Category: Spirituality

What Is Spiritual Alchemy and How Can You Practice It?

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A butterfly is shown immediately below a row of cocoons, with a soft-focus background of green and blue

Like ancient Egyptian and Greek scientists before them, European scientists and philosophers of the Middle Ages believed that everything in the world was made up of four basic elements: earth, air, fire, and water.  They saw these four elements as having specific qualities and properties that could be manipulated to create new substances. As a result, the early chemists, or alchemists as they came to be called, became focused on turning base metals, such as lead, into higher metals, such as gold. This sounds like the pursuit of wealth and power. And given human nature, for some of these alchemists,…

3 Ways Breathing Exercises Support Sleep, Creativity and Spirituality

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A young woman is in profile against a dark background, gently blowing dandelion seeds.

Breathing exercises improve relaxation, focus, and oxygen flow to the brain, enhancing creativity. They reduce stress and anxiety, remove major roadblocks to clear thinking, and boost overall cognitive function. In other words, they make life feel better. In this article, we’re going to touch on 3 main ways you can use breathing exercises: to prepare for sleep, to stimulate creativity, and to support spiritual pursuits such as meditation and prayer. Breathing Exercises and Sleep Many people seek out breathing exercises as a natural and non-pharmaceutical way to promote better sleep. There are several reasons why breathing exercises may be helpful…

What Does Cosmic Energy Feel Like?

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Close up of a woman's face, eyes open, with colorful shapes behind here

The term cosmic energy can have different meanings to different people, cultures, philosophies and spiritual practices. In this article, we’re going to touch on only a few of the most widely reported meanings. Cosmic energy is often used in metaphysical spiritual contexts to describe a universal energy or life force that permeates all things in the universe. This energy is thought to be responsible for the movement and transformation of matter and energy throughout the cosmos. Some people also refer to this energy as universal energy, prana, qi (or chi), shakti, mana, and life force energy, to name only a…

How I Changed Everything in the Universe, Including Meditation

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This is a true story about how I changed my meditation practice and everything else in the universe in one simple step. Well, one simple jump, anyway. In an effort to overcome fear of something entirely different, I jumped out of an airplane because I thought skydiving would be scarier. As it turns out, I was wrong: skydiving was way less scary than the thing I was avoiding. But the point is that the overarching result wasn’t what I expected. Instead of overcoming fear, I instead learned first-hand about how everything becomes different when seen through the lens of infinite…

How to Keep Meditating When You’re Angry at Social Injustice

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A close-up of a pair of hands appearing to hold fire sparks that glow bright orange and yellow. The half-face seen above the hands appears to be male and is calm and relaxed.

How do you keep meditating in the face of rage against injustice? It isn’t easy to consider anger and outrage in a meditation practice. Any meditation practice. And certainly not one in which you try to focus on universal love. I mean, who wants to love their enemy? Someone who destroys the values that you hold as important. No one, that’s who. But are the benefits worth the effort? The answer to every question is always love. I believe that, I know it to be true. But when you feel the breath of the enemy on your face, do you…

What Is Higher Consciousness and How to Achieve It Through Meditation

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Have you ever wondered about higher states of consciousness? What they are, and how some people reach them? Do you ever wonder if you could reach a higher state of consciousness yourself? And if you could, what would that look like? Many people have different notions or ideas about what it means to achieve states of higher consciousness.  Some imagine yogis living high in the mountains, devoting their lives exclusively to the pursuit of higher consciousness. Others imagine it as a spiritual practice that leads to a sudden and complete awakening, or so-called enlightenment. And of course some people think…