FinerMinds shares:

Staying in the the present moment and not allowing your past issues with certain individuals to affect your present interactions with them can be challenging.

Whether it be with relatives, romantic partners, friends, or colleagues – the dynamics of human relationships inevitably involve challenging moments and emotional upset from time to time. These incidents can add up; often morphing into harmful patterns of communicating and relating to one another.

In this 7-minute video, the legendary Eckhart Tolle explains how you can break these negative cycles by anchoring yourself in the now. In seeking to be very present, without expectation, you create a new environment that makes it very hard for old, harmful behaviors to continue and, in fact, can cause these negative patterns to crumble away.

via Relationship Wisdom: How to Embrace the Now and Let Go of Past Issues » FinerMinds.

Lisa from GettingtoZen.com has a great guest post at marcandangel.com that I wanted to share with YOU:

Are your habits and routines sucking up your happiness?

Oftentimes we unknowingly hold on to little, obsessive habits that cause us a great deal of stress and unhappiness. Even when we feel that something is wrong, we fail to seek the changes we need to make and instead cling to what’s not working, simply because it’s what we’re accustomed to.

It’s time to make a change. It’s time to give up the habits that no longer serve your well-being and embrace the positive changes you need to be happy.

Today is the perfect day to give up…

Get the list here: 11 Habits You Need to Give-Up to Be Happy.

Ponder this thought from Mastin Kipp:

The desire that you have in your soul to become whatever you want to become is real. It’s a part of you that is calling out to be seen, heard, felt and acted on. Whatever you want to become, know this: you ALREADY ARE.

So stop trying to become it. Instead, act as if you already are it and watch how magically life unfolds.

Instead of pining or buying into doubt – start TAKING ACTION as if you already are what you want to become.

In other words – BE WHAT YOU SEEK!

Go to the source: You already are who you want to be!.

There is no need to change other people if we can simply accept ourselves the way we are. When we judge another person, it is not because we dislike or disprove of them, but because their behavior, opinions, or actions reflect our own feeling of not being ‘good’ enough. Likewise, when our perceived or expressed expectations of others do not meet, we criticize them in order to make the reflection of our own pain more acceptable and bearable. In truth, judgment is not real. It is never directed against anyone or anything but our own feelings of guilt and inadequacy. And that is an illusion, too. The challenge at this time is to claim your power and hold it dear, for you are the only one who can determine your reality, now that the new energy is permeating life on Earth. It is no longer helpful to look for others to make a difference in your life. Changing yourself to please someone else is only dispersing your power for no gain. The days of spiritual and political leaders who will tell you which way to turn are gone. Unless you choose to become a spiritual slave who believes there are others greater or more spiritually advanced than you, there are simply no more Gurus or leaders to follow.

There Is No Need To Change Others.

Sound familiar?

Cultural Offering.com: Stop trying to fix it.

Do you ever experience a continual live stream of negative chatter flowing from your mind?

Like many of us, you may have tried to switch off these destructive voices, but as they run so deep, you don’t even know where they’re coming from.

Sayings like, “You’re not interesting, smart or beautiful enough”, may strike you when you least expect them to… dampening your mood and causing you to sometimes wrongly internalize them as truths.

In this soul-aligning, 5-minute video, Byron Katie, inspirational speaker and expert at questioning thoughts that cause anger, fear, depression, addiction and violence, shares a powerful technique to overcome what she calls “the underworld of our thoughts.”

via Battling the Underworld of Your Thoughts: How to Silence the Negative Chatter of Your Mind.

How to Master your Life – Lifehack.

It’s something that we all crave, but perhaps something we don’t necessarily know how to create or have.Truly being intimate with someone is about exposing your most cherished traits, but also about allowing your fears and weaknesses to be seen too.In this video which is less than a minute long, inspirational speaker and spiritual teacher, Iyanla Vanzant, gives us a quick lesson in what it takes to be intimate, and how it must start with us being intimate with ourselves first.

via Intimacy: Why It Might Be Missing From Your Relationship.

Steve McSwain writes:

How do I know when I am advancing on the spiritual path? What is a “sign” of spiritual maturity?

I would answer with a few questions of my own.

Must everyone believe as you believe in order to accepted by you?

Do you insist that what you believe is right and, by implication, suggest that what others believe must be wrong?

When you suggest that you, and other folks like you, “just believe the Bible,” for instance, are you aware that what you are really saying is that you believe your “version” or “interpretation” of the Bible and that equally devoted followers of the Bible frequently interpret the same Bible differently but just as sincerely as you do?

So, can you make room for others? Can you be honest enough to admit that you, and others like you, might just be wrong yourselves?

When you are able to make your “truth” claims with passion and sincerity, but at-one-and-the-same time clothe them with love, humility and room for others to believe and so hold to equally meaningful “truth” claims for them, you, my friend, are, in my own opinion, advancing in the direction of spiritual maturity — true enlightenment. Or, if you prefer, simply human maturity. Continue reading “A Sign of Spiritual Maturity” →

Life lessons from Phil Hansen:

Robert Fuller writes:

Confusion about fundamental notions such as selfhood, identity, and consciousness distorts personal relationships, underlies ideological deadlock, aggravates partisan politics, and causes unnecessary human suffering. A better understanding of selfhood holds the promise of resolving perennial quarrels and putting us all on the same side as we face the challenges in a global future, not least of which will be coming to terms with machines who rival or surpass human intelligence.While we all casually refer to our self, no one knows quite what that self is. Nothing is so close at hand yet hard to grasp as selfhood. To get started, think of your self as who or what you’re referring to when you use the pronouns “me,” “myself,” or “I.”

via Robert Fuller: Who Am I?.