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Going Home: Moving Inward Through Meditation

You know the saying “home is where the heart is.” It’s the feeling you get when you return from a long day at work and your dog is waiting at the front door, jumping up and down to greet you. Or your kids rush over to give you a hug. Or you open the front door and enter your peaceful solitary sanctuary. You kick off your shoes, turn on the TV, and relax. You’re home.

Well, I see it somewhat differently. For me, home is the heart space I return to each morning in meditation. Sitting still in the wee hours of the morning and sinking into the flow of subtle energies that naturally arise after decades of committed practice is my home base.

Have you ever visited a new place and suddenly felt like you knew it? You knew just where to turn, knew the smell of the air, and felt like you looked just like the people who lived there.

A friend of mine had that experience when she first went to the foothills of the Himalayas in India. Although she’d been born and raised in New York City, a far cry from the sacred hills of the sub-continent, she immediately identified a remote village as “home.” It was as if she’d landed back in a past life, a happy life, and was delighted to have finally found where she “belonged” on earth.

That’s how I felt when I landed in the space of meditation. I knew that place. I belonged there. And it brought me great comfort and a sense of security, just like the feeling of “home.”

As a spiritual teacher, I’m often asked by my students whether they are living in the “right” place. Some live in the same town, and possibly the same house, they grew up in, and where their parents, grandparents, and even great-grandparents lived. Others live in relative isolation from family, and have created their “home” space by relying on a circle of friends.

Some think moving here or there will change their lives for the better, and sometimes that is true—a better job, a larger social network with the potential for finding a mate, a healthier climate for your particular body can be beneficial. But before making any drastic changes in your life, think about reversing your thought process and instead of moving outward, first try moving inward.

Meditation can change everything in your life—your health, your stress and anxiety level, your love life. Even if you’re waking up in a different hotel room every day, even if there is no partner or dog to greet you when you get back, even if you rarely see your family or friends, you can carry your home around with you, like the turtle carrying its shell. And like the turtle, you can withdraw into your portable home at any time to recharge and revitalize your energy and reawaken your connection to the deepest feeling of home that exists—your connection to your own Higher Self, the sacred space of knowing you are part of the All. No matter how isolated you may be from others on the physical plane, you are held in the warm embrace of the interconnected web of energies that you access through meditation.

Ellen DeGeneres compares meditation to shutting down your computer when it goes crazy, and when you reboot, it’s all okay again. Paul McCartney calls it a “lifelong gift.” Nicole Kidman uses a meditation app on her phone to time her 20-30 minute session every day. Jerry Seinfeld says meditation is what got him through the intense nine years of writing, producing, and acting in his TV show. Jane Fonda calls it the secret to aging gracefully. George Lucas based Yoda, the sage of Star Wars, on the founder of a meditation practice. And the list goes on and on. These celebrities (and many, many more) have found they can carry “home” with them.

So if you find yourself longing for the comfort of “home,” learn to meditate. I provide a path to learning a special kind of mantra meditation designed to release stress and heighten your intuitive powers>>>

You’ll be able to go home, any time, anywhere.

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What To Do When The World Has You Down

Does the world have you down?

You’ve been watching/reading the news, probably online, checking out the unbelievable political and governmental dramas going on around the world, and wonder if it all hasn’t gone to that proverbial hell in a hand basket. You might as well binge watch “Big Little Lies” and wolf down a bag of chips, followed by a pint of chocolate chocolate chip, the full fat kind. The world sucks, your job sucks, your relationship—wait, you don’t have one—sucks, and now you’re facing some scary medical tests. Figures.

Do yourself a favor and stop hanging out in the land of fear and no hope. There is more to life, you just have to dig a little deeper inside to find it.

I remember feeling that way when facing a diagnosis of cervical cancer. The doctor had just told me that I’d need invasive surgery unless something drastic changed in the next few months. It seemed like an overwhelming task. How was I going to heal without going through that awful sounding surgery? Would I be able to keep up my courtroom appearances? And what about my athletic endeavors? I was in my mid-twenties and was used to living my life at top speed, barreling along without stopping for a moment to reflect on what was churning inside me—the residue of a traumatic childhood filled with sexual and emotional abuse. I needed a drink, pronto, to toss down the pills.

That feeling lasted as I walked out of the doctor’s office and onto the street. As I stood there wondering how I was ever going to make my life livable again, an ad about meditation on the back of a bench at a bus stop caught my eye. I thought, wow, that’s what I need.

With just that thought, my fear and hopelessness were gone, replaced by a fierce determination to take my life in hand and transform into what I just knew was going to be better, even great.

You never know where the next message you need to hear will appear.

If you’re suffering from a present or past trauma, like I was, you need to know that there are both ancient and modern methods of releasing the emotional distress that’s associated with those traumas.

One of the first things I did was to make sure that I recognized what I was actually feeling. It’s amazing how we can deny our emotions. So I started writing down (in the margins of my legal briefs!) whatever I was feeling. It turned out I was jealous, jealous, jealous of everyone who looked and sounded better than I did in court. And it seemed I was a lot angrier than I thought. If you’re not sure what you’re feeling, google “lists of emotions” for a comprehensive overview of both positive and negative emotions.

Then I started to journal. I emptied out my vault of memories and, as the years of abuse filled the pages, I started to feel lighter and lighter. I was finally speaking my truth. It wasn’t pretty, but it was real, and I was able to start processing those experiences instead of burying them where they could do more hidden damage to my body and mind.

Then I learned to meditate, and I felt like I had found my long-lost best friend. I knew we’d never be separated again, and we haven’t. I have sat in meditation every day since then, and can’t even begin to list the benefits I have reaped from the practice. And it was from the community of meditators that I learned about the secret practice of sutras.

Sutras are aphorisms, short sayings that come from the ancient Vedas. It was through learning and practicing the sutras that the screaming I heard inside myself—the unheard cries of my childhood—eventually vanished and I finally felt whole, and wholly healed. (The cancer, by the way, went into remission about the same time; the doctors were dumbfounded.)

You, too, can heal your emotional wounds and the physical manifestations of that wounding. Turn your attention inward and listen to what you need to do. A path will open up that you can follow, with diligence and intention, to being the highest version of yourself and living your true destiny.

If you’re ready to reclaim your power, rediscover your voice and stand up for what you believe in… you have to try new things, take risks, and remember that the most powerful force in the universe is love.

Join my best-selling course, Master the Secrets of the Sutras. In it you’ll find the very best teachings I’ve collected after 40 years of practicing the art of energy healing and I’m sharing it all with you.