A safe harbor where beliefs are respected and kindness prevails.

14 Ways to practice Soul-cial Living

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(This is this first article on ways to practice Soul-cial Living in a series of 4)
“A life lived to serve others is the only life that matters.”  Ben Stein

love and kindnessOne of the most important aspects of “Soulcial Living” is giving back to the community.  I am the youngest of six children.  We grew up in a small town just outside of Detroit.  My father was the bread-winner and my mother was the bread maker.  Both came from humble beginnings and never missed an opportunity to teach us the meaning of “giving back to the community”.

We are all connected.  What we do affects everyone and everything on the planet.  To live “Soulcially” means we recognize that connection and honor all of life by doing what we can to serve.

Below are 14 ways to “show up” for your community and practice living a more “soul-cially” conscious lifestyle.  Over the course of the next six weeks I will include 42 additional ways to practice; 14 more ideas for each article, giving you a total of 56 different practices to incorporate into your life.   Some require a little thought, others include a simple gesture.

1.Talk less – listen more
2. Offer to do community service/Volunteer
3. Mentor a child
4. Shovel your neighbor’s snow
5. Offer to show someone your town
6. Pay a toll for the person behind you
7. Donate to charity
8. Recycle
9. Start a free book exchange
10. Smile at a stranger
11. Hug someone
12. Call someone long distance
13. Send a card to someone
14. Tell everyone you meet to “make it a great day”

Little things make a big difference, in your life and the life of another.  Challenge yourself by printing this out!  Practice one each day, make a difference and get ready for the next round.

The love and kindness of one friend can make the difference of a million! TMG

Soul-cial Living – A New Perspective

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red tailed hawk JAWMy husband and I are amateur bird watchers.  I say amateur because I know some folks who spend almost every waking minute looking at, and for, birds.  We are not quite that intense, yet!  My mother calls it an infatuation.  I like to think of it as recognizing the beauty that lies above!

One bird that I am particularly fond of is the hawk.  There are over 208 species of hawks around the world and at least 25 different hawk species in the United States.  My attraction to the hawk began long ago, when I witnessed one flying above then swoop down on a field mouse and carry it away.  A few minutes later, that same hawk flew back to the tree to simply view the world around it.

On the way to an event a few years ago, my husband and I witnessed the incredible migration of hawks as they traveled south. There were literally thousands of them.  We pulled over to watch in the nearest spot we could find, a cemetery.  In the silence, as we observed the mass migration in awe, it occurred to me that we can learn a lot from the hawk.

Hawks have an amazing ability to adapt and survive in almost any condition. As a shamanic practitioner and energy worker I have studied the various meanings behind the animals that appear in our lives.  Each culture has their own definition of the messages available when witnessing a hawk. Some include: seeing the big picture, empowerment for finding the positive, being awake and aware that you can achieve great things by persistence and strength of will.   It also can mean that you live with greater intensity in all areas of your life, strong intuitive and vision capabilities, and a clear connection with spirit

Soul-cial living is showing up in life with the perspective of living from your highest good and the highest good of all.  In many ways it resembles living like the hawk and includes taking in the big picture, being open to new ideas and outlooks, finding the positive, seeing the good in life, living life with awareness; awareness of our connection to each other and our connection to something greater, the spiritual world and the part of us that is our soul.

Our soul is the true essence of who we are, the collection of experiences that lead us to living from our highest and best self.  It represents the thoughts, behaviors, actions, and rituals that we embody to stay on the path of living for “the highest good of all”.  When we sit quietly enough to listen to our soul’s voice and follow her promptings we are living with soul-cial consciousness.

Today I offer you a new perspective, a new way to live – Soul-cial Living.  Step back for just one minute each day to realize how far your wings can span when you see through the eyes of your soul, the eyes of love.  When we live our lives from the soul’s perspective we begin to see more light where there is darkness, more joy where there is pain, more peace where there is anger, more love where there is hate.

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