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Lisa Erickson - EzineArticles.com Expert Author
Lisa is a mom, meditation teacher, and writer. She has been teaching meditation for ten years, and meditating daily herself for twenty-one. She has explored meditation within the context of all the major world religions, as well as part of fitness and wellness programs. She holds a black belt in karate, and studied Zen meditation as part of her martial arts training. She has also studied several forms of yoga, and explored the corresponding ... [More]
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Lisa Erickson Email Alerts
- Spiritual Book Recommendations For Young Children
[Book-Reviews:Childrens-Books] A growing number of Americans define themselves as 'spiritual but not religious'. Those of us in this group want to introduce our children to spirituality, but outside of any particular religious context. A good way to do this is through books. This article lists picture books for children 3-9 years old that cover spiritual themes such as gratitude, compassion, connectivity, and contemplation, outside of any single religious tradition. Reading these to your children is a great way to open up discussion about spiritual themes.
- Indigo Children - Emerging Trend Or New Age Myth?
[Home-and-Family:Parenting] The idea that the youngest generation of kids is primarily composed of 'Indigo children', a type of spiritual being here for special purposes, has become a popular New Age belief. Proponents claim many ADD and ADHD children are actually Indigo children with special psycho-spiritual issues, while skeptics say there is no evidence of the trends supporters cite. This article provides an overview of this issue.
- What Does Neuroscience Have to Teach Us About Attaining Our Goals?
[Self-Improvement:Goal-Setting] At this time of year, when so many of us are setting new goals for ourselves, it is worth taking a look at what the latest scientific knowledge has to teach us about the process of personal change. One of the most interesting areas of research in recent years involves neuroplasticity - the ability of the brain to restructure itself in response to stimuli and even thoughts.
- The Importance of Women's Spirituality
[Self-Improvement:Spirituality] A friend recently asked me why I felt it was so important to focus specifically on spirituality for women. Isn't the point of spirituality, she asked, to move to an understanding that transcends distinctions like gender? Does it really serve the process, she wondered, to imply there is a separate spirituality for men and for women?
- Review of Taking Back God - American Women Rising Up For Religious Equality
[Book-Reviews:Spirituality-Religion] Book review of Leora Tanenbaum's Taking Back God: American Women Rising Up for Religious Equality. This book intersperses history of the role of women within Christianity, Judaism and Islam with interviews with contemporary women advocating for equal rights within these traditions.
- Is There Such a Thing As Women's Spirituality?
[Womens-Interests] This article explores whether or not there is a distinct spirituality for women, and if so what it is. It defines a new women's spirituality distinct from goddess worship and traditions of the sacred feminine, one that is compatible with all world religions and focuses on what is distinct in women's lives and spiritual paths.
- Books For Introducing Young Children to World Religions
[Book-Reviews:Childrens-Books] In our increasingly multicultural world, many of us are interested in introducing our children to religions other than our own. And what better way to do it than through books? The following list is of books for introducing children ages 3-9 to religions other than their own.
- Empathy - Foundation Virtue in Spirituality and Parenting
[Self-Improvement:Spirituality] This article discusses empathy, how it is the core virtue we need to develop in our children in order to help them develop other virtues, and how it is also the foundation of true adult spirituality. It focuses on moving past punitive and guilt-based incentives to true consideration for others.
- Meditation - Does it Matter If It's Spiritual?
[Health-and-Fitness:Meditation] Overview of a recently published study on the impact of different types of meditation on migraine sufferers. Four different techniques were taught, and while all four reduced migraine pain and frequency, the explicitly spiritual technique brought about the most relief, raising interesting questions about faith and health.
- Meditation Within All The World's Religions
[Health-and-Fitness:Meditation] Many people associate meditation with Far Eastern religions like Buddhism and Hinduism, and don't realize that there are also many forms of Judeo-Christian meditation, as well as meditations from other faiths. Below is an overview of meditation as it is generally viewed within each major religion, along with book suggestions and links to resources with more information.
- Types of Meditation - Which One is Right For You?
[Health-and-Fitness:Meditation] An overview of the different reasons people meditate, including book suggestions and web resources to get started. The list includes health, sports concentration, intuition development, therapy, creativity development and spirituality.
- Book Review - Your Truest Self - Embracing the Woman You Are Meant to Be
[Book-Reviews:Womens] Your Truest Self: Embracing the Woman You Are Meant to Be, by Janice Lynne Lundy, is a lovely new women's spirituality book highlighting twelve diverse contemporary women spiritual teachers and authors. Ms. Lundy is herself an Interfaith Spiritual Director and the longtime Lifestyle writer for Women's Lifestyle magazine.
- Book Review - Remember Who You Are - Seven Stages on a Woman's Journey of Spirit
[Book-Reviews:Womens] Linda Carroll's Remember Who You Are is a spiritual rather than religious book for women. It is subtitled 'Seven Stages on a Woman's Journey of Spirit', and as this suggests, the book focuses on the stages of the spiritual process, apart from any particular religion. The seven stages Ms...
- Five World Religions, Five Women Mystics
[News-and-Society:Religion] If you Google 'women's spirituality', many of the listings you will get back are related to goddess worship or Wicca and pagan traditions that revere the sacred feminine. The popularity of these traditions has exploded in recent decades, partly as a reaction against the patriarchal leadership of the world's major religions, and the role these religions have often historically played in the suppression and persecution of women. However, what many people don't realize is the amazing number of women mystics that thrived throughout history within the world's five major religions - Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Buddhism and Hinduism.
- Meditation For Busy Women - The Power of Shifting
[Self-Improvement:Stress-Management] Article on how women can utilize their ability to multitask and shift throughout their day to also develop a meditation practice. Includes three brief meditation techniques any women can experiment with throughout their day.
- Beat the Stress - 10 Minute-Meditations For Busy Women
[Self-Improvement:Stress-Management] Guide to ten one-minute meditations busy women can do anywhere and anytime to reverse the stress response in their system and trigger the relaxation response. All techniques are based on medically proven mindfulness-based stress reduction methods.
- You Should Meditate If - The Latest Meditation Research
[Health-and-Fitness:Meditation] Over the last three decades, meditation has been proven to help with everything from high blood pressure to pain management to immune function and more. Meditation is now taught in hospitals, at company retreats, in churches, at school, and of course in yoga and martial arts studios everywhere. Just in case you haven't yet been convinced to give it a try, the following is a list of the latest meditation research.
- Spirituality and Our Brains - What is Spiritual Practice?
[Self-Improvement:Spirituality] When reviewing recent studies on meditation research, I came across several that emphasized how meditation actually changes our brain, both in the long and short term. In the short term, when we are meditating, several chemical processes get triggered. One is the relaxation response, which - in addition to decreasing our blood pressure, metabolic rate and muscle tension - increases the levels of nitric oxide in our system, counteracting the impact of cortisol, the body's primary stress hormone.
- The Spiritual Power of Motherhood
[Home-and-Family:Motherhood] I recently had a discussion with several friends about the spiritual pros and cons of motherhood (or parenthood really, although these were all women.) Specifically, we discussed how becoming a mother both boosts and challenges our religious faiths and spiritual practices. This was a pretty diverse group - three different Christian denominations, a Buddhist, an agnostic yoga-lover, and me, probably best described as 'spiritual but unaffiliated'.
- The Heretic's Daughter - Religion, Fear and the Salem Witch Trials
[Book-Reviews:Spirituality-Religion] Review of Kathleen Kent's novel The Heretic's Daughter. This novel tells the story of a mother and daughter during the Salem witch trial period, and what they go through when the mother is accused. This review highlights the lessons about religion and fear that emerge in this version of the story. The novel's author is a tenth-generation descendant of a woman executed during this period.
- Toddler Aikido - What I Learned About Parenting From the Martial Arts
[Home-and-Family:Parenting] I studied martial arts for many years, and I have decided that raising toddlers is the best possible training in conflict management. As anyone that has studied martial arts (or watched Karate Kid) knows, classic martial arts are about conflict management first, and fighting second. You are supposed to avoid conflict at all costs - avoid doing harm.
- If You Think You're Enlightened, Have Kids
[Home-and-Family:Motherhood] Spiritual teacher Ram Dass reportedly once said, 'If you think you're enlightened, spend a weekend with your parents.' I would like to modify that to 'have kids.' Of course, having kids is a much bigger time commitment than spending a weekend with your parents.
- Deepak Chopra's Novel Jesus - Christianity As a Path to Enlightenment
[Book-Reviews:Spirituality-Religion] A review of Deepak Chopra's latest novel entitled Jesus: A Story of Enlightenment. This review discusses Chopra's revisioning of Christianity as a spiritual journey similar to Buddhism, as he presents it through a retelling of the lost years of Jesus' life.
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