Early in life we get taught to seek love outside of ourselves. It is probably inevitable because our initial phases of being in this human body involve us being completely dependent on others for several years. It gets hard-coded into us to get things from others just to survive. And it is always going to be true that for sustenance and shelter we need to rely on the external world to a large degree. That's why the…
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Spiritual Poem: Meeting Sun
Here's the latest poem from my student, Jackie. If you'd like to check out more of her poems as well as all the spiritual poetry on this blog, you can click on this link:Spiritual PoetryEnjoy Jackie's latest creation. I know I did.Meeting SunRead more »
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Spirituality Poem: Unspoken
It's my pleasure once again to share another poem from my student, Jackie (The picture comes from her as well). I love this poem much like her others because of the truth of the awakened state she is sharing. After the bliss comes this abiding awareness that does not celebrate as loudly as that initial bliss state did. Rather it celebrates continually and creates a lovely sense of normalcy that you almost don't realize is there.Okay. Enough from me! You can read her poem "Unspoken" below, and if you'd like to read more poetry
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Love and Power
Love and power aren't commonly combined, or if so, it's usually in only the most misunderstood and juvenile of ways. Love is power, and power is love the deeper you drop into the truth. But it's not about giving everyone hugs and kisses. The truth is–and those of you who regularly read this blog already know–that love can hurt. Love can be a tough taskmaster because sometimes we need a heavy hammer …
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Webinar: Highly Sensitive People and Everyday Life
There is often a lot of confusion around being a highly sensitive person and someone who is spiritually shifting. Since the world is always shifting around us, a highly sensitive person feels like life is never safe or that they're in a never-ending set of transitions. This is usually because of lack of self-awareness and grounding. Even the most innocuous energy backdraft can send some people into a whirlwind.On the other side are the people moving through spiritual shifts or even spiritual awakening. Spiritual shifts naturally re-sensitize us to life, and as we feel more and more of what's going on around us, it can be quite unsettling. It can be like taking off a winter coat when…
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Opening to New Layers of Love
On the path of being heart strong, we all go through shifts and openings in our ability to accept and receive love. This includes accepting and receiving our own love. Each time the ego thinks we're done, a new layer seems to inevitably turn up, and we drop back into new cycles of grieving and releasing (or whatever is required to let go into this next space of growth and healing).In this way, humility is always really important…
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March 2014 Free Local Spirituality Talk
After having had a wonderful talk on Sunday, February 16th, I'm excited to announce another local talk here in the San Francisco Bay Area coming this March. For the next local event, I'll be offering a guided meditation and talk on abundance and finances in San Francisco. This will be a great chance for those of you who haven't…
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Calming Upset Emotions
As I continue to write about the heart and bringing tranquility and awareness to our emotions, the next stop on this particular train of thought is for those of you who are perpetually lost in your emotions. I've talked about this a little bit in the blog post: Becoming Heart Strong. Now, I'll go into greater depth to help you see how the spiritual path can help you to take ownership of these emotions without closing down or getting lost in control.Noticing the Turbulent Emotional LandscapeRead more »
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Spirituality Webinar: Releasing Issues
I talk a lot about releasing issues on this blog, so it is fitting to have a webinar focused on this topic. Whether it is grief, physical trauma, a past relationship that ended badly, or another old pain that is still stuck in us, it has to be released for us to be spiritually free. This plane accepts no carry-on baggage, and most of humanity is carrying quite a bit.In an interesting way, however, releasing an issue is often more of a transmutation of energy. All that grief dissolves into bliss. All that pain melts into joy. It may seem ironic, but the truth of the matter is that…
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The Fire, Strength, and Resilience of Awakened Love
In the midst of the burning of the initial shifts that spiritual awakening calls forth, one often has to ask oneself, "Is this really love?" And of course this is the unconscious ego self speaking. And of course this is love, but since so few of us ever really touch the fullness and bright intensity of our inner most love and feel its…
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Spirituality Poem: The Indescribable Eternal
This gorgeous poem comes from my student, Jackie. It is, as always, a privilege to share these lovely words with you.You can check out all the student poetry on this blog by clicking the below link:Spiritual PoetryYou can also enjoy a variety of works from current and past spiritual students on this link:Thoughts from my StudentsThe Indescribable
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True Love
When you’re young, and you fall in love for the first time, you think that this is true love. Then you fall in love a second time, and you realize that the first time wasn’t true love, this is. And you’ll fall in love again and again. Every time realizing that the previous crushes weren’t true love.Until..You fall in love again. But this time…
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How to Find Your True Love
I know a whole bunch of people got excited when they saw the title of this blog. "Yes, yes, yes! Tell me. How do I find my true love?"And I will tell you.I also know a whole bunch of my regular readers thought in their heads, "Oh, no! It's a trap. I know a Jim Tolles trap when I see one."And you are right. This is a trick question.The process of finding your true love has nothing to do with finding the "right" person in the external world. Because your true love is within you. All the love you could ever want to experience is right in your own heart. It doesn't feel this way because…
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Spirituality Webinar: Developing Your Emotional Strength
We live in a very emotionally immature culture. Many people have their hearts completely closed up and wrapped in barbwire, so they barely can feel anything from anyone else much less the vastness of their own love. Others feel broken and abused. Yet others are easily washed away by even a little emotion, and they have no center to hold them steady in the seas of feelings.In this webinar, I'll talk more about what it means to become heart strong so that we can …
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February 2014 Local Talk and Meditation
This February I'll be hosting a free talk called, "Opening Your Heart to Difficult Moments." So often, I get questions about how to deal with difficulties from death to trauma to troublesome co-workers to bad relationship break-ups. All of these moments and more require us to be open-hearted to fully be with the moment and to naturally release it. Otherwise, we tend to hold onto these things and torture ourselves with "what-if" statements and mental regurgitation that serves no purpose but to continue our suffering.Obviously, being open-hearted in a difficult moment doesn't always mean that we enjoy it, so in this talk, I'll offer some ideas about becoming heart…
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The Newness and Uncertainty After Releasing an Issue
Whether you are moving through a spiritual awakening, healing, or going through a spiritual growth spurt, you may have the wonderful experience of releasing an issue. Congratulations! You probably have already felt the release, the openness, and maybe a surge of "you" that makes you feel fresh, vibrant, and alive. It is truly amazing what we feel when we allow ourselves the permission to be ourselves. So much of the spiritual path is much more of an uncovery than a discovery. We are uncovering ourselves buried beneath the rubble of ideas, karma, pain, trauma, and suffering.But we've always…
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Feeling Unable to Receive Love
You know one of the most common issues people have? They can't receive love. They can't receive love from others. They can't receive love from God, and they certainly can't receive love from themselves. They are completely love anorexic. Cut off from love, everything is hateful, and the whole world is hurtful. It becomes a horrible type of tunnel vision, and if it gets really bad, the only way out seems to be death.In this society, many people come to me with no capacity for love, and it's why many students never really …
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Student Perspectives on Working with Jim Tolles
I know that stepping into a session with me can be a new and sometimes unsettling experience (both in good and upsetting ways). Below I've posted my student Brandy's suggestions on how to prepare for a session with me. At the time of this posting, she's worked with me for over a year, having had regular biweekly one-on-one sessions, gone to some of my webinars, participated in a small online group of mine, and attended a weekend one-on-one intensive with me.I'll add other students' perspectives on working with me from time to time as well. I hope this is helpful for those who are about to work with me…
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Spirituality Webinar: Spiritual Awakening and the Body
Many people feel shifts in the body as they shift in spiritual awareness. In truth, it's all connected. Those of you who have awakened and are moving through the shifts that follow may be experiencing a wide variety of physical changes, and since awakening embraces everything, you could feel any and every type of physical ailment possible as you heal. Those of you who are naturally energetically sensitive and those of you who are having more subtle and gradual spiritual shifts (because there are more types of spiritual shifts than just awakening) can have much the same type of experiences as you move through old resistance and pain into a healthier state of being.This webinar is meant to help …
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Energy Sickness and Feeling Drained Energetically
I want to be clear from the get-go that I'm speaking specifically to those of you who are healing or are in the awakened shift, which has lots of inner shifts that demand your full energy and attention. This isn't meant as a way to self-diagnose all diseases. When I talk about energy sickness, I'm talking about how we can feel sick …
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Becoming Heart Strong
In much of Western Society, there tends to be two main modes of being with our hearts: being open to everything or being closed down to everything. Obviously, there are plenty of shades of gray because life doesn't actually operate in these two distinctions. But it seems like people tend to go that way. To gender it, men tend to be closed down and women tend to be overly-emotional. This, of course, is a ridiculous gender stereotype, but they play out a lot. As women have moved …
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Spirituality Webinar: Beginning the Spiritual Path Again in the New Year
While a new number is now inhabiting the last section of our dates, the New Year is just one of many opportunities to begin again. Each moment is in and of itself an opportunity to begin again. If you feel like it is time to refresh your spiritual practice–that it has gotten stale or otherwise broken down, then it may be time to start again.It is important to remember that we are always beginning again. That …
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Spiritual Poem: The Garden of Life and Light and Bliss
I am once again humbled and happy to share more poetry from my student, Jackie. Enjoy!All spiritual poetry that is featured on this blog can be found on this link:Spirituality poetryThe Garden of Life and Light and BlissRead more »
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Spiritual Allegories
Those of you who have been following this blog for some time know that I like to write spiritual allegories from time to time. It lets my inner fiction/short story writer come out to play and share with all of you. Plus, it's a nice way to change the tone of the…