occurred as a result of forces driving them. But if one can accept the profound Intelligence acting in all things, it is hardly a leap to consider these series of apparently disconnected events as absolutely and profoundly connected.

Even the business world is noticing. For the first time since commerce started taking serious hold in civilization, business collaboration is changing. In the coming years those businesses that find ways to tap into multitudes of external knowledge, resources, and talent will gain competitive advantage and agility. Those companies that stick to old customs of control and secrecy and who fail to learn the rules of this evolving worldview will be left behind. In short, those organizations that utilize the Law of Collaboration with integrity will prosper.

With ideas such as working together in the open and strangers cooperating toward common goals, it is easy to imagine there is a beautiful, virtuous intelligence at work. As we begin to contemplate the growth of this spiritual awareness, a series of new possibilities begins to dawn. The distance from the philosophy of our community to the communities of mass collaboration is not that far.

180_b_cairo.jpg

Integrity

Contemplation—

Wednesday, 28 January 2009 16:45

A question recently came to mind. What if integrity is to seek God unconditionally?

Until a moment ago I would have defined integrity as a perception that my actions, values, methods and principles are consistently good. In this light integrity is the alignment of all values. Wikipedia defines integrity as the quality of having a sense of honesty and truthfulness in regard to the motivations for one’s actions.

By living in integrity I have a value of goodness and acceptance for, and through, all actions. God has been defined as infinite intelligence, infinite wisdom and infinite understanding. Seeking God without condition is also considered by some to be the ultimate spiritual realization. Assuming these axioms are true, could integrity be demonstrating God in everything you think, say and do?

I have come to believe that living in integrity is essential to a conscious life, regardless of which of the above definitions may resonate with you. In the past I have certainly had moments where I was not in integrity. Before my mother made her transition I often failed to approach her with integrity and I believe I opted to treat her differently. Sometimes this was out of fear and at other times I believe out of love. I do not believe I was treating her badly in trying to soften the blow of some of our interactions, but as I look back I think that the only person that was being hurt through my choices in this regard was me.

I also now note with interest that the Sunday following her transition was the first time I attended at the Centre for Spiritual Living in Edmonton. Is the timing coincidence or symbolic? I like to think both; but then the beauty of perceptions is that we have the option to choose how they sit in our minds.

As I allow that which is God to be my values I am living in integrity. If I seek God in every moment I allow the values of God live through me in every moment. Surely there can be no better alignment of all my values if each thought, word or deed is a seeking an expression of God by means of, through and as me. When looking to others we must see the integrity of the God that is their true self, and know that they have what they need to live in integrity. If this is true then I would propose that a path to mindfulness is to be loyal to our integrity and to those in our awareness in all that we think, say and do.

180_b_cairo.jpg

One Word Ministry: Divine

Contemplation—

Friday, 30 January 2009 05:08

One aspect of the beauty of language is that it is filled with context; ours. I am coming to realize that contemplation of ideas and how we associate words with our way of life is a powerful practice. For example, a few months ago I embarked on a journey of what I have come to call, One Word Ministry.

In response to the commonly asked question, How are you? I now reply, divine. In my professional life, at the Centre for Spiritual Living, in a public place, greeting a retail professional, or when meeting any stranger I simply respond to the customary process of greeting that I am, divine.

Since I’ve started responding in this way I’ve been inspired by the responses I’ve received. Perhaps my favourite response so far has been, Wow, that must be better than best!

Of course, the journey of this one word ministry has evolved. In the early days of this practice I would pause to check in to make sure I really did feel divine. A moment later I would feel divinity and respond. I then came to realize that taking a moment to determine how divine I felt served a purpose of elevating my mindfulness. I will admit that sometimes I would check in and find that I wasn’t quite feeling it. At other times my answer would be good without that pause to check. After such moments I found myself reviewing what had just happened. Such enquiry is a good thing, so long as we do not linger too long.

With my focus of fueling a constant state of consciousness I am finding a natural inclination to respond immediately that I am indeed divine, knowing within my heart that my state of consciousness would have it no other way. But then practice is about persistence of knowing is it not?

And so, if you are