Soul's Code

If you’re the glass half-empty type you don’t necessarily need Dr. Phil, an ashram yoga retreat or antidepressants – you need to stop ignoring half of your brain.

BY MARGARET A. COCHRAN — In the movie Limitless, a writer takes a pill that lets him access every previously, untapped part of his brain. But in the process, he risks losing his love, his life and his soul.

While no such pill exists, I suggest that you can activate the neglected side of your brain – risk free – just by asking yourself three questions:

Michelle (right) with her father and sister by the Muskoka River

What’s the difference between praying for something and crossing your fingers? Is ‘going for the jackpot’ spiritually incorrect?

BY MICHELLE MORRA-CARLISLE – With $100 I can buy a lottery ticket that could win me a car, a big house in the city or a lakeside mansion in cottage country. I can’t afford the ticket, but have been known to buy one anyway because I badly want a lakefront cottage.

How else will I get one except through luck or a miracle? Luck might make it happen, but would it be spiritually enlightening?

Karmic consequences of Egypt and the West

BY DAVID RICKEY — Americans play a role in the political crisis in Egypt. Politically, we find ourselves wanting to support the emerging democracy, but fearing what the loss of Mubarak would mean for our own security. This is a perfect example of how Karma plays out in our world. I believe that the whole Middle-East conflict is a Karmic result of our own choices.

Our economy has prospered partly as a result of how we have been able to exploit the riches of other countries (the exploitation of others, as demonstrated in the huge divide between the “haves” and the “have-nots” has been the major fuel for both our economic prosperity and subsequent financial melt-down).

We have supported leaders who have stabilized countries like Egypt, without regard to their treatment of their own people. Or we have worked to overthrow leaders who threaten our access to the resources these countries possess. This political game has worked for us economically, but the evolutionary principle of self-determination is now changing the game, adding a very powerful new dynamic.

The Secret‘s wishful thinking, versus the reality of 7 million American jobs lost. Soul’s Code introduces its own guide to balancing job security — and inner security

BY PAUL KAIHLA —  Oprah’s endorsement helped make a viral, online video called, The Secret, a mainstream hit a couple of years ago.

The theme of The Secret is that the good or bad you see in your life situation is a reflection of the contents of your consciousness. No, not your intellectual property — your intention. The producers of the indie Internet phenomenon co-opted the phrase, “the law of attraction” — as in, you have what you believe in.

Or more to their point: your affluence equals your attitude.

By that measure, many Americans — and good people all around the world — must have been thinking some very, very bad things, indeed, since September, 2008.

Laid-off, foreclosed, going broke, ill, stressed, lonely or sad? The Novena to St. Jude is tailor-made for times of troubles

BY SOUL’S CODE — Call it a Catholic meditation. Call it a koan of loving kindness. In the 19th century, the Novena to “the forgotten saint” Jude was known as a prayer for desperate cases, or when a miracle is needed. It now seems perfectly scripted for this century.

With almost one fifth of the U. S. workforce unemployed or under-employed — and five million Americans losing their jobless benefits between Thanksgiving, 2010 and March, 2011 — is it any wonder that a new study estimates that one-fifth of the population of the last ‘superpower’ suffered from a mental illness last year?

So if you’re feeling in any way left out at the turn of this new year and new decade, we reproduce the Novena to St. Jude below as a spiritual prescription.

Highly-effective and happy people are courageously honest with themselves. Here is a checklist of 15 questions to ask yourself

GUEST COLUMN: SHARON COHEN — Most people believe that if they just had more money, the things that make them unhappy would disappear, and their lives would be better.

The truth is that your life can be better without more money. It can be better today, but you need to make some decisions and take action.

You don’t need me to tell you what will make you happy — only you know that truth. My aim here is to help you discover that truth.

Confessions from a job management coach on how to use surrender, service and grace to make your next career move

GUEST COLUMN: JEFF ROBINSON — From July 2005 until approximately April 2006, I began a spiritual transformation that changed the course of my life in some amazing and often difficult ways, and which continues to this day.

After more than 20 years of seeking a spiritual path that made sense to me, a friend introduced me to one of the best selling books on spirituality ever written: Autobiography of a Yogi by Paramahansa Yogananda.

Yogananda-ji came to the U.S. in the 1920’s and stayed until the time of his death in 1952, introducing hundreds of thousands to the spiritual path of Kriya Yoga.   He is widely credited as being the driving force in bringing yoga to the west.

I couldn’t put the book down, and literally fell in love with both Yogananda and his teachings.

How to put the dynamic of hope into action. Case studies: Gandhi, Václav Havel, Goenawan Mohamad and other guide-posts

DAVID RICKEY — Hope is a great four-letter word, but it gets lost in the shuffle of our lives if it isn’t bonded with action. Václav Havel, the first President of the Czech Republic, said ‘Hope is not the conviction that something will turn out well, but the certainty that something makes sense, regardless of how it turns out’.

It is this certainty that allows — even emboldens us — to take action. We are facing an uncertain time in 2010, and that uncertainty can, and has, paralyzed some of us into in-action.

Do you believe in material magic? A self-styled “financial alchemist” shares her 3-step formula for translating vision into action — and goals

GUEST COLUMN: MORGANA RAE — You don’t have to call yourself a magician, mystic, psychic, priestess or Wiccan to be magical. Every wish, prayer, business plan, and affirmation carries magic.

The question is, how do you get better at making things happen?

How do you increase your experience of ease, flow, and synchronicity?

My mother introduced me to my awareness of magic. No one casts a circle or leads a ritual like she can! Maybe it’s because she’s my mother, or because she’s a triple Leo, or because she has a special talent for it, but there always seems to be stronger magic when she plays High Priestess.

Our thoughts can create a personal heaven or hell. A psychic guide offers four ways to tune your inner voice to a higher frequency.     

GUEST COLUMN: PHYLLIS KING — When people ask me about their love life, money, or career, often the answer is not about whom they are going to meet, if they’ll make money, or whether they should change careers.

More often, the answer lies somewhere between one’s self-perception and how he or she relates to the human experience.

I am constantly reminding people about the truth of life we too often forget: remembering begets the empowerment to allow good to happen in life.

What we give our attention to is what we bring into our lives.

Look at your life: your circumstances as well as your feelings every moment of every day, and this will tell you exactly the quality and content of your thoughts and beliefs.