“Prayer in action is love. Love in action is service.”
-Mother Teresa
 
Service is about being a channel for the energy of love into our world. Compassion, beauty, patience, support, generosity, faith, trust, all these and more are expressions of love.

Creating a home that welcomes and evokes love is service.

A mother, enthusiastically admiring a six year old's umpteenth building blocks rendition of something with wings, is service.

A friend’s wondrous gardens, filled with love, are service.

My sister-in-law's paintings, each created with love, are service.

My husband’s giving of support to others for no reason other than that he is able, is service.

My soul sister clearing out all the old fears so that her authentic self may stride forward is service.

Giving someone your full attention when you speak to them, rather than listening with, ‘half an ear,’ is service.

A ministry filled with love for God and congregation is service.

A smile and a “thank you” of real appreciation for the clerk at the store is service.

Any thought, word or action carried on the energy of love is service.

Service is the act of living each day with love. In so doing, love is channeled through you into our world.

It can be a single thought or a mighty deed. It is all service.

“We rise by lifting others.”
Robert Ingersoll
 
Goldie, my yellow lab, and I, along with several other dogs, visited a Life-Skills class awhile back so that disabled young people might have the opportunity to get comfortable with dogs.

One particular young man in the class approached her cautiously, hooded eyes focused on her intently. His Life-Skills instructor stood off to the right and asked him,

“Steve, what’s the first thing you have to do?”

He shifted his eyes to look at me, round face serious as he struggled to form the words.

“May I pat your dog?”

“Sure!” I answered, “Goldie loves to meet people.”

Goldie sat in front of him, her tail wagging, doggie smile on her face and ears sweetly back as she gazed up at him. He slowly reached his fisted hand down toward her to smell, as he had been taught. She gave his hand a sniff and looked at him for what else he might offer, tail wagging. He opened his fingers and gave her a tentative scratch under her chin, then turned his hand over to stroke the top of her head. To my right I heard a sudden intake of breath.

“That’s the first time he has been willing to touch a dog!” said his instructor in an excited whisper.

Goldie lay down then, sniffing at Steve’s sneaker-clad feet, her attention focused on him. His hand followed her down, a smile on his face, and he continued gently stroking her head and then her paws.

“Goldie likes gentle pats just like you’re doing, Steve. Good job!” I said.

“He’s smiling, right?” asked his instructor quietly.

“He is!” I said, feeling great.

That’s why Goldie and I were there. That day we made a difference in someone’s life. 

Flow is being completely involved in an activity for its own sake. The ego falls away. Time flies. Every action, movement, and thought follows inevitably from the previous one, like playing jazz.
 
Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
 
Daily life may be lived as a treasure hunt, finding one gem after another. It is not a matter of what you are doing, it is the attitude with which you approach what you do each day and the focus of attention that you apply to each task.

Yesterday, instead of doing what I previously assigned myself on my to-do list, I chose to do the jobs that were foremost in my mind, the ones that had been niggling at me to get done. My intention was to be fully involved in each thing that I did, whatever that was.

I encouraged myself to focus fully upon what I was doing at the moment. When I wanted a break, I took a break. I tended to alternate physical activity with mental activity.  I pulled my mind away from thinking about the next job, or from thinking about how much else I wanted to get done. 

When I finished one job I moved to the next job that attracted me. By the end of the day I got more work done than I would have otherwise and felt emotionally energized by the process. I was following the energy, allowing myself to be carried by the stream.

This takes a lot less energy than swimming against the current. When you assign yourself jobs that must be done and force yourself to do them, you are swimming upstream, pushing yourself against the energy. This depletes your energy.   

A day spent following the energy from activity to activity becomes a day of discovery, a treasure hunt discovering the gems of flow in each activity that you choose to do.

Flow is attained when you are wholly involved in what you are doing. Mind, body and emotions are flowing together to create what you are doing.  It is a state of Love. You become a channel of loving energy, both giving and receiving. You feel energized. Whatever you are doing becomes imbued with that loving energy.

As a channel of creative energy you serve others as you serve yourself, literally bringing more love into the world. Go on today's treasure hunt. 

"To dance is to be in tune with the steps of life."
- Sasha Azevedo

The natural rhythms of the creative energy are slower and more focused than the rhythm of life most of us have been taught.

Watch the animals, they are finely attuned to the natural rhythm of the creative life force in Nature. They have to be, it is how they survive. The animals take time for focused effort, focused play and focused rest. They do one thing at a time. If they are distracted from that for whatever reason, then they wholly focus upon the distraction.

Watch a small child at play, you will see the same kind of focus. It is as if there is nothing in the world but what they are doing at that moment.

I’ve tried to hurry my 3-year-old grandson through what he was doing so that we could move on to something else. It was an exercise in frustration. He knew where the flow of energy was in what he was doing. I didn’t, and I just had to be patient while he finished up.

At three years old my grandson has yet to be acculturated into society's rhythm. We go, go, go, work harder, play harder. We feel like time’s a wasting, and rest only when absolutely necessary. I could hope that he would never have to unlearn what he innately knows. Yet, to fit into the flow of our society most of us have unlearned what we innately knew as children.

The natural rhythm of the creative life force is like a gentle music that surrounds us. We are swimming in an ocean of energy. The energy has rhythm just as the ocean waves do. Our bodies are naturally attuned to this energy.

We often are not consciously aware of the rhythm because we have been trained out of it. Our bodies have not been trained out of it however, and are very much aware of it. We are influenced by the rhythm whether we know it consciously or not.

Have you ever tried to dance to music where you couldn’t quite get the rhythm? I have, just recently in fact. It was hard work. I couldn’t get my feet to follow the rhythm of the music. The steps I was doing were too slow, the music was too fast. I felt frustratingly out of step as I stumbled along.

When you dance off the beat, you not only have to do the physical work of the dance, you have to do the work of competing with the rhythm. But when you get it right, when you dance on the beat, the rhythm of the music moves you along, carrying you. Your body flows through the physical work of the dance.

Living in self or other-imposed rhythm rather than flowing with the rhythm of the creative life force energy is hard work. It is like dancing off the beat. You have to do the work of living itself and you have to compete with the natural rhythm of the creative life force.

Life is exhausting this way. It is no wonder that as our lives become more technologically advanced with society valuing achievement above all else and always the pressure to go, go, go, there is an increase in illnesses of exhaustion like Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and autoimmune disease.

We are forcing ourselves to work against what our bodies know to be the natural rhythm of the creative life force energy. Why do we want to work so hard at living?

It doesn’t have to be this way. You can choose to learn again how to listen to and dance with the natural rhythms. You knew how to do this as a child. You can remember.

Try this. Put on some good dance music with a strong beat. Stand still and feel the rhythm. How does it feel as the rhythm moves through your body? It’s hard to keep your body still, isn’t it?

Now allow your body to move any way it wants with the rhythm, even if it’s just tapping your toes. Dance if you want. Whatever feels good. Notice how that feels in your body. Does it feel good? Is there flow? Is it hard or easy?

This is what it’s like living within the flow of the creative life force.

Next, see if you can move your body off the rhythm. Perhaps try clapping your hands intentionally off the beat. How does that feel? It may feel awkward and even difficult to do.

This is what it’s like trying to live within your own or other-imposed rhythm. It’s like paddling upstream against the water flowing downstream.

Last, allow your body to move with the rhythm again, on the beat, and notice the feeling of relief and ease.

There is ease and relief when you flow with the natural energies of the creative life force. It is like turning your canoe to flow with the current downstream.

As you live within the flow of the creative life energy you have a positive effect on others. We are all of us linked like a circle of dancers. One dancer, dancing in rhythm affects those dancing nearby. Those nearby will be pulled onto the beat. They in turn will affect those near them and it ripples outward from there.

As each of us dances to the beat of the creative life force energy, allowing it to support and carry us within its flow, we support others to do so.
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May you dance with joy!

Cooking can be more than a necessity. It can be more than a hobby or an avocation. Cooking with love can be part of a spiritual practice, because cooking is one way to bring more love into the world.

There is something special about donning an apron, putting on flowing music, clearing the sink and counters, gathering ingredients from pantry and refrigerator, and setting the scene. It starts to bring you into focus.

Then the food preparation and cooking presents a banquet for the senses, all the colors and shapes, the smells and textures. A crisp bite of juicy red pepper, the fresh, green smell of garden kale that wafts upward as you slice it for salad, the deep flavors and aromas of chocolate, vanilla and almond, all vying for attention demanding that you focus upon them. It is a sensual experience that can narrow your scattered thoughts, pulling your attention away from worries over past or future and bringing you to a place of serenity and flow.

And it doesn't have to be cooking. I believe anything done with love is a spiritual practice. Just imagine spending an entire day flowing from one activity to another, each one a spiritual practice of gentle focus and attention, channeling more and more love into the world. It is my aspiration.

​For today, however, I think I’ll start in the kitchen. Those juicy, red raspberries are calling me.


Photo by Alexander Mils on Unsplash 

“What if we were to remind you that no one has a flaw?  What if we were to remind you that you are the spark of the Divine? What if we were to remind you that there are certain personality flaws that you chose to bring forth to work off your karma?  Therefore, you are in your truth, there is no flaw there. Whatever flaws you brought in with you were part of the lessons. It is kind of like using tools, using five or ten pound weights to help you get stronger. How does that shift the picture realizing those flaws are not flaws at all?  They are only tools.”
-Red Feather
 
We, Light workers, that’s you Dear Reader and me, are teachers. We came here to teach what we’ve learned from our own lives. This gives us meaning and purpose for the struggles of our lives. We can be of service in this way, through the experience of our own lives.

This understanding gives purpose for my personal inner conflict between wanting to be accepted and the desire to be my own person. I grew up with a feeling of lack of self-worth, a fear of not being enough, self-criticism and judgment, generalized anxiety, a fear of abandonment, a fear of life really, all of it pushing me, forcing me to find a place of balance and inner peace.

When I was younger my deepest prayer was for inner peace, refuge from the constant inner battle of my thoughts and emotions. Gradually, through pursuit of self-development and healing I found the tools that taught me to allow inner peace. That doesn’t mean I am always peaceful within. It means that I have the tools to return to inner peace when life throws me a curve ball. That then is what I have to teach and offer to others.

What have you learned on your path of inner healing?

Let’s take a new perspective on all of the perceived flaws that we came in with, those parts of ourselves that we reject as not good enough, not fitting into society, making us unlovable or unacceptable, our shadow selves.  What if as teachers we came in to live what we chose to teach so that we might serve in this way?

Imagine hundreds of thousands of teachers coming in to teach love, acceptance, forgiveness, in all of its myriad possibilities for expression. Hundreds of thousands of teachers, hundreds of thousands of individual approaches to learning about love throughout the world. The scope is mind-boggling and world changing as we each kindle the light within ourselves and then offer it to others.
 

Photo by C MA on Unsplash 

“Waking up this morning, I smile. Twenty-four brand new hours are before me. I vow to live fully in each moment and to look at all beings with eyes of compassion.”
Thích Nhat Hanh
 
In choosing people to feature in our Love in Action series I look for those who inspire me with the love and joy they feel for what they do. Ntathu Allen is one such. I feel inspired both by the content of what she shares on her blog, and by the palpable love with which she writes.

Ntathu Allen describes herself as a yoga teacher, mother, writer, healer and humanitarian. 

Her website is filled with useful tools, videos and writings with an emphasis on stress management and self-acceptance, all presented with loving compassion.
After reading her most recent newsletter I felt uplifted and inspired to share the tools she offers with you, Dear Reader. It will give you a taste of the love with which she writes as well as three, useful spiritual tools with which you can start your day.

So without further ado, here is Ntathu Allen from her blog, Yoga Inspires.

“What can you do to strengthen your “compassionate and happy” button and ‘live fully in each moment?’"

Life has taught me that when we do feel happy, connected and in the flow, it is easy to experience happiness and from that state, it is easier to be compassionate, loving and live fully.

What can we do to maintain this state of being and live in the moment?

My Solution…Develop an Early Morning Routine.

From personal experience, my daily morning spiritual practice is probably the only time in my day when I am fully present, 1000000% engaged, living in the now and feeling total compassion and love for all.

I treasure my alone time in the morning.

During the day, when I feel myself slipping away from this vibration I consciously pause, take a moment to calm my thoughts, refocus and remember the vibe I felt in the morning.

Once I’ve re-calibrated and reminded myself to be present and compassionate, my energy shifts, tension is lifted from my body and I can resume my daily activities and work from a more mindful perspective.

Here are 3 of the daily spiritual practices to help you wake up, thankful and ready to start the day on a positive, purposeful and happy note. They are 3 daily habits I do to get a better start to my day.

1. Give Thanks When You Wake Up
One of the first things you can do when you wake up to start your day in a more compassionate way is to say a quiet prayer of thanks for waking up and being alive.
You don’t have to be religious to pray, all you need is a desire for inner peace, to be a better person and to give your best to all you meet.
For example, depending on how I feel, I have a collection of prayers I like to use, sometimes I’ll say The Lord’s Prayer, other times, The Prayer of Jabez , The Message by Sri Babaji, is another favourite prayer I like to say, A Call For Guidance taken from Opening to Spirit by Shola Arewa is my much-loved daily prayer.
​
2. Breathe
After saying my daily prayer, I’ll do a few rounds of deep yogic breathing. This always helps to calm and steady my mind and puts me in a meditative frame of mind, ready to get up and do my meditations.
A simple breathing practice you can do is to place one hand on your navel and the other hand on your chest and just focus on breathing softly and deeply in through your nose for a count of 5 and to breathe out, through your nose for a count of 5.
So that’s inhale 1…. 2….3….4….5 and then exhale 1….2….3….4….5. Do this for 3 – 5 cycles and you’ll feel instantly energized and happy.

3. Keep a Daily Journal
Writing your waking thoughts, dreams and aspirations in your journal is another spiritual practice which helps to ground your energy and prepares you to be more compassionate and mindful during the day.
Sometimes, as part of my daily journaling practice, I will write down the things I am grateful for in my life, other times I’ll hold my pen in my non-dominant hand, focus on my breath and just write whatever comes to mind for ten minutes. It's bit a like doing a mind-sweep or brain-dump. And once these thoughts are out on paper, I feel clearer!

Closing Thoughts
If you desire to be happier, feel more compassionate and connected with life, and wake up like Thich Nhat Hanh, “… I vow to live fully in each moment and to look at all beings with eyes of compassion…,” saying a prayer, breathing and writing in your journal are three simple spiritual practices you can use which help to strengthen your desire to be happy, live life now in the present and to be compassionate with yourself and others.”

Check out Ntathu Allen’s website at https://yogainspires.co.uk/ for more of her inspirational writing, useful tools, videos and books.
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Thank you, Ntathu Allen for spreading the light and being Love in Action.  ​

"Your own Self-Realization is the greatest service you can render the world.”
 Ramana Maharshi
 
The snow had been falling heavily all night. Waking at 6 am I took my tea to sit before the window. I looked out at the bird feeder that I had filled just yesterday, now covered with snow. My thoughts turned inward even as my eyes remained watching the snow sifting down upon the feeder.
 
How, I wondered, can I continue to pursue my individual quest for spiritual development, benefiting only myself, when I want to be of service in this world?  As always, my questions became prayers and I asked God.
 
The snow blew past the window, a beautiful, wintry scene. A small gray and white junco landed on the feeder. I was surprised to see him there, they are naturally ground feeders. He hopped about, then chose one spot and scratched the snow away, revealing the seeds underneath. He scratched and the snow flew off.  He ate.  He sat for a long while undisturbed and fed.

​Deep in my ponderings I took note of his activities with mild interest. He flew off, leaving the safety of the feeder. Shortly after he left, a chickadee flew in, grabbed a seed from the hole the junco had dug, and flew off. Then, another chickadee did the same. A tufted titmouse followed suit, taking one seed and flying to a nearby branch to eat it. Then a white-breasted nuthatch flew to the edge of the feeder, hung upside down for a moment, clambered over the edge, took a seed and flew off. The birds kept coming, one at a time, each taking a seed from the space cleared by the junco.
 
How interesting, I thought, just by doing his own thing, the junco has provided a service for others. The lights went on inside with a feeling of excitement. The junco knew instinctively how to dig for his food, as he did so he cleared the way for the others.
 
We too can dig deep, opening to Spirit, and thereby make the nourishment of Spirit accessible to others. We too, in doing what our hearts need and love to do can be of service. 

Photo credit Lisa de Leon