My Everyday Mystic by Jan Puta: blog for the soul

“What’s a Healer for if not to fill up emptiness and patch up holes.” That comment set the crowd of unhappy and hurting citizens on the road to the Healer’s house.

Each person was missing a heart. In the Healer’s house were many shelves of broken hearts pieced back together, but not yet healed. As the spiritual allegory, “The Healer of Broken Hearts” continues, the Healer teaches them how to mend their hearts.

Now some of you may say, “That makes for a good story, but where am I going to find a Healer who can help me heal my broken heart?”

That may be a lot easier than you think. Let’s start with these three steps:

Click here to continue reading Three Ways to Heal a Broken Heart

Where to begin? My list would be long if I counted every blessing when we celebrate Thanksgiving Day in the United States.

The one event that really shines this year is having my first book published in February of 2008. I’ve known since high school that I’ve got a gift with words.

Probably the biggest clue that I was getting close to my heart’s desire was in working for the Jesuit Retreat House in Oshkosh, Wisconsin.

I was privileged to be part of a spiritual focus. My job included helping with the handouts for the weekend retreats. Here is where I learned how the experienced retreat directors created spiritual exercises and meditations for the retreatants.

I remember spending my Sunday afternoons in fall of 1991 wondering what I would say to a group if I was their retreat director. What stories would I tell, what meditations would I offer them, what questions would I give them to think deeper.

That is how the stories were born for my book, Pathways: Tales for the Spiritual Seeker. Yes, it was over 15 years later before I found those stories again on the hard drive of an old computer. I challenged myself to “write like that again” and I did. There’s a mix of both the old and the new in the 13 spiritual allegories in this edition.

My book came together in a class taught by Lynne Klippel, a fantastic book coach and publisher. She is also the host of Web Sorority Talk Radio and invited me to do an interview with her. Here’s a link to our discussion about me and my book: 30 minute interview with Jan

Then sit back and remember something you’ve always wanted to do, something you know you’re good at, something that is close to your own heart.

Drop us a line and share your thoughts about what’s close to your heart. How long have you been carrying your dream inside? What can you do to begin to live your dream?

(On this blog, write in the response box below. On Facebook, click on the comment link for the comment box to open up for you.)

I’m looking forward to hearing from you.

Janice M. Puta
Author of Pathways: Tales for the Spiritual Seeker
Free Preview: Pathways: Tales for the Spiritual Seeker

If you could choose a hero or leader from among a deck of cards, who would it be?

No one knows for sure whom the four kings represent. Some legends say the king of spades is David, the king of diamonds is Caesar, the king of Hearts is Charlemagne, and the king of clubs is Alexander the Great.

And yet, you choose your idol and role model by the choices you make.

Are beer, alcohol, drugs, and sex major players in your lifestyle? Alexander the Great died at the age of 32 from the effects of intemperance!

Are lies, power, manipulation, and greed part of your action plan? Any one of these has brought down kingdoms and empires throughout history.

Click here to continue reading Choose Your Cards, Choose Your Kings

“Your success will be dependent on your pendulum language,

your beliefs, (whether expansive or limited)

your technique, and jeopardy influences

(whether external or internal).”

(Dale Olson in The Pendulum: Bridge to Infinite Knowing)

The goals for this class include:

• To learn and demonstrate correct pendulum attunement and language development for basic questions, numbers, percentages, and Reiki energy assessment of chakras,

• To become aware of, and how to deal with, the potential problems and stumbling blocks in using a pendulum,

• To become aware of why we need a connection with our High Self, Intuitive Self, or Inner Wisdom for using a pendulum in an energy practice,

• To learn and demonstrate a step by step process to secure a connection with our High Self, Intuitive Self, or Inner Wisdom, and to do a Reiki energy assessment of our own chakras as well as the chakras of a partner.

This is a hands-on, experiential class. Please bring your own pendulum, notebook and pen. If you do not own a pendulum, we will have some to purchase.

Click here to continue reading Introductory Dowsing (Penduling) Skills for Energy Practitioners

This weekend I have the honor to help out in a booth at an Alternative Gift and Fair Trade Event. Every year several area churches take turns hosting this event during the November and December weekends.

This is an alternative to the commercial nature of the Christmas season. It’s an effort to connect the spirit of holiday giving and the impact our choices have on the world around us.

There are Fair Trade gift items like baskets and table lines, Fair Trade coffee and chocolate that help small scale farmers and artisans in developing countries become economically self sufficient. By purchasing Fair Trade crafts and products, we help these small scale farmers and artisans provide food, education, housing and healthcare for their families. Talk about a “feel good” way to go shopping! I like to call this shopping with a conscience.

The international project I’ll be supporting is the Empowering Women’s Future, AIDS Orphan Sewing Project. We will be selling the African shirts and dresses that the young women in this sewing project make. The funds are returned to Tanzania to support this three-year program that teaches these young women to learn sewing skills and gives them a sewing machine when they graduate. Without these skills to earn money to pay for their food and housing, many of these young women run the risk of being victims of human trafficking.

Click here to continue reading Give Gifts that Give Back

Like many others around the world, I’ve been on the phone with my financial advisor. I’ve seen my investments evaporate overnight. And like many of you, I’ve heard what’s become a familiar story by now. “There are some great companies out there. They still have a lot to offer. The public has simply lost confidence in anything and everything in the marketplace right now.”

In a recession, nothing recedes like confidence! Whether it’s confidence in the marketplace, confidence in your advisors, or confidence in yourself!

The attitude I like to step up to is reflected in this comment by Warren Buffett, “The thing to do is keep your mind when the world around you is losing theirs.”

How do you do that? Here’s my short list:

Build more confidence in yourself.
• Take charge of your own life. Be assured that only you are responsible for what happens to you.
• Assess and appreciate your skills and abilities. Value your character and personality.
• Trust that you are here to make a contribution that only you can make to this planet and its people. There is no one else exactly like you with your ideas, experience, and capabilities.
• Whatever goodness and value you do, give, or create with your life is exactly what you’ve come here for, and exactly what we need from you. Live in that faith with certainty.

Click here to continue reading In a Recession, Build More Confidence

Sunday morning after church is one of my favorite reading times. Of course the comics are on top of the pile with breakfast.

Today I also have the November issue of “Open Roads” all the way from Stuarts Draft, Virginia, USA.

My first impulse was to page through this down home newspaper to find my article on abundance and prosperity. What author doesn’t love seeing their work in print?

Never mind that the front cover features a gorgeous thanksgiving meal with one of my favorite quotes: “Life is uncertain, eat dessert first.” I eventually tore myself away from the luscious details in that photo to savor the editorial column by Becky Allen.

Very much like my pastor’s post-election homily this morning, Becky reminded her readers that no one person is going to turn our country around by himself. The task comes back to all of us who are the collective mind, body, and soul of what we call our country.

“We’re being shown in innumerable ways that we’re part of an interdependent web of life.” Getting ourselves, our country, and the world back on its feet again is only going to happen when we’re “creating a world that works for everyone.”

Click here to continue reading Optimism: Create a World That Works for Everyone

Nature has its cycle of planting, growth, harvesting and decay. There is a beauty and mysticism in this final stage.

The focus is not on the falling apart or dimishment. The focus is on transformation and release.

Nature wastes nothing. Fallen trees become homes for critters, hosts for moss and lichen, and eventually compost.

The compost begins the growth cycle all over again as the fertile soil for seeds and nutrients for growth.

What is going on in your life right now that seems to be in these final stages of transformation and release?

Take a look at your stuff:

• What do you need to sell or give away?
• What have you outgrown or maybe never even used?
• What kind of space can you create in your life for something more practical or more economical?
• Remember, the Law of Attraction cannot bring you what you don’t have room for!

Take a look at your relationships:

Click here to continue reading Transformation and Release in the Final Stages

It’s still here. A few days, another week? There’s no telling how much longer they’ll be here. A lot depends on how strong the winds are.

The gold of autumn abdicates its throne from the tops of trees. Like tarnished treasure the leaves are heaped into piles by the curb.

It reminds me to rethink my priorities. To evaluate how I spend my time, what thoughts enter my mind, and what kind of feelings I allow into my heart space.

I like to use four simple standards:

Click here to continue reading Four Standards to Increase Your Gold!

What’s this fascination with fall color?

Are your eyes drawn to the shrubs that were green all summer and now turn blazing red with the cooler weather?

Do you drive down a tree-lined street and hold your breath as a shower of colorful leaves falls all around you like your own private confetti parade?

Did you notice on the nature trail how the sunlight turns the autumn woodland into a sacred place?

If it all feels magnificent and grand, it is! If it feels like the last act before the curtain closes, it is!

For those who live in parts of the world where there is a colorful autumn, more than likely there is also going to be a cold winter with barren landscapes, freezing temperatures, ice and snow.

But not so fast. Let’s enjoy what we have now. This final movement of the symphony pulls it all together and gives us the big picture.

Click here to continue reading Life’s Challenges: To Paralyze or To Celebrate

Have you ever felt alone in a group?

Have you turned down invitations because you didn’t have someone to go with?

Do you hate to think of holidays when others have families to share with and you don’t?

In my spiritual allegory, “In the Land of Two: the path to solidarity,” I created a land where everybody has somebody to partner with in their lifetime.

However, when a partner dies, the survivor has to leave and not come back until he or she has another partner.

It’s an ironic ending to a story that should symbolize and inspire solidarity with each other, whether partnered or single. But as we know, many times that’s not the way it turns out in the real world.

There’s a lot of truth in it for those of us who find ourselves single. We all want to belong somewhere. None of us want to be left behind.

Click here to continue reading Singles: The Courage to Walk Alone

Many of us are checking out our well being and finding some holes. Maybe we’re not content with the progress we’ve made this year. Maybe there’s a glitch in our health, or an unforeseen expense eating a hole in our checkbook.

We were cruising along in life and suddenly there’s a pile of rocks along the route. Let’s look as some easy ways to stay on course, be safe, and be well.

Stay focused on the clear path.

After all, that’s where you’re going to steer your ship! Never mind the chaos and fear that many others may be talking about or acting out. Mind your own business. That doesn’t mean that you’re not compassionate or not willing to share with those in need. But this is no time to sabotage your energy field and unbalance yourself by counting the rocks in everyone else’s journey and getting stressed out over their plight.

Click here to continue reading Three Tips for Navigating Rocky Waters

Do you have what you need?

Do you like what you have?

Are you loving the life you are living now?

Are you excited about even more coming your way?

You don’t have to feel guilty about being blessed!

You don’t have to give away what you have.

If you feel good about sharing, know that there is always more coming your way.

In their “Ask and It Is Given” inspirational cards, Esther and Jerry Hicks write, “If you are not selfish enough to deliberately align with the Energy of your Source, you have nothing to give anyway.”

Click here to continue reading Be Selfish Enough to Align with Well-Being

This is the time of year I get fund appeals in the mail almost every day. I was especially touched by the comment of one solicitor, “Small things done are greater than great things promised.”

For me, what that translates into is:

1. By ourselves, we may not be able to end hunger in the world. But we can buy a few extra items at the grocery store and put them in the local drives for area food pantries.

Click here to continue reading When Small Things Count Most

Who is your gatekeeper?

Who is opening up the gates and letting the good times flow into your lap?

Who is holding back the flow, shutting down the stream, and locking up your gates to all the good stuff?

What if the answer to all three questions is the same? What if you are your own gatekeeper?

For Lousie Hay, it was a great sense of relief. “I learned how I had unknowingly created dis-ease in myself and this made a great difference in my life. Now I could stop blaming life and other people for what was wrong in my life and my body. Without either reproaching myself or feeling guilty, I began to see how to avoid creating thought patterns of dis-ease in the future.” (Heal Your Body: The Mental Causes for Physical Illness and the Metaphysical Way to Overcome Them)

Here are four tips for finding out what your gatekeeper is up to:

Click here to continue reading Four Tips to Find Out What Your Gatekeeper is Up To

Are you watching the markets fluctuate and your investments falter?

Are you concerned about what you’re losing in value and how it’s going to affect your life?

Are you aware of the abundance you already have? Do you know how well you are already being taken care of?

Consider this analogy. Do you think you’re going to run out of fresh air to breathe? Do you think fresh air is rationed? Do you think it’s in such short supply around the world that you have to start holding your breath and making every breath count as long as you can? Of course not! Click here to continue reading In a Financial Crisis, Appreciate the Abundance You Already Have

The geese are flying overhead, encouraging each other with their honking. Leaves are turning colors on the trees. Gardens and flower beds are getting cleaned up.

There’s a chill in the night air as the autumn season takes it turn in this part of the world. It reminds me of the famous quotation from Ecclesiastes chapter 13 that begins, “There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven.”

As with everything in life, we have the choice to rage against the coming cold and darkness or to embrace it with some fun things that shift our attitude and help us brave the storm to come.

Here are six easy and delightful themes that embrace mind, body, and spirit in this season of autumn. See how many you already incorporate into your autumn traditions:

Click here to continue reading Six Easy Ways to Embrace Mind, Body, and Spirit with Autumn

Local market experts are having busy days this week. Some are fielding phone calls from nervous investors and others are taking advantage of extremely low prices.

In every situation, there is caution and opportunity. This is the time to know what you need, how soon you need it, and what you can afford to risk.

No one knows that better than you do. Yes, it’s great to have a financial advisor to discuss this with. But even in that conversation, make it very clear what you think is appropriate for you at this time in your life. Then let the experts show how to meet your goals.

Hopefully the bailout being discussed in Washington at this time has something in it for everyone, whether it frees up credit for your business or increases the amount in your bank account that can be insured.

Anyone who emailed or called their senators and representatives already took the first step in getting their share of the national bailout plan: they asked for what they wanted! Yes, a lot of times that includes knowing what you don’t want.

Click here to continue reading How to Get Your Share of a National Bailout Plan

Reverse cancer? Reverse disease? Reverse dementia? There is more truth to it than medical practice and the media would have us believe.

“According to the Journal of the American Medical Association, medical treatment is the third-leading cause of death after heart disease and cancer in the United States. Homeopathy and Chinese medicine are two examples of possible alternative approaches to disease that do not treat the illness as an enemy and therefore do not create new diseases.” (Eckhart Tolle in A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life’s Purpose)

To say “I have cancer” or “I’m depressed” is to give even more energy to that issue by owning it and identifying with it. That is the secret disguise of the ego and it doesn’t want you to know that.

Click here to continue reading Reverse the Thought = Reverse the Condition

Blown away by the reduced prices on great pieces of real estate?

Does the surprise party or gift you just received blow your mind?

Are you ready to blow the political ads off the planet?

Be careful what you say. As a matter of fact, don’t even think it. There are big ears listening, and it’s not who you think.

Click here to continue reading Million Dollar Language Blowing in the Wind