Breathe, Smile Now Meditation Retreat

I've mentioned in my Sexy Nomad blog that the month of September is a magical month for me because of a series of events which are perfectly unfolding according to my needs and wants. Just to summarize, I've been wanting a new kind of lifestyle, an upgrade from the current one I have been enjoying since I retired from government service in Dec. 2007. By upgrade, I do not mean material things, prestige, or wealth per se (though these things will naturally happen should I stay true to my chosen path). I just want a change of routine, greater responsibilities and bigger venue for learning and growth. I want to be the best Jen Adams I can be and use my potential to the fullest. Hence, my September has been a very busy one and it still is.  And with everything I am doing, I am very much in need of respite for the month of October so I can recharge and better prepare myself for bigger things to come.

So on October 16-19, God-willing, I am attending the Breathe Smile Now 4-day Mindfulness Retreat. I remember in 2012, when I attended the two-week Meditation Retreat and International Youth Seminar in Taiwan, I came back much more rejuvenated and ready to accept more blessings which was why I have been traveling non-stop for two years. I asked the universe for more travel opportunities and through the help of the meditation retreat I attended, I became more calm and centered and aligned with the universe that I became an automatic recipient of the things I wanted. This is because meditation can help a person become attuned to his/her subconscious which is where inspired ideas come from and from there, dreams can start materializing.

This 4-day mindfulness retreat will happen on October 16-19, 2014. Venue is in Mariapolis Center in Tagaytay. Weekend-only participation also possible. For more details and to register go to http://bit.ly/1oaP151

For more information about the retreat like the schedule, who will be conducting and other benefits you will get, please head to this link:
http://plumvillageasia.org/index.php/list-of-events/icalrepeat.detail/2014/10/16/100/-/philippines-breathe-smile-now-a-4-day-retreat

If you are a busy person like me, or someone who just wants to relax or someone in need of  inner peace once again it's about time that we experience and enjoy mindfulness, meditation, and our collective loving and nurturing energy.

This is our appointment with life: "Breathe, Smile, Now" :)

TRUTH - A Paragram by Paramahansa Yogananda

With my husband being sick for the past week, I was busy playing the role of the dutiful wife. I was rarely online except for work and I barely had the time to take care of my personal and spiritual growth. I know... I know. It shouldn't be the case. If there's one thing I learned during my travel to Vietnam with Jem, it is to start each day with prayer or meditation. I mentioned this on my Wiccan blog and I still believe this practice to be powerful until now.

Unfortunately, this hasn't been the case for me the past week. And without meditation, I lose focus of my center and slowly, stress started creeping in. When that happens, my insecurities set in and it's not a wonderful feeling.

Suffice it to say that this morning, I made it a point to meditate again. Meditation banishes negative feelings and brings back that feeling of awe and contentment. Meditation keeps one grounded while at the same time makes you excited about the great possibilities that can happen in your life. So this morning, I did just that with the help of my Para-Grams. As I was meditating, I picked out the card of TRUTH. It says:

There is no particular section of the world, nor any special group of people, that may claim truth as an exclusive heritage. It is the rightful possession of every person, and constitutes the equality of all souls before God. If you do not make an effort to know truth, to perceive it beneath the veils that hide it, you will not discover your own real nature and will therefore remain at the mercy of outside forces of "circumstances." In meditation, behold the star of divine wisdom, that its rays disclose the truth ever within yourself. "If therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light" (Matthew 6:22). Truth is mighty and shall prevail!

I think this Para-Gram is telling me to stop feeling stressed out and insecure about myself and my life. Life in itself is beautiful and that everything I could possibly need is either already in my possession or within my reach. There is no reason to think of myself as a lesser being just because I'm not like most people. Each one of us is awesome in our own right. My own real nature is beautiful in itself and that I should never have to judge it so harshly. If I don't acknowledge this truth, then I will just be continuously at the mercy of outside forces and circumstances around me like the card says. I am created in the image and likeness of the most Divine, hence, I am already beautiful and complete.

After having this epiphany during my meditation, I felt so much better.

Try doing some meditations too when you feel stressed out or when you're having a crappy day. It doesn't have to be in the morning as long as it's a time you are comfortable at being silent for a little while so you can focus your energies.

MAGNETISM - A Para-Gram by Paramahansa Yogananda

Spiritual magnetism is a drawing, uplifting, expanding power. It is a quality of the Spirit. By soul magnetism in man, a person draws to himself friends and desired objects, and acquires profound knowledge. You should strive for that magnetic power, which has limitless range and depth. You can develop spiritual magnetism by deep meditation upon Aum (Amen, the Word) and God. Through its divine power, you can accomplish in your life the materialization of all your constructive ambitions. God's magnetic drawing power is in you. If you radiate love and goodwill to others, you will open the channel for God's love to come to you. Through meditation and service to mankind, you will develop divine love, the magnet that draws to you all good.

Since I was a kid, I've always been interested in spirituality,the concept of the divine, the higher power if you will. This curiosity got me interested in becoming a nun when I was ten years old, then experimenting with another religion as an adolescent. I am Roman Catholic on paper. Then some time back in college, I was baptized a born-again Christian. Somewhere along the way, I lost my faith and became an atheist. But that just brought me nothing but misery, and so I turned agnostic instead. I've been an agnostic my whole young adult life. I do believe in what most people call "God", a higher power which I believe we will never ever fully understand, but it's there. I even have this theory (which I got from my husband, and which he got from Stan Lee) that after this higher power, this God, created all that there is, He just simply moved on and abandoned us (in a non-negative kind of way). I mean, think about it. The Catholic Bible says that we are all created in His own image and likeness. Therefore it means, that we all have the capacity within us to be Gods ourselves, to create our own worlds too, our own reality. And many of us have been doing that for the longest time that's why our species keep surviving, we keep discovering better things for us. I mean, He is God after all. He can choose to abandon us and move on to greater things if He wants to. This higher power has already given us everything that we could possibly ever need to thrive and live in peaceful bliss. We have this beautiful Earth in which we live in (it's just too bad that we are destroying it in the process too), we have our free will to be able to do what we want, we have our conscience and intuition to help guide us to the right path (it's just too bad also that most of us choose to ignore them), we can become magnets (we actually already are and many of us just don't know how to use it) so we can attract and gravitate towards us the things, people, and events that we want. So what else can we yearn for?

I've tested this theory a few times recently. Through meditation upon this higher power, I was able to get some simple things I want. Simple things like having the house renovated (all of a sudden, I got three jobs to help pay for it), wanting to travel on weekends (I've been doing that almost every other weekend since January came in), wanting to just laze around the house and relax (I easily let go of my two jobs without any no fuss), then an opportunity came for me to help my siblings financially (I easily got one job back as if on will). It's as if, whatever it was that I needed at that particular moment (without the greed and just purely out of love and search for inner bliss), the universe simply gave it to me. Other people out there don't have it this good. Perhaps, if we all just learn to tap into this spiritual magnetism in all of us, the lives that we all have now can be so much better.