By Ma Ananda Sanghavasini, Meditation Facilitator & Intuitive Life Coach at The Divine Mine.

Many times people come to the store anxious and stressed, asking for something to protect themselves from negativity. Negativity from co-workers, family members and even friends. Often we are looking for something or someone to protect us from the negative forces seemingly ‘outside’ of ourselves. However, many spiritual teachings point to the fact that “we are all one”. How can we reconcile these two opposite ideas? I came across a refreshing teaching years ago in my studies with spiritual teacher Eric Dowsett from Australia when I was taking a workshop on energetic clearing with him. Somebody asked how we could protect ourselves from negativity when we were doing energetic clearing. Eric’s answer to that question totally changed my view and even the way I live my life today. He stated that: “if we are all one, why do we want to protect ourselves from ourselves?” If we can see that through this sense of oneness life’s experiences and people are a direct mirror that reflects our inner world, we can be free from victimhood. This simple statement was incredibly empowering for me.

I heard this same idea many times in different forms after this from various teachers; Buddha’s teachings, Byron Katie, Wayne Dyer, Pema Chodron, Eckhart Tolle, Esther & Jerry Hicks, Adyashanti and my own guru Paramahamsa Nithyananda with whom I have had the privelage to spend many months in person with at his ashram in India. Even in quantum physics it is confirmed that we are the observer of our reality – that the way particles behave depends on the observer. What if we (the reference of the sense of self being our Atman, Soul, True Self or Consciousness) are the observers of our reality? That, whether we like it or not, want it or not, are aware of it or not, we do create our reality? That everybody is showing us a part of ourselves that we would have missed if it was not for the other person or situation?

To look at ourselves this way takes a tremendous amount of courage as there will be nothing to hide, nobody to blame and nowhere to run to anymore. Where ever we go; there we are.

To come back to the first part of this article in terms of looking for protection from ‘outside’ forces and people: where will we turn to in an attempt to protect ourselves from the violence of our own thoughts? What crystal will help us protect ourselves from ourselves – meaning our own minds? In Buddhist teachings there are three ways to find refuge described: in Buddha (not referring to the person but to our true, Buddhist nature), Dharma (teachings) and Sangha (community). Through this way of living, when we face struggles in our life, we can have a meditation practice (Buddha), fall back on the spiritual teachings to learn to understand the process (Dharma) and reach out to our friends and supportive network (Sangha).

How can we develop a good, affective meditation practice? To me, still, mindfulness meditation is the key. When we become aware of our inner world while interacting with the ‘outer world’, we experience our liberation. We become our own protection. We become our own best friend, through which naturally the Art of Forgiveness will spring. We might start to feel compassion for ourselves and others and realize we are all in the same boat. We are sort of like different fingers on the same hand. We experience a sense of individuality but yet deep down we spring from the same source.

To me, Forgiveness is not something we can just do. It is who we are. When we practice mindfulness, we automatically relax into this state. First we need to forgive ourselves, be gentle with ourselves and know that we are always doing our best. Let us keep remembering this on our journey.

Important note: One does not have to be confirmed to Buddhism in order to live the Buddhist teachings and apply them practically. Buddha is not a person, it is a state of being – it is who we are.

By Adria Laycraft, Customer Service & Workshop Facilitator at The Divine Mine

Celestite, also called Celestine, is a soft stone both physically and metaphysically. It can be found in points, in geodes that are stunning to look at, and as tumbled pocket stones. They often look like ice crystals, or miniature blue icebergs.

A cleanser of physical and emotional environments, Celestite absorbs negativity and replaces it with a clean, fresh feeling, like a 'Bounty' sheet for your space. Celestite is recommended for calming children at bedtime or, when carried in a pocket or backpack, protection from bullying.

Celestite is the perfect stone for those suffering from fear and anxiety. It uplifts and calms, especially during emotionally trying times, and puts us on the path to inner peace. It calms mental torment, replacing it with total harmony.

Celestite is also about connection, intuition, vision, and protection. It is a stone of creativity, perhaps because of its ability to connect us to our intuition and sharpen the mind with mental clarity.
Also great for meditation and tapping into Divine guidance, Celestite enhances physic vision and dream work. It teaches us patience and trust...or more precisely, faith.

This is the stone for ear, nose, throat specialists that see the value of boosting their conventional treatments with crystal energy. It is known to aide in fighting infections and in weight loss.

The yellow variety called Golden Celestite is especially good for 3rd chakra work to learn faith or seek spiritual guidance in the right use of power.

All varieties of Celestite are sulfates. With a hardness of only 3, this stone fractures and scratches easily, so water and salt are not recommended. Also, direct sunlight will fade Celestite, so stick to gentle methods like moonlight or sound to cleanse.

By Ma Ananda Sanghavasini, Meditation Facilitator & Intuitive Life Coach at The Divine Mine.

Much has been written about the power of intention, and about how we create our reality. Documentaries like “The Secret” and “What the Bleep do we Know?!” and books like: “The Power of Intention” by Wayne Dyer are becoming more and more main stream. In these documentaries the manifestation process is clearly described. I would like to share some experiences and insights based on this.

First of all: what is this idea of creating our reality? I do not wish to expand on the how and if it works as this is described in detail in the documentaries mentioned above. I am interested in sharing how we can use this knowledge to our and the world’s benefit and how we can apply this in a practical way.

Let us have a look at a beautiful quote by Buddha: “All that we are is the result of what we have thought. The mind is everything. What we think we become.” This is such a powerful statement. With a simple look at our life and by examining our current situation, we can know what we believe consciously and subconsciously. We can see what believes we are holding on to through recurrent circumstances. “Where ever we go, there we are”. We cannot escape from ourselves. Even if we leave a particular circumstance or person, if we do not find out what the thoughts and beliefs are that created a situation, we will keep creating the same thing, over and over again, until we find the pattern and complete with it. In other words, Buddha’s statement mentioned above tells us that, whether we want it or not, believe it or not, only we ourselves are responsible for the reality we create.

This might be hard to believe as it is hard to describe in just a few sentences. Actually, it is extremely empowering if we take blame out of the picture. There is no use in blaming ourselves or someone else as this just drains our energy and gives our power away. The power lies in awareness. When we become aware, we will start to see where we are stuck, and the solution to change will just come intuitively.

Beyond this manifestation business, let us look a little more deeply. When we become aware of the art of creation and manifestation and start to create what we want, it is not even so much in what we are creating. The real joy and happiness lies in the deep surrender to our true nature, which is joyful and abundant, and relaxing into this state as we become conscious co-creators. When we become the conscious creator of our reality, we are experiencing our essence, our divinity. The true, lasting joy does not come from outer things, but from inside only.

We can still enjoy this dance of life, playing with outer world while established in inner world. The small “me”, the mind-made sense of self, relaxes into the true Self, or Atman. The realization might come that “I” am not doing anything, but merely everything happens through the Divine Grace. Then, even when things come and go, our inner state will remain peaceful, like the deep ocean that stays still in spite of what the surface is doing. Then, we are home in ourselves, no matter where we outwardly go.

By Ma Ananda Sanghavasini, Meditation Facilitator & Intuitive Life Coach at The Divine Mine.

December 5^th 2013 is a memorable day in history as it is the day of the passing of a great world leader: Mr. Nelson Mandela. It was very synchronistic that right on that day I happened to watch the movie “Long Walk to Freedom” – a biography of Nelson Mandela’s life. It was such a touching experience that it is hard to describe in words, yet I will make an attempt as I wish to share this profound experience.

Throughout the movie, as I was watching, I was hit with so many insights and touched deeply in many ways. One idea that came to me was how the story of Nelson Mandela’s life very much resembles an inner story many of us carry inside; how each character in the story could represent an aspect of ourselves in our inner world. For example, one of Nelson Mandela’s dreams was the right to freedom and equality for all of human kind. Freedom is our bright right; it is who we are deeply inside. After Mr. Mandela was imprisoned, the prison guards would continuously talk down to him and his fellow freedom fighters who got arrested. The prison guards would poke at him and try to make him react so that they could punish him. To me what this resembled is that our inner being is like Nelson Mandela. Our being is already free, it knows its right to be free, to freely express itself as it desires. The prison guards resemble our inner judges and inner bullies who will come along and try to create havoc. The inner prison guards however, are nothing but voices from the past, words which someone once uttered to us. The voices were recorded in our sub-consciousness and now we keep repeating these voices, beating ourselves up day in day out, even though these voices are long gone in the outer world. Our being longs to experience its freedom, yet our limiting believes are like the prison bars that prevent us from venturing out and live the life we dream about. The prison bars made up of our limited believes, and the inner prison guards that are the recorded voices from the past keep preventing us to experience the freedom we are longing to consciously experience. Ironically quite often we don’t even know that this is happening.

How can we free ourselves from these inner prison bars and inner prison guards? Meditation and mindfulness practice are a few ways of freeing ourselves in inner and outer world. Even though physically we might not be in a prison cell, as long as we believe in the voices from the past and our unexamined limited believes, we are imprisoning ourselves through the bars of the mind. When we are free in the inner world, only then can we be really free in the outer world.

May our ongoing practice of mindfulness be a continuation of the Long Walk to Freedom that Mr Nelson Mandela started many years ago. Even though Mr Nelson Mandela was imprisoned in the outer world, he was not in the inner world. He kept going on, believing in a better future for himself and for humanity. May his courage and vigilance be an inspiration for all of us, may his spirit live forth in each of us inspiring us to continue on, come whatever may. And….may Mr. Nelson Mandela experience the ultimate freedom at last, may peace and justice prevail on Earth…

By Kristyne Dahl, Hypnotherapist & Spiritual Counselor @ the Divine Mine

In today’s day and age most of us are familiar with GPS & navigation systems, what most of us have failed to realize is that Divine sources have been acting as navigation systems for us humans since the beginning of time.

When life finds you feeling lost you can turn to spirit to help you navigate your way back on track. If you have used a GPS device then you know when you veer off the “planned route” it updates itself or asks if you want an updated route. This is exactly what the divine sources are here for. They want to keep you updated so you can realign yourself to your divine path easily, naturally and efficiently!

Each and every one of us has been guided by divine beings even though most people are not aware consciously of that interaction. It’s what’s helped you avoid a near miss accident or find the fastest route to take (to avoid traffic) when you’re running behind. These beings are the passengers in your vehicle while you do the driving, they simply offer directions! They are there to assist and are eager to help you work smarter & more efficiently be cause to them that’s what it’s all about! It’s what they signed up for! They want to help you take the most efficient route to where your true and divine self desires to be.

Divine beings are privy to everything about you. They know who you are, where you have been, where you’re going, what your natural talents and skills are and offer you the best support as it is tailored made specifically for you.

Accessing the angelic GPS is much easier then we have been made to believe! It is simple and it is often very subtle. It’s been happening so naturally throughout our life (each and every day) that we often don’t recognize it for what it is…divine guidance!

When it comes to these sources you never have to worry about overburdening them…this cannot happen! You cannot take them away from anyone else because they are omnipresent beings. You also never need to worry about them judging you or criticizing you! This is because judgment and criticism is part of our human self, not a part of the spiritual self! Divine sources are not capable of judging or criticizing, nor would they want to. You see they understand that everything happens for a reason and they see every possible angle when it comes to why things happen. They can help you understand what’s happened or what is happening in your life and what to do about it, what to take from it and what to detach from and leave behind!

Divine sources will use the world around you to guide you. They use people, places and things to show you the way! Just like a navigation system it tells you where you are going and then reminds you at your approach right before you need to take action (like turning a corner). It gives you plenty of notice and then repeats it over and over! This is exactly what the Divine sources do!

Just like the GPS , divine beings won’t give you each turn or directive at once, they come progressively. They do not want to overload you with details because we humans have a way of complicating things. What you need to do is get on with living while staying alert and in observation mode throughout the day. Be on the lookout for anything repetitive, take note of anything happening spontaneously within or around you, especially if it’s connected to whatever is repeating & popping up everywhere. These are two pretty good indicators you are receiving divine guidance!

You should also know Divine sources/spirits are not offended if we choose not to follow their guidance. They will simply come up with new options for you based on where you ended up. They respect your right to free will. They have something humans don’t…infinite patience!

If you find yourself in a position where you feel lost, you should consider that this is a great time to call on the divine sources. They are on standby waiting and willing to navigate you through your circumstances ensuring your optimal potential and success as well as the shortest route. They will offer clear and concise information for your specific circumstances so you can maneuver through any challenges or obstacles efficiently and easily!

Your job is to stay alert, eyes and ears wide open. Throughout your day or over the last week have you noticed anything being repeated over and over by different people in different circumstances? If you have noticed something popping up over and over again, ask yourself “what does it make me think of? What feelings does it evoke within me? What do I know about (whatever it is that is being repeated)?”

By considering the qualities and characteristics of the person, place, or thing you can get a more accurate picture of what these things symbolize or mean for you when trying to interpret the messages! Often these will be the qualities and characteristics that you need to move you through your current circumstances and come out stronger, more empowered, confident and fulfilled!

Good news, divine sources work automatically. There is no effort required mentally or physically. Their support will always be automatic and spontaneous so there is nothing you have to do to receive this guidance if you have already let them know you want and are open to their help! If you haven’t communicated this to the divine sources you want to now! Learning to understand it is simply a matter of consistent observation! This observation will teach you to understand the messages and interpret them accurately for yourself in any given situation.

This observation will also help you to identify the divine being that is coming through. My middle child had a twin who didn’t make it into the world. She is always present with each of us (her family) at all times. When we would do movie night or something of that nature at home she often lets everyone know that she is there. Years ago I would see her sit in front of her father and place her head in his lap as little girls do. Each time I noticed her do this I would ask my husband if he noticed anything happening if he scans his body. Each time he would talk about having a little patch of tingles in the front left part of his forehead. He began to realize that the only time he got this feeling it was when I asked him to scan his body.

He came to understand that he can use this tingly feeling as a reference. A reference to our daughter! The only time he feels this feeling in this particular area is when she is right there beside him, loving him and supporting him! Ever since, he uses this to identify it’s her reaching out so he acknowledges her! Had he not stopped and observed what was happening in that moment he may never have connected the tingling feeling as a way of identifying her.

These beings want to help you to accomplish what you came to this earth to accomplish. And even though you may not be privy to that yourself on the conscious level, they are! They can help you to remember too! They are now and forever will be devoted to helping you help yourself!

They will teach you all you need to know in order to get to know yourself better and what tools to establish for your specific needs. They will guide you in a way you can understand and will work with your natural learning channels and talents in order to help you comprehend the guidance.

If you want to learn more about how you can enhance your connection with these divine beings of light and love check out a workshop offered at the Divine Mine called Meet Your Angels! I offer this workshop to help you establish a better understanding of your own personal & strongest psychic channels of communication (we all have them) so you can continue to enhance you connection. You will enhance your relationship with these beings of light as you enhance your ability to receive profound guidance, knowledge and tools to help you get to your desired outcome.

To get started simply ask divine sources for help! This is the only way they can step in and guide you! Enjoy your travels, and remember when using Angelic GPS you won’t only enjoy but you will love your life and everything in it. This is when you really experience the magic of this existence!

By Ma Ananda Sanghavasini, Meditation Facilitator & Intuitive Life Coach at The Divine Mine.

By Ma Ananda Sanghavasini, Meditation Facilitator & Intuitive Life Coach at The Divine Mine.

When you look in the mirror, do you like what you see? Do you love who is staring back at you?  When I ask you to think about yourself for a moment, what would the image be that comes up in your mind’s eye? Usually what comes up is not an image of our whole body but just of our face.

Most of us not only dislike our body, we have even developed a strong hatred towards it. Knowingly or unknowingly we punish it all the time by eating unhealthy foods, thinking self-destructive thoughts and living an unhealthy life style. This is partially due to societal conditioning. Society continuously shows us what our body should look like in order to be perfect, in order to be liked and loved. This often results in us comparing our body with another body, only to come to the conclusion that there are many things wrong with it so we start to dislike the body even more.

This comparison gets highly encouraged by the media. If you were the only person on the planet, and there would be no form of media, what is there to compare with? How would you know that your physical form is not good enough, not beautiful enough? That thought would not even cross your mind. Just like any other form in nature, you would be totally at home in your body, totally happy in and with your body. Like many other forms, just another form for existence to experience itself. Everybody – every –body – is unique!

When we look at children, it is easy to see that they are fully in their body and loving it, how much they feel comfortable and at home in the body. That alone proves that the hatred and dislike we have developed against our body is mere conditioning.

The body is actually a miracle. Think about it. The body exists of cells that simply follow the mind. The body itself has no idea of what it should do or not do, it simply follows. If we think healthy thoughts, we have a healthy body. If we think sick thoughts, our body becomes sick. If we spend our time dwelling in negativity it will greatly influence our body in a negative way. The body does not see good or bad, right or wrong. It just follows.

When we catch these negative thoughts by bringing awareness to them, relax from them and replace them with healthy, happy thoughts, we create a healthy, happy body. Today, bring awareness to your thoughts and see; what kind of thoughts do you have? How are they related to your health? Is your inner space occupied with uplifting, joyous thoughts or with worries and negative thinking? Just being aware is enough. By being aware you have stepped out of the negative thinking cycle. This way, you can use this awareness technique to change your life, one thought at the time!