Reconnect to the Heartbeat of Humanity

How do you move from fear to love? Reaching out in service helps. When your storehouse of joy feels dark and empty, the simple act of helping another human being can magically replenish your inventory.

To complain that life has no joys while there is a single creature whom we can relieve by our bounty, assist by our counsels or enliven by our presence, is . . . just as rational as to die of thirst with the cup in our hands.
Thomas Fitzosborne

Assisting someone in need takes your mind off your own troubles and reconnects

Calmly Active, Actively Calm

What we call happiness is negligible compared to the inner peace and ecstatic joy we attain in meditation. Happiness, the province of the ego, is fleeting. Joy, the natural state of the soul, is infinite and eternal.

Still your mind in me, still yourself in me, and without a doubt you 
shall be united with me, Lord of 
Love, dwelling in your heart.
Bhagavad Gita 12:8

Enriching your inner life is only half the equation. If the peace and unconditional love you feel in meditation is not

Dirty Laundry = Joy and Gratitude!

I love the way Lauren Rosenfeld explains how to reframe a chore like folding laundry into an opportunity to express gratitude. Click here to visit the Wisdomology website created by Lauren and her husband, James McMahon.

Lauren is right. Some of life’s greatest gifts lay hidden in ordinary moments. Washing a sink full of dirty dishes means you have enjoyed another night surrounded by loved ones. Paying the bills means you have been blessed with a source of income that allows you to provide for your family. Heightening your awareness so that you fully appreciate such moments as they occur adds tremendous depth and meaning to even the most mundane tasks.

Most human beings have an almost infinite capacity for taking things for granted.
Aldous Huxley

Similarly, frustrations and disappointments with loved ones can be reframed as opportunities to foster empathy and intimacy. A less-than-stellar report card is an invitation to

How Bad Do You Want It?

In response to my post on doing work that you love, a new friend on Twitter just tweeted to ask if fifty-eight was too old to quit a job she didn’t like and pursue her dream career. No, not at all, I told her. She was still a spring chicken! The most important thing, I advised her, was to keep score with joy and love rather than dollars. It’s a question of priorities.

Whether it’s a different job, losing weight, a new relationship or any other change you’d like to make in your life, I have two questions for you:

• How

Joy + Love = Young at Heart

Samuel Ullman

The secret to looking young is feeling young. And the secret to feeling young is greeting each day with joy and gratitude and treating each person you meet with a loving heart.

As I wrote in an earlier post, the more toxic our system, the more quickly our body ages. That’s why bestselling author Caroline Myss said in a lecture I attended that she decided to forgive a former colleague because her resentment toward him wasn’t worth adding one more wrinkle to her face.

Nineteenth-century educator Samuel Ullman expressed these timeless truths in Youth, his well-known prose poem.

YOUTH

Youth is not a time of life; it is a state of mind; it is not a matter of rosy cheeks, red lips and supple knees; it is a matter of the will, a quality of the imagination, a vigor of the emotions; it is the freshness of the deep springs of life.

Youth means

Radiate Mental Sunshine!

When you are intoxicated with the ever-new joy of God-contact, you radiate mental sunshine. Others take notice as surely as if you were visibly glowing and sporting wings. Your peaceful countenance speaks louder than words.

What you are stands over you the while, and thunders so that I cannot hear what you say to the contrary.
Ralph Waldo Emerson

In fact, you need not speak at all. In response to Jesus’ statement about coming into this world to “bear witness unto the truth,” Paramahansa Yogananda wrote, “A child of God bears witness by his life. He embodies truth; if he expound it also, that is generous redundancy.”

The deepest rivers flow with the least sound.
Quintus Curtius Rufus

The more centered and peaceful you are, the more exhilarating

You Are Weeping For That Which Has Been Your Delight

Grief, whether for the loss of a relationship, a loved one, or our health, is a necessary bridge between life as we knew it and the “new normal.” Yet, immersed in sorrow, we fear that we may never again drink deeply of the cup of life.

Grief is often tinged with regret. We dream of traveling back to happier times and making the most of second chances. Spare yourself such anguish; beginning today, make the most of your first chances.

When we lose one we love, our bitterest tears are called forth by the memory of hours when we loved not enough.
Maurice Maeterlinck

Our own suffering can give us insight into

The Joy of Childhood Innocence

Pat, a high school friend of mine, sent me an e-mail today that made me smile:

I overheard Isabelle, the four-year-old little neighbor girl, who was finally able to climb up on the swingset and swing by herself, singing at the top of her lungs: ” I can swing by myself; it’s the best day ever. It is spring and it is beautiful; and I can swing by myself.”  So much joy! 

Ah, if only we all could find such joy in life’s ordinary moments! It reminds me of another little girl, my friend Leslye’s niece. Leslye said her little niece woke up, walked to the window, looked out, and gasped:

It’s a brand new day!

As a proud father, I’d like to add one more Cub Quote to the mix. When my daughter, Erin, was eight years old,

You MIght As Well Be Cheerful

Critics of spirituality often ask, What if there is no God? What if there is no life after death? What if you’re fooling yourself with all this spiritual stuff?

Okay, what if they’re right? What if the only thing waiting for you at the end of your life is, well, the end of your life? Even in the absence of definitive proof, wouldn’t you prefer to live in a benevolent and orderly Universe rather than suffer through a random, pinball-like existence in a world devoid of ultimate purpose and meaning?

The point is, by living a spiritually driven life, even if you come up short of perfection, you will have made a quantum leap in the quality of your daily life by consciously choosing to live with kindness, compassion, and a positive, spirited attitude. You will likely experience

There Is Greatness Within You!

Whether you realize it or not, know that there is greatness within you. Even now, events are transpiring and life is unfolding in ways that will provide opportunities for you to express and fulfill your highest potential. Your job is to stay alert and aware, and to seize these opportunities as they arise.

Even in the darkest of times, do not lose hope. As long as you draw breath, there is work for you to do, work that enlivens and enriches not only your own soul, but all the world. In his masterful work, The Power of Now, Eckhart Tolle wrote:

Be Healthier, Look Younger, With The PLJ Plan

A week ago, I was eating dinner at Ecopolitan, the raw-food restaurant in Minneapolis that I frequent frequently. Ecopolitan is the kind of place where diners feel comfortable starting conversations with each other. A couple of young women at a nearby table began asking me about the raw-food diet. It’s nice to see young people interested in eating right, so I asked how old they were. One said twenty, the other said twenty-seven.

They asked me how old I was. I paused, then asked them how old they thought I looked. One guessed twenty-nine,  the other guessed thirty. Considering that my daughter will be thirty in a few months, and that I’ll turn fifty-two a couple weeks after that, I couldn’t help laughing. Sure, that was nice to hear, but twenty-nine is pushing it. Most people guess that I’m in my mid-to-late thirties.

People have asked me what the secret is to looking young. In my view,

Stay Close to the Fire

While some may argue that belief in God requires a leap of faith, great philosophers throughout history have concluded that the existence of divine intelligence is logical and inescapable.

Thirty-three centuries ago, Egyptian Pharaoh Akhenaten beheld confirmation of God’s presence in everything from the lowliest of creatures to the vastness of the universe.

A thousand years later, Aristotle argued that all of creation is imbued with inherent purpose, and that the synthesis of order, direction, and continual motion in the universe cannot be a byproduct of chance.

Sixteen more centuries passed before

99 Balloons

I shared the following quote in a previous post, urging people to take another chance at love after a failed relationship. 

When love beckons to you, follow him, though his ways are hard and steep. And when his wings enfold you, yield to him, though the sword hidden among his pinions may wound you. And when he speaks to you, believe in him . . . though his voice may shatter your dreams as the north wind lays waste the garden.
Kahlil Gibran

So many people choose to be alone, afraid that loving someone may lead to a broken heart. Matt and Ginny Mooney had no such fears. They welcomed their son, Eliot, into the world knowing full well that he was just passing through. They cherished every moment that he graced their lives with his presence. And when the day came that Eliot’s spirit was freed from his bodily prison, they joyously celebrated his life and spirit.

Broken hearts can

Dance Like There’s Nobody Watching

Joshua Bell

In an essay in USA Weekend, Virtuoso violinist Joshua Bell recalled the time he entered his first violin competition:

I was 11 years old and nervous. I began with the worst blunder of my life, my fingers slipping off the violin entirely. My heart sank as a I realized that I could never win over the judges. So I gave up trying to be perfect, which, amazingly, resulted in a wonderful sense of freedom. I gave the best performance of my life, taking home a prize.

Sarah Hughes

Bell’s story called to mind the goose bump-generating performance of 16-year-old Sarah Hughes, who vaulted from fourth place to a gold medal in figure skating in the 2002 Olympics in Salt Lake City. Thinking she was out of contention, a pressure-free Hughes skated with joyous abandon. Her flawless, free-spirited performance was one of the most technically demanding routines in the history of Olympic women’s competition. She pulled off seven triple jumps—five in combination—then nailed a huge triple toe loop-triple loop combo. It was a performance for the ages, and it was only possible because Hughes skated in a spirit of celebration rather than competition. Afterwards, she told the press:

I skated for pure enjoyment. That’s how I wanted my Olympic moment to be.

SARAH HUGHES’ GOLD MEDAL PERFORMANCE
IN THE 2002 OLYMPICS

You Are Beautiful and You Are Loved

Imagine a kindly stranger approaching you, gazing into your eyes, and whispering, “You are beautiful and you are loved.” You may vigorously disagree, yet the truth and power of those seven words will resonate deep within your soul.

Your soul, your essence, that spark of God within you, is perfect and magnificent. You are indescribable beauty, you are boundless joy, you are inexhaustible love. That is who you are. That is your true nature.

There is more love in your heart than all the pain that can ever touch you. There is more joy in your heart than all the sadness you could ever face. There is more beauty