BEST of PONDER on THIS for Monday, October 31st, 2016 by Richard Eyre in SPIRITUAL SERENDIPITY

“Too much planning can make the actual experience of living almost anticlimactic. (There may be times for reading the script, but it’s never as exciting as ad-libbing.)

Too much thinking about something removes us from it – we become observers, analysts, spectators, or critics rather than participants

If we can approach life more as an experience that contains vast variety and infinite potential for surprise, we will find ourselves dealing less with success and failure, and more with progress and growth.”

Richard Eyre, in “Spiritual Serendipity”

For more information about this book visit Amazon.

Jeff MJeff Maziarek, author of Spirituality Simplified and Codi’s Journey, launched Pondercentral.com in April 2007 as a Web-based forum for “PONDER on THIS,” a series of weekday inspirational email messages he began sending to subscribers in March 1999. A FREE service since its inception, “PONDER on THIS” provides subscribers with meaningful content to assist them on their individual paths of spiritual growth. In addition, it benefits subscribers, authors, and publishers by including links to Amazon.com where subscribers can learn more about the book being quoted, and also purchase it.

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BEST of PONDER on THIS for Friday, October 28th, 2016 by Paul Ferrini in THE ECSTATIC MOMENT

“To listen requires not only attention, but awareness of our intention toward the other person. If we are feeling attacked, then we don’t want to hear the other person. We want to attack back or defend ourselves. When this happens, we must be aware of it and acknowledge what is happening. To try to listen when we are feeling attacked is foolish. There is no way that we can do it. Better to bring the issue up directly and say ‘I would really like to hear what you are saying, but I can feel myself turning off. Can we both take a moment to check out where we are coming from and if we really want to be doing this now?’

Better to call “time out” than to engage in attack and defense. Better to come back when we are not tired, or cranky, or defensive, than to try to listen when we are. Listening takes energy and attention. It takes receptivity to and compassion for the other person. When these qualities are not present in our consciousness, we should not be trying to listen. Nor should we be trying to speak to another person.”

Paul Ferrini, in “The Ecstatic Moment”

For more information about this book visit Amazon.

Jeff MJeff Maziarek, author of Spirituality Simplified and Codi’s Journey, launched Pondercentral.com in April 2007 as a Web-based forum for “PONDER on THIS,” a series of weekday inspirational email messages he began sending to subscribers in March 1999. A FREE service since its inception, “PONDER on THIS” provides subscribers with meaningful content to assist them on their individual paths of spiritual growth. In addition, it benefits subscribers, authors, and publishers by including links to Amazon.com where subscribers can learn more about the book being quoted, and also purchase it.

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PONDER on THIS for Thursday, October 27th, 2016 by Gary Spinell in BEYOND INTENT

“When we plant a seed there is a natural time period required for the seed to germinate. Further, there is a natural time period for the plant or tree to grow into maturity. Later, there is a natural time at which the tree or plan will bear fruit or flowers. In our “get everything instantly” world, if no visible or tangible results occur immediately, we give up or determine the approach was not effective. We are constantly looking for validation of our efforts through tangible results. Many people measure their lives on “wins” or “today’s bottom line.” Yet planting seeds is the most effective way to yield long-term and lasting results. The seed germinates and the plant grows with the right balance of care, not by over-watering in hopes it will grow faster.”

Gary Spinell, in “Beyond Intent”

For more information about this book visit Amazon.

Jeff MJeff Maziarek, author of Spirituality Simplified and Codi’s Journey, launched Pondercentral.com in April 2007 as a Web-based forum for “PONDER on THIS,” a series of weekday inspirational email messages he began sending to subscribers in March 1999. A FREE service since its inception, “PONDER on THIS” provides subscribers with meaningful content to assist them on their individual paths of spiritual growth. In addition, it benefits subscribers, authors, and publishers by including links to Amazon.com where subscribers can learn more about the book being quoted, and also purchase it.

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BEST of PONDER on THIS for Wednesday, October 26th, 2016 by Paul Ferrini in THE SILENCE OF THE HEART

“Solitude is necessary for your emotional health, whether you are living alone or with another. Solitude gives you the time and space to integrate your experience. And all growth depends on integration.

Having lots of experiences means nothing if you do not take the time to learn from them and make that learning part of the operating code for your life. Jumping from activity to activity or relationship to relationship wreaks havoc on the emotional core of the person. With such disturbances in the emotional body, equanimity and bliss are impossible and life becomes empty of spirit.

Without solitude, spiritual nourishment will be lacking. If you want a single cause for the amount of distress in the world, it is the fact that people do not take time to commune with self, nature and the divine. A spiritual life – a life free of needless tension and self-created suffering – requires such communion.”

Paul Ferrini, in “The Silence of the Heart”

For more information regarding this book, visit Amazon.

Jeff MJeff Maziarek, author of Spirituality Simplified and Codi’s Journey, launched Pondercentral.com in April 2007 as a Web-based forum for “PONDER on THIS,” a series of weekday inspirational email messages he began sending to subscribers in March 1999. A FREE service since its inception, “PONDER on THIS” provides subscribers with meaningful content to assist them on their individual paths of spiritual growth. In addition, it benefits subscribers, authors, and publishers by including links to Amazon.com where subscribers can learn more about the book being quoted, and also purchase it.

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PONDER on THIS for Tuesday, October 25th, 2016 by Marianne Williamson in EVERYDAY GRACE

“Everything should be interpreted as love or as a call for love. When someone has not shown us their love, our power lies in knowing that they would have, had they known how. They are not wrong so much as they are wounded, and our role is not to judge them but to heal them. It is in cleaving to our own love that we awaken it in others.

In any situation where love does not rule, affirm that only love is real. Say it, repeat it, chant it like a mantra. Allow it to cast out all thoughts of blame and judgment and fear. Think of the mean-spiritedness of someone, then affirm that only love is real. Watch a horrible story on the TV news, then affirm that only love is real. Feel your own fears about this or that, then affirm that only love is real.

This does not put you in a state of denial, but rather in a state of transcendence. You are not pretending that something is not really happening, but only that is not Really happening. And just as the Wicked Witch of the West disappeared when Dorothy threw water on her, no manifestation of fear will long remain once humanity has risen to the understanding that only love is real.”

Marianne Williamson in “Everyday Grace”

For more information about this book visit Amazon.

Jeff MJeff Maziarek, author of Spirituality Simplified and Codi’s Journey, launched Pondercentral.com in April 2007 as a Web-based forum for “PONDER on THIS,” a series of weekday inspirational email messages he began sending to subscribers in March 1999. A FREE service since its inception, “PONDER on THIS” provides subscribers with meaningful content to assist them on their individual paths of spiritual growth. In addition, it benefits subscribers, authors, and publishers by including links to Amazon.com where subscribers can learn more about the book being quoted, and also purchase it.

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BEST of PONDER on THIS for Monday, October 24th, 2016 by Bill Bryson in A SHORT HISTORY OF EVERYTHING

“To begin with, for you to be here now, trillions of drifting atoms had to somehow assemble in an intricate and intriguingly obliging manner to create you. It’s an arrangement so specialized and particular that it has never been tried before and will only exist this once. For the next many years (we hope) these tiny particles will uncomplainingly engage in all the billions of deft, cooperative efforts necessary to keep you intact and let you experience the supremely agreeable but generally under appreciated state known as existence.”

Bill Bryson, in “A Short History of Nearly Everything”

For more information about this book visit Amazon.

Jeff MJeff Maziarek, author of Spirituality Simplified and Codi’s Journey, launched Pondercentral.com in April 2007 as a Web-based forum for “PONDER on THIS,” a series of weekday inspirational email messages he began sending to subscribers in March 1999. A FREE service since its inception, “PONDER on THIS” provides subscribers with meaningful content to assist them on their individual paths of spiritual growth. In addition, it benefits subscribers, authors, and publishers by including links to Amazon.com where subscribers can learn more about the book being quoted, and also purchase it.

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BEST of PONDER on THIS for Friday, October 21st, 2016 by Alan Cohen in DARE TO BE YOURSELF

“In recent years there has been a great deal of attention paid to near-death experiences. You have probably read or heard some of the many fascinating accounts of people who have been clinically dead for short periods of time, and then returned to life.

I think it might be even more urgent to do a study of near-life experiences! The question is not, “Is there life after death?” The question is, “Is there life before death?” How many people eat, work, have sex, and die without every having really lived? It is quite possible to act our way through the postures of living, look really cool, amass many revered symbols, utter the popular catch-words, and not be fully alive. A woman told me that for many years her life script was, “How much pain can I be in, and still look like I have it together?”

Life is not about how it looks, but how it is. Inside, that is. In the heart. In the gut. In our sense of purpose, integrity, creativity, expression, vulnerability, outrageousness, and in our willingness to risk, play, and be fully present.”

Alan Cohen, in “Dare to Be Yourself”

For more information about this book visit Amazon.

Jeff MJeff Maziarek, author of Spirituality Simplified and Codi’s Journey, launched Pondercentral.com in April 2007 as a Web-based forum for “PONDER on THIS,” a series of weekday inspirational email messages he began sending to subscribers in March 1999. A FREE service since its inception, “PONDER on THIS” provides subscribers with meaningful content to assist them on their individual paths of spiritual growth. In addition, it benefits subscribers, authors, and publishers by including links to Amazon.com where subscribers can learn more about the book being quoted, and also purchase it.

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PONDER on THIS for Thursday, October 20th, 2016 by John Selby in EXPAND THIS MOMENT

“Almost always we suffer emotionally not because of a future reality that’s definitely going to do us in, but because we’re chronically pushing our fear button by negatively imagining the future. Our ancient reptilian brain is programmed to react in certain situations like that of a rattlesnake when threatened – that’s what anger and aggression are all about. When faced with a seemingly mortal threat, we tend to let our panicky amygdala dictate our response – we either attack, run away, or lose consciousness.

But we do not have to let antiquated fear reactions run our lives. We can instead see through the fear, and free ourselves to behave consciously as spiritual beings who do not let their fear of dying turn them into anxious or violent creatures. We’re surely going to die – it’s just a matter of time. So why let our fear of our eventual demise ruin our lives in the present moment? While we’re still alive, shouldn’t we instead focus on seeing how much love and creative expression we can bring to the world?”

John Selby, in “Expand this Moment”

For more information about this book visit Amazon.

Jeff MJeff Maziarek, author of Spirituality Simplified and Codi’s Journey, launched Pondercentral.com in April 2007 as a Web-based forum for “PONDER on THIS,” a series of weekday inspirational email messages he began sending to subscribers in March 1999. A FREE service since its inception, “PONDER on THIS” provides subscribers with meaningful content to assist them on their individual paths of spiritual growth. In addition, it benefits subscribers, authors, and publishers by including links to Amazon.com where subscribers can learn more about the book being quoted, and also purchase it.

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BEST of PONDER on THIS for Wednesday, October 19th, 2016 by Richard Eyre in SPIRITUAL SERENDIPITY

“If we have to think about every detail of our lives, we ought to sometimes think about them after they have been lived (when we can learn from experience), not always before (when the very thought may intercept or alter the experience). The best time to be aware of details is not before or after, but now. Approaching life as an experience makes us, moment to moment, more aware of what is happening and of what we are feeling – and less aware of what we planned to have happen or wish had happened. Thus we see the opportunities we could never have planned and realize far more serendipity than we otherwise could.”

Richard Eyre, in “Spiritual Serendipity”

For more information about this book visit Amazon.

Jeff MJeff Maziarek, author of Spirituality Simplified and Codi’s Journey, launched Pondercentral.com in April 2007 as a Web-based forum for “PONDER on THIS,” a series of weekday inspirational email messages he began sending to subscribers in March 1999. A FREE service since its inception, “PONDER on THIS” provides subscribers with meaningful content to assist them on their individual paths of spiritual growth. In addition, it benefits subscribers, authors, and publishers by including links to Amazon.com where subscribers can learn more about the book being quoted, and also purchase it.

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PONDER on THIS for Tuesday, October 18th, 2016 by Neale Donald Walsch in FRIENDSHIP WITH GOD

“One thing that most of you have forgotten is that all things exist in the Eternal Moment of Now. All solutions, all answers, all experiences, all understanding. In truth, there is nothing for you to have to create. All that is necessary is for you to become aware that everything you wish and everything you seek has already been created.

This is something that most of you have forgotten. That is why I have sent others to remind you, saying, “Even before you ask, you have been answered.”
I would not tell you these things were they not so. Yet you cannot move to a state of awareness regarding all of these things by thinking about them. You cannot “think aware,” you can only “be aware.” Awareness is a state of being. Therefore, if you are perplexed or puzzled about something in life, you must not mind. And when you have a problem, pay it no mind. And when you are surrounded by negativity, negative forces, and negative emotions, do not mind a thing.

When you “mind” it, you obey it! Do you not see? You are controlled by it, because you are minding it. Do not be as children, who mind their parents. Get out of your mind. Remember you are a human being, not a human-minding. Move, therefore, into beingness.”

God, as spoken to Neale Donald Walsch, “Friendship with God”

For more information about this book visit Amazon.

Jeff MJeff Maziarek, author of Spirituality Simplified and Codi’s Journey, launched Pondercentral.com in April 2007 as a Web-based forum for “PONDER on THIS,” a series of weekday inspirational email messages he began sending to subscribers in March 1999. A FREE service since its inception, “PONDER on THIS” provides subscribers with meaningful content to assist them on their individual paths of spiritual growth. In addition, it benefits subscribers, authors, and publishers by including links to Amazon.com where subscribers can learn more about the book being quoted, and also purchase it.

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BEST of PONDER on THIS for Monday, October 17th, 2016 by Sanaya Roman in PERSONAL POWER THROUGH AWARENESS

“The degree to which you feel responsible for other peoples’ happiness is the degree to which they can pull on you and take from you. They can only use guilt and manipulation because you allow them to by believing you owe them something. If you turn over responsibility for their lives to them, you won’t feel so uncomfortable.

You can say to yourself, “only they can make themselves powerful, can create good feelings, give to themselves,” and then you will no longer feel exhausted by communication with them. They can only pull on you when you feel that they can, when you allow them to take from you because you feel you don’t deserve to be left alone.”

Sanaya Roman, in “Personal Power through Awareness”

For more information about this book, visit Amazon.

Jeff MJeff Maziarek, author of Spirituality Simplified and Codi’s Journey, launched Pondercentral.com in April 2007 as a Web-based forum for “PONDER on THIS,” a series of weekday inspirational email messages he began sending to subscribers in March 1999. A FREE service since its inception, “PONDER on THIS” provides subscribers with meaningful content to assist them on their individual paths of spiritual growth. In addition, it benefits subscribers, authors, and publishers by including links to Amazon.com where subscribers can learn more about the book being quoted, and also purchase it.

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BEST of PONDER on THIS for Friday, October 14th, 2016 by Imelda Shanklin in WHAT ARE YOU?

“Never say that you have failed. You may have ceased to try, and so did not complete the matter that you began. It is quite impossible that you should fail, but it is quite possible that you may desert a work before you have finished it. If you wish to bring to a perfect consummation a thing that you now have in hand, do not let go of  it by switching from your present consciousness regarding it to another consciousness regarding it.”

Imelda Shanklin in “What Are You?”

For more information about this book, visit Amazon.

Jeff MJeff Maziarek, author of Spirituality Simplified and Codi’s Journey, launched Pondercentral.com in April 2007 as a Web-based forum for “PONDER on THIS,” a series of weekday inspirational email messages he began sending to subscribers in March 1999. A FREE service since its inception, “PONDER on THIS” provides subscribers with meaningful content to assist them on their individual paths of spiritual growth. In addition, it benefits subscribers, authors, and publishers by including links to Amazon.com where subscribers can learn more about the book being quoted, and also purchase it.

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PONDER on THIS for Thursday, October 13th, 2016 by Michelle Bersell in F.E.E.L.: FEEL EVERY EMOTION AS LOVE

“You believe that if others were different you would feel much better than you currently do. You tell yourself if it weren’t for my parents being so closed-minded, or my husband being so stubborn, or my children being so oblivious, I would be fine.

Your blame is brilliant, as it keeps your focus on another person rather than yourself. In doing so, you don’t have to take responsibility for how you feel. Your feelings are your own, regardless of who may have triggered them. You are the only person who can take responsibility for how you feel. If you continue to blame another, you guarantee your life will not improve. Your blaming makes you the victim and victims are powerless to create change, which will ultimately lead you to depression and/or anxiety.”

Michelle Bersell, in “F.E.E.L.: Feel Every Emotion as Love”

For more information about this book visit Amazon.

Jeff MJeff Maziarek, author of Spirituality Simplified and Codi’s Journey, launched Pondercentral.com in May 2007 as a Web-based forum for “PONDER on THIS,” a series of weekday inspirational email messages he began sending to subscribers in March 1999. A FREE service since its inception, “PONDER on THIS” provides subscribers with meaningful content to assist them on their individual paths of spiritual growth. In addition, it benefits subscribers, authors, and publishers by including links to Amazon.com where subscribers can learn more about the book being quoted, and also purchase it.

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BEST of PONDER on THIS for Wednesday, October 12th, 2016 by Alan Cohen in WHY YOUR LIFE SUCKS AND WHAT YOU CAN DO ABOUT IT

“Dump the concept of luck. Lucky people attract positive events because they think lucky. People who continually attract negative events hold patterns of thought that match them. What you dwell on, you dwell in. Your stars and numbers do not cause; they reflect. In the long run, they are what you make of them. Any divination system is only as good as it honors your power to choose.

Even the best psychics acknowledge that nothing is set in stone. Events may be headed in a direction, but free will always supersedes predestination. Remove the “pre” from predestination, and you get to choose your own destination. If an advisor, including a physician, tells you that you are stuck with a certain situation for life and have no control over it, run even faster than from the people who tell you what tennis shoes to wear. You have just fallen into power denial. You have access to greater possibilities.”

Alan Cohen, in “Why Your Life Sucks…And What You Can Do About It

For more information about this book, visit Amazon.

Jeff MJeff Maziarek, author of Spirituality Simplified and Codi’s Journey, launched Pondercentral.com in May 2007 as a Web-based forum for “PONDER on THIS,” a series of weekday inspirational email messages he began sending to subscribers in March 1999. A FREE service since its inception, “PONDER on THIS” provides subscribers with meaningful content to assist them on their individual paths of spiritual growth. In addition, it benefits subscribers, authors, and publishers by including links to Amazon.com where subscribers can learn more about the book being quoted, and also purchase it.

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PONDER on THIS for Tuesday, October 11th, 2016 by Terry Cole-Whittaker in LIVE YOUR BLISS

“Simply by using common sense we can figure out that chemical-laced and processed foods harm the body and brain, so that the brain is not able to do its best work. The fact that these goods may appeal to our taste buds doesn’t make them good for us. We’re manipulated into wanting them. They are meant to be addictive so that we crave and buy them. Some manufacturers of processed foods hire scientists to develop additives that enable their products to capture our taste buds and addict us. These corporations then hire the most skilled psychologists to devise ad campaigns to sell their products, making sure that these products create the intense desire that motivates us to run out and buy them. The deck is stacked against us, and the house always wins, unless we know what is happening.”

Terry Cole-Whittaker, in “Live Your Bliss”

For more information about this book visit Amazon.

Jeff MJeff Maziarek, author of Spirituality Simplified and Codi’s Journey, launched Pondercentral.com in May 2007 as a Web-based forum for “PONDER on THIS,” a series of weekday inspirational email messages he began sending to subscribers in March 1999. A FREE service since its inception, “PONDER on THIS” provides subscribers with meaningful content to assist them on their individual paths of spiritual growth. In addition, it benefits subscribers, authors, and publishers by including links to Amazon.com where subscribers can learn more about the book being quoted, and also purchase it.

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