Credit: reallifecoaching.net

By Wes Annac, Culture of Awareness

If you consider yourself a spiritual seeker, then you’re probably familiar with the concept of renouncing the world in favor of spirituality.

A lot of gurus throughout the years have encouraged people to give up their material desires and their general interest in the world, and those of us who want to evolve but enjoy being a part of life on earth have wondered where the line can be drawn. Do we really have to give ourselves up and completely renounce the world to evolve, or is there a middle ground we can take that’ll allow us to progress just as quickly?

I don’t think giving up the world is entirely necessary, but there are aspects of ourselves we might want to examine and let go of if needed. I refer mainly to the ego-centered aspects that are obsessed with materiality and the endless cultural distractions that bombard us daily. The ego isn’t inherently bad, but like anything else, it can hold us back if we don’t keep it in check.

It can be hard to tell if and when you’re being manipulated. People can be skillful at the craft of covering up their true intentions. Here’s what you should be looking out for.

1. Knowing they’ve manipulated others.

Want to know the easiest way to peg a manipulator? Know that they’ve tried being the puppet master for others in the past. Someone with a history of manipulation is likely to do it again, and maybe even to you.

2. They’re the fast moving fast talking types.

They do things as fast as they can, particularly building relationships with people. It enables them to be able to use people more efficiently and move on when you’re no longer of use.

Where is your pain hiding?  Is it behind your positive attitude where it can never been seen or judged?  Is it under the motivation you use to keep from thinking about it?  Is it on the opposite side of that brightly lit corner of your mind where you will never have to look at it? Acknowleging pain is very important in your growth process, do not tuck it away.  If ignored, it will begin to take away small pieces of you as a way of getting your attention like a child vying for a parent’s affections.  “Look at me, see me, feel me, talk to me”!  Take some time to honor your pain.  Just like every other part of you, it is beautiful. ~ Creator

https://thecreatorwritings.wordpress.com/2015/10/06/where-is-your-pain/

By Philip Shepherd
Guest Writer for Wake Up World

A well-known neurological phenomenon is expressed in a catchy maxim: “What fires together wires together.” This phrase tells us that if two distinct neural pathways habitually fire together, they eventually lose their distinctiveness. The brain starts to treat them as one, because it’s more economical. As an illustration of this, researchers taped two fingers of a hapless monkey together for a period of time [rather cruel]; and when the tape was finally removed, the two fingers straightened together and bent together. Their neural pathways had been forced to ‘fire’ together, so they had ‘wired’ together.

There are many ways in which our neural pathways practice such economy in our daily lives, but the effect often remains hidden to us because the ‘wiring’ so often belongs to the culture that shapes us.

By Sayer Ji

Contributing Writer for Wake Up World

“I believe that if screening had been a drug, it would have been withdrawn from the market long ago.” ~ Peter C Gøtzsche (physician, medical researcher and author of Mammography Screening: Truth, Lies and Controversy.)

With Breast Cancer Awareness Month upon us again, a new study promises to undermine the multi-billion dollar cause-marketing campaign that shepherds millions of women in to have their breasts scanned for cancer with x-rays that themselves are known to contribute to breast cancer.