Connect

Join Kelly Beard and Shanta Gabriel for a fre

Basmati.com chats with healer Petra Loewen from Healingwithspirits.com

Lighting a bundle of sage, the shaman, oracle, priestess, healer wafts the thick smoke of the quick-burning leaves in order to purify the space, open up psychic channels and prepare the way for deeper issues to be addressed. As the smoke clears, so too does the heaviness that was present before its igniting. All that was unclean is now clean, and negative energies cease in the space for the true work to begin.

I have a confession: I like bird watching. Actually, I love bird watching. You might be picturing images from the popular movie with actors Steve Martin, Jack Black and Owen Wilson titled The Big Day, but in fact birding is enjoyed by people of all ages and genders. I was eleven years old when I first became interested in birding, and started by placing a suet feeder, meant for woodpeckers, on a tree that I could see from my family’s kitchen window. The first few days brought nothing more than an inquisitive squirrel.

Running an organic, sustainable garden is not easy to do solo, especially when you have a larger garden with plenty enough to tend to.  Having support and assistance from others within your community can really lend a helping hand, and there are often people within communities who could truly benefit from gardens.  For those looking for ideas on how to gain gardening support within your community, check out these 10 ideas for connecting your garden with your community.

1.      Give and Share

Welcome to 2017! It can be hard to stick to your New Year's resolution all on your own, so we're creating a mindfulness movement for the New Year! Join us for our 30 Day Meditation Challenge and meditate your way to the best year yet! Videos will be posted daily to this article.

Have you tried meditating before? New to the practice? Need to get back into it -- this series is perfect for you! 

Day 1: The basics of meditation -- what to expect, how to prepare, and some short meditations to get you (back) into the groove.

The Art of People: 11 Simple People Skills That Will Get You Everything You Want

By Dave Kerpen

This book is a different way of looking at one-on-one contact with another. Dave Kerpen’s style is fresh and full of good tips on dealing with people, particularly as it pertains to sculpting and maintaining relationships in the workplace. The conclusion section at the end of the book nicely summarizes most of what he has to say that relates to the eleven people skills that will get you everything you want.

Dave Kerpen talks about:

I first stumbled on the concept of “entrainment” during a Crystal Healing training. It is something many of us do naturally and most of us would love to be able to do with everyone we communicate with – or at least try to. I was thrilled to learn and then experience for myself how using clear quartz crystal with the right intention will help you to entrain to another person on such a level that is miraculous how well. Here is a brief clear quartz crystal entrainment exercise you can try any time!

Connect: Movies That Inspire & Uplift

If you need to restore your faith in humanity, try watching any of these seven Hollywood flicks…

We all aren’t movie buffs – in fact some of us may feel that sitting in front of the TV is a sheer and utter waste of our time. To a point this is correct. While we may learn something new from TV, actively doing something instead may leave us fitter, healthier and with far more of life’s little lessons that come from experience rather than observance.

What is this force that moves nature? That brings life to a wave? If you have a smart scientific explanation I’m afraid that won't suffice. The force I’m talking about that comes crashing through this wave arrives from way before – it is greater than the phenomena of a wave. This is the idea of the force that comes from before the ocean became the ocean. It is the force that aligned the laws of physics into their obvious place of beingness from seeming nothing -- the force that animates matter, creates galaxies and explodes big bangs.