Feeling my usual sense of adventure and independence, I took off on a weekend backpacking trip. I had gone on many backpacking trips by myself with great ease and pleasure.

With the warm climate and short length of the trip, I packed light; just a tank top and shorts. A light sleeping bag and open net tent. For the first time, I wore hiking sandals instead of sneakers so I could be lighter and faster on my feet. Just enough food to make it through the weekend but lots of Gatorade as it was hot.

It was a short walk, maybe a mile or two to the creek where I would set up camp. Just a flat, straight and forested trail leading into the valley. Eager to get started with my long dayhike, I hung my backpacking pack from a tree and took my small backpack with all my emergency supplies, a good amount of water, and some snacks.

Slowly the forest opened up as I reached the hill. I had about a ten mile hike to make it around a loop to return to my campsite. The trail was to head straight up the...

Through meditating consistently and deeply over time, many friends and I have found more peace within ourselves and our interactions with others. Yet emotional stirrings come up, and probably will until we become fully enlightened. When I meditate with full surrender in that moment of intensity, I often forget what was bothering me by the end of the meditation. However, sometimes the feelings do not go away or they come up again. In those repeated situations I wonder if God wants us to play out the karma through our emotional and human life. Either way, this past weekend in a program called The Gift of Conflict my eyes were opened up to a clear understanding of other tools and knowledge to utilize to overcome our agitations.

The first premise to start with is that your outer world reflects your inner world. You have probably heard the phrase "like attracts like." Maybe you heard the idea that we manifest or magnetize to ourselves whatever we think in our head or vibrate in our...

I was the mother. I heard my little chicks chirping, crying for food. The three of them sitting in the nest, high up in the tree. 

The ground was covered with the rich color of the brown pine needles. It was smooth and had lots of space between the trees. There was a sense of peace and beauty in this natural order so inviting you wanted to roll on the earth. Around us was the luscious green of so many leaves enriched by the nutrients of the sun. I knew the sky was not far away. I could see rays of sunlight between some of the branches reflecting off of the leaves.

My son cried to me. “I know the nest is a bit of a mess. I keep helping support it by breaking apart and adding the twigs that fall. The nest is strong, but I cannot fly. Please feed me. Please feed me. Won’t you support me? Please see my condition. I am doing my best to hold the nest together. Will you feed me?”

I looked at my child feeling bewildered by the request. I was glad the nest was strong...

The question often arises, how much control do we have over our destiny; what is predetermined, and what emotions or environmental reactions could we change?

I recently watched the documentary, The Living Matrix, a collection of scientific proof of what really heals a person. Research has determined that a healing treatment works when the person using it believes it will work. Bruce Lipton discovered there is no such thing as a hereditary disease. A child born of different DNA adopted into a family with a history of cancer will often adopt the characteristics of that family and get cancer. When you change the environment of DNA, the genetic code changes. Then they showed a study of when people react to different pictures of varying emotional qualities. They noticed the heart and then the brain start their reaction before the image was even displayed on the screen. Thus revealing a sense of intuition to what is predetermined to happen.

Or maybe we already know if a...

The question often arises, how much control do we have over our destiny; what is predetermined, and what emotions or environmental reactions could we change?

I recently watched the documentary, The Living Matrix, a collection of scientific proof of what really heals a person. Research has determined that a healing treatment works when the person using it believes it will work. Bruce Lipton discovered there is no such thing as a hereditary disease. A child born of different DNA adopted into a family with a history of cancer will often adopt the characteristics of that family and get cancer. When you change the environment of DNA, the genetic code changes. Then they showed a study of when people react to different pictures of varying emotional qualities. They noticed the heart and then the brain start their reaction before the image was even displayed on the screen. Thus revealing a sense of intuition to what is predetermined to happen.

Or maybe we already know if a treatment will...

After going to a musical the other night, I was reminded of the transformational opening I felt from going to a dance concert a few months ago. A dance company by one of my past dance teachers was performing in San Francisco. I had respected this instructor so much that I did not feel it was necessary to do any research on what I was getting into when I bought a ticket for this show.

 Living the quiet meditative village life in the hills of the Sierra Nevadas in California, just a trip to San Francisco felt like a blur of energy swarming around me. As I walked into the lobby of the dance theater I was asked, "Do you want to dance?" My answer was enthusiastically, "Of course!" They were teaching people a version of an electric slide in funk style.

 The announcer came out at the beginning of the performance and proclaimed that all audience members were required to shout during the presentation. The first dancer entered the stage with huge platform shoes, bright...

After going to a musical the other night, I was reminded of the transformational opening I felt from going to a dance concert a few months ago. A dance company by one of my past dance teachers was performing in San Francisco. I had respected this instructor so much that I did not feel it was necessary to do any research on what I was getting into when I bought a ticket for this show.

Living the quiet meditative village life in the hills of the Sierra Nevadas in California, just a trip to San Francisco felt like a blur of energy swarming around me. As I walked into the lobby of the dance theater I was asked, "Do you want to dance?" My answer was enthusiastically, "Of course!" They were teaching people a version of an electric slide in funk style.

The announcer came out at the beginning of the performance and proclaimed that all audience members were required to shout during the presentation. The first dancer entered the stage with huge platform shoes, bright colored clothes, and a...

 What I find most inspiring in Paramhansa       Yogananda’s book How to Achieve Glowing Health and Vitality is the understanding of our   potential for truly healing ourselves. This book   accurately reflects the path I have traveled in   facing my own health challenges. We can feel   caught – victims of the pain we experience or   of the prognoses of doctors.

I was told I would be on medications for the rest of my life, that there was nothing I could do about it. The turning point for me came when an energy healer at Ananda Village in Northern California told me just the opposite. My initial doubt dissolved when I met someone who had actually healed herself from the condition that challenged me.

The door opened to my own potential for healing. Yogananda explained, “No disease is incurable. Some diseases are beyond the reach of medicines, which by their nature are limited, The medicine is...

This journey displayed the universality of all paths to God but also my love for the path laid out by my Guru Paramhansa Yogananda and his disciple Swami Kriyananda. I was being sent to Los Angeles to help at the Conscious Life Expo Feb 11-13, 2011. It also felt like a good time after being gone for two years to return to Santa Barbara to thank the spiritual teachers I had studied with during the four years I lived there.

Right away upon arriving in Los Angeles, or what some people call Lala Land, I went straight to the Conscious Life Expo. With the Ananda LA staff, I entered through the beautiful hotel lobby being greeted by the sound of a wonderful violinist and an Egyptian queen and king on stilts. The beauty of this welcome was a little hidden behind the many people chit chatting, the extra chairs strewn around, and the flyers completely covering the pretty marble counter tops.

We made our way past even more flyers and people to our booth with a huge photo of Paramhansa...

This journey displayed the universality of all paths to God but also my love for the path laid out by my Guru Paramhansa Yogananda and his disciple Swami Kriyananda. I was being sent to Los Angeles to help at the Conscious Life Expo Feb 11-13, 2011. It also felt like a good time after being gone for two years to return to Santa Barbara to thank the spiritual teachers I had studied with during the four years I lived there.

Right away upon arriving in Los Angeles, or what some people call Lala Land, I went straight to the Conscious Life Expo. With the Ananda LA staff, I entered through the beautiful hotel lobby being greeted by the sound of a wonderful violinist and an Egyptian queen and king on stilts. The beauty of this welcome was a little hidden behind the many people chit chatting, the extra chairs strewn around, and the flyers completely covering the pretty marble counter tops.

We made our way past even more flyers and people to our booth with a huge photo of Paramhansa...