EPISODE 138: WHAT’S IN A WORD? YOUR WORD OF THE YEAR

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Hello friends,
 
We’re back! I hope you had a nice break in the holidays, and that you are still a little shiny and hopeful with that happy “re-set/re-boot/renew/resolve” energy that comes with the New Year.
 
In our first podcast of 2016, Erin and I have a conversation about a new twist on the old New Year’s resolution:

Your Word of the Year.

The word of the year is the one-word resolution that oh-so-simply empowers your growth for 2016. Based in an exercise from the teachings of Dr. Roberto Assagioli, this simple practice allows you to plant and develop a new character strength, and it will surprise you with its efficacy. Your word will “train” you in a new attitude, and open you up to a new way.
 
How do you pick your word of the year? How do you let it become the muse whispering to you over your shoulder?
Listen in, and Erin and I will offer some tips, and we will each share with you what our word for 2016 is.
 
Thanks for being with us, and inviting your friends to join in on the fun of listening to these conversations. In coming weeks, we will build on our New Year’s positivity with two shows on “Hope” – hope for ourselves and hope for our world, and a thoughtful exploration on the power of The Serenity Prayer.
 
All the best to you and yours for 2016 – onward!
Mary & Erin
 

EPISODE 138: WHAT’S IN A WORD? YOUR WORD OF THE YEAR

It’s the New Year! Such a great time for the re-start, the re-boot, the re-set … but how do you stick with it for the long term? Maybe you gave up making a New Year’s resolution a while ago because you always fail at sticking with it. (Doesn’t everyone? How is it that we can FORGET our best intentions so quickly?!)
 

Try this: boil your New Year resolution down into one word: your Word of the Year.

 
It’s the word that is the medicine for the chronic condition that ails you, and it lifts your eyes to the horizon, makes you breathe deeper, and enhances your sense of dignity as a student in life’s classroom.
 
Did you know that you can call in a new gift of character from the heart of the Universe, and from the amazing wellspring of your own soul? You can find a strength you’ve never had before. And you can begin to have new experiences of a fortunate life, despite a long history of disappointment.
 

Here’s some thoughts for you, from this show:

 
Spiritual surrender: “to take shelter within.” it means you accept and live inside the love and safety provided by your Higher Self.
 
“Our goals in life are merely the features on the game board of our life. What is of greater importance is the spirit with which we do or do not achieve our goals, and how we live our life, day by day.”
 
Our difficult growth processes can be softened, if we call for ease & grace, as we willingly engage all our challenges.
 
“What’s the best music in the whole world? The music of what happens.” – from an Irish hero tale

Posted on January 9, 2016 | Discuss on Facebook

EPISODE 137: Churched or Un-churched – what is “Christ Consciousness?”

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Hi everyone,

Our Kitchen Mystic Series continues apace, as Erin and I explore the deeper level of peace that is the universal underpinning of the Christmas story.

For Christians, Christmas time heralds the birthday of Jesus Christ, and all that he brought and brings to the world to lift us out of the darkness of human error and frailty. 

For non-Christians, the “Jesus” focus of Christmas time may seem like a large birthday party going on (and on) right next door to us, and if we aren’t personally connected, after a while  our patience and tolerance wears thin. You might have a moment when you think, “If I hear one more Christmas carol in a store I’m going to scream…”

For the churched and the unchurched among us, for the Christians and the Nones together, there is a deeper level of spirituality that we can all share in at this time.

Beyond the historical and religious Jesus, there is a Universal Spirit that he fully embodied and each of us can tap into it to some degree, no matter what our level of church affiliation or non- affiliation is.

Let’s call it “Christ Consciousness.”

Enter in with us and touch something that is so much deeper than words, and let us remember together what is so easy to forget:

We are all One.

As John Lennon put it, Imagine all the people … living life in peace … you may say I’m a dreamer. But I’m not the only one. I hope one day you’ll join us, and the world will live as one.

As winter’s darkness grows, it brings us the gift of how much we love the light, and how we are trying to “be a light” for ourselves and for everyone else.

Cozy up with us this week and go deeper.

Be there. Be Here!

The blessing of feeling Christ Consciousness can happen in a moment.

May it happen for you now, today.

Love always,
Mary and Erin

EPISODE 137 Churched or Un-churched – what is “Christ Consciousness?”


“Christ consciousness” is an experience of Universal light and oneness that is the deeper level of Christmas-time energy. For Christians and non-Christians alike, this experience of peace is a joy beyond words that Mary nevertheless attempts to put into words in this podcast. 

“Christ Consciousness? We tap into it. It’s a field of light and energy that we occasionally breathe in, and our consciousness stretches out into it like into a lovely warm ocean.

Your heart is open – your mind is still – you feel nothing but good will and blessing towards others – you feel safe – you wish to serve and bless and love everyone – you become love, with peaceful detachment.

You tap into a space that is love, it’s inside you, and you are inside it. You feel encouragement, bliss, a desire to serve, blessing, thriving, unity.

You see yourself in another person and know yourself to be one and the same being.

This is what we hope to taste in a moment in a Christmas midnight service: that way you stretch out into a vast timeless space with other people, in the play of dark and light.”

Take some time amid the noise and bustle of the holiday season to be in a moment with Mary and Erin, as we remember to find that quieter, deeper place.

Sense that spiritual fabric of light and energy and the one-ness that informs all religions as well as our most special moment in an otherwise ordinary day.

You are a Kitchen Mystic.
You can do that.
Peace, baby.

Posted on December 19, 2015 | Discuss on Facebook

EPISODE 136: The Kitchen Mystic Series – Spirituality and Religion

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Hi friends,

Great news! Even though a recent study on Religion in America tells us that church enrollment is declining, it also reports that there is an increase in the number of people (churched and unchurched) who claim to regularly have spiritual experiences: the feeling of peace, gratitude, and a sense of wonder about the Universe. The Kitchen Mystics!

This week Erin and I continue our musings on living life as a Kitchen Mystic, a dedicated spiritual person who does not feel the need to go to church.

Are you a happy churchgoer, or a “None,” someone who has no religious affiliation?

Do you find church rewarding, optional, irrelevant, or oppressive – an activity that actually mutes the true life and power of your own spirit’s truth and happiness?

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A Special Note:

As the year draws to a close
and we prepare to re-set for the New Year,
give yourself a treat from your favorite Kitchen Mystic and do my 21-day online course:
Forgive Yourself, Love Yourself, and Move On.

This is a super affordable opportunity for some simple and serious renewal.

You’ll receive a daily email with an easy soulful exercise, and the guidance for how to clear some debris from last year or some chronic disappointment in yourself.

You deserve to love who you are, and get support to begin again. Because a rich and meaningful life is always about beginning again.

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Abundant Blessings to You –
Mary and Erin

Have a listen!

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EPISODE 136: THE KITCHEN MYSTIC SERIES – SPIRITUALITY AND RELIGION

“Spirituality is a state of awareness in which you are vitally and lovingly present to yourself, to other people, to Nature, and to Spirit.”

Church is wonderful, unless you happen to have been abused in one, or raised in a church that felt dry and irrelevant to you, and then you left to join the growing numbers of the “unchurched.”

This week, Mary tells a story of recovering from a wound sustained in her childhood church experience, and how she found her way into her own spirituality that is both disciplined and joyful. (She managed to retain a few positive things from her childhood church tradition.)

Sometimes we have to forgive God! (or at least, our concept of God.) And then we can start a whole new relationship with God.

Click here to see the recent study on Religion in America.

Posted on December 13, 2015 | Discuss on Facebook