The Power of Sorry

by Sam & Terry Krause

“Love means never having to say you’re sorry.”

Remember that saccharine line from the famous 1970 movie “Love Story?” It sounded icky to us then, and it sounds icky to us now, but since, like us, many of you also came of age under the spell of that cloying mantra, we’d like to set the record straight once and for all: it’s a big fat lie that has nothing whatsoever to do with love.

“Sorry” can be a mighty tool in saving your marriage, but in order to take full advantage of its power, we must be trained in its proper use. (more…)

Looking Back, Looking Forward

The Christmas / New Year / Winter Solstice season is traditionally a time for gathering around the fire with family and friends, celebrating the successful negotiation of another year and re-charging one's batteries ready for the new chapter of adventure and challenge that is about to begin. Much as Dicken’s Scrooge is forced to do, it is also a time for looking back and planning ahead.

Reminiscence can either be positive or negative, depending on how we frame it. We may mourn the loss of loved ones no longer here to share the spirit of the season, or we may remember with pleasure and thanks the many happy times we did share while resolving to share with our companions of this season some equally good experiences. (more…)

Patience - a by-product of difficulties

By Lt Col R K Langar

Patience is a great asset of man in life, more so when one is treading on the spiritual path. Patience is not taught but it is learned when we meet some obstacles or difficulties in life. Patience tells you not to be in a hurry because when you hurry it gives the impression that you are not in control of the situation. On the other hand if you stay calm and face the situation patiently you get time to think of some means to cross the obstacle rather than to react impatiently. Patience is needed everywhere in life, whether you seek to be one with God, whether you wish to destroy your bad habits or whether you wish to plant noble thoughts within you. (more…)

The Natural Way to Beat Depression

Have you ever sought medical help for depression only to be given a costly prescription for antidepressant medication? Perhaps you have been prescribed a combination of drugs in an attempt to find the right formula for you. Or have you found the side effects from drug therapy worse than the depression itself. The most common antidepressants have adverse effects ranging from irritability to stomach upset to loss of libido. Even if your depression has lifted, are you satisfied with the cost and side effects of prescription drugs?

For many people, natural remedies offer the best solution. Herbal remedies and simple changes in diet are often at least as effective in lifting a depressed person’s mood as some of the more common prescription drugs, at a fraction of the cost and without unpleasant side effects.  (more…)

Free Tips to Treat Depression ebook

Depression is a scourge of modern living, affecting millions from all backgrounds. This free ebook describes a range of strategies that you can put in place to start fighting back at this debilitating condition.

Download Tips to Treat Depression from the Self Help Sanctum

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Spiritual Lessons from Steve Jobs

The sad passing of Steve Jobs has dominated the news of the past week. Jobs, the founder of Apple, has been phenomenally successful and a true game-changer in the field of technology, but one might question why someone engaged in such a materialistic industry is being mentioned on a Spiritual Web site.

Apart from being a Buddhist for most of his adult life, Steve Jobs' philosophy actually stands as an excellent example of Spiritual living.

Internet entrepreneur John Chow presents a superb summary of Jobs' teachings at Lessons I Learned From Steve Jobs, and although presented from a business perspective we can all take something from the key lessons of:

• Live Each Day Like It’s Your Last
• Surround Yourself with Great People
• It Doesn’t Matter What You Think! and
• Find Your Passion (more…)

Understanding The Power of Now

First published in 1999, Eckhart Tolle's The Power of Now has become an international bestseller. Written as a series of questions and answers, it presents a radical analysis of humanity's current state and offers a revolutionary route back from unhappiness to enlightenment, which this article attempts to give the merest flavor of. If you read just one Spiritual book in your life, The Power of Now is a very strong contender to be that book. (more…)

Happiness and Acceptance (the Cessation of Struggle)

The pursuit of happiness only fuels unhappiness. In trying to be happy many people strive for a better job, bigger house, faster car and all kinds of various other crap. If they don't get all they want it makes them unhappy. If they do get it they find it makes them less happy than they thought and/or the novelty soon wears off and so they chase after yet more materialist crap. But, unlike how we get conditioned from birth, doesn't real happiness come when we stop struggling - against the world and our circumstances - and simply accept things as they are. Then we start to appreciate all the small stuff that's really satisfying, apply our efforts to things that really matter, and stop trying for crap that can never satisfy.

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Goal Setting and Purpose

Here is the test to find whether your mission on Earth is finished: if you're alive, it isn't. Richard Bach

Purpose and Goals

Life can be likened to a journey, with its purpose corresponding to the destination. The sense of purpose is so essential that without it we’d struggle to climb out of bed in the morning, for without purpose there'd be no reason. But our purpose is way more complex than getting to New York Grand Central. (more…)

Spiritual Parenting

Being a parent is probably the greatest privilege, and responsibility, we can have during our earth life. A new born baby is a paradox. The Spirit within that helpless bundle is ancient, but its earthly incarnation is a blank page waiting to be written upon by its experiences, with the earliest experiences carrying the greatest influence throughout its life.

Before birth our Spirit decides, along with our guides, what circumstances we will be born into and what lessons we will seek during this particular lifetime. And then we find ourselves upon earth, the knowledge of our true Spiritual nature temporarily obscured so that we might best fulfill our chosen purpose. Life is the ultimate experience of learning by discovery. (more…)