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    • Four Powerful Ways to Live a Joyful Life Today

      by Amy Leigh Mercree

      (Article originally published in The Llewellyn Journal.)

      There are better ways of making yourself happy than guzzling down a box of chocolates on your own while watching a chick flick and measuring your partner up against impossible standards. We are talking about the happiness that's permanent and the happiness that lasts! If you can make your soul happy, your body and mind will follow. And, the great thing is that happiness is available all around us! It's accessible through our own thoughts and surroundings. Happiness doesn't need to be bought, and we can't rely on others to make us happy; doing so will just lead to disappointment.

      "The way to happiness is; keep your heart free from hate, your mind from worry. Love simply, give much. Fill your life with love. Do as you would be done by."—Buddha

      Your route to joy and happiness lies within your own mind and own surroundings. No matter where you are in life, you can achieve joy and happiness. Below are are few easy suggestions to help you on your way. Let's begin immediately by saying to yourself, "I choose to be happy today." Happiness can be a choice.

      1. Nature Walks: A Wonderful Source of Peace and Calm.
        If Mother Nature were a doctor, she would prescribe nature walks as a necessity to happiness. Walking or exercising in nature (or your closest accessible green surroundings) promotes not only your physical health but your mental health, too. In fact, it's scientifically proven! A study was conducted that tested two groups' levels of cortisol (the body's stress hormone), with one group partaking in a city walk, one doing a nature walk. The findings1 demonstrated that the experience of walking through the forest reduced the participants' levels of cortisol to a greater extent than did the city walk—proof that nature makes us happy! Taking in the beautiful surroundings, green grass, and natural wonderment of the earth is uplifting for the heart, body, and soul. It is especially helpful if you have had a stressful day or are feeling a little lost spiritually; the overwhelming sense of happiness, peace, and tranquility you can experience from walking in nature is incredible. If you feel your crown or third eye chakra may be blocked, a nature walk is the perfect remedy for unblocking them and letting happiness flow through your energy body.
      2. Exercising Is for Happy People, and Happy People Exercise!
        Exercise releases endorphins, and, of course, endorphins make you happy! What are endorphins? They are peptides that activate the body's opiate receptors, causing an analgesic effect that gives you a feeling of happiness. Exercise doesn't just make you happy on a physical level, but also on a spiritual one. Getting out into new environments to exercise can work wonders for your peace of mind and can release tension. Followed by a sea salt bath, you have the perfect remedy for peace, happiness, and all-around aura cleansing. Exercise is also superb for your heart chakra and enhances later meditations. Have you thought about exercising in the beautiful outdoors? A study found that those who exercised outdoors as opposed to inside on a treadmill reported a greater intent to repeat their routine.2 This means that if you exercise outdoors regularly you will reap the rewards of a healthier, fitter body as well as a healthier, happier mind!
      3. Treat Yourself.
        Sometimes you deserve a little pampering, and this route to happiness surely won't let you down. You don't need to buy happiness or search the world to find it; sometimes it lies in the form of a hot, relaxing, sea salt bath in your own home. Try this for an indulgent, sensual night in. Run a hot bath; using a non-toxic oil burner, burn some natural lavender oil as your bath runs.Lavender oil helps to eliminate nervous tension, and also helps to cleanse your aura, so this is a great way to allow happiness in! A delightful salt-water bath will cleanse your aura and rid your mind and body of negativity while the organic mix of salts will nourish your skin. Use unrefined, pink Himalayan sea salt. Additionally, salt baths provide your body with much-needed magnesium via your skin. Magnesium is a muscle relaxant and decreases anxiety, and some studies show that 80% of Americans are magnesium deficient.
      4. Care for Your Chakras.
        When your chakras are balanced and unblocked, your mind, body, and spirit will be happy. Putting a little effort into caring for your chakras will only benefit you. Invest in or source a chakra crystal, an easy way to enjoy some light chakra balancing. Blue kyanite is an excellent choice. All you need to do is keep this pretty little gem on your person and it will automatically align and balance your chakras. This precious stone will keep you balanced, help you meditate, and provide you with cleansing on the go. Make sure that you cleanse it daily in either sunlight, moonlight, sea salt in a bowl, or even water. Ask it what it would like for a bath. You will sense it may feel like sunbathing or want to be on the earth in your yard.

      Unblock your chakras, treat your mind and body to a salt bath, or go out and enjoy a nature walk and inhale the fresh air and beautiful sights. Simply put, DO something positive and you'll feel positive again!

      1 Park B, et al. (2009). Environmental Health and Preventative Medicine; 15:18–26. doi: 10.1007/s12 199-009-0086-9

      2 Coon JT et al. "Does participating in physical activity in outdoor natural environments have a greater effect on physical and mental wellbeing than physical activity indoors? A systematic review." Environmental Science and Technology. 2011. doi: 10.1021/es102947t

      Article originally published in The Llewellyn Journal. Copyright Llewellyn Worldwide, 2016. All rights reserved.

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    • Double Vision: Huge Black Cloud
      ghost-of-gettysburg-randy-steele

      Last weekend I was driving home from a family vacation in the country. It was a beautiful afternoon: the sun was shining and the countryside was lovely, lush and green. We were all having a fine time. Then I came up over a hill and saw an enormous black, misty cloud move from the left of the road, across the road to the other side, and keep going. This was not a real cloud, of course – it looked like some huge spiritual entity of some kind. It was about the size of a small elephant! (I’m psychic and have had many encounters with spirits, but I’ve never seen anything like this before.) I had the presence of mind to take in as much of the landscape as I could before my vehicle was past this area, and I noted that there was an old cemetery on the left, where this “cloud” came from. I was speechless for a moment, and when I finally described to my children what I’d seen, they said they hadn’t seen a thing. Do you have any idea what this might have been? Bless you both!

       – Micki

      Dreamchaser:

      Every once in a while I have to give someone an answer from spirit that makes even me shake my head and think, “Okay, now you really do sound crazy!” This is one of those times.

      Thanks to Hollywood and horror books, we have become used to thinking of cemeteries as scary places. If we saw a black mist hovering over a cemetery, we would naturally tend to think it must be a ghost. After all, this is a cemetery.

      Your logical mind ran into a glitch because you are quite accustomed to seeing things that others cannot, and are familiar with what it is like to see spirits, but this situation felt quite different from those experiences. You rightly assumed that this must not be a spirit entity, yet if that was the case and no one else saw it, then what in the world could it be?

      Here’s where things start to sound pretty crazy: I’m hearing that this was a very well-disguised “unidentified flying object” – a UFO. I was a huge naysayer of the whole extraterrestrial scene, especially the notion that there are aliens living on or around Earth. The more I studied, however, the more I came to realize that there are indeed other beings living on this planet with us.

      If we can commune with beings from the other side, why not beings from another world? I have heard of a race of alien beings that use the clouds and the sky as camouflage. (They have ships with some amazing and very creative technology.) These aliens are called the Arcturians. That is the race that jumped to mind when I read your question.

      There are naturally a number of people who think that the idea of “cloud ships” is utterly ridiculous, as there is to support their existence. I’d like to ask those people how exactly would one begin to research such a thing?

      You need to start doing some research and trying to help yourself remember. Do you happen to recall if there was missing time on the day you saw this cloud? Did you wake up more tired than before you went to sleep at any point in the days prior to or following this event?

      Start doing some research on how UFOs are sighted and see what you learn. I know it sounds strange and scary, but if you truly want to understand this experience, you’ll have to maintain a very open mind. There is a wealth of information available to you on the internet.

      I wish you peaceful interactions with all beings.

      *****

      Astrea:

      The old cemetery you were passing when you saw the black cloud holds the key to your explanation. The cloud could have been one spirit or a collection of spirits whose bodies were buried in this spot when they died.

      There must have been soldiers in those graves. When the souls of soldiers combine, they could appear to someone who is sensitive as a “black cloud of energy.” A small elephant would be just about the right size for such a group of entities.

      Folklore offers many tales of the spirits of warriors returning to their graves. Fallen warriors would also appear to powerful leaders to try to convince them that going to war with another group, tribe or person would prove unwise in the long run.

      Because these soldiers had learned that war is not the answer, they would visit kings, queens, emperors and generals in their dreams to warn them of the horrors of the battles to come. This theme recurs over and over again in literature and historic tales.

      Then the Vietnam War changed things, and now those events aren’t as common as they were before. Soldiers who died as the result of that and later wars went right to heaven, as most felt too disillusioned to try to help those of us left behind to avoid more conflict.

      It’s still the same. This latest Iraqi war is so horrible that the soldiers who are fighting on both sides are too disappointed in mankind to try to help us anymore, so they go right to God when they die.

      In this country, sightings like the one you had are most often found where there are graves of soldiers from the Civil War. Sometimes they gather to reflect on the battles they’ve been in, or to try to combine their energy to prevent more wars from happening.

      Their energy is very powerful because that war was brother against brother and family against family, so they learned very well that war is not the answer, and they want to convince us to “study war no more.” Unfortunately, so far they haven’t made much of an impact.

      They visit world leaders en mass via their dreams to show them how wrong it is to wage war, no matter what the provocation. Unfortunately, leaders don’t heed their dreams as much as they did in biblical times, and we end up in one conflict after another.

      You received a message about peace the day you saw that floating black cloud. I hope others saw it too, and I pray that those who have yet to see the beauty of peace will someday heed the wise message of fallen soldiers.

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