Thursday, July 14th, 2011
Have you ever had a sense that there is more to something than what appears on the surface? As a child, you may have walked by a pond and picked up a pebble. Then, energy grew inside you directing your mind to send signals within you and pick up this rock with your hand. As your mind, body, and spirit united, a coordinated effort took place resulting in a thrust of energy tossing this rock into this pond.
The effects of this driving force created a ripple affect on the surface of the pond making its way to the outer edges of the pond. You and I are this same driving force at the core of our being. Everything is energy. We all know its there even though we may not readily see it.
There are five experiences in our life allowing us to touch this energy or our soul.
Remember this: “What is the most human to us, often, is the most sacred.”
We touch our soul in the following ways:
1. The Sense of Smell.
When we breathe, we embrace our world. We draw in various aromas into our inner self. It is our opportunity to take in the world around us, and allow it to fill us with its essence. As we breathe, our soul absorbs the world around it through identification with the earth merging into what cannot be seen. It is the experience of spirit expressing itself in unlimited ways.
2. The Sense of Taste.
Taste allows us to tangibly experience different qualities of our world. As a child, we experienced our world through the sense of taste. It was as though our life was meant to be devoured. In a real way, our sense of taste helps us to determine if we like or do not like what is before us i.e. food, experiences, or way of life.
3. The Sense of Touch.
Our ability to feel the world awakens our body. Touch sends vibrations throughout our body in the form of tingling sensations. These tingling sensations are expressions of consciousness helping our body understand the direction of spirit in our lives and our place in the world. It is the home of our soul, yet our body cannot fully contain it alone. At the same time, our body is a symbol radiating our unique expression of our soul.
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Tags: books, death, dying, resources, soul, spirit
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Thursday, December 9th, 2010
Hospice patients come to our care after being cut, burned, and poisoned. Surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation treatment are the normative methods of care for most of the patients who enter a life-threatening disease. Hospital staff members are trained to be aggressive about curative care.
Hospice care is a phase of care whereby aggressive treatment is no longer appropriate. Palliative care becomes the norm. Patients have been probed physically, mentally, and emotionally. In many ways, patients may be reluctant to any type of care beyond the experiences that led to his/her doctor sharing that no more can be done.
The purpose of this article is to claim that much more can be done. Our Doctors and Nurses are trained to help patients receive medication that stabilizes and even diminishes pain and suffering physically. Social Workers are trained to help patients and families deal with emotional, practical, and legal issues surrounding loss and grief. Spiritual Counselors help with the integration of emotional well-being and a sense of faith and hope beyond one’s self-awareness.
There are three aspects of the grieving process I wish to mention in this brief article:
The Heart of Care,
The Heart of Compassion, and
An Awakened Heart
Since I am a Spiritual Counselor for Hospice Care, I will take a spiritual approach to grief care.
The Heart of Care
The heart of care centers it’s attention on the needs of the patient who is dying. Any attempt to move a patient away from his/her authentic character becomes a war of wills. As we listen and care for a person just as he/she is, we are allowing a person to die the way he/she lived. Our ability to meet a person in unconditional love will draw out the desire to be fully known by the patient. Here, we are given opportunities to meet him/her in grace and mercy.
Patients are not a disease. Patients are awakening into soul. Mary was a strong-willed person who did not want to die. She had a strong personality. She had many roles she carried out in life, and she wanted to hold on to them all. She was a mother, friend, wife, among many other roles.
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Tags: books, death, dying, hospice, palliative care
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Friday, April 2nd, 2010
There are many people who love fiction, but can’t read. Maybe you’re one of them. Some people can’t read for a physical reason – because they’re blind or have bad eyesight, for example – while some find reading difficult or strenuous on a mental level, such as dyslexic people and children. If any of these descriptions fit you, then maybe you should try audio books.
Audio books are voice recordings of people reading books – they used to be called ‘books on tape’, but now they mostly come on CD or even over the Internet as mp3 files. They are a surprisingly versatile medium, allowing for everything from straight readings to radio drama-style productions of the books with actors and sound effects. Some are read by the author, which can be an interesting experience, especially for books of poetry, while others are read by celebrities.
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Tags: audio, books, reading
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Thursday, January 14th, 2010
Not all the writing is on the wall, some of it is also on the notice board. Summer jobs wanted, tuitions available, second-hand laptop for sale, brand new mobile phone lost and found — the college noticeboard is quite the silent chronicler of the life of the student community. But at a time when hundreds of youngsters cross over to the virtual world every day, the notice board is at best a blink-and-you-miss item. And cashing in on this virtual defection is online notice board searchmycampus.
Brainchild of Peyush Bansal, 23, the site was launched last December and has found earnest following among students who are using it to exchange information on everything from accommodation, to car pools, to buying and selling books, bikes, notes, furniture, mobiles..
The genesis of searchmycampus lies in Bansal’s experiences at a Canadian university where, he says, he virtually lived on streets, with no clue about accommodation. “I went to McGill University in Montreal at 18, against my parents’ wishes. I faced a lot hassles in settling down in the campus. So, when I retuned to India I decided to create this online campus board that would provide students a platform. I believe that only students can solve the problems of other students.”
By way of homework, after returning to India in October 2007, Bansal spent a lot of time traveling, meeting college students all over the country to understand their problems. Co-founder of the site and student of Indraprastha University, Delhi, Parit Gupta, 21, also helped him. Chetna, a student of Sri Ram College of Commerce, points out that besides not having time enough to look up the college notice board there is also the problem of “torn notices.” She has recently put an ad on searchmycampus with a request that someone lend her a copy of Eric Seghal’s Love Story.
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