957 posts from 2008

Thought Tagging is an essential Ancient Technology you can use to change unwanted behaviors. Where would spiritual growth and personal development be without this technique? Do you understand how to tag your thoughts? Do you know what to do once the tags are triggered?

We walk through life unconscious most of the time. And there are certain situations which push our buttons, so to speak. When they do, and we are unconscious, we react automatically from whatever programming we have in our past.

Tagging your thoughts and actions is like putting a wakeup call on a thought or action. Anytime the thought occurs an alarm goes off. Any time you engage in an action the alarm goes off. You then have the opportunity to become conscious and decide how to respond rather than reacting in a way that you know is hazardous to your well being.

Tagging your thought is a simple process:

1. Decide which thought or action you wish to tag.

2. Close your eyes, breathe deeply, relax and get centered.

3. Focus on the thought or action to be tagged and ask yourself, “What are my buttons, under what circumstances are these thoughts triggered?”

4. Decide what new thoughts or actions you want to become automatic. What do you want your new habit of thinking to be? Create a script.

5. Imagine becoming conscious when tag is triggered, just like a button was pressed and an alarm went off. Imagine yourself remembering that you have a new program to install, to put into practice.

6. Imagine yourself consciously and deliberately changing the thinking or action. Act out the new script in your mind.

7. Repeat these steps as often as needed. You will know you are successful when you become conscious everytime you find yourself in the situation you are attempting to tag.

What to do once the tag is triggered:

1. Stop and let yourself become conscious. Breathe deeply.

2. Take your time and proceed slowly.

3. Remember the new thought; explore it, contemplate it. If it is an action, perform the new action, even if you have to undo the old action and redo the new action. Review why it is that you want the new thought or action to become dominant.

4. Feel the energy of the new thought or action. If it does not feel good you have not chosen a replacement thought that will take you were you want to go in life. Come up with a replacement thought that does feel good. Stick with, keep reaching for new thoughts, until it does feel good.

Remember you are reprogramming yourself here. You need to practice the new program for it to be effective. Even if you make the mistake of automatically falling into old patterns, it is VERY IMPORTANT to rethink or redo the thought or action the new way. You MUST practice if you want the new behavior to automatically replace the old behavior. Practice is what will create your new habit of thought and action.

Mental practice is just as good as physical practice when it comes to physical actions. You can change physical behaviors by mentally practicing the desired new behavior.

Also check out my blog posting titled Reprogramming Self which has more information about changing your automatic thought and behavior patterns.

Love and Blessings,
Michael Skowronski
Author of Unforgettable: A Love and Spiritual Growth Story

P.S. For an enjoyable read that will make you laugh and bring you to tears check out my book Unforgettable: A Love and Spiritual Growth Story. This is a true story that is a good example of spiritual principals being intentionally applied and unintentionally misapplied. The results speak for themselves.

Full book reviews can be found on Amazon.com and BarnesAndNoble.com

There are people who feel the moods, emotions and intentions of other people when they come upon them or think about them. In some cases when there is a close family connection, like spouse or children, they will spontaneously feel it when a dramatic change in emotions occurs in their loved one. We call these people an empath. When walking into a room full of people they can be overwhelmed with all of the emotional content of the room; it can be quite trying at times.  If their loved one has hurt their back, or has a migraine, or feels panic, or unrest, or whatever, before the loved one even comes home or calls, the empath’s back hurts or they feel a sense of panic, just like their loved one was feeling. Often these empaths heal those who suffer by taking on the injury or emotional stress themselves.

My late wife Kathryn had this gift, which can sometimes feel like a curse. When I first met her she did not know how to buffer and protect herself. Some members of her family and some of her friends would think she was crazy if she ever talked about it with them. Kathryn knew she had this gift, but she did not know how to buffer and protect herself. I have had more than one friend write me with this same problem asking…

How Can Empaths Buffer and Protect Themselves?

First you need to know that being an empath is normal and natural, but perhaps only one percent of the population (a guesstimate) is empathic like this. However it is quite common to find such people due to the fact that one percent of 6.5 billion people comes out to 6.5 million people with such ability.

Did you read my blog Helping Others – Reiki, Energy, and Physical Support? The story in that blog is about my first Reiki experiences with Kathryn taken from my book Unforgettable: A Love and Spiritual Growth Story. It describes how her empathic and psychic abilities came out and how she taught me to use my mind properly for energy healing. My book gives more real life examples of how this gift manifested in Kathryn and how it impacted our lives. I highly recommend this book to anyone who is learning how to deal with being an empath.

Intention is the key to buffering and protecting yourself. At some point in your eternal life you decided being and empathic healer was what you wanted to do and experience. Now that you have experienced it, you realize you need to protect yourself too. So now you need to make it your intention to learn this skill of buffering yourself. For me buffering myself comes easy and naturally, but I have to be more deliberate and intentional to get in touch with my psychic skills. For the empath the opposite is true. But you can do it. When I say make it your intention that means to be clear in your mind, stop and think about it, ask yourself, “Is this really important to me?” Then decide “YES! I will learn this. God please bring me the exact guidance I need” and practice!

To buffer yourself you need to learn to care for yourself more. You care very deeply about other people and this is why you are so open to receiving their energy. It is okay to receive the message that a loved one is suffering and in what way they are suffering, but then it is time to turn it off before it does you any harm. You need to deliberately reprogram yourself such that you remember to consciously turn off the empathy and do the prayers and visualizations required to protect yourself.

The basic thing you need to do at the time you feel their pain is to say a brief prayer, surround them with love and light, ask the Holy Spirit to give them the energy they need to resolve their own problem and then detach yourself from them and their energy.

Begin visualizing your own energy flowing to you from God and staying with you. To protect your energy field you can combine the two visualizations I give below, start by drawing the star and then surround yourself and the star with the white luminous egg shaped energy field. These visualizations are important because they will create real energy forms called elementals that protect you and let you be you while these others can be themselves.

In this blog Meditation and the Wandering Mind I explain the process of meditation, the purpose of meditation, the importance of practice, and why you must stick with it even if you feel it is difficult. I encourage you to read that blog too so I don’t have to re-explain those things here in this blog.

The important visualization you need to practice is to imagine yourself being surrounded by a white luminous egg shaped energy field. Another visualization to practice and use is the five pointed star. Imagine yourself standing with legs spread and arms stretched out to your side. Start drawing a line with white light from your left hand across your body to the right hand, then down to the left foot, then up to the crown of your head, then down to the right foot, and finally back to the left hand to complete the five pointed star. Draw the star so that you are inside of the star.

So to summarize what you need to do…

1. Be aware you are picking something up, acknowledge it.
2. Send them the healing energy they need.
3. Protect yourself, separate yourself from their energy. Be deliberate, be intentional and it will happen.

On a similar note I had situation with my own mother where she was taking energy from me, even though we lived 1300 miles away from each other. I used a different visualization and got a very dramatic result. That story is also in my book…if you liked this blog you really do need to read this book. This and many other personal experiences I have had tell me that our minds have a lot of power. Taking the time to be intentional in our thoughts really does make a difference.

Love and Blessings,
Michael Skowronski
Author of Unforgettable: A Love and Spiritual Growth Story

How do you attract the right kind of lover? By being a vibrational energetic match to the kind of lover you wish to attract! People are really confused about how life works when they say, “Why do I always attract the wrong kind of person?” It is because the person you are attracted to is mirroring something back to you that you need to see. The fact that you are asking the question means you don’t see it. If you make it your intention to see it then you can change and move on sooner. If you simply blame it on the others, you may stay in a seemingly endless pattern of attracting the same kind of person until you do see what it is that is in you that attracts such people.

While I was dating I met many women who said they wanted a kind and loving man; one who was interested in spiritual growth. Yet when they looked at me they could NOT recognize that I had those qualities. And the men they were attracted to, the ones who they had that chemistry with, those were usually the men who did not have those qualities. Not being able to recognize certain qualities means you don’t have them yourself or that something inside of you, some conflicting desire you hold, is blinding you to what is really there.

Later in life, those women who were paying attention, who were learning from life and healing their self-esteem found themselves naturally attracted to those kind, loving men who were interested in spiritual growth and they lost their attraction for the rough and abusive sort of men.

If you just want a relationship and are desperate to have one, you may find yourself in a difficult place. On one hand a person you meet and get involved with may not be the perfect fit you desire, but hormones, family pressure, financial challenges, having children or a lack of experience and awareness can get you caught up with someone who does great harm in your life. But if you focus primarily on taking care of yourself and your own needs, if you grow and learn to love yourself, then you will find you have the luxury to be patient and to pick and choose.

My wife Shyni had that sort of patience and waited until she was thirty years old. Did she miss out by not having other lovers before she met me? Some would say yes, but she never had the dramas and traumas that others had either. And being a single mother of an adopted child and the primary wage earner for her brother and mother, she did not waste her energy on men who would use her and abuse her. Shyni never regretted her decision.

I was impatient, inexperienced and unaware and married two women that ended in divorce. I was deeply hurt by those women and what I perceived they did to me. I dated many other women, and was sexually active. I had a very high income during those years, yet had nothing to show for it later in my life. Did I make a mistake? In many ways yes; if I knew then what I know now, I certainly would have done things different…but I did not know. Those relationships taught me many things about life, other people and myself; wisdom gained from experience which I am sharing with many people today. So we do need to be careful what we label a mistake and what we label missing out. Awareness and shifting your perspective is always helpful.

Things to be Aware Of

Be clear in what you will accept and what you will not accept. Draw your boundaries carefully. One issue many women have is with men wanting to share out their women, or wanting multiple lovers at the same time. There is nothing wrong with this if this is what you want too. But if it is not, then there is everything wrong with it. Our desires are creative!!! If a man wants this and you do not, or vice versa, then you are not a match. Even if he/she says they are willing to give up their desires to be with you, eventually the desire will create! It must, that is how life works. Then there will be apologies such as, “I did not mean that to happen, it just happened.” So do not settle. Find the lover that is the right match for your sexual preferences.

If you do settle be prepared to deal with the inevitable playing around that will happen. Don’t blame it on him, you were warned. Don’t judge him either. It is natural and hormonal for men to be like that. Also it has to do with his self-esteem that needs a boost and him not understanding how to do that for himself. Don’t blame it on yourself either, that is what he wanted, what he needed, and what he created. It does not matter how beautiful, how loving, how helpful, or how rich or whatever you try to be. If someone wants something that you do not have to offer they will find a way to fulfill it.

There is a real easy way to find out what a person wants sexually. Ask! But you must be clever in how you ask.

Men, and even some women, get all kinds of crazy ideas about sex, multiple lovers, group sex or swapping are just some of them. Men are animals! Okay sometimes it is the other way around, but not usually. Of course this is a generalization and it is the reason why you need to ask. It is pretty easy to sort it out right from the start…ask them. When you meet a new man ask, “Do you like to share?” Use a sexy voice; make it look like you want that. Do they want group sex? Any other ideas ask…most men who want such a thing will think, Wow, I have a hot one here, let’s go for it, and they will respond accordingly. But the men who find that repugnant will also respond accordingly. Then blow off the men who don’t suit your needs. Go further with the men who reject such ideas. If they think you are not right, just tell them you were testing them, which is the truth.

Men can ask the same sort of questions to the women they meet. If a woman says she does not want that, it is very unlikely that you will convince her. If you do beg and plead and manipulate her into accepting it, and you do have sex with other women, there will be hurt feelings and trouble. Most people know what they want. They don’t need to be convinced or manipulated. If you find yourself doing that you are really wasting a lot of energy. Lying about it won’t get you what you want either. It may get you more sex, but it will also get you a lot of pain. Not just the immediate pain you get from breaking one woman’s trust, but there will be karmic repercussions too! You don’t need to do that. Law of Attraction can match you up with women who are sexually playful or who understand that some men like a bit of variety. Yes there are women out there like that. And it is more likely to happen if you don’t waste your time with the women who don’t want that sort of thing when you do.

Be aware that there are sexual predators that will get involved with you with the view to also have sex with your children. They certainly won’t announce this. But those kinds of personalities often go with abusive men. So watch out for such things.

Watch out for anger and judgment. In the beginning a person might be real nice and loving to you, but how do they treat others? If he or she is mean, judgmental or easily gets angry at others, then one day they will be doing it to you or your children. How do they talk about other people? One day they will talk about you in the same way. If they have harsh ideas about crime and punishment, then one day when you do something they do not like that harshness will turn on you.

What kind of movies and TV do they watch? Movies and TV are influencing their mind and the habits they are developing. They are also a reflection of that which is already in their mind. Ask them how their shows make them feel. Do you want your mate to like feeling that way? How often do they watch? Or do they tend to do other things to relax or use their free time to educate themselves? These things are pretty easy to observe. They are not likely to change, at least not if it is you that is asking for them to change. People must want to change and intend to do so.

A secretive person can drive you nuts and most likely has something to hide. Will they share their income with you? Are they generous? Are they forthright with how much money they make? They can give you all sorts of excuses as to why they hide or keep their money solely for themselves and do not share, but in the end that will be the flavor of your relationship.

Are they needy? Do they talk too much? Do they need to be with you all of the time? Do they have to know everything you do, every person you talk to? Are they trying to control you? They will take your energy and leave you exhausted.

Don’t be so desperate to just settle for anybody. If you do, then you must realize it is temporary and will surely end sometime due to a lack of compatibility. You can and should learn to satisfy your own needs for love and peace and happiness. These things do NOT come from others. If you had that understanding from experience then you could be more patient and discerning.

Do the work you need to do on yourself and becoming the kind of person you want to be, someone who gives love, and who feels lovable and worthy of an appropriate partner and Law of Attraction will sort out the rest. Honestly, like attracts like. If you do not love yourself, you will be attracted to someone who will do unloving things to you. If you have abandonment issues you are very likely to be attracted to someone who is always threatening to leave you. If you have anger issues you will find someone to be angry at and you will damage your relationship.

You Cannot Wait Until You Are Perfect

I am NOT saying you should not be in a relationship if you have issues to work out. Most people do have issues and would go entire lifetimes without a relationship if they waited. In fact relationships are one of the best ways to work through such issues. However, you should make it your intention to get to know yourself, know your issues, and be working to clarify them. Be proactive, there is plenty of reading material you can learn from and plenty of classes and seminars.

You should also not be too surprised, and not be too heartbroken, if the relationship ends due to these issues. A breakup is NOT the end of the world. It can happen no matter what you do. If you work through your issues, your partner may no longer be a match for you and one of you may decide to end it. If the issues are not worked out, they may flare up to the point where the relationship is too painful to remain together.

Either way attachment is the source of pain. Happiness does not come from having what you want but from wanting what you have, which could mean the absence of someone else making life more difficult for you. Learn to love what you have and be open to change. Change always brings you something that you desire. So when change comes, welcome it and be curious…There are many things I have wanted, which ones will be coming next? What will I learn along the way? How can I use my new circumstance to become a stronger and more loving person?

So my recommendation is to focus on yourself, what you think, how does your thoughts make you act…and does they serve you? I’ve had some comments on other blogs from many friends who just cannot forgive certain things. Until you do you are likely to attract people with those qualities you cannot forgive into your life, one after another, until you learn the lesson of forgiveness.

I want to remind you of one thing…forgiveness is NOT the same thing as accepting bad behavior in your life. Forgiveness is the absence of judgment; it is about not dwelling upon the harmful actions of others and not wishing them pain and suffering. If you forgive someone you want them to understand, you want them to do better next time and you want them to heal. But forgiveness does not require that you give them the chance to work out their dysfunction in your life.

I also recommend reading these other blogs which also give good insight into relationships at their various stages.

* Relationship Break Ups – How to Cope
* The Secret to Creating Lasting Romance
* Self Healing Guide – From Misery to Bliss

My book Unforgettable: A Love and Spiritual Growth Story is a great guide to healthy relationships. It gives many concrete examples of things I did right, things I did wrong, and how I learned my lessons to move beyond the pain as well as the issues my late wife was dealing with. Those experiences brought me to be this man who finally has healthy loving relationships and finds it easy to draw boundaries and stick to them.

Love and Blessings,
Michael Skowronski
Author of Unforgettable: A Love and Spiritual Growth Story

I wrote a blog called Drug Addicts, Prostitutes, Child Molesters, Liars & Cheaters…are They the Scum of the Earth? I got a LOT of comments about Child Molesters being in a category of their own. In this blog I want to address this issue in a way that will make logical as well as emotional sense to you. When it comes to the effect these people have on our lives, I too believe they are in a category of their own. Unless we do something very practical about them it is only going to get worse.

Here are just some of the comments made by some of my friends…

Montserrat~ Sacred Feminine Art
I am not sure how much I agree with you bunching up together “child molesters” with “liars” and “drug addicts”…I am sure you realize there is a huge difference between them…HOWEVER, child molesters have NO ROOM in this planet. Can you please explain why would you compare a liar or cheater to a child molester?

Asterope Morgaine {PriestessRising.com}
Michael you know I love you to pieces, and think you’re extremely intelligent and wise…But- I can’t believe you would classify drug addicts & prostitutes in the same category as child molesters! Michael I’m really, really disappointed. Having to sell yourself for money is completely different from molesting a child…You can’t even compare.

Om Jyotish Astrological Services
I agree with others’ assessment on this child molester issue…The degree and severity of the action trumps the others at least one hundred fold. To put the argument that society should have a vested interest in rehabilitating a child molester is valid - I don’t think they should be camped away in some dark dungeon for the rest of their lives.

When one chooses certain actions, the reactions or consequences of those actions are not the victim’s - they are the perpetrator’s. When one abuses a child, it is not the child that punishes the molester, it is the molester’s own actions which come back to haunt him…they still must face the consequence of their actions. Don’t neglect this point Michael. If you do, you’re not being honest with yourself, or others.

I have removed some of their actual comments to keep this blog short. To read their full comments please visit my blog Drug Addicts, Prostitutes, Child Molesters, Liars & Cheaters…are They the Scum of the Earth.

I appreciate everyone who commented on this issue. I felt your comments were all genuine, respectful and well meaning (especially if you view the full text of their comments.) However I can see there is much missing in the understanding of the general public on this issue.

This really becomes an issue of do you want to keep shooting yourself in the foot or are you ready to throw your guns away? You have two choices…which one do you choose?

I lumped Drug Addicts, Prostitutes, Child Molesters, Liars & Cheaters all together in the same category because from the smallest of issues to the largest of issues, judgment will harm you. I know there is a difference in the severity of these “crimes” as in the impact it has on the lives of people here in the physical world, this is quite clear. But there is no crime hideous enough that it should cause us to hate and judge and punish…that is shooting yourself in the foot.

I saw a news report just a few days ago about one state which is considering the death penalty for a man who molested his eight year old step daughter. When I watched the news report, and considered the systems we have in place to deal with people like this, I was all for the death penalty too. Yes, for a few moments, I too wanted to see this man killed and for the message to go out to others just how much we really hate this crime so that anyone with this sort of thinking will think twice about committing such a crime and will seek help.

Okay, but that opinion is only in the context of our current systems, and it was only a knee-jerk reaction to my feelings about the horrible crime he committed. My desire to kill was in the context of feeling frustrated that such things continue to go on in our world. Why haven’t these people gotten the message yet? And my feelings are in the context that I spent time focusing on such an issue and the powerlessness we have as a result of the lame systems we do have in place.

These are very real human emotions that most people in our society do feel.

However this type of emotional reaction is a lot like fighting with a tar baby. The more you punch and kick and wrestle with a dummy made of tar, the more stuck you become until you cannot move at all. It is just like the peace we are supposed to win each time we go to war, yet we discover in time we end up with mental problems, debts, a larger war machine, a lot of dead people, and countries that are angry at each other.

We must move past these painful human emotions if we want to stop such crimes from ever happening again on this planet. I know from personal experience that it is possible to change our automatic reaction. It would be nice if we could eliminate such crimes altogether, we can hope and reach for that, but we cannot control the actions of other people to such an extent.

I do know that we can significantly reduce the number of these horrible crimes. This should be our goal. If we make punishment our goal, these crimes will not go away nor will they be reduced. We have used punishment as a deterrent for crime for thousands of years. It doesn’t work, history has proven this. In the cases where extreme punishments have been used, crime is reduced, but so is the level of confidence, freedom, and wellbeing of the society. In such a society it is easy to push innocent people into a machine we call justice and eat them up alive…which is a crime in itself. It is also easier for guilty people to get off because the punishment is so extreme the guilty will do anything to protect themselves, including terrorizing anyone who would testify against them.

Focusing on punishment is a form of terrorism.

By punishing our criminals we teach the bulk of our society that terrorism is the way to achieve our goals. Individuals are more inclined to strap on bombs, or go to some public place with a gun and kill others when they are upset and decide an injustice has occurred. This punishment mentality cannot be confined to only the horrible crimes such as child molestation, rape and sadistic murders because terrorism becomes a habitual pattern in everybody’s mind for problem solving. Large angry mobs develop and insist we must brutally punish people for certain behaviors that may not even be crimes at all.

We can see this with the war on drugs. As was stated by my friends we can all clearly see that one who molests a child is in a whole different class of offense than one who is consuming or even selling drugs. Yet the punish, punish, punish mindset of America has locked away millions of people for a very long time, in horrible conditions, merely for consuming drugs. It is extreme, excessive and abusive treatment for relatively minor crimes…which should not even be considered crimes at all! Our politicians listen to the angry mobs and run their campaign on platforms of harsh punishment. All sensibility is thrown out the window and we end up living in a society that is cruel and insane. That is the state of America today. It is due to this terrorist mentality of using punishment to solve our social problems.

Our families are affected by this too. In many families parents terrorize their children. Elder children terrorize the younger ones. Bullies abound in America. This is something I see all the time in the USA and hardly ever in Australia or in India. I know it exists worldwide, but our culture promotes such a violent, policing, judgmental type of attitude about so many things that it is reflected in the state of our youngest children up to the oldest of adults. How is it that people in other countries even survive without beating, shooting or imprisoning so many in their population? And why are they so much happier than Americans? And why does it feel so much better to live in those countries than it does in America.

Who is good enough to judge another and to prescribe a punishment for another? Are you? I know that I am not. Most people I know have their own dysfunctional behaviors going on and should be dealing with those issues rather than judging others.

I know for a fact that when I get angry at someone else or even some situation, that I have not understood something. And when I do come to understand it dramatically alters my emotional state and I feel like I was the one in the wrong. Do you know why I know this for a fact? Because I have worked for many years on overcoming my rage and I am about 99 percent there. When I was angry I forced myself to settle down and to pay enough attention and to look deeper into the situation. Then I saw that I had seriously misunderstood the situation. Not just some of the time, not just most of the time, EVERY TIME! I am not just a stupid fool that I always get confused and pissed off! I am a very intelligent man who becomes insane whenever the feeling of anger arises within me. And I am willing to bet this is true of 100 percent of humanity too.

The Worst Crime of All

We stunt our spiritual growth by holding on to a stance of using punishment as the way we deal with crime of any sort. I consider this the worst crime of all. If you only knew the beauty of divine union with God, you would understand what I mean. It is an experience that is so beautiful, that to rob others of it is a crime as hideous as murder. Divine union with God is not possible for someone who would punish another person because that other person is God. Your own desire to punish God results in the inability to unite that closely with God. When we teach our society that punishment is the answer to crime, no matter how small or how large we judge the crime to be, we prevent our fellow human beings from experiencing divine union with God.

When I tell people I have experienced divine union with God they just don’t understand. When a person has not had an experience they cannot relate. Some people try to. Recently one woman responded with, “I too experience God. I have a deep, abiding, PERSONAL relationship with Christ.” Yet the rest of what she wrote indicated that she has NOT had this experience I that am referring to. I have met others that totally understood. Their words and understanding of life reflected it. I tell you this, if you are having a difficult time understanding my perspective, or you completely disagree, then you have not had this experience I am describing. If you have ever experienced divine union with God you will know that all other beings are indeed you, are indeed God, are indeed your beloved Jesus or whoever it is that you worship. If you ever came close to having this experience you would know the incredible pain of coming face to face with God with a heart that wants to put a bullet in his head or lock him up in the darkest prison experience imaginable.

I am not trying to come off as someone who is superior for having had such an experience. I am only trying to impress upon you that I may have actually been somewhere you have not and that from that place the answer to all of our life’s problems was clear. It is just a bit like…

This is Just like Skiing

When I was a young hot shot intermediate skier I wanted to ski the black diamond runs…I am talking about those very steep slopes. My friend and I would stand at the top of the slope and we would cautiously start skiing down by cutting across the slope, but we always got to a point where we had to turn to go the other way. The problem was that by the time we had to make that turn we had way too much speed going and we had to turn such that for a short time we were heading straight down that steep slope. We often fell. Or we would interrupt our flow by stopping and making an awkward stepping and hopping sort of turn to cut across that slope in the opposite direction.

Our style was not very elegant; this was not how we saw the advanced skiers doing it. They were basically going straight down the slope and gracefully cutting a lot of turns as they went leaving a pattern like a snake in the snow. So we tried to imitate them without much luck. Sometimes we would barrel down that slope so fast that all we could do was hope we would make it to the bottom of the steep part and then slow ourselves down, other times we fell, and other times we bailed out and started cutting across the slope again.

Then one day we skied with a friend who had been a ski instructor. He taught us that we had to lean over our tips hard. He showed us how to slow our decent by making a graceful turn every few seconds. “Lean over our tips?!?” That sounded like suicide to me! I had never done it, so I did not understand how that could possibly work. My mind was telling me that I would fall for sure, or go flying down that slope faster than ever. I had a difficult time accepting it. I was really scared to try but I did. You know what? It works and is actually very easy and a lot of fun!

This whole issue people have with punishment is just like this. Most people are too afraid to try something new. They are too wrapped up in their emotions and their judgment and their hatred for these very sick people to see the God within them or to evaluate clearly if the way we as a society have been dealing with them is working. If we want to advance from a mediocre society to an advanced one, we will have to face this challenge and approach this issue with love.

Have I Proven My Point?

So this idea of terrorizing criminals into submission creates an endless cycle of abuse. This should be very clear. Have I proven this to your satisfaction? What is missing? Do you still believe you can punish the wicked of this world in some way and create a world of beauty and peace? Can you clearly articulate what it is that you do not understand, or why is it you disagree? If so then please do so in a comment. Understanding these points I have been making is the foundation of moving out of this endless cycle that humanity seems to be stuck in. If we cannot prove our current ways are doomed to failure beyond a shadow of doubt for the ordinary human being then we cannot motivate them to try a different approach.

There is Another Way

Love is the answer to all problems. Loving someone is NOT the same thing as setting them free and ignoring their dysfunctional and criminal behaviors. You can love someone and still lock them up or come up with other ways to prevent them from continuing to harm society.

If you shift from a shocked, horrified and judgmental state of mind to a compassionate and loving state of mind you are free to explore all of the possibilities for solving a problem. If you become relaxed and peaceful then you open up to inspiration that will NOT come when you hold on to bitter and hateful judgment. This is what is necessary to solve this problem we have with abusive people.

There are many who would say the punishment of the abuser is assured by God. I would disagree because God is not punishing them but teaching them. As such we should leave these teaching methods to God who knows enough to make the judgments and decisions of how to best teach these abusive people. God is in charge of karma. Indeed if I beat someone for abusing me or my child, that abuser has received some of his karmic payback. But still I have created karma for myself. Thus we need to leave the karma of others to God and we need to create our own karma and life experience as we want it to be.

I will NOT say that I have the perfect solution to this problem, as in the physical steps we must take, but I am certain that it starts in a peaceful loving mind. The solution that works will not come from the mind of a bitter, angry and judgmental person. We must clear out our judgment to make room for the solutions we seek to come to the surface.

Examples of possible solutions:

* Lock these criminals up in a compassionate way. They lose their liberty because they cannot be trusted, not as a punishment. Allow them to only have entertainment and reading material that helps them see the harm they have done, and teaches them a way of living that is loving and harmonious. Bring loving and compassionate teachers in to retrain them, even if they will never be free again. Teach them how to mediate and get in touch with God within their own being. STOP teaching them that Jesus forgives them and all they have to do is believe. People who believe this sort of BS do not even try to change, why should they?

* For those who are freed put an ankle bracelet on them that contains GPS tracking, a sensor, and a taser. If the sensor detects violent behavior then the bracelet tasers them to the ground. I bet the technology exists to do such a thing.

* Teach ALL children at the youngest age about such predators. Standardize the ways we teach it. Carefully monitor the results to make sure we are not traumatizing the little ones but preparing them to take care of themselves and stay out of dangerous situations. Prepare them to tell a trusted adult if they are abused rather than letting it go on for years.

* Teach young and mature women that this danger exists. Teach them about how men look for unmarried mothers of girls so they have captive young girls to prey upon.

* Make sexuality more acceptable and accessible in our society. Legalize prostitution! Stop stigmatizing the sexually promiscuous. Much of this is abnormal sexual behavior is due to the repression of our natural sexual desires.

* Make violence and punishment more unacceptable in our society. Much of this abnormal violent behavior is due to being taught that violence is the way to power when they were a young child and they were abused. And it is also why so many stubbornly hold on to it as the way to control and protect our society even though it is not working. People with a violent way of dealing with problems are not powerful, they are powerless!

We must begin to take a long term view of this problem. This person with this horrible social problem is going to come back via reincarnation. Even if we lock them up for life, we need to retrain them such that when they do come back to again via reincarnation and mix in with society that they have developed loving and sane social skills. These habits we embed in the personality through repetition do carry over into our next incarnations. This is one of the reasons I promote loving kindness in the face of their harmful behavior. As one of my friends said, there is “NO ROOM on this planet” for them. But too bad so sad, you have no control over this. If you kill them today, tomorrow they will be born again and soon enough repeat these behaviors. You cannot kill this out of people. They must be taught a new way of being.

By forgiving and loving these unloving people we are loving and forgiving ourselves. We are setting an example for others to follow. Our society will develop the habit and skill of handling horrible events with compassion and love creating outcomes that are best for all concerned.

Tink
Sorry, Michael, have a real problem withholding judgment with regard to child molesters. You honestly cannot place them into the same genre as drug addicts and prostitutes. Apples and oranges.

Walk in the shoes of a parent for just a moment. Your daughter is molested, maybe raped, possibly killed, by a grown man. Your daughter is 4. Say your daughter survives the molestation and it does not go beyond that. The man is captured. The whole thing goes to court.

How can a person honestly set aside all anger, hatred, and even judgment in the face of the horrific act done to an innocent child?

I will agree that NOT everyone will be able to set aside their anger and hatred. Yet as a society this is what we need to be doing for all of the reasons I have already given. To not do this is to remain stuck. We consider a person a hero when they shed their own life in battle, fighting fires, going to the rescue of the helpless, they do it for others and for the greater good of their society. There are many such stories and popular movies around this topic. We get all emotional and swept up in such stories when we see that happen. We are inspired.

What about what Gandhi and the Indian people did in their struggle against British occupation? Watch the video called Gandhi. They conquered their enemy by clearly showing the British that they were brutal people attacking innocent non violent people. They put their own lives in peril, without fighting, but just by being there they won peace.

I will tell you from my own personal experiences in life, that you can overcome any emotion by simply changing your mind and focusing your attention somewhere else. Pain occurs; dwelling on it only amplifies and extends it.

If you let these ideas sink in, if you read my other blogs on this topic of how forgiveness helps yourself and how judgment and hatred poisons the one who is doing the hating, if you take my advice just some of time and observe how it changes things for you and for others, then you will know this is some advanced and profound wisdom. This is the only approach that will work.

I know I have many people reading my blogs with advanced life skills. Please let’s have a show of support, and echo of the truth…how has letting go of judgment, hatred, anger and fear changed your life? And for those who have not yet given it a try…be brave, be a hero, give it a try; what do you have to lose?

Love and Blessings,
Michael Skowronski
Author of Unforgettable: A Love and Spiritual Growth Story

Of what value is belief? This conversation began with a simple question about the form life takes throughout the universe. An interesting question…a curiosity to satisfy…but we must first come to know who we are, from experience, NOT from belief or from the teachings of others. Only then we can really know the answers to such questions. You should not believe me or anyone else. You must discover the knowledge that lives inside of you…

Tryphania

I was just curious…and wanted to know what your thoughts are on the possibility of life existing in other parts of our universe? Do you think we are alone?

There is NOWHERE that Life is Not. For God is Everywhere and Everything.

However, the Human experience is the highest experience that God has of Himself in existence. Perhaps that is duplicated in other places; on other planets…some say it is not, others say it is…I am not certain. But human consciousnesses can experience themselves as one with All which is one with God, and can create with the Almighty many things beyond the grasp of the ordinary human.

So, humans are the highest experience that god has of himself… and if you look at reincarnation… then, were we ever in existence of a different form other than human? I’ve always wondered how that works…

Perhaps, I have read in some places that some have been angels who decided to go human. I have read that some go through the experience of being rock, plant, and/or animal then go through the experience of being human.

In other words, what level are animals? I’ve had it explained to me before that animals and humans don’t go together in reincarnation… rather that animals evolve to a higher existence, but they do not ever reincarnate into a human form. I have not yet put my views on reincarnation into a complete belief pattern… simply because just when I think I understand it, I suddenly learn something new… and so my views are always evolving and changing and growing.

I explain much of this in my blog Evolution of a Soul. However, we are getting into pretty abstract territory here. The first problem is there are no words to fully describe an experience that is outside of the physical experience. Our words can only accurately describe that which we can experience in the physical world. Yes there are some words to describe those things beyond the physical, but how is it any person can really understand them if they don’t remember an experience that is beyond the physical?

Belief is Not Knowing

The second problem is with beliefs. Belief is NOT KNOWING. So of what value is a belief? It could be of value in the sense of it taking you to the state of knowing by giving you a guiding point to follow. But beyond that, belief is a limitation where most people get stuck. People decided to believe some philosophy and then search no further for truth, knowledge nor experience. This is the trap that too many religious people find themselves in. They get angry if you challenge their beliefs; their anger exposes the level which they are stuck within their beliefs. So one must be careful with beliefs and always remember that they really don’t know. If a person gets angry when you challenge their beliefs, they don’t know, they don’t want to know, they just want to be peaceful within their beliefs.

I have read that there are times that a human will incarnate as an animal to fulfill a desire that can more easily be fulfilled as an animal. One example was given of someone who was so in love with eating that they came back as a pig since a pig has a far greater capacity to eat than a human; after fulfilling such a desire that one then continues incarnations as a human.

I have also read that once a spark of God passes through the “Idea of Man”, once they become human for the first time then that soul must pass all the way through the many experiences and incarnations necessary to come to full and total realization of themselves once again as the spark of God they are.

I’ve also heard before that as far as reincarnation goes, humans evolve here on earth as far as they can, lifetime after lifetime, but then, once they have moved beyond what they can experience here, then they move onto other planets…where there are other life forms that live in a higher dimensional existence. Or, they stay here, and choose to help other humans on earth with their life experiences. There are whole groups of individuals who have formed religion-like congregations, based from these beliefs.

There is so much out there as far as information goes… and it’s as if the possibilities are endless! It’s also easy to become confused.

I too have read many different accounts of how things are beyond our physical incarnations. There are many versions and ideas, they are a lot of fun to explore since they cause us to expand our thinking and our view of this very small experience of life we call physical reality.

I must say in these regards I do NOT KNOW. What I do KNOW is that we exist, that we are eternal beings, that there is much more than this physical existence or single incarnation. I have had enough experience outside of my body and merged with God that I remember and know this is true, but I have not had enough experience and remembrances to validate these other fascinating things I have read.

I do trust the many sources I have read, their wisdom is so very profound and their achievements are way beyond my own, and they brought me to advance as far as I have advanced thus far and this is why I trust them and follow their lead…so for me it is a belief, a not knowing, it is something I am seeking to verify for myself.

I haven’t yet decided on what I believe, simply because there is so much out there that cannot be proven…and so then it comes down to picking and choosing what I believe…and how much faith I have.

I want to know as much as I could possibly know…and understand as much as I could possibly understand before I let myself start having too much faith in one idea.

Maybe it’s not about what is the truth…maybe it’s simply what kind of truth I want to choose?

I believe truth can be known, but there again you see I too am using the word believe. It has been my experience that I continue to discover more truths about life through experience. I also believe that to know ultimate truths, one will not be in body when one comes to know them. This physical body is too limited of a structure to hold the total truth of the unlimited within it.

For now it is enough to know that the people who go around telling us our life is limited to a single incarnation and we had better follow the one and only son of God, or the one and only master who ever existed, or the one and only true religion…it is enough to know these people do not know what they are talking about and are simply involved in a fantasy.

Go with the practical. Improve your life and your awareness each and every day. Look for evidence and proof that it is improving. Improve upon your personality. Learn how to gather energy and what it is that depletes you of energy. Learn to have your own experience of the Unlimited within yourself. These are the kinds of things I teach in my blogs and in my book. These things will hold you in good standing within yourself and enable you to be strong under any circumstance life presents to you. This will give you the greatest chance of KNOWING the truth of these things you are asking me about.

Love and Blessings,
Michael Skowronski
Author of Unforgettable: A Love and Spiritual Growth Story

image credits to sharaff

Are you aware that there are many people who see right through you? No? Okay, so look around the room; make sure no one is looking over your shoulder. Yes, I am writing this to you. Directly to you, the one who is reading this right now.

How does it make you feel to contemplate the fact that you are transparent? Does it push against your right to privacy? Do you believe your thoughts and intentions are private? You don’t have something to hide…or do you?

This is not a joke. This is real folks. There are plenty of people who can see right through you, right now. There are probably a few of them in your life. If that thought makes you just a little bit uncomfortable then you would benefit greatly from the information contained in this and my other blogs.

There are two ways in which this occurs. The first way is that we all give off many clues to our inner state and thinking through our words and actions. The second way is that some people are that psychic that they can read you clearly without even looking at you or ever having met you before.

Psychics are Watching You

Whoooooh…okay you caught me…I was intentionally trying to give you the heebeegeebees, there are no psychics watching you, not to my knowledge anyway. But through the course of your day, and probably nestled somewhere in your life are people who know if you are up to no good or not. They know if you have something to contribute or if you are just there for the taking. They know if you intend harm or love.

In my early thirties, even though I had already had a few psychic experiences myself, I was relatively unaware and skeptical about this side of life. That was until I met my late wife. We spent seven years together before she died in 1998 of cancer. There were so many experiences where she accurately read my mind and intentions, as well as the intentions of other people. I say she read me and others accurately because I was there. I knew what was what; I knew what I was hiding and what I was not facing. I would later get confirmation about the other people. We also studied with multiple spiritual masters who in great detail described the personality of people in our lives that they never met.

Stories of these times and what we learned can be found in my book Unforgettable: A Love and Spiritual Growth Story.

As I continued to study, practice and grow I too developed these abilities. Not to the same remarkable level as others I have known, but enough to amaze myself. And enough to give me a distinct edge in walking though life safely and in peace. I use my psychic abilities daily to make choices. My feelings are an indispensible guide that have lead me into an unforgettable life.

Your Words and Actions Expose You

Too many people look at the actions of others and then jump to incorrect conclusions. I know just how easy that is to do from personal experience. That comes from a negative, frightened or watchful place inside that is trying to protect us. A common example of this is when someone sees a woman flirting or in some way being sexual and labels her a sinner or lowlife whore.

Okay so we know that plenty of people jump to incorrect conclusion and are judgmental, but don’t let that discount the fact that people can read us by our words and actions. That would be a mistake. Given enough time the results of your words and actions will speak for you and about you. People who are paying attention will notice. Okay so not too many people are paying attention right? Sad but true, that is indeed right. But still, there are some people who are paying attention and they do notice.

One of the well known things about life is that we develop habits of behavior through repetition. (Psychologists, hypnotherapists, marketers all know this.) When a person begins to lie, and each time he continues, he reinforces the behavior until it becomes a habit. Soon lies slip out everywhere and they are noticed. If a person develops a habit of judging others, even if it is in the privacy of their own mind, soon the judgments will slip out in the form of words. The habit of thought becomes too strong and then the judgments are being spoken. And if others reinforce the same insane mental activity of being judgmental, then the words become actions.

Maybe while talking with you, face to face, a person is nice. But when they tell you about what happened between them and an ex-friend, they tell you heaps about themselves. The way they talk about another person exposes the habits of thought they hold. These thoughts were thought about enough by that person that they came out in words. People say, “Oh sorry, I don’t know why I said that.” But in truth they said it because they have thought it many times. It is very rare that a person says something that they have never thought about before. And those are the times that our divine nature is more clearly expressing itself through us. Not when we say something mean or stupid.

So when I watch someone stab another in the back, I wonder when they will do that to me. I know they have no respect for others, and no respect for themselves. If they try to explain how the other person deserved it then I know that they think some people are worthy and others are not, and that they don’t really know where their inherent worth comes from. They don’t know how their thoughts affect their future. In essence they don’t know the most important things a person should know about life. When someone complains to me that I have done such and such to them, yet I know that I have not, then I begin to wonder how many people they have done such and such to. People who complain about others are most often trying to shift the focus from themselves and onto others. In reality they are pointing out their own character defects.

An Example

A real life example of this was a friend who came to me to tell me about how her brother was lying about her and accusing her of cheating in a joint real-estate deal they had going. He made a very emotional scene in front of other family members. I asked her if she was trying to cheat and she said no. I then told her, “It is he who was trying to cheat you. I suspect this because of his emotional reaction. A person reacts strongly when they are out of control. When they are out of control they fall back on their programming, their repeated thoughts and behaviors. Your brother could only see that you were cheating him because in his world everyone cheats. Everyone includes himself.”

My friend replied, “Well that is interesting because that is the reason why I came to talk to you. I was about to sign some final papers to close out our dealings and we each were going to take our share. When I saw the numbers I looked at the original contract and he had modified it so that he would get a larger share in the property than he should.”

This point bears repetition…A person reacts strongly when they are out of control. When they are out of control they fall back on their programming, they repeat their thoughts and behaviors from previous experiences. This will tell you about who they are and it has no reflection upon you…unless you of course feel a strong attraction to hanging around with this particular person.

One of the reasons people can’t read things clearly is because their desires get in the way. You want or think you need something so badly that you are willing to look past the obvious and keep heading towards your goal. You become willing to believe someone’s words when their actions or prior words already communicated their true intentions. But if you think about it carefully you will know that you have known fact from fiction, many times in the past. Start paying attention and you will begin to understand when you are correct and when you are projecting your fears and worries on a situation.

What to do about it? I say you should be proactive and face your fears. Dive in and begin to deal with the places in life that you are not authentic. Your personality is your greatest asset. The quality of it determines what you will attract to yourself, the level of health you experience in the body, and the peace of mind that you experience. Put in the effort, pay attention to your thoughts, think only thoughts that make you feel good and your actions will flow from there. Make a loving harmonious outcome the intention you approach all of life with.

Love and Blessings,
Michael Skowronski
Author of Unforgettable: A Love and Spiritual Growth Story

image credits to peterbox 

I had a friend ask…

“Why is it when it’s on ’God’s time’ it seems that nothing is happening? At least nothing good.”

We are the ones to label things good or bad. There is no such thing as an absolute good or bad, life just is, and it is eternal. That which you are, always has been and always will be.

When people talk about God’s time what they are saying is that the specific things they want sometimes, oftentimes, or even most of the time, takes time…too much time for their taste so they call this God’s time. But these people are missing a key piece.

We always get what we want eventually…or our desires change due to the circumstances in our lives that help us clarify our goals and desires. The reason this is so is that we are all endowed with the creative aspect of God. We are co-creators with God.

The problem is with us. We don’t understand how to use our creative energy and we don’t even understand who we are. So the time it takes for us to create something we desire is the time it takes for us to learn how to create it, how to recognize it when it comes and how to stop blocking it when comes.

Let’s take relationships as an example. There are many people who want a really good juicy relationship. They want the right size, shape and attractiveness. They want the right income level, the right sort of disposition such as kindness or toughness, the right common interests, etc… But too often there is neediness mixed in with these desires. They need someone who will help pay the bills that overwhelm them, or they need someone who will be a good father to the child they already have, or they need someone who will make them feel special and important and loved.

This is not how life works, things and people don’t come to you based on your desperate needs. Like attracts like, dysfunctional people attract dysfunctional people, functional people attract functional people. You might say, “How insulting, I am a really nice woman and my last relationship was with an abusive man.” But I would say that although you might be a nice woman in one or two ways, you are still dysfunctional…you don’t believe you are worthy, or you don’t know how to stand up for yourself, or you don’t know how to tell the difference between a kind and loving person and a person who is abusive, or you don’t know that it takes abusive people a very long time to change and you are trying to change them, or that it takes a lot to get them to want to change, you don’t understand many things that you will learn from your painful relationship experience.

This learning happens in God’s time. Once you have learned all of these things, once you are the kind of person you want in your life, then you will have that sort of person in your life. The same is true with money, health, adventure.

This is why it is essential to be proactive in your efforts to grow. The more you grow, the more you become aware, the more you clear out the misunderstandings you hold about life, the greater the things you attract to yourself will be.

“Then why is it that I see so many screwed up people with good jobs, lots of money, and crazy women with such hot looking men?”

When we look at the surface of other people’s lives they can look really good and appealing. But you don’t know what lies below the surface. If they are indeed screwed up and crazy, then their real life will also be screwed up and crazy. One day they will get so messed up on drugs or too indebt or fool around one too many times that their whole world comes crashing down. They won’t know how to handle it either. Also they cannot really even appreciate the good life they have, because things are ultimately meaningless. If they stop for two minutes with nothing to do they will go crazy because their inner world is crazy. They need to keep forever busy to distract them from their craziness.

If you really understood the people you look at, if you knew their innermost thoughts and desires, you would see that what they have is a perfect match to their vibration. What they have matches their desires and it is teaching them the lessons they need to learn to move on to other unfulfilled desires they hold.

Love and Blessings,
Michael Skowronski
Author of Unforgettable: A Love and Spiritual Growth Story

image credits to ToniVC

I know this blog is going to piss some people off. But for all of you who are pissed off at the title and contents, consider this…this idea you keep spreading that God/Jesus/Whoever is out there and we are all separate miserable sinners lucky to be loved by God if we worship him and only him…this message is doing a huge disservice to yourself and to humanity. Why? Because you are delaying some people from realizing their godly self.

I AM GOD. YOU ARE GOD. These are quotes attributed to Jesus, “Do you not know that you are gods? What you do to the least of my brother you do to me. I and the Father are one.” And Psalm 46:10 which also comes from the much revered Bible says, “Be Still and Know that I am God.”

If one is still, stops the mind and goes into the knowing that in that stillness God can be found, then one can experience the “I am” as God. How can it be any clearer than this? “I am” the one who is still is the “I am” that in the stillness can know that they are God. This same thing has been taught by MANY masters worldwide. For those of you deeply involved in a religion such as Christianity or any other religion for that matter, you must realize that there have been more than one master who has walked this earth other than the one you worship. This possibility is available to you. You can master your own life.

People all over the world have become enlightened. People all over the world have experienced the realms of heaven first hand! People all over the world have healed others. People all over the world have raised the dead and have themselves risen from the dead. (See my stories of this in my blog Truth vs. the Bible halfway down into the blog.) People from all over the world, in different cultures, in different religions, and even of no religion, have experienced healing miracles and other phenomena that go way beyond rational explanation. If you discount wholesale the experiences of these thousands of people in favor of the religion you were brainwashed into you are indeed a fool. You have been fooled by a wolf in sheep’s clothing and you have limited yourself to physical experience, limited those who are influenced by you, and kept yourself and others from having a Godly experience of life. In my view of life this is the worst “sin” of all!

There was a time where I was groping in the dark…indeed still there is some darkness for me too. I used to read the magnificent stories of many masters who experienced all those things previously stated and wondered, “Can these things happen for me? Can I experience myself as God?” I want to tell you that it has indeed happened for me too. Now I am not saying I have mastered life to the extent some of these others have mastered life, but I have had some very deep and profound glimpses and I have made some deep and profound changes in my personality in the span of my lifetime so far. If you read my book, Unforgettable: A Love and Spiritual Growth Story , you will see a dramatic difference between the man I was in my thirties and the man who is writing these blogs. That is the result of experience and real change. And I continue to evolve and improve with each and every day. So can you! I am NOT unique. I am NOT special. If you admire me, I hope that you can admire your own self and will seek to experience the God within you. I have even had a couple of experiences of Samadhi, a deep state of meditation where the mind is bypassed and an absolute connection with God is established. In such a state I realized the truth that each and every one of us is indeed One and we are all God. This was a very real experience and it is what motivates me to push forward no matter what the expense to me is to help others in their healing. It is because I KNOW beyond a shadow of a doubt that you are one with me and by helping you I am helping myself.

God is more than the connection between all living things. God IS ALL living things, all inanimate things too. God created all of Manifest Creation, from His own Self, and then moved Her own consciousness into creation to experience what He created. For plants and animals She created a group memory for each species. For humans however God created an individual and permanent memory and consciousness for each human being. This is what differentiates each individual from another, but it is still God who is the living being in each individual human being. The human being can and ultimately will discover that She is God and can move beyond this boundary of consciousness and memory to reunite with the wholeness of God and back into the limitation of the boundary anytime He chooses. (For more on this topic please read Evolution of a Soul. )

So I encourage you, wholeheartedly and with love…seek! Discover who you are. I’ll spoil the ending for you…You Are God! But in reality I spoilt nothing, because the intellectual knowledge that you are God is NOT the same thing as remembering that You Are God. Not by a long shot! Make it your intention to remember, and it will happen!

Love and Blessings,
Michael Skowronski
Author of Unforgettable: A Love and Spiritual Growth Story