Josh Richardson, Prevent Disease
Waking Times

If you are to connect more with anything this year, let it be nature. It will not only allow you to connect more to yourself but others as well. It is fuel for the soul. Increased vitality exists above and beyond the energizing effects of physical activity and social interaction that are often associated with our forays into the natural world.

There are many ways to connect with ourselves and others, but nature is certainly one of the best ways.

“Nature is fuel for the soul,” says Richard Ryan, lead author and a professor of psychology at the University of Rochester. “Often when we feel depleted we reach for a cup of coffee, but research suggests a better way to get energized is to connect with nature,” he says.

We can’t help but notice that two very important words to you – guidance and abundance – contain the word dance. When you see these words, think of us extending our hands to you, inviting you to dance with us. We are here, always, to guide you and co-create with you, in a myriad of ways. All you have to do is accept our invitation. ~Archangel Gabriel

Written by Wes Annac, The Culture of Awareness

2015 is here, and with each New Year we meet, we’re usually compelled to ask what we want to do differently to make it more enjoyable and fulfilling than the last. Personally, my goals for 2015 are to step into a greater open-mindedness (and openheartedness), make spirit a more consistent part of my life and let the love flow to everyone who crosses my path.

I mentioned in a previous article that I’m ready to step into a more refined, authentic version of myself who can express love freely and creatively flow with no problems. I’m ready for the spiritual aspects of life to reveal themselves to a greater degree, and I’m ready to explore my consciousness even more than I have so far.

Spiritual evolution is all about growing and refining our consciousness until we reach a flowing, perceptually advanced state of mind and heart that fills us with the spirit and inspires us to use our inner love to bring our reality into a higher vibration.

Written by Wes Annac, The Culture of Awareness

I’d like to give my opinion on the potential spiritual benefits of consuming cannabis, which, despite that I haven’t written much about it, is something I’ve been interested in ever since I started writing and blogging about spirituality.

Almost everyone has used cannabis at one time or another, and most people see it as little more than a drug that can cause a temporary euphoria and, in some people’s opinions, create laziness and a depleted drive to contribute to society with any degree of intelligence.

Our governments have used stereotypes to keep us from considering that cannabis can be used sensibly or for a deeper purpose, and a lot of people believe it has a wealth of spiritual uses that can help us tear down our mind-driven barriers and raise our vibration – as long as our purpose in using it is clear.

Walmart is quite the force of our economic system. They’re a massive company employing many thousands of people all over the United States. You gotta hand it to them, they did something right! But the Waltons have opted to be misers about their wealth, keeping it all instead of giving it back to the employees. The employees at one store are so poor that they held a canned food drive – for each other! In what world does that make sense?

If Walmart simply paid their employees a living wage, not a get rich wage but a living one, the US taxpayer would save more than $6 billion in welfare dolled out to the employees. I don’t know about you, but it sounds like the right decision to make.

By John Holland

Do you find forgiving yourself harder than forgiving others?

There may be times when you do something you’re not proud about. Yes, we all do it from time to time, some of us more often than others!

The feelings of shame and guilt will complicate your life causing stress and emotional discord. It weighs heavy on your soul. Societal conditioning encourages us to forgive everyone else for our actions, but if you don’t forgive yourself, you’ll end up holding the key to your own emotional captivity.

Many of us agonize over our past mistakes, living them over and over again in our minds, like a video player caught in a perpetual replay loop. It depletes your energy and prevents you from forgiving yourself. When you feel guilty, you attract punishment into your life, and in situations that are more serious, you even manifest it for yourself. It’s easy to reconcile the feelings, by saying: “I deserve this.”..