Credit: Pinterest.com

By Wes Annac, The Culture of Awareness

In order to grow, creatively or spiritually, we have to be willing to be broken down. We have to be willing to be emptied of everything we once thought was important or essential so the new can come pouring in, and the more we resist, the harder the process will be.

Some of us struggle to find what we want to do in this life, and this can make the process of creative/spiritual evolution more uncomfortable and painful.

It gets even harder if we have an overactive mind that constantly races from thought to thought and desire to desire, and it seems important to relinquish any mind-centered control we forcefully exert and let life flow exactly how it’s meant to.

Their technology may be simple but their social structures are highly advanced, perhaps far more than our own. But the point isn’t to say one way of life is more right than another – it’s to recognize that there are many diverse ways of living and a world where many ways can co-exist is better than a world where we all live the same.

Tribal peoples have developed ways of life that are largely self-sufficient and extraordinarily diverse. But they are portrayed as backward and primitive simply because their communal ways are different.

Our friends at Survival International won’t give up until we have a world where tribal peoples are respected as contemporary societies. But they depend on your support: www.survivalinternational.org/actnow

Zen Gardner, Guest
Waking Times

This has been bothering me for some time. We have neighbors who treat their dogs horribly. They don’t beat them, but their indifference and neglect is heartrending. It’s not the norm in this country, as most dogs are free to roam most of the time and cared for in loving homes. Neglected animals are often adopted and lost pets are usually taken to the local vet who knows just about every animal and their owner in the area. Very kind and caring.

I know this for a fact as I found a lost pup and took it to her and she looked at it, recognized the markings on its tail, and excitedly said “I know where this dog lives!” She got on her phone and called them and they came and got their pup, just like that.

Adidas is trying to decrease the staggering amount of plastic waste that ends up in the world’s oceans every year. Photo Credit: Parley for the Oceans

Lorraine Chow, EcoWatch
Waking Times

Adidas has partnered with Parley for the Oceans to develop materials made from ocean plastic waste to use in its products starting in 2016. The sportswear giant will also phase out plastic bags in its 2,900 retail stores around the world. Parley for the Oceans is a team of artists, musicians, actors, directors, fashion designers, journalists, architects, product inventors and scientists that addresses major threats to the world’s oceans.

“The conservation of the oceans is a cause that is close to my heart and those of many employees at the Adidas Group,” said Eric Liedtke, Adidas Group executive board member responsible for global brands. “By partnering with Parley for the Oceans we are contributing to a great environmental cause. We co-create fabrics made from ocean plastic waste which we will integrate into our product.”

When people say, “Why can’t you be more like….” what they are really saying is, “Why can’t I be more like…”.  Once the realization of that sinks into your consciousness, you can begin to learn and practice discernment of what is and what is not truly yours.  This is not something to take personally because, just by being who you really are, you are performing a service that may not otherwise have been noticed.  Smile, nod and move on.  It really is not about you. ~ Creator

What I see in your heart is love while you could be seeing turmoil. Beloveds, unless you are relaxed enough to love, what you have is turmoil. In order to love, all you have to do is to let go of turmoil by whatever name you call it - tension, franticness, haste, worry, regret, resentment, disturbance, stinginess. All these and more are words that represent blockages to love flowing freely in and out of your heart. The long and the short of it is that your heart, made from My heart, is here to love and nothing but love.

Nervousness, anxiety, fear and all the other equivalent words freeze up your love and keep it from flowing. On the whole, what these upsetting words represent blocks your receiving love as well as giving it. When a human heart is unlocked, love will pour in, and love will pour out. This is the natural lay of the land. Any repression of the expression and receipt of love comes from an inability to let go of what holds you back.

I understand that you may have learned to block your love the hard way. Years back you may have had no choice but to block your love. It may indeed have been that you had no other choice, yet, now, you are an adult, and you have choice. Don’t be timid about it. You are to offer your love and to be kind. How another person has been injured and may not be free to accept is not to hold you back from the free giving of your love.

Christina Sarich, Natural Society
Waking Times

A line of parents assembled at the SB277 Senate Committee Hearing in California last week running out of the courthouse, into the hall, and out into the parking lot. The group was comprised of concerned citizens who don’t want forced vaccinations for their children.

Some parents carried posters stating “One Size Does Not Fit All” in reference to forced vaccines whereupon parents would no longer have a ‘personal belief’ exemption to refuse vaccinations for their children.

Many schools, both public and private, are now demanding that parents vaccinate their children, regardless of a ‘personal belief’ clause that currently exists in vaccine legislation. Many states are also trying to pass similar legislation as SB277 in California.

HJ: Change is the universe self-correcting through you towards balance, harmony and joy.  Life is constantly nudging you towards your highest fulfillment and self expression.  And when you remember this truth, even though change might be uncomfortable or difficult in the moment, you always know it’s for your highest good.

- Truth

10 Ways To Embrace Change: Empower Yourself, Empower our World

By Mona Delfino | Prevent Disease | Sacred Connections

Recently many people have been asking me about how changes can work when they feel lost, or stuck. I say that you really are not lost, or stuck, even though it feels like that! Truthfully, you are in transition and as with any shift, even with diets, we hit a plateau. In the world of internal change, although we can feel that we are without direction, recognizing anything is called an “A-HA” moment.

Keith R. Holden, M.D., Contributor
Waking Times

Research on the placebo effect is ramping up across the world because it proves the amazing power of the mind in health and healing. Peer-reviewed medical journals are reporting information about the placebo effect that was just a few years ago considered pseudoscience by science-based skeptics and academicians.

Researchers who study the placebo effect know that clinical studies must be designed that carefully control for variables, such as spontaneous remission and bias, to accurately determine the real placebo effect. They also know these studies must include a no treatment group. These more carefully designed studies reveal that a large part of the real placebo effect lies in psychological factors, such as expectation, learning, and conditioning.