Maria Shriver

Serena Carroll

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Blog Posts

• April 5, 2012

  Creative Experts

  

  Spiritual and Religious

  As we approach one of the holiest times of the year in several great religious traditions (Easter, Passover), I am pausing to consider why it is that we so often see “spiritual not religious” as a designation on various forms, bios and profiles.

  How did we come to this description? What makes an experience spiritual, or a person more of this than traditionally religious?
  
  A short time ago I was part of a study group with Philip Goldberg, a wise man and author of American Veda, The Influence of India On American Spirituality from The Beatles to The Present.

  In a teachable moment, he invited the group of us to share experiences we might have had that could be described as a purely spiritual occurrence.

• December 20, 2011

  Creative Experts

  

  Winter Solstice: Celebrating the Return of the Light

  This, the eve of winter, is the most sacred time of year, although for many of us it has been obliterated by the mall call of black Friday sales and discounts, warrior-style traffic and other holiday encumbrances.

  It all seems so contrary to our natural selves and what it is that our bodies and spirits really crave. It certainly isn’t this cacophony of Christmas muzak, abrasive iphone ring tones, or toxic neon lighting.

• October 31, 2011

  Creative Experts

  

  Halloween: A Day to Make a Friend of Your Darkness

  INVITATION: HALLOWEEN PARTY
  COME AS YOUR SHADOW
  All Spirits Welcome
  October 31st at 9 pm
   
  I actually was invited, and did go, to such a party. It was intended by our host (a psychologist) to be both a revealing and healing experience—a chance to see those less appealing parts within us and understand why we harbor them. 

  Because increased self-awareness and self-acceptance can open avenues to wisdom and wholeness, I RSVP’d yes. But what would I wear? Who would I be? What would the darker side of myself look like?

• October 4, 2011

  Creative Experts

  

  Practicing Meditation: How to Find More Calm in Your Day

  My mind is a clear blue lake, deep, calm and serene...

  This was an affirmational chant I received from a meditation class many years ago. I would repeat it to myself on a kind of spiritual loop, yet the only feeling I would have was the frustration of not feeling enlightened or expansive. I was seeking that dropping down feeling of sliding into a lake like a silver stone, into silence. It is in the deep quiet of the lake’s depths, a teacher told me, that the purity of the true self –- that unnamed part of us that is beyond personality -- can emerge.

• August 1, 2011

  Creative Experts

  

  The Many Forms of Prayer

  How often do we hear “I’ll keep you in my prayers”? What does that really mean?

  In asking a few people about their inner temple, what prayer meant to them, what they thought, did, or said, a wide umbrella opened up under which assorted prayer worlds were revealed. So many people have their own special and private ways of prayer and devotion but don’t talk about it, so I was privileged to hear things like:

• June 13, 2011

  Creative Experts

  

  "Take My Heart"- Lessons from Ram Dass

  I want to share a story with you. About love. It’s not what you’d think. It’s a different type of love given to me, for you, from someone whose illness sent him into loftier places than he might have ever imagined he would go.

  Even though he was a spiritual teacher who forged a path for others--for many of us, in matters of spirit and heart--it was a different kind of love that Ram Dass, an icon of the 70’s, had to offer during that Sunday evening meditation in Maui.

• April 20, 2011

  Creative Experts

  

  The Writing Box

  We had a mother who read poems to us. Outside on the grass on a blanket, she would read from Henry Wadsworth Longfellow:
  

• March 25, 2011

  Creative Experts

  

  Crazy Wisdom - When Things Change

  Sometimes things change and your best laid plans become other than you had hoped. You’re left disappointed and sometimes even angry. It’s happens to all of us. But sometimes those irritating situations unexpectedly open up incredible opportunities if you let them, which is what happened to me recently. My friend, Michael, came up from Los Angeles to see the movie “Crazy Wisdom,” about a less than perfect Tibetan monk, at the Santa Barbara Film Festival.

• February 4, 2011

  Creative Experts

  

  Practical Spirituality: A Lesson in Dealing with Grief

  Last week my friend’s son Andrew was killed on the freeway. He got out of his car to rescue an animal. Was it a rabbit? A dog? Why did he do that? He worked at the zoo; animals were his children.

  A policeman banged on his parents’ door at 3 am, shining a flashlight on his own badge,

  “Are you the parents of Andrew…?”

  “I’m sorry ma’am but you’ll have to call this number.”