Day 21
Dear One,

" We are at a time in the evolution of our planet when many women are experiencing an inner pull and urge to give birth to a new way of being.

"Women of all ages are asking deeper questions about the purpose and meaning of our lives. We feel a need to fully express ourselves in a way that nourishes our Souls," writes Bev Janisch, Canadian author of the new release, Awakening a Woman’s Soul.

"This shift from being outwardly driven by material and traditional definitions of success to being inspired by our Souls, is causing inner earthquakes in many of us that may be confusing and misunderstood. We are shattering many of our long-held beliefs about what it means to be a woman and how we show up for ourselves and in our relationships. We are being called to undergo a deep and lasting transformation that reflects a shift from family and societal conditioning and expectations to a higher expression of our deepest truths based on the needs of our Souls. We are becoming increasingly aware of this inner urge, which has many of us wondering: How do I let go of who I think I should be to step fully into who I am?"

Bev has a master's degree in nursing, and is a certified meditation and mindfulness teacher and a personal transformation coach. She offers this practice of Coming Home to Your Self :

"As we sit to practice meditation, we know that we are honoring ourselves and creating space in our lives for the deeper truths of our souls to emerge. Thich Nhat Hanh once said, "Every time you hear the bell at the beginning of your practice it is a reminder to come home to your self."

We’re coming home to the part of our self that is the deepest most authentic expression of who we are at the core of our being. The place where our: love, creativity, gratitude, self-compassion, forgiveness, acceptance, grace and connection with the divine resides.

As we begin our practice and focus on our breath we connect with an inner knowing that we are breathing in our truths, our wholeness, our wisdom, and our deep acceptance of this present moment. As we breath out, we know we are creating space to release those things that are holding us back from becoming who we’re meant to become. With our eyes closed we practice our “coming home” mantra:

Breathing in….. I honor my deeper truths.
Breathing out…. I release my fear."

Thank you for putting your spirituality first during this time of deep practice. I am practicing with you. Here's to peace inside and out.

Love, Sarah
Sarah McLean
Director, Feast for the Soul, Inc.

Meditation Teacher Highlight
Cynthia Kane, author of How to Communicate Like a Buddhist, offers a meditation series for the Feast: Working with Difficult Conversations. She will guide you into a variety of meditations to help you within difficult conversations.

You'll learn how to prepare for difficult interactions, what to do within them, and how to care for yourself afterward. By the end of the series, you'll know how to help yourself and the other suffer less during difficult conversations. 

Spiritual Practice Tip
American spiritual teacher Ram Dass shares about meditation:

It’s delicate, because you have to practice from the place of really remembering why you’re doing it, with some joy and appreciation. If you go into it with, “Oh, I gotta do my practice,” the practice will eventually clear that resistance out of you, but I don’t necessarily feel that’s a good thing. That’s what happens to people when they have to go to church every Sunday. I would rather push you away from spiritual practices until you’re so hungry for them that you really want to do a practice, rather than give you a sense that you ought to do the practice or that you’re a bad person if you don’t do it, because you will end up hating the whole business. In the long run I don’t think it will be good for you.

Spiritual practice is wonderful if you want to do it. And if you don’t, don’t.
Living the Feast
Dana Kjellgren is a yoga and mindfulness teacher. She's on the board of directors for the Feast for the Soul and has been practicing law for 40 years. She offers this tip:

"A consistent meditation practice allows us to come home to ourselves – to become intimate with ourselves and to see clearly the activity of our mind and feel deeply the arising of emotions in our body. As we learn to sit with, and accept without judgment or relax into, this coming and going of thoughts and feelings during our meditation practice, so we learn to stop resisting what was, is, and will be. Therein lies peace, both in our meditation practice and in daily life."
Today, keep coming home to yourself. Whether you turn your attention to your breath, your physical sensations, your senses, or that which is looking through your eyes. Welcome it all.
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