Practice | Bonnie Barnard - Part 3

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What is Next for You?

Can you recall a time when you did something over and over again and that consistency of practice turned into something powerful and fruitful for you? Maybe it was physical. Maybe you were training for a marathon and your body shifted as you engaged it daily with movement. Possibly you took on a writing challenge and wrote a page a day. Within a year you had written 365 pages and you were able to observe what the discipline provided for you. Or, you may have found consistency in taking care of a pet or child? How about making cold, or warm calls and booking yourself with potential clients each day? As you and I repeatedly engage in consistent behavior we become new; we have developed a part of our being that once was weak into something we can rely upon. This is true with meditation, prayer, tithing, service, and study … all forms of spiritual practice. As we engage daily in meditation; we are able to calm ourselves at...

The Good, The Beautiful and The True

Each morning for the past sixty plus days I have had a thought rise up within me that says, “you are only on earth for a few minutes.” This thought transports me into The Field of Infinite Love and I’ve become giddy with this seeming secret that my time on earth is sweet, sweet, sweetly precious. And oh, so much fun. Since this phrase has been running through my body; what I give my attention to has become more precise. I am able to shake things off that would have taken me down a rabbit hole of distress in the past. Let me give you an example. I am selling my condo. It has been on the market for quite a while. I have received several offers and have turned them down as the terms were not what I wanted. Then, I had an offer that was close. When the realtor called me with it, I said, “let’s wait until this afternoon.” Not knowing why, but knowing it was...

Embracing the Lenten Season (Regardless of Your Path)

Lent is the season between Ash Wednesday (yesterday) and Easter Sunday when the Christians replicate Jesus’ practice of “entering into the desert for forty days” before beginning his ministry. The celebration culminates in the Easter celebration of the resurrection or the new life of Jesus. What happened when Jesus entered into the desert? He was tempted by Satan. This is why one of the primary observances is to let go of one major temptation that keeps the focus away from communion with God; The Sacred. What a wonderful practice to undertake if what is being sacrificed distracts you from being present with the Presence. And, with the removal of the distraction comes a focus upon a spiritual practice of renewal. Yesterday I was talking with a spiritual brother of mine who has felt confined by his “stuff.” He has chosen to donate one item a day to charity for the next forty days. Although inconvenient, it turns this into a real practice of choice, gifting, and awareness of what...

I Am and I Can

Each evening, my friend Rhonda and I huddle on the phone for more or less an hour and read spiritual books to each other. As we have an insight or desire to go deeper into conversation around a concept, we stop and enter into High Conversation. Last week the two of us were reading about Infinite Possibilities that exist in the Un-Manifest Universe in the book The Thought Exchange, by David Friedman. One of the assignments David gives is to make a list of “I can’t” statements and convert them into “I can” possibilities. “I can work in an environment where my work is appreciated.” “I can have a loving relationship where I feel honored and appreciated.” “I can have a thriving business.” “I can be healed from this condition.” I began making a list of my own. Since I was a very young I had allergies and asthma (as did my dad and sibling). Come Springtime, it took everything I had to be able to capture a breath....

Consciously Closing 2018

Welcome to the last six days of 2018! A client asked me several weeks ago how I go about consciously closing out my year. I have a practice that begins the last quarter of the year when I begin making a list of what I want to make sure I don’t bring with me into the new year of 2019. One of commitments I made to myself was I was NOT going to bring game apps into my 2019. I started playing games on my phone four years ago when a client’s wife told me that they increased brain function and I believed her. What I have learned after four years of playing games while waiting in line, watching television, and when I snatch a minute here or there is that I have become a game addict and traded in much of my creative imagination for game playing. I will not be bringing computer games into 2019 and so on the 31st I will host a ritual that will...

Meditating through Illness to Health

Let me give you the greatest gift I can ever gift you. Here it is … a reminder to enter into daily mediation. That’s it. Meditation is one of the most powerful practices on this planet, without exception. Saturday I attended a manifesting workshop at a local bookstore facilitated by a long time friend of mine whom I adore. She ordered lunch for all of us, which included a beautiful Caesar salad made of crisp, green, Romaine lettuce. Within 24 hours I was writhing on my living room floor screaming as I held my stomach in pain. Shortly following was a fever of 104 degrees. Whammo. Fine one minute and delirious the next. My friend who was at the house tucked me into bed with five comforters as I shook in intense cold. Teeth shattering I made my way to the toilet to vomit for hours. Okay … I’ll spare you all of the following details; but suffice it to say, I’m guessing I had e. Coli. That nasty...