My Everyday Mystic by Jan Puta: blog for the soul

How is your shadow child feeling today? What does she want? What does he need?

Our shadow self has been with us since our childhood, and yet few us know that part of ourselves.

This part of ourselves doesn’t go away with scolding or neglect, because that’s what gives it its power. The shadow self is the closet, the trap door where we store all our repressed thoughts and feelings.

Here we chucked our assertiveness and sexuality as children when we were told it was bad to keep on asking for what we wanted, and naughty to be curious about our bodies. This is where we put our self-reliance and justifiable anger when we were taught that someone else was going to take care of us if we just did what we were told, didn’t complain or fight back, even if we were abused.

Click here to continue reading Enjoy Better Sex When You Befriend Your Shadow Self

The September issue of the Open Roads newsletter is out on the road doing its job!

If you don’t have a copy at your house, here’s what you’re missing.

Publisher and editor, Becky Allen, blends the local history of Stuarts Draft, Virginia with the everyday wisdom and values of the people living on the land.

A guest article from Tama Kieves, author of “This Time I Dance,” raises the challenge of commitment, why some of us never do it, and what our life could look like if we did.

And yes, my article on “Six Mind, Body, Spirit Responses to Stress” is a gentle way of saying esoteric things in a mundane disguise. Click here to continue reading Open Roads, Open Hearts, Open Minds in Virginia

Fr. Dan wore a Celtic Knot badge on his brown Capuchin robe. Through out the evening on September 11th, he explained the essentials of Celtic spirituality as transformed by the missionary work of St. Patrick (around 433 AD).

Unlike missionaries to the Americas, St. Patrick first understood what the indigenous people believed, and then incorporated the best of their traditions and beliefs into an everyday spirituality.

Practices that did not value human life and the sanctity of all people such as human sacrifice and slavery were eradicated.

With his own links to the Irish and ready wit, Fr. Dan Crosby highlighted what’s not in the Celtic experience of the Divine.

Click here to continue reading The Knots and Nots in Celtic Spirituality

We were sitting in my friend’s screened porch overlooking the lake. I was taking in the view and memorizing it.

It was just 2 years ago I sold my lake home next door. We were talking about how my life has changed since then.

I mentioned that I enjoyed the sunsets on Lake Winnebago in Wisconsin for 20 years. And there were many years before I moved here that I didn’t have that gorgeous sight. And there may very well be many more years that I won’t have a personal space where I can watch the sun setting over water.

We were talking about, “so how much is enough?”

Click here to continue reading The Bottom Line for Your Personal Portfolio — When Is It Enough?

I live in a neighborhood with a lot of senior citizens. Tonight, Helen was watering her flowerbed by the house. I stopped to ask her how things were going.

She’s got a painter coming to do the whole interior! And she’s been busy getting her personal things packed up and out to the garage. But she needs more boxes.

Well, I’m an expert on boxes! I told her that the discount printer over on the Avenue has great boxes from reams of paper. Wonderful covers and even hand holds cut out on the ends.

Then try the grocery stores and call ahead for those produce boxes from bananas. They have hand holds on the side and you can get a lot of stuff in them. As I went down the list, I could see Helen’s eyes glaze over!

Click here to continue reading Thinking Outside the Box – An Everyday Spiritual Exercise

In Part I, I listed several ways to tell whether or not you are aware of yourself as a spiritual being.

I also mentioned that when you consciously seek ways to teach and grow your spiritual self, you are what I call a spiritual seeker.

Now let’s consider what a spiritual seeker is looking for.

In the introduction to Pathways: Tales for the Spiritual Seeker, I mention that “in order to satisfy our innate spiritual hunger, we choose many pathways and support systems on our journey back home to the Divine Source.”

One of the struggles with this journey is where to look, where to go, what to choose to make sure we find resources that are helpful and worthwhile.

That is why the spiritual allegories in this book include some of the best information and inspiration from my background and experience in spirituality.

Click here to continue reading Are You a Spiritual Seeker – Part II

No one asked for a hurricane! No one put a picture of it on a vision board or wrote it into their intentions for the week.

And yet, here comes Hurricane Gustav barreling into the Gulf of Mexico. (photo courtesy of nasa)

But what exactly did you ask for – something more than you have now, something bigger, more powerful?

So what are you wanting, wishing, and waiting for – something that will make you feel strong, assertive, and in charge?

Every thought we think, we put out “there” in the Universe. Every desire we fixate on, is out “there” with even more energy behind it. Many of us have no clue as to how powerful we really are, especially when large masses of people and whole cultures are focused on the same outcomes of bigger, stronger, more powerful and bring it right now.

There comes a time when what we are asking for does show up, but not necessarily in the way we intended.

Click here to continue reading How We Create Hurricanes with the Law of Attraction and Three Ways to Tone Them Down

Of course you are! Whether or not you’ve heard this before or are hearing it for the first time – you are a spiritual being living a human experience.

You are an immortal, brilliant and loving soul trying to understand what it is like to live on this planet.

And why would you ever come here? Why would you want to get yourself tangled up in making a living, heartbreaking relationships, struggling day in and day out to make ends meet?

Click here to continue reading Are You a Spiritual Seeker – Part I

It’s been a while since I went driving around to enjoy the scenery. So it was nice, today, when several of us carpooled to a luncheon and a workshop.

On the way, we stopped at a waterfront children’s park.

After grandma was settled in with the youngsters, the rest of us headed on over to the conference site.

But I took the park along with me. I allowed myself to take it all in.

Click here to continue reading An Every Day Spiritual Exercise on How to Take it With You and Make it Last

Some of the best teachers never give up learning. Some retirees like to hit the open road and travel.

Some others become experts in wildlife and habitat issues.

You’ll find them volunteering to be tutors for struggling students.

They’re learning china painting and making porcelain collector dolls. They’re turning bowls on a lathe and weaving baskets.

They are giving each of us a priceless lesson – grow your Inner Child.

Click here to continue reading Make Time to Grow Your Inner Child

Some of the best financial advice and investment strategies come from the spiritual teachers and mystics.

They are the only ones who can tell you how to have it all without having to pay for it.

Do you want to feel stress free and less anxious? No problem!

Do you want to feel like you’ve got enough? Sure, can do that!

Do you want to feel prepared for whatever comes your way? Yes, that’s possible!

No matter how much you have or don’t have, you can get all the emotional and spiritual benefits of having even more without having to write a check or pull out your plastic.

Click here to continue reading How to Have it All and Not to Have to Pay for It

On a roller coaster ride? Feel like your emotions are strung out from one end to the other?

Most of the time our experience is to react to people and situations as they happen. And usually, our feelings are triggered by our subconscious.

If we end up in the emotional pits, we don’t have to stay there!

The good news is we can consciously walk our feelings up the scale of emotions. As Esther and Jerry Hicks explain:

“There is no thought that you cannot eventually have – just as there is no place that you cannot eventually reach from wherever you are – but you cannot instantly jump to a thought that has a vibrational frequency very different from the thoughts you are usually thinking.” (Ask and It Is Given)

So if you’re on the bottom of the scale with fear, grief, depression, despair and powerlessness, even being angry that you are in this emotional upheaval is already an improvement. You’ve just moved up five steps in the vibrational scale.

And if you were disappointed in the ways things are turning out around you, that’s even better. You’re now another five steps higher in the scale.

Just another five steps up and you’re into contentment with hopefulness just above it, optimism, and happiness close by.

Reaching for the next higher frequency and vibration is so important. Whatever frequency you are at, you will attract in people and events and results that vibrate at that same frequency.

So why not choose to be in the best feelings possible? Why not consciously take charge of how you are feeling and work your way up the scale? Why not take charge of your own experience and create a life you can love to live?

You can find the complete scale of emotions and suggestions on how to use the scale in Ask and It Is Given: Learning to Manifest Your Desires by Esther and Jerry Hicks.

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

Canned soup, boxes of rice, bottles of maple syrup! I spent the evening sorting out my pantry. Later this week a mini shelving unit is arriving to help me put everything in its place.

The real challenge is coming next week when I pick up an order from the organic food club. When you have to order by the case, you need to know where you’re going to put it when you get it home.

At times I think the Universe is like an endless pantry, super warehouse, or mega store! If you can envision what you want, wrap your thoughts in the best emotional energy, and detach from the outcome — then it’s sure to show up for you.

But are you ready for it? Here’s a short checklist to find out:

Click here to continue reading Are You Ready to Receive What You Ordered from the Universe?

Don’t like the job you’re doing? Hate the long drive? Tired of people who don’t appreciate what you’ve got to offer?

No wonder you come home tired, weary, and just plain worn out. You’ve been depleted by energy vampires!

Imagine that inside your heart space is a huge electrical outlet. Imagine that there are cords plugged into your outlet. Look more closely and notice they all have labels on them.

Click here to continue reading Recharge Yourself When You Unplug from Energy Vampires

No one saw it coming. He was just another somebody with a chip on his shoulder. He had his biased opinions and prejudices like many of us do.

But he not only talked about them, he took action. On Sunday, July 27, Jim Adkisson appointed himself judge and jury. He was so sure he was right and his way had to be the law of the land.

He not only passed judgment on the Unitarian Universalist Church and its members in Knoxville, Tennessee, he also took it upon himself to get a gun and take control of punishing them with death.

There are many times in our lives when we put the judge and jury together in the same bed, the same bath, and eat with them at the same breakfast table. We can get so stuck in our way of doing things or our righteous thinking that there is no room for a free vote or feedback from our peers.

Click here to continue reading Judge and Jury Sleep Together — Violence in Knoxville Unitarian Universalist Church

Getting up and getting out! Some mornings it’s a chore. Especially if I’m on my way to the fitness center. Especially if this is the day I do muscle toning. But I do it. And why?

In Ask and It Is Given, Esther and Jerry Hicks write, “Every thought vibrates, every thought radiates a signal, and every thought attracts a matching signal back. We call that process the Law of Attraction. The Law of Attraction says: That which is like unto itself is drawn.”

So if I march on over to the fitness center with the intention and desire to get fit, I will get fit. If I do the best work out I can, I will get good results.

I know this is what it takes to have what I want. I know this is how to be proactive and focused on attracting in my desired outcome.

No matter how big your goal or how fantastic the results you want to have. Start with a step-by-step process for getting there. Then go out and do it!

Click here to continue reading Proactive Goals Get Results from the Law of Attraction

From tornadoes to hurricanes, floods to forest fires, there’s a lot to do, a lot to give. And sometimes volunteers, families and friends in the thick of it all may feel like saying:

“I’ve never been drained to the last drop. It’s a strange, hollow feeling to be so empty.” (Chapter 6 in Pathways: Tales for the Spiritual Seeker)

In the spiritual allegory, “Three Barrels of Wine: The path of good self-care,” there are several metaphors for how each of us can keep from getting emptied out.

Click here to continue reading Down to the Last Drop and No More to Give

I had the list and the pictures in the Sunday flyer. There was no way I could get this wrong. My friends stood in line behind me at the checkout. The clerk paused and then tensed.

He picked through the notebooks again, sorted them into two piles, and checked the screen entries. My friends deserted me and got in line at the next counter.

Click here to continue reading The Beatles and Back to School Sales Bring Out the Value in the Moment

The world’s most expensive bikini is pure diamonds and platinum. At $30 million, I don’t think anyone is wearing it near the water unless surrounded by bodyguards.

I was thinking about bikinis in the shower today. I was wondering how many women torment themselves by trying to create the right kind of body to put into a handful of fabric about the size of a washcloth?

How many women have sized themselves up against a bikini in the dressing room, only to go home dejected and feeling excluded from the beach scene?

For anyone who fell short of this superficial token of beauty and social approval, here’s some great news for you.

Click here to continue reading $30 Million Dollar Bikini and Three More Valuable Investment Strategies

Remember the story of the Ugly Duckling by Hans Christian Anderson?

The ugly duckling could have continued to think, feel, and live like an ugly duckling the rest of its life.

But, like for all of us, the opportunity came to get a good look at itself.

The transformation came not just in looking, but in also accepting the beauty and grace of a swan as its true identity.

You may think your abundance and prosperity is very much like a flock of ugly ducklings unable to fly, and soon to be stuck in the mud with the lake quickly emptying out around you.

Let’s take a quick look at what is still left in your pond and see if we can find what it takes to claim the image and amenities of a swan.

Click here to continue reading How to Transform Your Ugly Duckling – An Exercise in Abundance and Prosperity