SoulTraveler

The obvious sentiment around the Valentine holiday is to celebrate romantic love. For many people without a romantic interest in their lives, Valentine's Day is a poignant reminder of what is missing in their lives. This may be in part why Valentine's Day is a much maligned holiday. There is however, another way to look at February 14th. Look at it as a day to celebrate love. Love of yourself, your friends, your family and beyond. Valentine's Day is the red and pink color holiday that brightens up the drab grey of Winter with hearts, chocolates and flowers Here are some ideas to help you celebrate a day of  love. For the kids in your life: tuck a valentine into their lunch boxes or backpacks when they aren't looking. Even the snarky teenagers will get a kick out of it even if they won't necessarily want to admit it. Heart shaped cookies in the lunch box along with a red apple would be a nice addition as well. Surprise the family with a heart shaped cake for desser...

Happiness is the product of accepting the choices you have made for your life path thus far, while understanding that we can decide to alter these choices anytime we choose if we find that we need to grow in a different direction. Happiness comes from embracing our soul purpose and self sacrifice.                                                      Honoring our Soul Choices When we make a choice to partner up with another person or to become a parent, we take on a soul commitment to another being. The challenge of such commitment, is in being mindful of the well being of those who we made the commitment to and putting aside our egotistical tendencies to worry about what we are getting in return. Empowering our children to feel good about themselves and their place in the family and affirming that they can achieve their dreams, is in itself empowerin...

When the New Year arrives, many of us are determined to make changes in our lives, and so we set out to make resolutions. Often times many of these resolutions fade away almost as quickly as we write them down and we are left wondering why this happens to us nearly every time we make the attempt to improve ourselves. Some of the most common resolutions involve losing weight, exercising more and eating healthier. I feel the main reason these resolutions fail is because we are coming from an ego point of view rather than from our spiritual selves. If we remain mindful that we are first and foremost spiritual beings, then the notion of hitting the gym 3 times a week or dieting to lose that extra twenty pounds becomes amusing. Why? because perhaps we are doing it for the wrong reasons or maybe we are doing it for the right reasons but going at it the wrong way. If the goal of diet and exercise is so that we can look good to ourselves when we look in the mirror, or in the hope of attracting...

The key to any successful relationship whether it be romance oriented or not, is to honor yourself. By honoring yourself you set a standard of behavior that is acceptable to you and will allow for healthy growth to take place between two people. Often times, people set separate standards for what they will tolerate in a relationship versus a friendship. Some people set higher standards for a romantic partner than they do for a friend, others do the opposite. Standards for ANY relationship that you engage in should be the same. All relationships are about give and take and require a fairly equal exchange of effort. I say fairly because sometimes one must carry more than the other for a bit of time and vice versa. The point here is that in the end it evens out. When one person is continually carrying the bulk of the work of a relationship it puts things out of balance and sends the wrong message to the other person. Compromise and honesty are two other important frameworks that build a...

I have taken a year off from this blog in order to focus on some  aspects of my life that needed some attention, both on a spiritual level and mundane as well. My work as a psychic and life coach has given me valuable insights into how relationships can go wrong and also what characteristics define a good relationship. People call me out of concern over a romantic relationship they are struggling with, but seldom, if ever, do I get calls about friendships. For many, friendships are not something that people really think about working on. I am surprised how little people know about how to go about being a good friend. Although friendships are not required to last a lifetime, they are another important part of how we relate and share our lives with others. As such, they could use a little tending to. I feel that people seldom take the time to reflect on how good a friend they are to another person, but rather tend to focus on what they themselves are getting from a friendship. It a...

Your honest word is one of your most precious and powerful possessions.     Mistakes Were Made (but not by me) Why we justify foolish beliefs, bad decisions and hurtful acts by Carol Tavis and Elliot Aronson . This book is well worth reading not only to help you understand your behaviors, but also why other people act as they do. Great self help book. It is fascinating. Here are some tidbits from the book 1 .Promises are easily made. Keeping them often proves more difficult because when we are pressured to strive always for perfection, we find it simpler to agree to undertake impossible tasks than to say no. Likewise, there is an infinite array of circumstances that conspire to goad us into telling falsehoods, even when we hold a great reverence for truth. When you endeavor to consistently keep your word, however, you protect your reputation and promote yourself as someone who can be trusted to be unfailingly truthful. Though your honesty may not always en...

Samhain is the time of year when the veil between the spirit world and ours is the thinnest. This makes it a good time to communicate with the ancestors. Some people may not have a strong connection to their past family members or a desire to connect with them. However, the concept of ancestors does not have to be limited to a family tree. For some people, ancestors can be the deity they identify most closely with.  Find what works best for you and try this spread in the quiet hours of Samhain. To make this spread part of a ritual or the Samhain ritual itself, I would suggest setting up an altar with black and silver candles which can be scented with vanilla or cinnamon oil. I also like to clear the room with sage prior to any ritual. A black or silver altar cloth, clear quartz crystal and/or onyx stones, a picture of your ancestor or statue of your deity would be a nice addition as well. Animal totems could also be used. I like to use my raven statue. Raven is a...