It gives us a lot of peace when we live from the heart and from the perspective of our virtues, instead of living from confusion, low self-esteem and false beliefs.

What are virtues? The first thing we need to know is that virtues are practical. They’re not intentions or feelings – 

           Virtues are inspired actions guided by our Higher Self that create good things in the world.

They express and manifest a choice for peace, compassion and good will, and always result in well-being if, and only if, they come from the Heart and not from an external moralistic, forced social duty.

When we live from our virtuous core we don’t react to other people’s demands or priorities. We give freely and spontaneously from our hearts in loving actions, and not because we want to please others. Nor do we engage in prejudice or judgments.

When we live from anger, or from childhood wounds without realizing it, we don’t even...

Having a superstitious mind is very different from developing spiritual consciousness. Being spiritual, as we discussed in a previous blog post, is all about living from a place of love in your heart.

And though spirituality and superstition are subtle, immaterial realities, being superstitious is a far cry from being spiritual in a loving perspective. It's especially different from cultivating love for self, because superstition comes from fear and can create unnecessary beliefs that disturb your peace of mind.

Knowing this, we understand

it is possible to lead a spiritual life without being superstitious.

A healthy spiritual life, that is. 

Fearful ideas restrict our lives and ability to take spontaneous actions. And the most long-lasting results we get from the toxic chemistry between fear and superstition are what I call mind prisons.

Where do superstitious minds come from? Some people may say they may come from religious beliefs, but not necessarily. I...

Living in spirituality and leading a spiritual life is not necessarily about being religious.

There are two things I believe are spiritual.

The first is knowing and believing there’s something beyond material existence - beyond our physical world and physical being.

There's something that transcends physicality and the material level.

The second is that we lead a spiritual life when we live from Love. Love is the ultimate power. So in this perspective, to be spiritual is to live from a virtuous core within.

When you act from a place of love, you're living a spiritual life.

As you can see, spirituality’s a broad concept. It doesn't mean you have to be religious, or that you must believe in things that transcend the physical world in a non-explainable, superstitious way.

It's knowing there's something beyond physical existence and that though Love is intangible, it is very practical, and can be present in each action of our lives, and in every moment of our days.

...

Going through our emotional pain may be harder than avoiding it, but not only is it worth it because it’s healthier in the long run, it's also not as bad as our minds tend to think.

Pain is part of life. And when we're working with the Cardinal Method of Life Connection, it means we're embracing our pain and our joy equally. They are both life-connection experiences. And pain is designed to end itself anyway.

I often see people having difficulty in individual and group sessions when they think it's easier to avoid pain than to go through it.

Many people think going through emotional pain will be too much to handle.

Since I believe nothing is just physical and everything is always energetic and emotional before it manifests in the physical world, if we avoid emotional pain, it will still be there and may become something else if we don’t face it eventually.

On the opposite end of the spectrum we have the option to embrace and live your emotional pain. The choice to ...

When we talk about "Negativity", many things may come to our minds. Problems, toxic thoughts, turmoil, blockages, difficult people. The list goes on. But honestly... what is negativity? And especially... why is designed to end itself?

After many years of study and research about this, I see the concept of negativity as something that stems from distortions.

This means that life is naturally wonderful, abundant, healthy, happy, joyful and juicy and all the good things.

When life is not happening like that, in what we can call "flow", there's an interference, blockage or distortion, which leads to negative outcomes, or negativity.

So negativity is a result.

It's a manifestation of a distorted perception of life. Ultimately, this distorted perception of life comes from our thoughts and feelings (to learn more about this, check our blog post Where Energy goes, Matter Follows... and Energy Follows the Mind).

And since it goes against the flow of life, it needs to be...

Our minds create our reality.

As many wise persons in Ancient History, such as Buddha and Aristotle, and contemporary thinkers such as Napoleon Hill have said, the mind is the most powerful source of energy there is. We’ve all watched movies like The Secret and What the Bleep do We Know? And the underlying idea behind all this is that

What we think, we create.

In other words, we mobilize energy with our thoughts, and where energy goes, matter follows.  

So we have three realities here: matter, energy, and the mind.

The mind is the strongest of them.

The big question now is: from which part of the mind, or aspect of the psyche, are we creating our realities?

Most importantly, when we talk about diseases, does our mind create them too?

The answer is yes. We do make ourselves sick from our thoughts and our emotions. Toxic thoughts create toxic emotions, which in turn create stagnant energy that will eventually get stuck in the body if we don’t do something about it...

As we know, Chinese Medicine has been around for thousands of years. In today's world, we talk about quantum physics, consciousness-based medicine and energy healing systems, knowing that ancient Eastern philosophies and medicine, such as the Chinese Acupuncture System and Ayurveda in Hindu tradition were far ahead in the game.

Dr. Janet Galipo is a Doctor of Oriental Medicine and my mentor in Energy Healing Modalities, such as BodyTalk, San Baio and BodyIntuitive. I took many courses with her, learned a lot from her wisdom, and now she's our guest in our blog to share some of her amazing knowledge with us.

To get the whole scoop, you can watch the video, but here are some highlights of our talk:

Dr. Janet, ancient Chinese doctors observed the human body in living situations, meaning people were ill, but they were alive as they were being observed for the Chinese Medicine system was being structured. Chinese doctors did not observe corpses and dead...

One of the reasons why humanity is so vast and beautiful is because there are so many cultures in the world, and they're part of who we are as individuals.

I like to think of cultures as lakes.

When we use that image in our mind's eye, we understand we’re immersed in “cultural waters”.

Cultures act as invisible environments that influence us from the outside - and often, we don’t even realize it.

We all have cultural backgrounds, and cultures are not just about nationality – they’re about collective belief systems that include religion, traditions, and specific moral values.

We don’t have to deny culture to affirm our individuality. On the contrary, we must welcome it, knowing we’re immersed in beliefs and traditions that surround us since birth - and even before that, because we inherit these “cultural lakes” from our ancestors.

When we understand culture, we know its place and how much we’re...

Living from within is different from reacting to the outside world.

When we live from within, our true selves, or Higher Selves, our Inner Spiritual Being is the one who guides our lives. The result is that we feel happy and fulfilled when this happens.

On the other hand, when we react to other people's demands and expectations, the course of our lives is determined by other people.

There's a huge difference in the quality of life of those who live from within and honor their truth and authenticity, and those who don't.

The biggest problem seems to be that many of us don't even know we're not living from within and unconsciously reacting to other people's beliefs and expectations.

We may be so disconnected from who we really are we think other people's needs and desires are actually our own.

This goes especially for people who still have a symbiotic relationship with their parents, or are emotionally dependent on strong-willed people, such as spouses, friends,...

Healthy boundaries are essential to a happy life, and one of the things that sabotage our healthy boundaries is wearing "Masks" to please others.

Just like healthy cell walls, which are permeable and smart as they allow the perfect amount of water and nutrients in, and flush what does not serve us out, so should our lives be.

If we wear masks to please others, we mess up this whole process. 

The cover of the book Your Cardinal Connections symbolizes a healthy, happy life when we establish healthy boundaries :-) The colorful crystal bracelet is set as a healthy boundary around the clear quartz stone, which represents you.

The joyful healthy boundary helps you create a wonderful, amazing life, because setting boundaries does not have to be painful - not for you, and not for the other person.

The clear quartz stone can also represent your inner child, because honestly, let's face it - we're all wounded in childhood and become emotionally defenseless as adults if we don't do...