Would you rather…

• Would you rather… have brownies with extra chocolate chips or extra walnuts or pecans? 

(December 8th is National Brownie Day)

Table Conversations

1. What gives you inner peace, and how can you create more space for it in your life?
2. What situations or habits disrupt your peace, and how can you address them constructively?
3. How can you contribute to peace in your relationships, even when conflicts arise?
4. What small, consistent actions can you take to promote peace in your community or the world?

Tool for Thriving

This is a beautiful and timeless prayer by St. Francis of Assisi, full of wisdom and a call to deep spiritual practice.

Daily Practice:

1. Start with Quiet Reflection: Begin your meditation in silence, focusing on your breath to center yourself. Allow any distractions to fade.
2. Recite the Prayer: Speak the prayer slowly and mindfully, allowing each line to sink in. Reflect on the meaning of each phrase as you go.
3. Choose a Focus: Each day, you might focus on a specific line or theme (e.g., “Where there is hatred, let me sow love” or “to be understood as to understand”).
4. Set an Intention: After the prayer, set a daily intention inspired by the line that stood out to you. For example, you might decide to act with extra patience or forgiveness that day.

Journaling Prompts:

At the end of your day or week, reflect on these questions in your journal:

• How did this practice influence your emotions and thoughts throughout the day?
• Did you notice any moments where the prayer’s themes became relevant in your actions or experiences?
• What feelings arose as you recited the prayer each morning?
• How has this practice deepened your sense of peace, compassion, or purpose?

 St. Francis of Assisi: Make me an instrument of your peace

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace.
Where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury, pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
and where there is sadness, joy.

O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek
to be consoled as to console;
to be understood as to understand;
to be loved as to love.
For it is in giving that we receive;
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned;
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.

Amen.

Affirmation

Peace is the mindset I cultivate!

Would you rather… Make decisions by precedence or by facts?

Table Conversations/Journal Prompts

1. What thoughts and feelings arise within you when you contemplate change/moving forward?

2. What thoughts, feelings, and beliefs cause you to stay in the same place and not move forward?

3. What are the dangers that stagnation creates?

4. What is one thing you can do this week to move in the direction forward to foster greater unity in your life?

Tools for Thriving!

Moving Forward – This week set a daily alarm or appointment on your calendar for a dedicated meditation/prayer break. The time allotted can be as little as five minutes and, of course, can stretch longer. Treat it with the same diligence as you would an important meeting with a friend or colleague. Contemplate the idea of moving forward and leaving anything that would hinder you behind. See what happens to your energy level, mental/emotional balance, clarity, and focus.

Affirmation

I move forward with confidence anchored in Love!

Would you rather…

• Would you rather… have pumpkin pie or pecan pie?

Table Conversations

1. What are you most grateful for in your relationships?
2. What are you most grateful for in regards to your health?
3. What are you most grateful for in regards to your freedoms?
4. What feelings does gratitude evoke in you?

Tool for Thriving

Waves of Gratitude – Every day this week, text at least one person and express your gratitude for them.

Affirmation

I am grateful for my life!

Would you rather…

• Would you rather… hike in the hills or around a lake?

Table Conversations / Journal Prompts

1. What do you have faith in?
2. What do you do to keep faith?
3. What do you do to strengthen your faith?

Tool for Thriving

Identify one action you can take this week to either build or keep your faith. Then take it!

Affirmation

I have faith. I keep faith. My Faith is strong.

Would you rather… eat salty or sweet snacks?

Tool for Thriving

Continue to show up as the Power and Presence of Love that you are.

Affirmation

I continue to show up as the Power and Presence of Love that I am. 

Would you rather…

• Would you rather… stay on daylight savings time -or- standard time?

Table Conversations

1. What Quality or Word do you want to experience this week?
2. What is one specific action you can take to ensure that you feel/experience it this week? (Regardless of outside factors)
3. What is one specific action you can take to express this Word out into your world?

Tool for Thriving

You Create Your Experience – Choose a quality or word you wish to experience this week. Then take a specific action that will guarantee that you experience it regardless of anything else going on. AND, take a specific action that expresses this quality/word out into the world around you. Through your thought and actions, you co-create the world you live in. 

Affirmation

I participate and co-create the country I want to live in. 

Would you rather…  tell your mother-in-law you love her or send her flowers?

Table Conversations / Journal Prompts

1. How do our beliefs about ourselves, the world, and the nature of needs influence our ability to embrace our Divine Truth about our authentic selves?
2. How does resistance manifest in our thoughts, emotions, and behaviors when faced with change?
3. What action steps can you take today to make a conscious choice to engage in authentic, transparent, vulnerable conversations, to foster transformation and live Boldly in your Truth.

Tool for Thriving
Contemplate the idea that change is an opportunity for self-discovery and spiritual expansion.

Write an affirmative prayer for yourself. Affirmative prayer is a method for realigning your thoughts with your truth and setting the creative process into motion. 

The five steps of affirmative prayer, also known as Spiritual Mind Treatment (SMT), are: 

1. Recognition: Recognize God as the ultimate power and presence in the universe 
2. Unification: Accept that you and God are one 
3. Realization: Realize that the good you desire is taking form through God’s power 
4. Thanksgiving: Be grateful for what you have and what is to come 
5. Release: Let go of your desire and release it to God’s power and intelligence 

Affirmation:

I know I am One with Spirit.

Would you rather…  pray or meditate?

Table Conversations / Journal Prompts

1. What’s been pulling you off center lately?
2. What do you do to reconnect you with you?
3. What is something you can do to increase your spiritual practice?

Tool for Thriving

Embodied Awareness – Close your eyes and take a few deep breaths. Notice what is most alive in your body right now. What are you feeling physically and emotionally at this moment? Simply notice what you notice without judgment. This practice grounds you fully in the present. Use this practice to center yourself when you notice your thoughts spiraling, your mind is drifting with distractions, or you’re simply feeling a bit off kilter.

Affirmation:

I’m aware of what’s most alive in my body right now.

Would you rather…

• Would you rather… live in a car or in a tent?

Table Conversations

1. How would our community change if we treated every homeless family as if they were our own relatives?
2. What skills or resources do you have that could make a tangible difference in the life of a homeless family, even if just for a day?
3. If you suddenly found yourself and your family homeless tomorrow, what support would you hope to receive, and how can we ensure that support exists for others?

Tool for Thriving

Volunteer with Family Promise Riverside. https://www.fpriverside.org/volunteer

Affirmation

I see my neighbors as myself.

Would you rather…

• Would you rather… eat spaghetti or ramen?

Table Conversations

What actions can we take toward ensuring:

1. That every person has enough food, a home, and a sense of belonging?
2. Enfranchisement and justice for every person?
3. That resources are valued, cared for, and grown? And that they are generously and continuously shared?

Tool for Thriving

Choose one action you identified in answering the questions and take the first micro- step toward making it happen in your community.

Affirmation

I make a difference.

Would you rather…

• Would you rather… drink coffee -or- tea?

Table Conversations

1. What causes or issues are you passionate about?
2. What inspires you to get involved and act?
3. Why is purpose important?

Affirmation

I gladly pitch in and do my part. 

Would you rather…

• Would you rather…  adopt a senior animal or a baby animal?

Table Conversations

1. How do relationships with animals enrich your life?
2. What life lessons have you learned from an animal or pet?

Tool for Thriving

Play time! – Spend at least 10 uninterrupted minutes with your pet this week doing their favorite activity.

Affirmation

Today, I experience the Divine through my relationship with animals. 

Would you rather…

• Would you rather… Make Decisions by precedence or by facts? 

Table Conversations

1. What techniques do you use when making a decision to take action?
2. Have you ever talked about doing something but did not take the first step? How did it make you feel?
3. How would you describe the feeling?
4. How can you decide to take action when there is a need?

Affirmation

Today, I take right action and Do Something.

Would you rather…

• Would you rather… debate or negotiate?

Table Conversations

1. When was the last time you made a compromise? How did it make you feel?
2. What does it feel like to collaborate with someone?
3. How can you be more collaborative and less compromising?

Tool for Thriving

Stop. Listen. Collaborate. – This play on Vanilla Ice’s lyric is a good reminder to move forward by collaborating with others rather than settling for a compromise.

Stop – take a moment to identify the common vision, values, and goals

Listen – to your own inner wisdom and to the other person as well

Collaborate – bring the best of yourself and invite others to do the same. Working together a higher idea and solution is found.

Affirmation

I choose to collaborate and co-create.

Would you rather…

• Would you rather… work 5 eights or 4 tens?

Table Conversations

1. What does the “Transformative Power of Love” mean to you? How do you define or interpret it?
2. How has the Power of Love transformed your life?
3. What are some examples of Love in action?

Tool for Thriving

Enjoy your Labor Day weekend.

Affirmation

I put my Love in action.

Would you rather…

• Would you rather… have attended the “I Have a Dream” speech given by Martin Luther King Jr. during the March on Washington or the “I am prepared to die” speech given by Nelson Mandela at the Rivonia Trial?

Table Conversations

1. What is your perfect vision of forgiveness in the world?
2. How can you make changes in your life to foster this vision?
3. What seeds of forgiveness can you plant today for yourself, others, and the world?

Tool for Thriving

Vision and Creativity – This week, spend time contemplating “Forgiveness in the World” and get creative. Create a picture, write a poem, whatever your idea of what forgiveness in the world would look like. This exercise is for you to create a visual representation of forgiveness in the world. 

You may have seen the “Kids United Nations Image – Children holding hands circling the globe. A sixth grader by the name of Wendy created the image that would become the symbol for United Nations Day. What will your creation inspire? I would love to see what you create!

Affirmation

Today, I plant seeds of forgiveness in the World.

Would you rather…

• Would you rather… hang out with Grover or Oscar the Grouch?

Table Conversations

1. Have you ever been “hijacked” by your fear, judgment, stress, or worry?
2. What does it feel like when you are hijacked by these things?
3. When you feel hijacked, how do you come back home; back to center?

Affirmation

I love myself so much that I let other people be who they are.

Would you rather…

• Would you rather… breathe underwater like a Fish or fly in the sky like a Bird?

Table Conversations

1. Is there a relationship that you have been contemplating renewing or releasing?
2. Why is it important to renew a relationship or release it?
3. What keeps you from renewing a relationship or releasing it?

Tool for Thriving

Making the Choice – Consciously making the choice to renew the relationship with the one who caused you harm or to release the relationship involves first mastering the first three steps on the Fourfold path of forgiving: Telling the Story, Naming the Hurt, Granting Forgiveness and now the decision to renew the relationship or release the relationship. 

This requires a strict deepening and the thorough  evaluation of the relationship. We understand that forgiveness is a choice, that we grow through forgiving, forgiveness is how we move from victim to hero in our own story, and We know we are healing when we are able to tell a new story.  

Using the table conversation questions contemplate whether it serves you in your healing to renew the relations or release it.  

What benefit do you gain from your choice and why? Do not rush yourself, pause and take a few cleansing breaths if you need it, be gentle with yourself through this process.  Journal what comes up for you in this forgiveness work and your outcomes and decisions. 

Affirmation

Today, I make the choice to forgive, in order to renew or release the relationship!

Would you rather…

• Would you rather… Ask for permission or Ask for Forgiveness?

Table Conversations

1.  If you have forgiven in your past, what provoked you to grant the forgiveness?
2. Did you use a process of forgiveness, and what was the process
3. How did granting forgiveness make you feel?

Tool for Thriving

Together we have reached the third step on our Four-Fold Path of Forgiveness.

Consider the forgiveness tool practiced by His Holiness the Dalai Lama, called “Giving and Taking.” 

The practice of “tong len”, giving and taking, encapsulates the practices of loving-kindness and compassion. 

The practice of giving emphasizes the practice of loving-kindness, whereas the practice of taking emphasizes the practice of compassion.

Visualize sending positive emotions, such as happiness, affection, and love, to the one who caused you the hurt.  Now visualize receiving their negative emotions – what is called poison: hatred, fear, and cruelty.

Do not blame or judge their actions. Breathe into their poison and breathe out compassion and forgiveness. 

This exercise will help in reducing the negative emotions felt, reducing the discomfort/dislike (hatred) helps to cultivate a forgiving mind.  

Journal what comes up for you and how you feel about your discovery.  Then go into nature and take a deep cleansing breath.

Affirmation

Granting forgiveness brings me peace and freedom.

Would you rather…

• Would you rather… tell a secret to, a complete stranger you have never seen again, or your best friend? 

Table Conversations

1. When we ignore the hurt/pain what harm does it cause?
2. What becomes possible when we name our pain?
3. What pain points are present for you?

Tool for Thriving

 Name Your Losses, Name Your Hurt –  Enter into a quite safe space.

1. Write down all the things you have lost. What did you lose? Did you lose your trust? Did you lose your safety? Did you lose your dignity? Did you lose someone whom you loved? Did you lose something that you cherished? 
2. Now, name the feelings that accompany these losses. I am angry. I am sad. I am heartbroken. I am afraid. Feel free to use your own words. What does your heart tell you? What is the weight of this loss? Name it so you can heal it.

Each emotion is appropriate and valid. Affirm the truth and pain of your feelings. When you have heard and accepted this validation, express gratitude for what has been revealed and move on with your day.

Affirmation

I name my hurt, and I am open to transformation. 

Would you rather…

• Would you rather…  Walk on the Moon? Or moonwalk like Michael Jackson? (1969 First person walks on the Moon)

Table Conversations

1. Think of a situation in your life; what story are you telling?
2. What memories do you have? Is it related to an explicit memory? Or an implicit memory?
3. What is the cost of withholding it?

Tool for Thriving

Telling the Story – Spend time this week contemplating the questions above. Determine if you are experiencing an explicit memory or an implicit memory. Use these as Journal props. Write out your stories, and draw a comic strip that aids you in Identifying what is causing the reaction in your experience. How can you integrate the memories and heal the trauma?

Tips to assist you in Telling the Story

• Explicit Memories –  when we remember something
• Implicit Memories – when we experience an event, we are not consciously aware of 
• Speak the truth
• Start with the Facts
• Tell your story first to a friend, loved one, or trusted person
• Consider telling the story to the person who harmed you, or writing a letter
• Accept that whatever has happened cannot be changed or undone

Affirmation:

 I tell my story openly and honestly.

Would you rather…

• Would you rather… have a workshop or a simple toolkit?

Table Conversations

1. Which Tool for Thriving/Transformation have you found most useful?
2. How have you used/practiced this tool?
3. What has shifted for you as a result of using this tool?

Tool for Thriving

Your Choice – With over 125 tools for transformation and thriving posted on our website, choose the one that speaks to you right now. Which one will have the most impact for you in this moment of your life? Once you’ve made your choice, make a commitment to yourself and get practicing!

Affirmation

I use my transformation tools regularly.

Would you rather…

• Would you rather… see a fireworks display -or- set off fireworks in your neighborhood?

Table Conversations

1. What are the facts of the situation?
2. What feelings, emotions, and fears are present?
3. What are the false beliefs/thoughts/collective consciousness underlying the situation?
4. What is working its way into expression? The good that’s being called for?
5. What is the Spiritual Truth?

Tool for Thriving

Anatomy of a Situation – Use the Anatomy of a Situation framework to work through personal, community, societal and planetary challenges.

Affirmation

I affirm the Highest and Best in every situation.

Would you rather…

• Would you rather… befriend a unicorn or a mermaid?

Table Conversations

1. Where is there a need for reconciliation and reparations in our country?
2. Where is there a need for reconciliation and reparations in our community?
3. Where is there a need for reconciliation and reparations in your life?
4. What steps are you willing to take?

Tool for Thriving

3 Rs: Reading, ’Riting, & ‘Rithmetic – Read up on a current issue. Dive deep to understand the root cause and contributing factors. Formulate an opinion or position, including a possible solution. Write to local, state, and federal officials to advocate for your position and solution. ‘Rithmetic- contribute your time, talent and treasure toward groups and organizations that support your position and solution. 

Affirmation

I commit to practicing  reconciliation and reparation.

Would you rather…

• Would you rather… drink a quart of water -or- a quart of Gatorade? (National Hydration Day)

Table Topics

1. What are our common values as a community?
2. What are we creating as a community?
3. What actions are we willing to take to strengthen our community based on these values?

Tool for Thriving

Strengthening Our Community – Spend time this week contemplating the questions above. Journal your answers and share them with Rev. Jeff.

Affirmation

I take responsibility for co-creating my community. 

Would you rather…

• Would you rather… have fudge with nuts -or- without nuts? (National Fudge Day)

Table Topics

1. What is your understanding of emancipation?
2. In what areas of your life are you experiencing any sense of discord?

1. How might you free (emancipate) yourself from the restraint, bondage, and or influence of this discord?

Tool for Thriving

Emancipation Proclamation – Make a list of areas in your life where you are experiencing any sense of discord. Choose one instance to work with. Write your own emancipation proclamation declaring yourself free of this particular discord. Include in your proclamation a provision for how you will maintain this freedom. Read your proclamation aloud in the morning and again before going to bed.  

For example:

I, Emily Jones, the Power vested in me by my Divine Nature, do hereby declare that I am forever free of the judgment I have held against my sister. I acknowledge her Divinity and I forgive myself for having forgotten it in the past. I see her first and foremost as a wise and capable woman. I approach my relationship with her from a place of compassion and curiosity. 

Affirmation

I walk boldly in Freedom

Would you rather…

• Would you rather… vacation at an all-inclusive resort -or- go camping where you have to pack in and out?

Table Conversations

1. What is one of your core values?
2. How do your values influence your daily choices?
3. What is something you’d like to do or try that you haven’t yet?
4. Without compromising your values, what is a different choice that you can make that will help you do it?

Tool for Thriving

Core Values and Common Ground – Make a list of your core values. Next to each value list your corresponding beliefs that are rooted in the value. Then list your position or behaviors that correspond to these beliefs. 

Next, identify a person who holds a different position or behaves differently from you. It doesn’t have to be big or deep philosophical differences, but it certainly can be. Identify their behavior or position that you disagree with. Then see if you can identify the possible corresponding belief behind the position. Then identify the value they might have that corresponds to the belief. 

Then look at the value columns of both lists. What you will find is that you likely share many of the same core values, but these values are being expressed differently through beliefs and positions/behaviors. See the example below. 

This speaks to the diversity that is possible within the Unity of Life. 

In identifying the common core values, between you and the other person, you can recenter in a place of unity and work from there to resolve differences. The other person doesn’t even have to be an active part of the process.

How YOU show up, how YOU respond, how YOU think, how YOU act – changes things. The change always starts with YOU!

Notice that both person A and person B have similar values, but how they are expressed is different. In identifying the underlying value behind one’s position/behavior and beliefs, we can begin to find common ground and see the Unity that is present within everyone. 

Affirmation

I open my heart and mind.

Would you rather…

• Would you rather… remember every single minute of your life -or- have your memory erased every ten years?

Table Topics

1. Who have you not yet forgiven?
2. How does holding onto the resentment, judgment, and/or accusation make you feel physically and emotionally?
3. What is withholding  forgiveness costing you?
4. What will it take for you to forgive?

Tool for Thriving

Releasing the Rocks – This 5-part forgiveness exercise is courtesy of Rev. Lezli Goodwin.

1. Imagine the situation or experience with a person that you want to forgive as a rock.
2. In your journal, quickly write the person’s name followed by I forgive you for… and using this same prompt write every micro-transgression that comes to mind with regard to the situation. Continue this step until you feel complete. For example:

Emily, I forgive you for calling me fat.

Emily, I forgive you for your insensitive criticism on my special day

1. In your journal, quickly write “I forgive myself for…” acknowledging your part in the situation and taking responsibility for your feelings. Do this until you feel complete. For example:

I forgive myself for letting Emily’s words get to me.

I forgive myself for staying in the conversation when I could have walked away

1. Imagine throwing the rock into the largest body of water you can imagine with a satisfying “plop.”
2. Express gratitude for the good that has come from the situation, even if it is only that you have come to realize that you have a choice to do something differently. 

Affirmation

I forgive, so that I may live.

Would you rather…

• Would you rather… play cornhole -or- horseshoes?

Table Topics

1. How often do you find yourself on the drama triangle and what roles do you usually play?
2. Where do you tend to place your focus – on problems or on outcomes?
3. How do you tend to relate with others, your experiences, and yourself?
4. What is one empowering action you can take to step off the drama triangle?

Tool for Thriving

Step Off the Drama Triangle – This week notice when you are on the drama triangle. Pay attention to the role you are playing. Then shift it to the corresponding empowerment triangle role. 

• Victim > Creator
• Villain > Challenger
• Hero > Coach

This shifts your mindset from being fear-based and problem focused to passion-based and outcome focused. The first keeps you locked in an unproductive cycle. The second sets you free to live your best life.

Affirmation

I am resourceful and resilient.

Would you rather…

• Would you rather… shuck corn -or- peel potatoes?

Table Topics

1. What thoughts and feelings arise within you when you are “othered”?
2. What thoughts, feelings, and beliefs cause you to “other” individuals or groups?
3. What dangers does “othering” create?
4. What is one thing you can do this week to foster greater unity in your life?

Tool for Thriving

Common Ground – Identify an individual or a group that you disagree with. Consider both your and their wants, desires, needs, and values. Where is there common ground? Make a list of all the things that you have in common with them. This shifts you from only focusing on the differences between you to being able to see similarities. When you recognize similarities, it is easier to see each other as the individualized expression of Spirit that you each are.

Affirmation

I release all thoughts of separation.

Would you rather…

• Would you rather… make a mistake and learn from it -or- never make a mistake?

Table Topics

1. What are some examples of the creative process (Law) being misused?
2. Can the creative process be used to cause harm or intentionally create negative experiences? Why or why not?
3. Why is the intentional, conscious use of the creative process valuable?
4. What roles do feelings and beliefs have in the creative process?

Tool for Thriving

No Harm, No Foul – Choose one day this week to be ultra-conscious of every action you take. Evaluate all the consequences of your actions before you take each one. Ask yourself:

• Does the action benefit me?

• Will the action cause harm in any way to myself, another, or the planet?

• No? Then no harm, no foul. I take action.

• If it might cause harm, what alternatives are available to me that might reduce or eliminate the negative impact altogether?

• Am I willing to act on the alternative?

Then take the action you are most aligned with. 

Affirmation

I consciously create for the highest good of all.

Would you rather…

• Would you rather… eat only Mexican food for the rest of your life -or- eat only Italian food for the rest of your life?

Table Topics

1. What is a societal belief that you held earlier in your life that you no longer do?
2. What happened that shifted your belief?
3. What have you experienced as a result of shifting your belief?
4. In what ways do you participate in helping others shift to this belief?

Tool for Thriving

Check Your Sources – Where you get your news and how you consume media play a large role in your socialization, values, beliefs, and world view. It is easy to become siloed in your views and thinking, unless you intentionally seek a broader perspective.

Identify an event that you think might have global/regional news coverage. Then, using a site like https://inkdrop.net/news/, find articles about the event in newspapers from around the world and read them. How do they cover the story? Are there other perspectives? If you can read in another language, read the news coverage in that language. What do you notice? 

Use this tool to expand your perspective. 

Affirmation

I set myself free.

Would you rather…

• Would you rather… dress formally -or-casually?

Table Topics

1. What roles/beliefs were you taught by caregivers?
2. What was instilled in you through institutions like school, church, business, government?
3. How did you comply? Resist? What were the consequences?
4. How has your socialization influenced you? Limited you?

Tool for Thriving

Challenge Assumptions – Be mindful of how and when you use words like everyone, everybody, all, always, no one, nobody, never, and the whole world. These can indicate sweeping generalizations or assumptions that you are making based on beliefs that need to be challenged – beliefs are likely linked to how you were socialized.

Common statements like the following are simply untrue.

• All pitbulls are aggressive.

• Everyone living on the street has a drug problem.

• Nobody cares about the environment.

• Things are never going to change.

Affirmation

I am more than my socialization. Much more.

Would you rather…

• Would you rather… mow the grass or weed the garden?

Table Topics

1. What tangible gifts, talents, skills, and or abilities do you have that could benefit the community?
2. What becomes possible for you if you fully engage in co-creating community? 
3. What hesitation(s) do you have about fully engaging in co-creating community? What belief or fear is behind that hesitation? How is it preventing you from living your highest potential?

Tool for Thriving

Commitment to Co-Creating My Community – I know that I am an integral part of my community and that my participation benefits me as much as it benefits my community. I take responsibility for co-creating the community that I want to be a part of.

This week I commit to ______ (action you will take) to co-create my community.

I will do this by ______, ______, and ______. (one to three steps or methods)

I will hold myself accountable to this commitment by ______ (measure or method)

Affirmation

I enthusiastically co-create my community.

Would you rather…

• Would you rather… go to the beach -or- go to the mountains for vacation?

Table Topics

1. What is Spirit’s Highest Idea of Riverside CSL?
2. What must be released?
3. What must be embraced/embodied?
4. Is there anything else Spirit would have us know at this time?

Tool for Thriving

Working Together – When Visioning for a group or a community, each person has the opportunity to help to bring the community into alignment with the vision by working at the individual level for the collective good. When each of us does this then we are working together to effect transformation.

From this week’s Visioning session, identify what needs to be released. Where is it active in your life? What’s possible if you let it go? What is one action you can take to release it?

By taking action to clear it from your life, you are clearing it from the community as well.

Affirmation

I release struggle and strife.

Would you rather…

• Would you rather… play Simon Says -or- Follow The Leader?

Table Topics

1. What is one tradition that you participate in?
2. Why do you participate in it?
3. What are you afraid would happen if you broke tradition?

Tool for Thriving

Don’t Fall For It – Set a timer for 5-10 minutes and make a list of all the ways that you can think of where the collective unconscious is at play. (Places you might look are advertising and media. What’s in your feed?) Review your list. Which beliefs/ideas have you bought into? Which ones are inhibiting you from living the life you want? What new beliefs can you replace them with that will serve you?

Affirmation

I’m open to discovering a deeper truth.

Would you rather…

• Would you rather… eat a hardboiled egg –or– a chocolate egg?

Table Conversations

1. What obstacles (thoughts, beliefs, words, actions) are in your way of living a fuller life?
2. What is something you can do to remove one (or more) of them?
3. What is something that you can embrace today that will bring you into greater alignment with your truest self? What action will you take?

Tool for Thriving

Daily Desire – This daily morning practice comes from author Gabby Bernstein. It is designed to help you consciously choose how you want to feel and create your day. Answer each question with a word, a phrase or a short sentence. Make note of your answers to refer to them throughout the day.

1. Who do I want to be today?
2. How do I want to feel today?
3. What do I want to give today?
4. What do I want to receive today?

Affirmation

I greet each day with joyful expectancy.

Would you rather…

• Would you rather… be buried –or– cremated?

Table Conversations

1. Are you afraid of death? Why or why not?
2. What does it mean to be immortal?
3. What is your relationship with grief? How does grief serve you?

Tool for Thriving

Building Your Legacy – One of the ways we continue to live on is through the legacy we leave behind. Consciously creating your legacy is a gift that you give to yourself and your loved ones. Contemplate the following questions and then identify action steps you can start taking to build or continue to build your legacy.

• What legacy do I want to leave for my children?
• What legacy do I want to leave for my grandchildren?
• What legacy do I want to leave in my community?
• What legacy do I want to leave in the world?
• What is one small action I can take today to build my legacy?

Affirmation

The Love that I am is eternal.

Would you rather…

• Would you rather… meet a leprechaun –or– find a pot of gold at the end of a rainbow?

Table Conversations

1. Is there anything too horrific to forgive?
2. How do you move from unforgiveness (a hardened heart) to forgiveness (a compassionate heart)?
3. What is your experience with forgiveness?

Tool for Thriving

Choosing Freedom – Bring to mind someone you need to forgive. It could be yourself or another person. You can certainly start with minor transgressions and work your way up to more challenging ones.

Repeat the following until you feel a sense of release or lightness. 

• I choose freedom.
• I forgive you.
• I release you.

Affirmation

I forgive myself as I forgive others.

Would you rather…

• Would you rather… stay on standard time –or– daylight savings time?

Table Conversations

1. Which of your habits are getting in the way of the life you desire? Which ones support it?

2. What habit have you broken and how did you do it?

3. What spiritual practices can help with habitual thinking and how?

Tool for Thriving

Play-by-Play – A great way to bring your awareness to your habits is with a mindfulness technique of narrating your actions. It brings you fully into the present moment. You can do this the traditional way in first person (ex. I am picking up my phone. I’m unlocking it. I’m pening Facebook.) 

Or you can really have fun with it by pretending you’re  a sportscaster calling a game or a narrator of a wild animal documentary. Announce (out loud or silently) every action and movement with interest and enthusiasm. 

For example:

She’s picking up her phone and unlocking it. Look at that she’s opening the Facebook app with her left thumb! She’s begun scrolling. Oh, wait. She’s seen a post in the Morning Table Facebook Group. She’s reading the comments. She’s loving each one with a little heart. Folks, you’re not going to believe this… she’s now typing a reply to one of the comments continuing the conversation! Look at the dexterity as her thumbs fly across the keyboard! Amazing! Now will she post it? She’s paused for a minute. Yes! She hit send! This is incredible!

Affirmation

I break old habits.

Would you rather…

• Would you rather… have an infinite amount of time –or– an infinite amount of money?

Table Conversations

1. What is your relationship with abundance?

2. How do you experience abundance in your life?

3. What do you believe is lacking in your life? What is one thing you can do to change it?

Tools for Thriving

Clear the Clutter – Clutter is stagnant energy blocking you from receiving the abundance of good that life offers. Energy has to move.In order to create a space in your life for energy (i.e., love, money, joy, peace) to flow freely, you must clear out the clutter. Go through your house, office, car, email inbox, and any other place in your life and see where you are blocking the flow of your good with clutter.Lovingly release items that can be used by others and throw out or recycle those things that can’t. Be sure to release everything with an attitude of gratitude.

Unexpected Good: What we focus our intention and attention on expands. Become consciously aware of the Infinite Abundance that is all around you and watch your prosperity multiply. This month, record all of the unexpected good/income that you receive with dollar amounts. For example: a friend takes you to lunch, you get a rebate on an appliance, your favorite peanut butter is on sale, you have a two for one coupon. At the end of the month, tally it up. You might be surprised at just how prosperous you really are!

Affirmation

I have plenty to spare and plenty to share.

Would you rather…

• Would you rather… be selfish –or– pretentious?

Table Conversations

1. What are some qualities you see in others that you have disowned in yourself?
2. What gifts do these qualities offer? How could they be assets to you?
3. Have you had a “negative” experience that you’ve transformed into an asset?

Tool for Thriving

Disowned Qualities – Disowned qualities can be qualities that we perceive as negative or positive. This exercise, from Nancy Levin’s book The Art of Change, is designed to help you identify a “negative” quality and reclaim it so that it no longer carries a charge for you and you can reframe it as a possible asset. Complete each sentence.

The quality I see in someone I’m triggered by is:
They show this quality by: 

I disowned this quality because:

I hide this quality in myself and overcompensate for it by:
I see this quality in me when:

This quality is an asset and serves me by: 

I own (quality you’re working with):

Affirmation

I embrace all aspects of myself.

Would you rather…

• Would you rather… meet George Washington –or– Abraham Lincoln?

Table Conversations

1. Do you believe that you are always at choice? Why or why not?
2. Why is it important to make conscious choices?
3. What does it mean to be accountable?

Tool for Thriving

Making Good Choices – consciously making good choices  is a practiced habit. It involves evaluating your choices and pausing for a moment to consider the outcome of your decisions.  

1. Identify one area where you are having a challenge at consciously making good choices (ex. overspending and not following your budget)
2. What is the behavior that happens enforcing the challenge? What is one thing that you can do to consciously do things differently?
3. What belief do you have about your ability to make choices? What new beliefs will empower you to choose new behavior?
4. Take action on considering what are the new behaviors needed to be accountable for your choice.  

Affirmation

I make good choices for myself. 

Would you rather…

• Would you rather… play in the Super Bowl –or– perform in the halftime show?

Table Conversations

1. What does “faith” mean to you?
2. What keeps you from accepting your Good? How much Good are you willing to accept?
3. What is “answered prayer?”

Tool for Thriving

Spiritual Mind Treatment – Your consciousness and your mind love treats as much as your pets do! Treat your consciousness with a feast of positive affirmations! Use this structure to guide you.

Recognition – God is. (God is all there is. There is only One Power, Presence, Life, Source and Substance.)

Unification – I am. (I’m the microcosm of the Macrocosm. The totality of my being is unified with Spirit.)

Realization – I know… I affirm… I claim… I have… I am… I accept… (Making your Good real.)

Thanksgiving – I’m grateful for… I give thanks that… (never to, always for or that)

Release – I release and let it go. And so it is!  (placing it into the creative medium that only ever says “yes!”)

Affirmation

I confidently accept my Good.

Would you rather…

• Would you rather… grow only vegetables –or– grow only flowers?

Table Conversations

1. If thoughts are like seeds, what are you planting in your garden?
2. How are you tending it?
3. How do you convert challenges into fertilizer for your garden?

Tool for Thriving

Weeding Your Garden

1.  Identify one thing that you are having a challenge with (ex. carrying a balance on a credit card)
2. What is the behavior that is feeding the challenge? Identify one thing that you can do differently.
3. What belief do you have that feeds your current behavior? What new belief will support your new behavior?
4. Take action on the new behavior you have identified and fertilize it with the new belief.  

Affirmation

I plant seeds of change with mindful intention.

Would you rather…

• Would you rather… play board games –or– card games?

Table Conversations

1. How would you describe your relationship with the Divine?
2. Is it easy or difficult for you to say that you are “Spirit incarnate”? How about “I am God made manifest”? 
3. How does knowing you’re the microcosm of the Macrocosm empower you? How might you use it to change something in your life?

Tool for Thriving

Embrace Your Divinity – At least twice a day for several minutes, focus on your breathing. On the inhale say, “I am (your name).” On the exhale, claim with immense enthusiasm, “I AM DIVINE!” Tying this practice to your daily routines – in the shower, brushing your teeth, driving to and from work – makes it easy to remember to do it. For advanced practice… affirm, “I am THE Divine” on the exhale. 

Affirmation

I embrace my Divinity!

Would you rather…

• Would you rather… be a Greek god –or– a Hindu god?

Table Conversations

1. How do you define Oneness, and when and how do you experience it in your own life?
2. What Golden Thread of Truth runs through the cosmology you grew up with and your current beliefs?
3. If you weren’t involved in CSL, what faith tradition would you most likely explore?

Tool for Thriving

A Golden Thread – Name at least one positive thing about someone you find challenging. If it’s a positive characteristic you also claim for yourself all the better. You have discovered a commonality or a golden thread between you.

Bonus Practice – It’s easy to identify why you have a challenge with this person. But how do you express this same quality that you dislike in them. Remember the action or behavior isn’t necessarily the same, but you have likely disowned the quality within you or else you wouldn’t be bothered by them. When you own it, you have found another golden thread.

Affirmation

I look for commonalities and I appreciate differences.

Would you rather…

• Would you rather… be at the March on Washington and hear his famous “I have a Dream” speech live  –or– shake Martin Luther King, Jr.’s hand, but not be able to speak to him?

Table Conversations

1. No one can do you like you, what do you bring to the world?
2. What are you totally unafraid to do?
3. What does “Together We Rise” mean to you? 

Tool for Thriving

Spice it up!

1. Look for opportunities to share your unique spice/ flavor with others.
2. Cooperate or collaborate with at least one other person to improve something or co-create something.

Affirmation

I share my talents with the world!

Would you rather…

• Would you rather… celebrate the New Year by going to a big New Year’s Eve Party –or– attending a silent retreat on January 1?

Table Conversations

1. Taking into account the past year, what are you ready to let go of?
2. What would you like to experience differently in 2024?
3. What excites you about this new experience? 

Tool for Thriving

“If you want to experience something different, you have to do something different.”

1. Commit to one action you will take that will move you in the direction of something new.
2. Put it on your calendar. If you don’t schedule it, you won’t do it.
3. Do it! 

Affirmation

I am excited to experience something new. 

Tool for Thriving

The Morning Table Visualization – Click the link below and let Rev. Jeff Guide you through a short visualization of our next expression as a community: The Morning Table.

https://youtu.be/bn4bJOqjtb0

Contemplation Questions

1. What are you most excited about with regard to The Morning Table?
2. What are you looking forward to in the next few weeks?
3. How have faith and hope been part of your life?
4. How do you express faith and hope now?

Affirmation
I welcome our next expression with joyful expectancy.

Tool for Thriving

Gratitude Jar – Use a large jar or a box and daily write down at least one thing you are grateful for then put it in the jar. Do this for a year. Then on Thanksgiving Day open your jar and read all of the slips of paper. This is a wonderful activity for families, coworkers, teams, and communities to do together as well. 

Contemplation Questions

1. What things are you grateful for?
2. What people are you grateful for?
3. What experiences are you grateful for?
4. What abilities are you grateful for?
5. What activities are you grateful for?

Affirmation

My heart overflows with gratitude.

Tool for Thriving

An Hour a Month – Sharing your gifts and talents with others without expectation of anything in return is key to affluence (i.e., being in the flow). Donate your time and talent by volunteering at least an hour a month to an organization or cause that is in alignment with your values. Your Joy and your Good are exponentially multiplied when you serve others. 

Contemplation Questions

1. What would you do if money and time were of no concern?
2. What activities make you come alive?
3. What are you really good at? What skills do you have?
4. How can you share these with others? How can you serve others?
5. Who would benefit from sharing these things/gifts/talents with them?

Affirmation

I serve my fellow beings with Love. 

Tool for Thriving

Non-attachment – The Buddha taught that at the root of human suffering is attachment. Non-attachment is essentially is a practice of mindfulness and presence in the existing moment. Whereas detachment means a complete lack of interest in the world around you.

Look at the world around you and notice what attachments you have to objects, people, ideas, beliefs. Everything in form arose from the formless and will return to it. Everything comes to pass. Any form is impermanent.

Notice your attachments and their impermanence. As you do, practice appreciating what you have in the present and acknowledging  its  impermanence.

Contemplation Questions

1. What are you attached to and how have your attachments imprisioned you?
   2. How has your wanting left you wanting for more?
   3. What has a desire for security kept you from?
   4. How do you feel about uncertainty? the unknown?
   5. What might be possible in your life if you fully embraced the Wisdom of uncertainty?

Affirmation

I find my security in the Wisdom of uncertainty. 

Tools for Thriving

Set your Intention – Your intention is a desired experience. It contains within it everything it needs to manifest itself in your life. Setting a clear intention without attachment to outcome is transformative. It is further energized when you bring your conscious attention to it. 

For example: 

Your intention is for more peace in your home. 

It’s not to make your kids stop yelling at each other. That would be attachment to a specific outcome.

Your attention might include remaining calm, giving your kids other tools to express themselves, playing soothing music, using aromatherapy, taking a walk.

When you attention aligns with your intention the desired change manifests itself often in greater ways than you can imagine.

Contemplation Questions

1. What is one area of your life that you’d like to make changes in?
2. What is your intention?
3. How will you pay attention to energize your intention?
4. What are some action steps that you can take right now that will move you in the direction of your intention?
5. Which one will you do first?

Affirmation

My intention is clear. 

Tools for Thriving

Go with the Flow – There are three steps to keep you in the Flow of Life especially when things feel challenging in the moment. These steps change the arc (A.R.C.) of your experience.

1. Accept the situation as it is. Struggling against it is struggling against the entire Universe.

2. Take responsibility for how you are feeling in the moment. Only you can change how you feel. By doing so, you have “response ability” – the ability to respond to the situation in a different and creative way.

3. Be curious and open to other points of view and possibilities. Every so-called problem contains within it the opportunity to create something new and beautiful.

Contemplation Questions

1. How do you get in your own way?
   
   2. What What does your brand of resistance look like?
   
   3. Where in your life do you push against the Flow?
   
   4. What opportunities for growth are present for you in your current situation or challenge?
   
   5. What’s possible if you stop struggling and go with the flow?

Affirmation

I go with the Flow.

Tools for Thriving

What’s the Consequence? – You make hundreds of choices and take hundreds of actions every day. How many are conscious? Pause before making a choice or taking an action and consider the consequences. Will they be beneficial to you and others? If so, proceed. If not, you have created the space in which to make a different choice or take a different action. 

Contemplation Questions

1. What is something in your life that you’d like to change?
2. What choices and actions did you take in the past to create where you are today?
3. What is one different action that you can take today that will move you in the direction of the change you want to experience?
4. What belief might you need to shift in order to experience this change?

Affirmation

Today, I witness my choices.

Tool for Thriving

Something for Everyone – Get into the habit of giving freely and generously. Doing so, puts you in the flow of circulation. Watch how your generosity is multiplied and returns to you in abundance. Give something to everyone you encounter this week be it a physical gift or a kind gesture. 

Contemplation Questions 

1. Which is easier for you? To give or to receive?
2. What makes it easy for you?
3. What makes the other one difficult for you?
4. What do you like to give?
5. What do you like to receive?
6. How can you give more of what you enjoy receiving?

Affirmation

Today, I give something to everyone I come in contact with.

Tool for Thriving

Seek Stillness First – The most effective way to co-create is to begin with stillness. When your mind (i.e., consciousness) is still, setting your intention is like dropping a pebble in a still pond – it ripples outward.

Whereas, trying to set your intention in a turbulent mind is like dropping a skyscraper into a rough and stormy sea, it has little to no effect on the surface of the water (i.e., consciousness.)

Practice stilling your mind through silence, meditation, non-judgment, and communing with nature. 

Pure Potentiality and Infinite Creativity await you in the stillness. Seek it first, and all things are added. 

Contemplation Questions

1. What is your favorite type of meditation? How often do you practice?

2. What are the most common ways you judge, label, or analyze? People? Things? Circumstances?

3. How might the practice of non-judgment reduce the turbulence in your life and create opportunity?

4. What ways and were do you enjoy communing with nature? How often do you do it?

5. Tapping into the power of your Pure Potentiality, what do you want to co-create?


Affirmation

Today, I tap into my Pure Potentiality.

Tool for Thriving

Catch Yourself Trying – Pay attention to the word “try” notice how often you use it in conversation especially in the context of efforting or struggle. Notice how frequently you are affirming your struggle or difficulty simply by using “try.” 

For example:

• I’ll try to make the meeting on Friday. 
• I’m trying to help my child with their math homework.
• I’m trying to get out of debt.
• I’m trying to lose weight.

Versus using “try” to express your curiosity:

• I’d like to try a sample of the ice cream of the month. 
• I want to try paddle boarding on my next vacation.

Relax More – Make a list of relaxing activities that you enjoy. We like to relax because it feels good. The more you can feel good throughout your day, the more available you are to be in the Flow of life. (Remember these are not avoidance strategies or habits that may have negative effects.) 

Incorporate at least one relaxing activity in each day. If you can incorporate more, go for it!

Contemplation Questions

1. In what ways have you bought into the collective unconscious of having to try hard ( work hard, effort, struggle) to get what you want or achieve a goal?
   
   2. What have you been trying to do?
   
   3. What have you tried to do and been unsuccessful at? How did you feel as a result?
   
   4. How do you like to relax? How do you feel when you relax?
   
   5. How often do you relax? How can you increase your relaxation activities and time in your day? week?  month?
   
   

Affirmation
I try less and relax more.

Tool for Thriving

OUR Community

Being in a committed relationship isn’t a 50:50 proposition. It is both parties each taking 100% responsibility for the relationship. And if both parties aren’t giving 100% most of the time, it isn’t going to work.

The same can be said about being in a community. It takes each of us giving our absolute best to this relationship a majority of the time. This is our community.

When asked your why last week, the top response we received was to serve and be in service. 

Use the contemplation questions below as prompts to clarify how you will be of service in the RCSL community. And how the RCSL community can serve your vision and help you thrive.  

Then send your how to Rev. Jeff at revjeff@riversidecsl.org with MY HOW as the subject line.

Contemplation Questions (Your What and How)

1. What do you envision your participation at RCSL looking like? What are your next actions steps toward taking ownership and responsibility in the community?

2. How do you want to move love forward?

3. How can you serve in and contribute to the RCSL community?

4. How can the RCSL community serve your vision for your life?

5. What might RCSL offer that would help you thrive?

Questions to Help Identify Your Why (from last week)

1. What needs of yours are being satisfied by participating in the RCSL community?

2. What do you value most about participating in the RCSL community?

3. What benefits to you get from participating in the RCSL community?

4. How does participating in the RCSL community serve your vision for your life?

5. What about participating in the RCSL community lights you up, inspires you, fuels your passion?

Affirmation

I know my Why!

Tool for Thriving

My Why 

Understanding why you do things – what your motivation is – allows you to make clearer choices and take actions that move you in the direction of your vision. When you are clear as to your why, any resistance you may encounter can be overcome.  

Use the contemplation questions below as prompts to clarify why you participate in the RCSL community. The send your why to Rev. Jeff at revjeff@riversidecsl.org with MY WHY as the subject line.

Contemplation Questions  

1. What needs of yours are being satisfied by participating in the RCSL community?

2. What do you value most about participating in the RCSL community?

3. What benefits to you get from participating in the RCSL community?

4. How does participating in the RCSL community serve your vision for your life?

5. What about participating in the RCSL community lights you up, inspires you, fuels your passion?

Affirmation

I am motivated and I am willing.

Tool for Thriving

Time and Talent – Identify an organization, group, or cause whose work you believe in and are aligned with. Volunteer and share your love, time, and talent with them. When you are in sacred service, you are participating in the law of circulation and flow. The love you share is multiplied and benefits the receiver and giver alike.

Contemplation Questions

1. What could be even more (beautiful, efficient, aligned, productive, etc.) in your world whether at work or in your personal life?
2. What gifts, talents, skills, and abilities do you have to offer that would enhance what you identified above?
3. Does it move you? Is it an invitation to act? Do you have a full-body YES to be the resolution?
4. What are the first steps you might take?

Affirmation

I AM the solution!

Tool for Thriving

Win-for-All – To create collaborative win-for-all solutions, you need to commit to and practice:

• Candor: Speak your truth and actively listen. Communicate clearly.
• Sufficiency: Stay open to the possibility that everyone’s desires are possible
• Support: Be an ally for each person involved
• Curiosity: Be open and explorative. Allow curiosity and wonder to guide you

Contemplation Questions

1. What are some win/lose situations you have found yourself in?
2. How do you feel when you make compromises?
3. How does collaborating support you and others in getting what each wants?
4. When have you collaborated and what was the outcome?
5. When might unilateral decision-making be appropriate? When might collaborative decision-making be appropriate? What are the pros and cons of each?

Affirmation

I create win-for-all solutions.

Tool for Thriving

Everyone’s a Teacher – As you go through your day, shift your perspective and recognize that everyone you encounter and every experience you have offers you a lesson or learning opportunity. Make a game out of it and at the end of the day list at least three things you learned that day.

Contemplation Questions

1. What challenges or obstacles have you experienced that you can now appreciate as having been your teachers?
2. What have you learned from them?
3. What is a current challenge or obstacle?
4. What lesson or gift is it here to provide you with?
5. What is now possible for you because of this challenge or obstacle?

Affirmation

I am always supported in my growth.

Tool for Thriving

Sufficiency Meditation – Think you don’t have enough? Think again.

• Close your eyes and take a few deep breaths. Notice that the breath sustains you and that there is enough.
• Bring your attention to your physical body noticing any sensations present. Is anything missing? As you continue to breathe notice the wholeness of your physicality.
• Being fully present, notice your experience of time. Notice there is no past or future; there is only now. In this now moment, what is your relationship with time? Notice in the now moment you have enough time.
• Bring to mind anything that you have been believing is scare or that you don’t have enough of. Notice that in the now moment that you have everything you need, neither scarcity nor excess.
• Notice that when you are fully present in the now moment you have plenty of everything. You have sufficiency. When there is just now, there is always enough.

Contemplation Questions

1. Where in your life are you experiencing scarcity? Not enough?
2. What scarcity myth(s) do you participate in? (There’s never enough… More is better… It’s just the way it is…) How so?
3. How do you define sufficiency?
4. Where in your life are you aware of your sufficiency?
5. What shift (in thought, belief, action) is required for you to move from scarcity to sufficiency?

Affirmation

I always have enough of everything!

Tool for Thriving

Somewhere Out There – Often when we want or desire something, we believe that it is somewhere “out there.” “Out-there-ness” is the belief that my security, approval, and control are dependent on someone or something outside of myself.  So “out-there-ness” leads to “if-only-ness.”

Identify how “out-there-ness” and “if-only-ness” is showing up in your life by completing this sentence:

“If only __________________, then I would have security/ approval/ control.”

Once you know where you are seeking outside yourself, then you can make a different choice.

Contemplation Questions

1. What do you want?
2. Why do you want it? (Security? Approval? Control?)
3. Is the wanting coming from a place of lack?
4. How do you source your own security, approval, and control?
5. What if you already have security, approval, and control? What shifts for you?

Affirmation

I am the source of my validation!

Tool for Thriving

The Turnaround – This tool comes from The Work by Byron Katie (https://thework.com) and is designed to shift your perspective when caught in your story.

First ask yourself the following questions:

1. Is it true?
2. Can you absolutely know that it’s true?
3. How do you react (what happens) when you believe that thought?
4. Who would you be without the thought?

Then do the turnaround.

Example: Mary is unkind to me.

Turn it around to the opposite: Mary is kind to me.

Turn it around to the other person: I am unkind to Mary

Turn it around to yourself: I am unkind to me.

How is this statement as true or truer?

Find a minimum of three examples in your life where each turnaround is true.

Contemplation Questions

1. What stories do you tell yourself?
2. How committed are you to being “right”?
3. What challenges do you perpetuate by needing to be “right”?
4. What do you experience as a result of your desire to be “right”?
5. Can you see how the opposite of what you believe can also be true?
6. What becomes possible if you let go of needing to be “right”?

Affirmation

I see a new perspective.

Tool for Thriving

Take a Play Break – When facing a challenge or trying to solve a problem, take a play break. Engage in an absorbing, apparently purposeless activity that provides enjoyment and suspends self-consciousness and sense of time. When you completely let go of trying to solve the problem, the brain reorganizes and re-sorts all apparently unrelated information into new innovative solutions. It’s just like having a brilliant idea when you’re in the shower. Get out there and play!

Contemplation Questions

1. How do you like to play?
2. How much of your day (week, month) is spent in play? How can you increase it?
3. How much rest do you get?
4. What are your beliefs about play and rest?
5. What could become available to you if you made a commitment to play and rest?

Affirmation

Play and rest are my friends.

Tool for Thriving

Energy Tracker – Look over your calendar from the past two weeks. Make a list of 25 specific activities you performed. Next to each item place an arrow. Up if your energy went up doing the activity. Horizontal if your energy was flat when you did the activity. Down if your energy went down doing the activity.

Now look at the activities that drain your energy. Next to each one write one of the following actions you can take to free up your energy: dump it, delegate it, do it differently. Then follow through. Watch your energy rise as you do!

Contemplation Questions

1. What activities do you regularly do that are in your zone of incompetence?
2. What activities do you regularly do that are in your zone of competence?
3. What activities do you regularly do that are in your zone of excellence?
4. What activities can you stop, let go of, delegate, or do differently to free up your time and energy for your zone of genius?
5. What activities do you regularly do that are in your zone of genius?

Affirmation

I express my full magnificence!

Tool for Thriving

Three Coins – Place three coins, heads up, where you can regularly see them. Everyday commit to finding three people to appreciate. When you deliver an appreciation, flip the coin over. What your appreciation appreciate (grow) as you continue to practice this tool. 

Contemplation Questions

1. In what ways do you show your appreciation?
2. In what ways do you like to be appreciated?
3. Do you deflect appreciation? How so?
4. Has an attitude of entitlement affected your organization, family, or friend groups? How so?
5. To whom and for what do you need to expression appreciation?

Affirmation

I generously give and receive appreciation.

Tool for Thriving

Impeccable Agreements – Being in integrity requires that we: take 100% responsibility, speak authentically, feel our feelings through to completion, and be impeccable with our agreements.

Being impeccable with your agreements means that you:

1. Make clear agreements. (Who? What? When?)
2. Keep your agreements.
3. Renegotiate your agreements if you can’t keep them.
4. Clean up agreements you have broken. Take measures to reestablish trust.

 Contemplation Questions

1. What agreements have you made recently? Did you make them with a full-body YES?
2. What agreements do you need to renegotiate?
3. Do you have any agreements that you have broken? Are you willing to clean them up? By when?
4. Is there any area in your life where you are out of integrity?
5. What unfelts, unsaids, unkepts, unowneds are present for you? What is one small action you can take to begin to clean them up?

Affirmation

I commit to being in integrity.

Tool for Thriving

Clear the Air – The Conscious Leadership Group’s clearing model is meant to be used when you have created a disconnection with another person or group. It is important that you are willing to let go of being right and take responsibility before you attempt to use this model. The goal is to reveal yourself, own your projection and re-establish connection.

1. AFFIRM a meaningful relationship and establish a time to talk. “Something has come up I’d like to clear with you. I want to have clear open lines of communication as our relationship is important to me. Is now a good time to talk? If not, when would be?”
2. “The specific FACTS are…” (Recordable facts; not judgments)
3. “A STORY I make up about you/me/the group is…”
4. “My FEELING is…” (Angry, Sad, Scared, Joyful, etc.)
5. “How I CREATED this disconnection with you is…/ My part in this is…”
6. “I specifically WANT…” (This is not a demand or entitlement, but instead a way to be known)

 Contemplation Questions

1. What is gossip?
2. Why do people gossip? Why do you?
3. Are there people and issues that are gossiped about regularly in your organization, family, or friend groups?
4. With whom do you need to clear the air?
5. What are the benefits of clearing the air and eliminating gossip from your life?

Affirmation

I speak directly with people with whom I have an issue or concern.

Tool for Thriving

Speaking Unarguably – When we speak unarguably, we allow for openness and curiosity, circumventing defensiveness and the need to be right.

For example:

“We need to buy a new car.” (Arguable. The truth of this statement can be argued.)

“I’m having a thought that we ought to get a new car.” (Unarguable. You are reporting on your thought.)

Unarguable communication begins with phrases that can’t be argued with like:

• I’m having the thought that…
• I feel… (sad, angry, joyful, etc.)
• I notice… (report body sensation: tingling in my hand, pinching in my shoulders, throbbing in my head, etc.)

Practice making these statements throughout your day and notice the shift you experience in your communications.

Contemplation Questions

1. What do you tend to withhold? Facts? Thoughts? Feelings? Sensations?
2. Why do you withhold?
3. How are you and those around you impacted when you lie or withhold information?
4. What opportunities become possible when you reveal your withholds?
5. What might your life look like if you lived it with candor?

Affirmation

I speak my Truth.

Tool for Thriving

Feel It Through – Repressing your feelings traps them in your body and mind. This can lead to dis-ease. Feeling your motions through to completion moves the energy through your body maintain flow and circulation.

The practice:

1. Locate the sensation in your body.
2. Allow, accept, or appreciate the sensation.
3. Make a sound and a movement that is in alignment with the sensation.
4. Repeat if necessary.

Contemplation Questions

1. What feelings are you least comfortable sharing?
2. What holds you back from sharing them?
3. What does holding them back cost you?
4. What feelings are you most comfortable sharing?
5. What allows you to share these feelings?

Affirmation

I feel my feelings all the way through to completion.

Tool for Thriving

Wonder Game – Look around the room you’re in right now. Choose one object you see. Then play the wonder game. “I wonder what else the object could be used for?” “I wonder what it would be like if it were made of something else?” Let your imagination run wild. Don’t limit yourself to “practical” answers. Let your answers be as fantastical as you can. This game expands your creative mind and opens you to new possibilities and learnings. Who knows? You may even hit upon a lucrative and life-changing idea!

Contemplation Questions

1. When do you find yourself committed to being right?
2. When have you drifted below the line? What happened as a result?
3. How could it have been different if you had been curious?
4. How open are you to receiving feedback?
5. How might curiosity and wonder support you in your learning and growth?

Affirmation

I learn by being curious.

Tool for Thriving

F.A.C.T. Check – When experiencing an issue that has you below the line, F.A.C.T. check yourself to get above the line by asking yourself the following questions in order.

1. What have I not yet faced about this issue?
2. What is the hardest thing to accept about this issue?
3. What do I really want? What do I choose now?
4. What is an easy, measurable way that I can take action to begin creating what I really want? By when?

Contemplation Questions

1. When do you find yourself playing the “victim”?
2. When do you find fault and place blame (play villain)?
3. When might you take more than your share of responsibility (play hero)?
4. What does “taking radical responsibility” for your life mean for you?
5. How does taking responsibility lift you off the “drama” triangle?

Affirmation

I take full responsibility for my life.

Tool for Thriving

Locate Yourself – Use this chart from the Consciousness Leadership Group (conscious.is) to help you locate yourself above or below the line. Remember that being above or below the line is a state of consciousness and isn’t permanent. We can fluctuate above and below the line several times a day. Being aware of where you are at any given time helps you in living into your best life.

Contemplation Questions

1. Where in your life do you frequently find yourself below the line (To Me consciousness)?
2. What shift do you need to make to get yourself above the line?
3. Where in your life do you tend to be open and curious (above the line)?
4. What are you interested in learning in the next six months?
5. What first steps can you take to start learning it?

Affirmation

I commit to living above the line.

Tool for Thriving

Quit Complaining – Complaining shows what you are attached to. And attachments to outcomes and processes get in the way of living your best life. Take the A Complaint Free World challenge. Challenge yourself to go 21 days without complaining. Every day that you complain restarts your 21 days. acomplaintfreeworld.org 

Contemplation Questions

1. What assumptions do you make about people? How might you start assuming the best?
2. What do you worry about? How might you turn your worry into something more productive?
3. How often do you look for the worst case scenario? What is the best case scenario?
4. What do you frequently find yourself complaining about?
5. What outcomes and processes are you attached to?
6. What is possible for you if you let go of complaining,release your attachments, and get out of your way?

Affirmation

I trust the process!

Tool for Thriving

Own Your Glow – The next time you receive a compliment or some form of recognition, instead of brushing it aside or downplaying your achievement, own your glow. Allow yourself to be seen and celebrated. Simply say “thank you.” If you want to stretch yourself even further, follow this up with a statement of self-acknowledgement.

Example 1

Friend: That dress looks beautiful on you!

You: Thanks! I saw it and just knew that it was the dress for me. 

Example 2

Coworker: Congratulations on your sales award!

You. Thank you! I am grateful to have made a difference in our customers’ lives.

Contemplation Questions

1. Who is someone you admire, are inspired by, or would like to emulate?
2. What qualities, traits, or characteristics do you admire most in them?
3. In what ways do you exhibit these same qualities, traits, or characteristics?
4. What’s possible for you when you fully embrace and embody these characteristics that you admire in others?

Affirmation

I stand in my Power!

Tool for Thriving

Clear out the Closet – It’s time to go through your closet and drawers and release the clothes that you no longer wear. Those clothes that you have been hanging onto “just in case.” Use this activity to metaphorically release the personas and roles that you have been playing in your life. Your excess clothing and your personas drain your energy preventing you from living your best life. Let go of the “costumes.”

Contemplation Questions

1. What personas/roles do you play? What masks do you wear?
2. How have they served you?
3. What do they cost you? How have they held you back?
4. What do you need to forgive yourself for?
5. What’s possible when you forgive yourself and stand in your wholeness?

Affirmation

I am free to be me.

Tool for Thriving

Commitment Inventory – We experience what we are most committed to. The Universe says yes to what you have really said yes to.

Take inventory of all your commitments.

Which ones are most important to you and your vision? Which ones have become habits? Which ones are obligations? Which ones carry resentments? Which ones hold you back?

Looking at the commitments that are habits, obligations, resentments, and obstacles, identify which ones you are ready to say no to. Then one by one, take action to cancel those contracts.   

Contemplation Questions

1. What do you want to experience that you aren’t yet?

2. What underlying commitment did you make to yourself that‘s now in the way?

3. How has this commitment served you? What has it cost you?

4. What new commitment can you make that will help you experience your desire?

5. What action do you choose to take that will support your new commitment?

Affirmation

I commit to living my Vision. 

Tool for Thriving

Put a Pin in It – Before you say yes to a request of your time, pause and put a pin in it. This gives you an opportunity to ask yourself…

What do I want?

What do I need?

What do I think?

What do I feel?

If the opportunity is in alignment with what you desire and you have the energy for it, then perhaps say yes. If it isn’t, then you can say no. Everytime you say no to something you are saying yes to something else. Let that something else be you.

Contemplation Questions

1. What boundaries have you set that are easy to maintain?
2. How do you maintain them?
3. What areas in your life do you need to set some boundaries?
4. What keeps you from setting those boundaries?
5. What does it cost you not having boundaries in these areas?
6. What would be possible if you set them?

Affirmation

I respect my boundaries.

Tool for Thriving

Spring into Spring – Get outdoors and take a walk or do some gardening. Take time to pause and enjoy being in the newness of spring. As you do, affirm: “I am renewed in the fountains of spring. The beauty of Life surrounds me.  I love Life and Life loves me. And now it is.”

Contemplation Questions

1. The spring is a time of renewal and forgiveness so the newness is able to take root and grow. What can you release to let the new rush in new and wondrous ways?
2. What portions of your vision will flower this spring? How have you prepared the ground for the new growth?
3. During your nourishing pauses this week have any insights or inspiring images come to you? How can you participate in creating your new life?
4. How does your inner work renew your creativity and action in Life? 
5. In what ways does nature inspire you? 

Affirmation

I let go of the past. I live in the Eternal Now.

My Buttons Bingo – What kind of people push your buttons? What characteristics trigger you? If you can spot it, you’ve got it, too. These are aspects of yourself that you have disowned. Reclaiming them frees you from pain and suffering and returns you to Wholeness.

Use the “My Buttons Bingo” card below to help you. Circle the qualities that push your buttons. Make an X through the ones that don’t. Then use this week’s contemplation questions to assist you in reclaiming these disowned qualities. When you can say that you are a disowned quality without being triggered by it, mark an X through it. Use the “free space” to write in a quality that pushes your buttons that isn’t already on the card. Celebrate each time you get BINGO! You’re a winner, baby!

MY BUTTONS BINGO 

Contemplation Questions

1. What behavior or trait in others really pushes your buttons?
2. What is the underlying quality?
3. How do you express that same quality? What behaviors do you do that could be labeled with this quality?
4. What are the benefits/gifts this quality brings?
5. In what situations might this quality be an asset?

Affirmation

I accept all parts of myself. I am Whole. 

Tool for Thriving

Tell a New Story – Imagine you are living your Vision on December 31, 2023. And just as you would tell a child a bedtime story, begin telling yourself a story about how you came to experience living into your vision. Who are the key characters? Describe the scenes like pictures on a page. What adventures do the characters have? What do they learn along the way? Tell yourself this story every night at bedtime. Allow it to evolve and grow as new ideas or adventures come to you. Let your own inner child shout, “Again! Again! Tell it again!”

Contemplation Questions

1. What stories are you telling yourself about why things are the way they are in your life?

2. How are these stories/beliefs holding you back? What are they keeping you from?

3. What is the underlying belief behind these stories?

4. What new belief do you choose today?

5. What is possible for you if you align with this new belief?

6. What is one specific action that you can take to begin anchoring this new belief? How will you know that you have taken it?

Affirmation

I am not my past.

Tool for Thriving

List of 100 – Quickly make a list of 100 incompletions that you have. This shouldn’t take more than 10 minutes. If while writing you “run out” of incompletions, repeat ones you’ve already written. Same goes for some that come to you repeatedly during the process, write them on your list again.

Review your list. It has a lot to share with you. Possibilities include:

Categorizing the incompletions (e.g., house cleaning, health, work, aspirations).

What are the percentages of your categories? Of individual incompletions?

Which incompletion is most repeated?

Which incompletion is weighing you down the most?

Are there any that you can just let go of and be okay with them being unfinished?

Which ones are low hanging fruit?

Begin with the low hanging fruit. Make a commitment to complete them by a specific time or date and keep that commitment to yourself. This builds your self-trust.

Continue with other incompletions on your list. You may need to break some down into micro-actions to complete them. Be patient with yourself, but keep moving forward.=

Each completion frees up stagnant energy, creating greater possibility.

Contemplation Questions

1. What is something you have been putting off/procrastinating?
2. What excuses do you use to procrastinate?
3. What is having this unfinished business costing you?
4. What are you afraid will happen if you complete it?
5. What is possible for you if you get it done?

Affirmation

I complete my unfinished business.

Tool for Thriving

Tell Me What You Want – It’s often easy to say what we don’t want, but identifying what we do want can be a challenge. 

For example you might say, “I don’t want liver and onions with Brussels sprouts, but I’m hungry.” 

While eliminating what you don’t want narrows your choices somewhat, there are still an infinite number of possibilities. 

You co-create your life. If you don’t know what you want, you might just get:

“You’re hungry? Ok. Here’s some corn flakes and blue cheese dressing. Enjoy!”

 Get clear about what you want. Name it. Claim it. Accept it. Expect it. 

Contemplation Questions

1. What are your greatest desires for yourself?
2. Do they feel possible? Why or why not?
3. What do you envision your life to look like on December 31, 2023?
4. What choices can you make right now to help you get there?

Affirmation

I know what I want.

Tool for Thriving

Willingness Check – To live into your vision and live your best life, you have to be willing to change and grow. That means eliminating things (behaviors, beliefs) that no longer serve you and integrating new ones. Sit quietly and do a willingness check. Are you willing to put in the work to change? What resistance do you feel? Be honest with yourself. On a scale from 1-10 where 1 is completely unwilling and 10 is an enthusiastic “Let’s do this!”, how willing are you?

There is no good or bad answer. The number you assign today is merely information and perhaps a starting point. Affirm, “I am willing to change and grow.”

Contemplation Questions

1. What current behaviors don’t support your vision?
2. What current beliefs don’t support your vision?
3. How have these behaviors and beliefs served you? 
4. What behaviors would support your vision?
5. What beliefs would support your vision?

Affirmation

I am willing to live the Vision.

Tool for Thriving

A Buddhist Forgiveness Meditation (excerpted from works by Jack Kornfield and Noah Levine) – This Buddhist forgiveness meditation has three components: forgiveness from others for harm you have caused, forgiveness for others for harm they caused you, and forgiveness for yourself for harm you have caused yourself. Work with this meditation at least 15 minutes daily. 

FORGIVENESS FROM OTHERS: There are many ways that I have hurt and harmed others, have betrayed or abandoned them, caused them suffering, knowingly or unknowingly, out of my pain, fear, anger and confusion. I ask for your forgiveness. I ask for your forgiveness.

Please forgive me for having caused you harm. I now understand that I was unskillful and that my actions hurt you, and I ask for your forgiveness.

FORGIVENESS FOR THOSE WHO HAVE HURT OR HARMED YOU: There are many ways that I have been harmed by others, abused or abandoned, knowingly or unknowingly, in thought, word or deed. I now remember that others have hurt or harmed me, wounded me, out of their own fear, pain, confusion and anger. I have carried this pain in my heart too long. To the extent that I am ready, I offer them forgiveness. To those who have caused me harm, I offer my forgiveness, I forgive you. I forgive you. I forgive you for all of the ways that you have caused me harm whether the hurt came through your actions, thoughts, or words. I know you are responsible for your actions, and I offer you forgiveness.

FORGIVENESS FOR YOURSELF: There are many ways that I have hurt and harmed myself. I have betrayed or abandoned myself many times through thought, word, or deed, knowingly or unknowingly. For the ways I have hurt myself through action or inaction, out of fear, pain and confusion, I now extend a full and heartfelt forgiveness. I forgive myself. I forgive myself. I forgive myself for all of the ways that I have caused myself harm. I now offer myself forgiveness, whether the hurt came through my actions, thoughts, or words. I know I am responsible for my actions, and I offer myself forgiveness. I forgive myself.

Contemplation Questions

1. Intention doesn’t equal impact. How have you unintentionally hurt or harmed someone?
2. Did you seek forgiveness? Why or why not? 
3. What did you discover about yourself?
4. How does your own lack of forgiveness affect you? What is it keeping you from?
5. What would be possible for you if you practiced forgiveness for yourself and others?

Affirmation

I forgive myself.

Tool for Thriving

Put It Down – Identify something you’d like to let go of or release. Envision an image that represents that thing. See yourself holding it in your hands. Now imagine an ideal place to set it down. Really allow yourself to see this place. Now gently and lovingly, put down the object you have been holding. Put it down and perhaps whisper a word of gratitude. Now visualize yourself walking away and leaving it behind. 

Contemplation Questions

1. What new experience would you like to welcome into your life?
2. What do you need to release, let go of, heal or surrender in order to make room for it?
3. How has your limiting belief served you? What has been its gift for you?
4. What will become possible for you without it?
5. What is one step you are willing to take today to release it?

Affirmation:

I set myself free.

Tool for Thriving

Open Your Heart – Draw a large heart on a clean piece of paper. Begin to fill it in with words or affirmations of your deepest desires and highest aspirations. With each addition, you are planting seeds of possibility into the fertile soil of your heart. As you create this visual representation, open your heart to these possibilities. Look at this heart daily. Meditate upon it. Add to it as you are called to. Open your heart and allow your best life to blossom. 

Contemplation Questions

1. What new experience would you like to welcome into your life?
2. What new idea or belief do you need to embrace in order to welcome it? How do you need to change or grow?
3. What do you need to do differently in order to experience it?
4. What will be possible and available for you in the new experience?
5. What step are you willing to take today to move you in the direction of your new experience?

Affirmation: 

I embrace my Good.

Tool for Thriving

Lightning Treatment – Spiritual Mind Treatments (our form of affirmative prayer) don’t have to be long to be effective. It is the feeling in the treatment that the Universe responds to. When you are short on time or need a quick prayer try this six sentence lightning treatment. 

Say with conviction:

God is! (Recognition)

I Am! (Unification)

I know…! / I accept…! / I claim…! / I am…! (Realization)

I am grateful! (Thanksgiving)

I release, and let it go! (Release)

And so it is!

Contemplation Questions

1. What do you consider prayer? How do you define it?
2. What do you believe about prayer?
3. How have you prayed in the past?
4. Do you have a regular prayer practice now? What is it? 
5. Are there any differences between the two?

Affirmation

I speak my Word passionately and purposefully.

Tool for Thriving

Pause for the Cause – When experiencing stress, pause for a moment and take 2-3 deep breaths. This does several things including:

1. It brings your awareness to First Cause (a.k.a. Spirit). You are pausing and consciously connecting with your Higher Power. 
2. Your breathing and heart rate slow and your blood pressure lowers. Your mind becomes clearer. You shift from fight or flight mode to creative mode. 
3. In this space, you can identify the cause of the stress. When you identify it, then you are able to make a conscious choice as to how you respond. You may even find a new cause to set in motion to eliminate the stressor now and in the future. 

Questions for Contemplation

1. What are some of the stressors you experience?
2. What are some of your indicators that let you know you are experiencing stress?
3. What do you do to reduce stress?
4. We often think of stress as negative, but when can stress be a good thing? Are there any benefits from stress?

Tool for Thriving

Working the Algorithm – When you engage with content on social media, its algorithm then gives you more of that kind of content. The Universe does the same thing. It gives you more of the content (i.e. form and experiences) you most engage with through your ideas, thoughts and beliefs. If you don’t like something you are experiencing, you have the power to work with the algorithm by “clicking” and engaging with content you do like. Just like on social media, you are in control of your “newsfeed.” What content do you want to see?

Questions for Contemplation

1. What are you affirming/attracting in your life?
2. What “content” are you enjoying?
3. What “content” do you want to remove from your life?
4. What would your ideal “newsfeed” look like?
5. How do you have to engage with the “Universal algorithm” to change the content?

Tool for Thriving

All in All – Pause right now to feel your connection with everything. Feel how all the various parts of your body are actually all one body. Feel how you and all other human beings are the same – one humanity. Feel how there is no “you” that is separate from the Universe. It’s all one. It is the All in All. There is only One and you are one with It. Breathe. Continue your day focusing on Oneness rather than separation. 

Contemplation Questions

Tool for Thriving

Visioning 2023 – Opening to the Highest Vision for your life in 2023 is not a “one-and-done” thing. It’s an ongoing practice. Use the guided Visioning session on our YouTube channel and the Vision 2023 sheet on our webpage to continue to open and allow the Vision to clarify Itself through you. 

Contemplation Questions

1. What is the Highest Vision for my life in 2023?
2. What does my Soul most desire to experience and express this year?
3. What must I release, let go of, heal, or surrender for this Vision to fulfill itself?
4. What must I embrace, embody, or become? How must I change or grow?
5. Is there anything else Spirit would have me know at this time?

Transformation Tool

Gratitude Journal: Keep a gratitude journal. Every evening do a review of your day and write a list of at least five things that you are grateful for. If there is a lot, don’t stop at five. Write it all down. If some days it’s hard to come up with five, then consider being grateful for things like: the ability to hold a pen and write, indoor plumbing, oxygen to breathe, the hair on your head, sunshine. (There that’s five!) When you practice focusing on gratitude, you discover more to be grateful for.  

Contemplation Questions

1. What are you grateful for?

2. How might expressing gratitude affect your daily outlook?

3. How important is it for you to receive gratitude from others? Why? Why not?

4. How are you in service to others? Your community?

5. What is your “why” for being in service?

Transformation Tool

Welcome Home: To fully experience your Wholeness, you must welcome home any characteristics or qualities that you may have disowned and integrate them. Characteristics that you see in others that you don’t like are projections of a characteristic that you have rejected or suppressed. Identify the characteristic and how it may occasionally be an asset or benefit to you when used with discernment. Make a list of these characteristics and their benefits and welcome them home. 

I welcome home (characteristic), because it benefits me (how it benefits.)

e.g., I welcome home laziness, because it benefits me in taking time for myself to rest. 

Contemplation Questions

1. What behaviors in others trigger you?

2. What is the characteristic/quality behind that behavior? Separate the behavior from the characteristic by asking, “What kind of person does (behavior)?”

3. As the saying goes, “If you spot it, you got it.” So how do you express this characteristic/quality? (Remember, you might not do the same behavior.)

4. How do you overcompensate for and try to hide this characteristic/quality?

5. How might you choose to use this characteristic/quality for your benefit? In what situations could this quality be an asset?

Transformation Tool

Butterfly Wings: As a butterfly struggles to emerge from its cocoon, the fluid in its body is forced into its wings giving them the necessary strength to allow the butterfly to fly. If it didn’t have to make its way out of a small opening, it would be unable to live its life fully. How have adversities and challenges in your life strengthened you? What opportunities have you had that you otherwise wouldn’t have? Make a list of your strengths and how they serve you in living a fuller, richer life. Then express gratitude for these strengths. Perhaps use the following statement as a prompt to guide you:

I am grateful for my (strength), because I am/have (positive outcome).

e.g., I am grateful for my resilience, because I have patience when I am waiting for something.

Contemplation Questions

1. What is an area of your life in which you’d like to stretch your wings and fly higher?

2. What would that look like and feel like? What would be possible?

3. How do your roots, your history, and your experiences help you in stretching your wings?

4. How might your roots, your history and your experiences be holding you back?

5. What do you need to release to take flight? What do you need to embrace?

Transformation Tool

A Letter Home: Handwrite a letter to a loved one with whom you have always felt at home… a sense of security, love, peace, joy, and belonging. In the letter express your deep gratitude for their presence in your life and how they have impacted it. If the person is still alive, send it to them. If they have made their transition, keep your letter in a special place in your home so that you may  read it anytime you want to remind yourself of the connection you share with them.

Contemplation Questions

1. What does home mean to you?
2. What do you consider home?
3. When do you feel most at home?
4. When do you feel least at home?
5 What comes to mind when you hear or use the following phrases? 
    Home is where the heart is.
    There’s no place like home.
    Make yourself at home.

Contemplation Questions

1. How do you define forgiveness? What does forgiveness mean to you?
2. How is the practice of forgiveness related to abundance?
3. How does forgiveness increase flow in your life?
4. Whom do you need to forgive?

Transformation Tool

Make a Date: Relationships strengthen when they are nurtured. The same is true in your relationship with your money. Make a weekly date to spend quality time with your finances. Call it Money Monday, Wealth Wednesday, Thriving Thursday or some other name that reminds you to take time to be fully present with your finances… review your accounts, make investments, pay bills, and be in gratitude.

In God We Trust: On the back of every US note are the words “In God We Trust.” A perfect affirmation to remind you of your Source, Supply, and Infinite Abundance. Put your money in your wallet with the green side facing you so that you see these words. When giving your money to a cashier or anyone else, do so with the green side facing up. Keep those words “In God We Trust” visible every time you handle money.

Contemplation Questions

1. What is in your wallet is an indicator of what is in your mindset about money and finances. What are the contents of your wallet telling you?

2. How might the affirmation “I live on a fixed income,” and others like it, affect your prosperity and finances?

3. What feeling do you experience when you receive a bill? When you pay it?

4. What does the phrase “In God We Trust” stir in you?

Transformation Tool

Bills, bills, bills: Bills are a reminder of the love (in the form of goods and services) that you have already received. Every time you pay a bill or spend money, do it with love and gratitude. What you appreciate appreciates! Give more love and gratitude when giving your money and all three multiply in return. 

Contemplation Questions

1. If your money was your Honey, how would you describe your relationship?
2. How are you behaving and treating your money in your relationship?
3. How is money behaving and treating you in your relationship?
4. If you and your money were in couples therapy, what would the therapist tell you?
5. What are some ways you can nurture and spend time with your “money-honey?”

Transformation Tool

Clear Out the Clutter: Clutter is stagnant energy blocking you from receiving the abundance of good that life offers. Energy has to move.

In order to create a space in your life for energy (i.e., love, money, joy, peace) to flow freely, you must clear out the clutter.

Go through your house, office, car, email inbox, and any other place in your life and see where you are blocking the flow of your good with clutter.

Lovingly release items that can be used by others and throw out or recycle those things that can’t. Be sure to release everything with an attitude of gratitude.

A general rule of thumb is if you haven’t used it in the past year, you never will. Let it go!

Watch as you create space in your life how the abundance of the universe brings greater good to you.

Let it flow!

Contemplation Questions

1. Where are you blocking the flow of good in your life with clutter?

2. The law of circulation is a three part process: receive, utilize, give. How well is the law of circulation operating in the various aspects of your life? Where is it flowing freely? Where is it stagnant?

3. What is the energy behind hoarding and stockpiling? 

4. What is the energy behind saving and investing?

Transformation Tool

Unexpected Good: What we focus our intention and attention on expands. Become consciously aware of the Infinite Abundance that is all around you and watch your prosperity multiply. This month, record all of the unexpected good/income that you receive with dollar amounts. For example: a friend takes you to lunch, you get a rebate on an appliance, your favorite peanut butter is on sale, you have a two for one coupon. At the end of the month, tally it up. You might be surprised at just how prosperous you really are!
Download the Unexpected Good template

Contemplation Questions

1. What was the idea of God’s relationship to wealth that you grew up with? What is it now?

2. Where do you see the abundant nature of the Universe?

3. What feelings do words like “opulence,” “extravagance,” and “wealth” bring up for you?

Transformation Tool

F.A.I.L. to F.A.I.L.: When you encounter a loss, setback, or failure, take a moment to become curious and look at it as a

Fascinating 

And

Informative

Lesson

Reframing the experience in this was and identifying the growth opportunity in it then allow you to take a

Freeing

And

Inspired

Leap

forward into something more, better and blessed!

Contemplation Questions

1. How do you define success? What beliefs do you hold about success?
2. How do you define failure? What beliefs do you hold about failures?
3. What are your beliefs about success and failure manifesting in your life today?
4. What lessons have you learned as a result of “failing”?
5. How have “failures” opened your life to new possibilities?

Transformation Tool

Keep Your Eyes on the Dream: Find an image that represents your dream, goal, or vision and then use it as your wallpaper, desktop, lock screen, and screen saver on all of your electronic devices. Each time you look at your devices throughout the day you are seeing, affirming, and aligning with your dream. 

The Password Is: To further align with it, change your passwords to affirmations that support your dream. So that every time you enter your password you are affirming an energetic alignment with your dream.

For example: “I am prosperous” might look like this as a password: Iampr0sper0u$!

Contemplation Questions

1. What activities drain your energy?
2. What activities make you come alive?
3. What are some simple changes you can make to reduce the activities that drain you and increase the activities that make you come alive?
4. What dreams do you have? What is one small step you can take today to move you in the direction of your dreams?

Transformation Tool

Make a Date with Joy – Frederick Buechner defines vocation as “the place where your deep gladness meets the world’s deep need.” The world’s needs may seem endless and overwhelming, but Buechner puts your deep gladness first in his definition. That is much more manageable.

Make a list of ten things/activities that bring you joy. Make them a priority and schedule them into your calendar over the next couple of weeks. Make “Joy Dates” with yourself and do them.

Add more joys to your list and keep your dates with them.

Remember, how you spend your days is how you spend your life. Why not spend them with Joy?

As you keep your dates with Joy, the way you can best meet the world’s needs will be revealed. But it starts with you.

Contemplation Questions

1. Are you living the life you imagined? If you are, how so? If not, how would you like to live your life? 
2. How do you experience the call to live a meaningful life…in your body? Mind? Heart? Spirit?  
3. What are the values and virtues that call out to you most profoundly? How are you living them into being?
4. How do you think the world could be different if every person took the internal calls of life more seriously? 

Transformation Tool

Affirmations – Affirmations are powerful. Think of something you’d like to manifest in your life (a new job or home, healthy body, loving relationship, etc.), and write down three to five affirmations, as if you are already having the experience. Have the affirmations handy, so you can start your day with them, read them throughout the day and make your declaration at the end of your day, before you go to bed. Notice what happens in your experience after a few days, weeks, or months of this practice.

Contemplation Questions

1. What is a common personality trait or behavior in your family?  In what ways has this trait served you in the past? Does it still serve you?

2. Do you see undesirable traits and/or behaviors in others in your community? How does this relate to you? How are you like them?  How are you different?

3. Identify five traits and/or behaviors that humans share with animals. How are these traits or behaviors detrimental? How do they serve us?

Transformation Tool

Support One of Our Community Partners:

Mary S Roberts Pet Adoption Center – MSPRAC is always accepting donations of old towels and bedding for use in the kennels. They also have a list of items that they need. You can find it here:  https://www.petsadoption.com/index.php/wish-list

Second Street Hooligans – Rescues farm animals. They can always use financial support and help at their Norco facility. Find out more here: https://www.2ndstreethooligans.com

Contemplation Questions

1. What birds and insects live in your area and what do they need to survive and thrive?
2. Why are pollinating insects important to our environment?
3. What animals are you afraid of and why? What could change for you if you weren’t afraid?

Transformation Tool

Bless Your Water – Consider watching the movie or reading the book by Dr. Masaru Emoto,  “The Hidden Messages in Water.” Dr. Emoto’s work demonstrates that water directly responds to our words/feelings. Learn about how thoughts, words, prayers and music can impact the crystal formations of water as it freezes. 

Also, take a moment to bless your water before you drink, shower, bathe, etc. Feel love the next time you see a beautiful, blue body of water and be grateful for this life-giving substance.

Contemplation Questions

1. Discuss facts about water. How much water is on planet Earth? How much of the water is drinkable and usable? What percent water is in the human body and how much water do we need daily?

2. Can you name the bodies of water in your area? How has the drinking water in your area changed in the past 20 years?

3. What is some of the spiritual symbolism of water?

Transformation Tool

Unplug – This week unplug from technology. Go to the mountains. Take a walk in the park. Take the kids to the playground. Play a board game or do a jigsaw puzzle. Connect with nature and each other.

Contemplation Questions

1. What facts do you know about planet Earth?

2. How has the evolution of Humankind affected the planet over the last 100 years?   What about the last 20 years?

3. What activities are you doing that contribute to climate change?

4.  What can you do to minimize your contribution to climate change?

5. What is one simple change you can make today for a positive impact?

Transformation Tool

Demonstrate Love – The only evidence anyone has of the love they feel is based upon how they treat the person they love. You cannot see “love;” you can only see the actions that are motivated by love. This week what are some ways that you can demonstrate your love of God in how you love the world around you? Picking up that empty can that is littering the sidewalk, choosing non-pesticide ways of tending to insects, recycling more consistently, reaching out to someone you have not spoken to in a while and letting them know you miss them, listening to the person you are talking to with more active attention are a tiny fraction of the ways you can practice building your relationships as a wonderfully sacred act of recognizing and honoring the Divine.

Questions

1. In Hamlet, Shakespeare wrote, “This above all: to thine own self be true,..” What does that line have to do with the theme of relationships? What does it say about the relationship you have with God/as God? The quote continues, “And it must follow, as the night the day, Thou canst not then be false to any man.” What is the connection between being true to yourself and your ability to be “false” to others? 

2. What are 3 of the biggest challenges when it comes to relationships? Are there some people that are unworthy of being in a relationship with? If so, why makes them unworthy? If their unworthiness is an innate fact or truth about them or a condition that can be healed, what is your invitation regarding the healing process? 

3. How would you describe your relationship with God over the years? Share in a narrative manner as if you were talking about “someone” you met. Share how this “relationship” changed over time and what caused the changes.

   For example, I was about 4 or 5 when I heard about God. There was this TV program “Rex Humbard and the Humbard Family,” and they were talking about him. He seemed cool. Years later when I met him, I found out that he wasn’t as cool as people made him out to be. He had so many rules about being his friend, getting his support and protection.

4. In any relationship, there are criteria that build and or strain a relationship. Regarding your relationships with self, others, and ultimately God, what is the role of the following: forgiveness, compassion, wonder, joy, acceptance, tolerance, hope, communication, listening, spiritual and social activism?

5. What does it mean to honor the Divine in all, especially those who you may not like or may not approve of their behavior? For example: How do you honor the divinity of the person who is a radical homophobe, racist, sexist while you clearly do not accept or approve of their homophobic, racist, sexist rhetoric or behaviors? How do you practice seeing God, relating to God in them?

Transformational Tool:

Exploring Nature – If possible, explore nature in a new way. If you have never forest bathed, never been to a beach, never hugged a tree, never gone to the zoo and envisioned a world where the zoo is either obsolete because the animals are not endangered, or the zoo is an effective, safe, healthy environment for the animals. Sip some apple cider or a bite of apple pie and daydream about how far back the lineage of that apple goes and how many apples came into being for those particular apples that became your pie or cider and how that sip or bite now tastes as it nourishes, fuels, and becomes a part of your body’s adventure.

Contemplation Questions:

1. How might you respond to Dr. Stephen Strange when in the Marvel film, “Doctor Strange,” Stephen says to the Ancient One, “There is no such thing as spirit. We are made of matter and nothing more. It’s just another tiny momentary speck within an indifferent universe.” 

2. Based on the current amount of waste produced globally, what does this say about the value systems we currently hold? What beliefs/paradigms about nature and the ecology of the planet are we being invited to evolve?

3. For the person who sees a rock and it is simply a rock and nothing else, what might you say to invite them into a deeper state of wonder whereby they are invited to experience that rock as a valuable part of the planet and as an expression of Spirit?

Transformational Tool:

Agreements –  This week as you interact with the world, pause periodically and look at the societal norms you and those around you have agreed to follow. Then see them through the lens of “a world that works for all.” As you notice things in your surroundings that are not demonstrating this vision, ask yourself, “What can I do to be an ambassador of a society that works? How can I be a catalyst of Love?” Once you have your answer, do it! And begin to make new agreements.

Contemplation Questions:

1. What does “A world that works for all” mean? Are we looking for ways that support a society where the dictators of the world have what works for them and those they reign over have a world that works for them? What does it mean to you to create or to live in a world that works for all? What is a Utopia? What are the characteristics of a Utopian society?

2. What is the role of spirituality in governing how society operates? What is the difference between being a “Christian nation,” governed by the “bible” and being a non-religious, “spiritually” governed global society or a free and open global society?

3. How might people of various religious, spiritual, agnostic, atheist, pagan, etc. beliefs and practices come together, work together, and thrive together as many expressions of belief while being in one unified society? What could we do to foster this kind of unity (assuming that is desired?)? 

4. What are some of the challenges you currently have with society? For example: I see bullying or cancel culture as a major challenge in our society. What about that is a challenge? What is the personal challenge for you? Do you feel personally attacked when you hear about someone being bullied? Do you see bullying and cancel culture as synonymous? What is required spiritually and societally to heal and what are the steps you are invited to take to heal bullying in all the ways it shows up (schools, colleges, social media, places of employment)?

Transformational Tool:

A Deeper Relationship – Find a quiet moment in your day and bring a relationship you have into your awareness. Be curious about it and gently explore it through contemplating the following questions:

1. What is the nature of this relationship?
2. What do I appreciate about this relationship?
3. How does this relationship help me grow?
4. How is this relationship strong?
5. How could this relationship improve?
6. Taking 100% responsibility for the relationship, what is one thing I could do to improve it?
7. What is the next indicated step in doing so?
8. Am I willing to take that step?
9. If yes, I commit to it and take action immediately.
10. If no, then this is an opportunity for deeper exploration and curiosity about myself and this relationship.

Contemplation Questions:

1. What are three things I do not like about myself that I also try to keep others from knowing or seeing about me? What might change in my life if I stopped hiding these things from others?

2. How many different “identities” (labels) can I list as being parts of myself? For example: I am a dad, grandfather, teacher, artist, minister, gay, African American, martial artist, brother, son, grandson, etc. And how do each of these varied aspects interact and relate to one another?

3. What does it mean for me to practice Self-Care? What ways do I currently not take care of myself as well as I could (without judging)? What on this list can I select this week to shift and begin caring, nurturing, and loving myself?

4. When I talk to myself about myself, what kinds of things do I tend to say? Are they more life-affirming or life-denying? Do they inspire or depress? What is one that I choose to select and begin this week to eliminate all together or to shift and make it a more empowering declaration of the truth I choose to know about myself?

5. How does my relationship with myself impact those closest to me? Where do I see any of my self-judgments, self-criticisms, shame having an affect on them? Where do I see my self-empowered, self-loving, and authentic inspirations affecting them?

Transformational Tool:

Contemplate Freedom – Take the ideals of freedom, liberty, independence and interdependence into your daily meditations. Contemplate them. Reflect upon them. Allow them to reveal to you their deepest, most profound Truth.

Then allow these revelations to guide you to take action in order to realize – to make real – a world that works for everyone and all of creation.

Contemplation Questions:

1. What might shift in the collective consciousness if we referred to everything as “ours?” Every community is our community. Every CSL is our CSL. Every person is part of our family. Every person is one of our friends. Every country and nation are a part of our country and nation and we relate to everyone on Earth as being our brother, sister, and Gender Rich sibling. Could this stir in us greater levels of compassion and stewardship? 

2. When I think of “other” people who are not like me, people who I know very little about, who comes to mind? For example: If I am a cisgender white heterosexual man, do I know any transgender women of Color? If not, am I willing and able to have a conversation, get to know someone, and ultimately find the bond that connects us and build a relationship/friendship. 

3. What prevents people from having conversations/discussions about such things as faith, religion, sex, money, and politics? Each of these things are things that relate to us as humans. What is it about them that causes friction and distance rather than understanding and connection? “Live a life of friction. Let yourself be disturbed as much as possible, but observe.” ― G.I. Gurdjieff

Tranformation Tool:

Mind-Body Resources –  Study is one of our key spiritual practices. This week we offer you a list of resources on the Mind-Body connection for you to explore and deepen your own understanding. Be sure to select “The Riverside Community Center for Spiritual Living” as your Amazon Smile charity partner!

Decolonizing Wellness by Dalia Kinsey

The Body Is Not an Apology by Sonia Renee Taylor

The Body Keeps Score by Bessel Van Der Kolk

The Body Remembers by Babette Rothschild

The Biology of Belief by Bruce Lipton

Mind Over Medicine by Lissa Rankin

Waking the Tiger by Peter A. Levine

Contemplation Questions:

1. What message does your body want you to know, right now? Close your eyes and ask. Are you surprised by what comes up?
2. Are you in the habit of listening to your body, or dismissing it? Do you trust the messages it sends you, or do you ignore them and claim that your mind knows better? 
3. When was a time when you received a very clear message from your body? What was the context? Did you listen? What told you to listen at that moment?
4. What is your body carrying that your mind is unwilling to address, consider, or otherwise acknowledge? You might be surprised at what stories your body is trying to tell, if you listen.

Transformation Tool:

10 Minute Body Scan – Doing a body scan meditation is a type of mindfulness practice that helps you get in touch with your body and to listen to what it is wanting to share with you. The following link is a guided body scan from the UCSD Center for Mindfulness. https://soundcloud.com/ucsdmindfulness/10-min-body-scan-by-christy-cassisa

Contemplation Questions:

1. What connection do you see between the way your body feels, in this moment, and the way your mind feels? Which has the bigger influence on the other, or are they equal?
2. What is your body trying to tell you?
3. Forgiveness is the key to healing. Who do you need to forgive?
4. When you get caught in the swirl of life, who do you reach out to that you know will help lift you above it rather than co-sign on the drama with you? 
5. What beliefs do you have about medicine and doctors?

Loving this Body – Each day stand in front of the mirror and look at your body. Starting with the top of your head, give thanks for each body part. For example, say “I am grateful for my hair. I love my hair!” Work your way all the way down to the soles of your feet. Then do the same thing for all the body parts you can’t see but that you can name (e.g., muscles, bones, organs, vessels, connective tissue, fluids, etc.) 

When you love and appreciate your body and treat it as a friend rather than an adversary, you’ll feel great and your overall health is very likely to improve!

Welcome to the Temple – Your body is the temple of the Divine! Yet most people walk around living solely in their heads, not fully inhabiting their bodies. Become aware of your body through the week. Every day, select a part of your body to simply notice through the day. 

For example: How do your feet feel when you stand on them? What sensation can you perceive at your navel? Pay close attention to your left earlobe. 

What do you notice, and what awareness does it give you? Explore the temple and get to know it!

“May we not just ache, but act.” – Amanda Gorman, Hymn for the Hurting

Exercising your right to vote is a spiritual practice and a tool for transformation, not just for yourself, but for society. Familiarize yourself with our global vision and declaration of principles here, then research all of the candidates running for every office in the upcoming primary election for alignment with the vision of a world that works for everyone and all of creation.

Research the candidates not just for state and national races, but most importantly local races like judges, county supervisors, sheriffs, district attorneys, city councils. It is the local elections that actually have the most impact on daily life and it is in local government that state and national lawmakers often get their start. Vote every race, every time. It does make a difference.

Looking Anger in the Eye – Unresolved anger at best leads to resentment and bitterness, at worst hatred and violence. Looking anger in the eye and approaching it with curiosity allows you to learn what it is that it’s bringing your attention to allowing you to be at choice as to how you want to move forward intentionally and compassionately.

Questions like these help you dialogue with your anger and discover the hidden gems within.

What needs are not being met?

What is no longer of service?

What is not aligned?

What wants to be stopped, ended, or changed?

What needs to be changed or destroyed so that something better can emerge in its place?

What boundary needs to be set or what boundary has been violated?

The next time you are experiencing anger in any of its multitude of forms, feel it through to completion. Then look it in the eye, learn what it has to offer, and respond accordingly. 

Face Everything And Rise – While fear is a spectrum ranging from mild concern to abject terror, most of us experience fear in the mild to moderate range on a fairly regular basis. Concerned about gas prices… hesitant to accept an invitation… nervous about an interview… worried about test results… 

Fear wants to be a faithful servant cautioning you and keeping you safe from harm. Rather than resisting it, the opportunity is to face it, be curious and learn of its wisdom. Invite it to answer questions like: What needs to be known? What do I need to pay attention to? What do I need to face?

Facing your fears in this way allows you to free yourself from the grip and to rise and meet whatever lies before you in faith. Face everything and rise.

Joy Jar – What you celebrate, appreciates. Get a large jar or some other container and decorate it in a way that sparks joy when you look at it. Next to it keep small slips of paper and a pen. As you move through your day, week, month, and year take a second to jot down the moments of joy that you experience. They can be inspired by something  big like a wedding or something small like the perfect  bite of your favorite food. Put them in your joy jar and watch them expand. If at any time you want a bit of inspiration or just want to celebrate something, go to your joy jar and read a few… or read them all!

Feel It Through – Feeling your feelings all the way through to completion is healthy, natural and only takes an average of 90 seconds or so. Not doing so and repressing or recycling your feelings can cause physical, psychological, and relational problems with long-term effects.

1. Identify the core emotion you are experiencing. (e.g., joy, sadness, anger, fear)
2. Locate the sensation in your body and describe it as precisely as possible. (e.g., tingling, popping, twisting, tightening, warm, swirling, flowing)
3. Take a few deep breaths.
4. Be present with the sensation. Simply allow it to be.
5. Match your experience with expression. If the sensation could move, what is the movement? If it could make a sound, what sound? Then move and vocalize the sensation matching the intensity of the feeling. 
6. Breathe and reassess. If the sensation is still there, repeat steps five and six until the feeling has moved through to completion.
7. Gain wisdom from the emotion through curiosity and wonder.

• • joy – What wants to be celebrated? Appreciated?
  • sadness – What needs to be let go of? Released? Moved on from?
  • anger – What is no longer serving? What’s out of alignment? What needs to be changed?
  • fear – What needs to be known? Faced? Learned?

Expand the Edge – Your comfort zone will begin to close in on you if you don’t expand its edge. You don’t have to skyjump to expand the edge of your comfort zone, though it’s great if that’s what you choose to do. Perhaps going to dinner and a movie with yourself and no one else stretches your comfort zone or taking a dance class or trying a food you’ve never eaten or… What is one thing that expands your edge? Do it! 

Random Acts of Creativity! – Break out those crayons, colored pencils, construction paper, scissors, glue and finger paints and have at it… Make up a song… Build a fort with pillows. Let your childlike wonder out to play. Don’t worry about what others think. Their opinions don’t matter. Just express yourself and create!

Live the ish – Perfectionism, comparison, and judgment can stifle your creative expression. Let that stuff go by living “ishly!”  Enjoy the story “ish” read by Rev. Jeff here. Then try your hand at drawing–ish with Michelle here. Then apply the principle of ish to your own creative endeavor!

Follow the Curiosity Clues – Is there anything you’re interested in? Anything at all? Say yes to exploring it a bit. A simple google search. See what sparks and where the interest leads you. Simply say yes and follow the curiosity clues. Letting curiosity and inspiration lead your way to a more interesting expression and experience of life.

Sloth Mode – Choose at least one activity you enjoy regularly and fully savor the moment. Perhaps it’s standing in the shower or your first cup of coffee. Find little moments throughout your day to slow down and take time for you!

A Laugh A Day! –  Laughter is good for the mind, body and spirit! Check out these laughter exercises on our YouTube Channel and get laughing!

Three Laughter Exercises from Sunday: https://youtu.be/QUEtyz_wr9Q

A Laugh a Day – 7 Laughter Exercises: https://youtu.be/rA3m3w8L1Wk

Dance Party – Bring more Joy into your day with a 30 second dance party! Simply play a favorite song and get your groove on. If you want a 30 Second Dance Party button like Rev. Jeffrey used in service, you can order one here.

What Happened Wisdom Tree – Download the What Happened Wisdom Tree worksheet and follow the numbered prompts to discover how a cause set in motion many years ago is still affecting your life today. Rewatch Sunday’s message “Pause and Find the Cause” if you want to be led through the process.

1. Loving Kindness – This meditation is rooted in the Metta meditation of the Buddhist tradition. It is designed to resonate with the energy of loving-kindness for ourselves and others and bring forth peace and harmony. This tool usually takes 3-10 minutes depending on how long you spend in each segment and how many segments you choose to do.

   Segment 1: Yourself
   Segment 2: A loved one or friend
   Segment 3: Someone you may have a challenge with
   Segment 4: a group of people
   Segment 5: We/Us/Everyone

   Segment 1: Repeat silently to yourself
   May I be filled with Loving-kindness
   May I be well
   May I be peaceful and at ease
   May I be happy

   Segments 2-4: May you…

   Segment 5: May we…

2. Ho’oponopono – This forgiveness practice as it has been popularized in western spiritual circles is only a small part of a larger reconciliation and reparation practice and ritual of the native Hawaiian people.

   Allow the image of a person with whom you have conflict (or from whom you wish forgiveness) to come into your mind’s eye and then repeat the following until you feel a shift within you.

   I’m sorry. (I take full responsibility for this situation.)
   Please forgive me. (I have compassion for myself. I have compassion for you.)
   Thank you. (For this opportunity to resolve this within myself and with you.)
   I love you. (You and I are one.)

3. Forgiveness and Release – Allow the image of a person with whom you have conflict ( or whom you are choosing to forgive) to come into your mind’s eye and then repeat the following until you feel a shift within you.

   I forgive you. (I recognize that Spirit is your True Essence.)
   I bless you. (I affirm only Goodness for myself and for you.)
   I love you. (You and I are one.)
   I release you. (I know Freedom and Peace for myself and for you.)

Fear to Faith Worksheet –  Download the Fear to Faith worksheet and follow the numbered prompts to work your way from a current challenge to a changed outcome. Rewatch Sunday’s message “The Ultimate Fear-Buster” if you want to be led through the process.

1. Into-Me-I-See – Look into a mirror or the selfie camera on your cell phone. The eyes are the windows of the soul, so look deeply into your own. See your truest Self – Love – looking back at you. Smile at this beloved before you and say, “I am Divine.”
2. Mirror, Mirror – Post these affirmations on your bathroom mirror and say them out loud every time you’re in there. Make it part of your hand washing routine! Create your own affirmations and do the same. Tip: You can also use a dry erase marker to write your affirmations on the mirror!

Scientific Experiment – Choose an area/aspect of your life as your laboratory. Choose from the areas we are exploring together this year: inner life, play, creativity, emotions, the physical body/health, relationships, nature, work, finances, home, community, or choose one of your own. Become curious about this area and formulate a question about it to explore further. Do some research. Formulate a hypothesis and develop a method or process to test it. Then experiment! Collect the data and analyze the results. What did you discover? Do the results confirm or support your hypothesis? Do they lead you to a whole new line of inquiry? Live into your findings, be transformed by them, and then become curious again. There are no limits to your discovery or your unfoldment.

1. Questions and more questions –  Identify a challenge you are experiencing. It doesn’t have to be big, but it should be real. Rather than brainstorming a list of solutions, become curious. Brainstorm a list of questions that might help you understand the challenge better, gain new insights, and see different perspectives. Once you have your list of questions, ask them and see where the answers lead you. Stay open and be curious. Allow solutions to reveal themselves as they will. Then chart a course of action.
2. The Five Whys – Much of the success of the Toyota Motor Corporation is built on a single question: Why? Sakichi Toyoda, the founder of Toyota Industries developed the technique known as the Five Whys. In the common use of the Five Whys, when a problem occurs the question “why” is asked a series five times to attempt to drill down to determine the root cause of the problem, make the necessary adjustment, and ensure that it doesn’t happen again. We do something similar when we use spiritual mind treatment by drilling down to the false belief, creating a new mental equivalent and setting a new cause in motion.

   Toyoda originally developed the Five Whys to challenge conventional thinking, generate new ideas, and discover new possibilities. “Why” drives Toyota’s innovation and it is also behind its continued improvement.

   “Why” is a small word, but a big question with infinite possibilities. Why not give it a try? Use Toyoda’s Five Whys to either drill down to the root cause of a challenge or broaden the possibilities.  Where does your why lead?

3. Train Your Inner Ear – We are always being guided. We just have to listen for and hear the inner guidance. Some call it Spirit, Higher Wisdom self, or simply… intuition. Practice tuning into it daily by posing questions and waiting for a response. “Which way shall I turn?” “What food will nourish me at this moment?” Then follow through. Practicing with mundane, everyday situations trains the inner ear to tune into your Inner Wisdom, making it more readily accessible when asking the BIG questions.

1. Simply Notice – Using your observer consciousness, do a scan of your thoughts, emotions, and body and simply notice what is present in the moment without judgment or trying to change it. Simply notice. Bringing your awareness to your present experience is one definition of curiosity. Notice what has your attention – what you are curious about. Notice how the thoughts or sensations are temporary and pass or change. Notice any insights you may have as a result of this practice.

2. Reframe — Instead of identifying with what you are feeling “I am angry,” use your observer consciousness to reframe the experience “I am experiencing anger right now” or “the angry ones are visiting now.” Reframing adjusts your perspective and allows you to relate to your what you are experiencing rather than relating from it. What a difference!

3. Body Scan — Bring your attention to the sensations of your body beginning with your toes and working up through your head. Be curious about what you are experiencing in each area without judgment. This is a form of mindfulness practice and is a great tool to bring yourself back to the present moment because your body is with you wherever you go!

1. Orienting to Wonder – Find an everyday object and look at it. Really look at it with eyes of wonder, awe, and amazement. Notice all aspects of it. What is it made of? What uses does it have? How is it shaped? What color is it? How is it designed? Who might have created it? What is the inspiration behind it? Allow yourself to really appreciate its totality, it parts, its function, its origins. Isn’t it amazing?! Notice how you use it. What muscles and movements does your body use when using the object? Notice the complexities of your body and what is necessary to move those muscles. Isn’t it incredible?! Now look at something in nature and do the same thing.

Isn’t it wondrous?! There is awe-inspiring beauty everywhere!

2. Sister-Brother-Sibling – As you move through your day, and come across the faces of people whether in person or on a screen, silently say to yourself, “Sister, Brother, Sibling” and allow yourself to begin to wonder about them and their lives. What did they have for lunch? Where are they going? What do they do for fun? It trains our mind to see more and more people as part of ourselves. Then silently say, “You are a part of me I do not know yet.” Do this with animals, plants and the earth as well. This practice orients us toward wonder and opens us to experience greater connections.
3. Anytime you are in a meeting or gather with others, why not invite each person to share an experience or wonder or awe that they have recently had? Think of the positive impact this can have. The more we wonder, the more we have to appreciate and be grateful for. What we appreciate appreciates! Also try this practice at dinner time with your family or when gathering with friends. Notice how this simple practice deepens the capacity to wonder and connect.

1. Wheel of Life (download pdf here)
2. 52 New Skills – Make a list of all the things you have wanted to do or learn and commit to doing or learning one a week. Think of all the things you can’t do but would like to be able to do. It can be as simple as something like juggling, baking bread, playing tennis or picking up a musical instrument, or as exciting as learning to water ski or to fly a plane. If you’re curious enough, you can learn to do anything!

Don’t just choose to learn things you are naturally good at. Instead, chose to learn things you have a natural interest in. Have fun discovering new wonders!