A trilogy: Part II

BY SUEANN JACKSON-LAND — I can close my eyes and see myself at around 8 or 9 years old, sitting with my knees scrunched under me on the floorboard of a 1974 Dodge Coronet. The first poem I wrote was a prayer. Rounding the corner in that same old big brown boat that disguised its ugliness as a car, I can also clearly remember hanging on to the interior door handle as the door swung open and I looked at the pavement racing past me. Continue Reading »

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A trilogy: Part I

BY SUEANN JACKSON-LAND — I didn’t know when it started. I still don’t, and probably never will know. My mother changed. Around other people she was cheery, always a bubbly personality. Being the offspring of a master chameleon, I’ve adapted that same mask. I can smile at you with bright blue-gray eyes twinkling, when inside, my heart is in night terrors.

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BY KATY LEASK — Everyone should read this book. I’ll come out and say that loud and clear from the start. An Imperfect Offering is not a light read. Nor is it a pleasurable one, though there are moments of triumph and nobility against all odds that serve to both inspire and humble those who seek to better the world around them.

For those of us who thought ourselves well-informed about the world, we stand well-corrected as James Orbinski, past president of the humanitarian aid group Médicins Sans Frontières, leads us through a gripping memoir about the horror of war, the shocking indifference of many to the suffering of others, and a handful of people and organizations trying to do something about it.

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(Diana is using a pen name to protect her privacy).

GUEST COLUMN: DIANA HUNTER — Twenty years ago I had an abortion, and while not regretting my decision or thinking about it overly much, once in a while I wonder what happened to the soul that was never allowed to be.

To be clear, I am totally pro-choice; I used to volunteer at an abortion clinic, ushering women inside, past a gauntlet of gory anti-choice placards and foaming-at-the-mouth zealots. Continue Reading »

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BY VICKI WOODYARD — Life is a ballet, and although it looks and feels beautiful at times our toes are bleeding and we wake in the night with muscle cramps. All of this strenuous work creates beauty and it is well worth the effort. I have never danced as hard as when my small daughter was fighting cancer. She took ballet at the age of five although she had a large muscle missing from her right leg. It contained the tumor that had to be removed. Continue Reading »

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BY DAVID RICKEY — You’ve probably seen the sign over the cash register at a country diner:

In God We Trust - All Others, CASH

That line occurred to me when I received a email about an MSNBC poll asking whether we should have “In God We Trust” on our money. The email said: Continue Reading »

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Does the notion of striking a tree pose in the beverage aisle of your local supermarket seem downright ordinary? Then read on.

Here at Soul’s Code, we want to see photos of you doing your mind-body spiritual thing — yoga, meditation, pilates, Tai Chai and so on — anywhere but where we’d expect.

The yoga studio? Forget it.

This is the theme of our latest photo contest, so get to it. You’ll have the chance to be featured in a Soul’s Code slideshow. The prize, other than Web glory, is a $50 giftcard to www.soundstrue.com, the iTunes of all things spiritually smart. Continue Reading »

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SPECIAL TO SOUL’S CODE, ROB BREZSNY — This poetic affirmation is beautiful for those moments when you are feeling down about yourself, or whatever . . .We ALL have days like that!

I first wrote these in a book called, Pronoia Is the Antidote for Paranoia: How the Whole World Is Conspiring to Shower You with Blessings. Since then, they’ve become an online viral hit and we’re blessed to share them with the Soul’s Code community.

This text is a sacrament with a spiritual spin: it invites you to make a contract to “marry yourself” — that is, allow a complete intimacy with your day-to-day experience, and essence:

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The first in a seven-part SOUL’S CODE series about Codependence

Are you, or have you ever been, a codependent person?

co-de-pend-ent [koh-di-pen-duhnt] - adjective

1. of or pertaining to a relationship in which one person is physically or psychologically addicted, as to alcohol or gambling, and the other person is psychologically dependent on the first in an unhealthy way.

BY DAVID RICKEY and PAUL KAIHLA — That’s the standard dictionary, or in this case Wikipedia, definition. Take out the argot about addiction, and codependency can be summed up with this plain phrase: a mutually-parasitic bonding. Continue Reading »

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Part 2 of 7 in a Soul’s Code series about codependence

BY DAVID RICKEY and PAUL KAIHLA — In the Disney movie, The Parent Trap, a pre-tabloid child star named Lindsay Lohan manipulates a reconciliation between her on-screen, estranged parents (played by Dennis Quaid and Natasha Richardson). Yes, it’s a romantic comedy. But this charming film is also a case study of how codependence can take root.

When we ask each other in the Starbucks line-up why Lindsay in real-life has so many addictions, affairs and abuses, it’s the same as asking: where does codependence come from? Continue Reading »

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Part 3 of 7 in a Soul’s Code series about codependence

BY DAVID RICKEY and PAUL KAIHLA — In our description of the Stage 1 of codependence we talked about how common it is for people who had childhoods with an abusive, dysfunctional or weak parent to carbon-copy that dynamic in adult relationships — or compensate for it.

As it happens, both of the 2008 presidential candidates fit the mold with their fathers. Barack Obama (in the B&W photo with his mother, step-father and half-sister) never really knew his father, except by myth. Continue Reading »

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Part 4 of 7 in a Soul’s Code series about codependence

BY PAUL KAIHLA and DAVID RICKEY — Codependency is such a tricky area for self-examination, one idea is to do your own ‘chart’, so to speak. Check out if you and/or your partner fall into “that” set of behaviors.

Personality scales are what psychologists use to profile your traits and type.

The Myers-Briggs chart is the best-known lay-person’s schema for personality types but it is widely discredited among industrial organization (IO) and other psychologists.

As an IO specialist who does personality testing for one of the world’s largest headhunting firms told Soul’s Code: Continue Reading »

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Part 5 of 7 in a Soul’s Code series about codependence

BY PAUL KAIHLA — I grew up with a mental illness, my mother’s.

That’s not a very funny thing to say, but it is a really codependent thing to say.

My mother developed schizophrenia when I was a young boy (in the image at left, with parents). The lone psychiatrist in the small, remote factory town we lived in may have been as disconnected as my mother was at times: he prescribed her amphetamines.

The standard treatment for schizophrenia is to administer drugs that tamp down the patient’s dopamine receptors — and an over-active mind that crosses a line into delusional thinking and auditory hallucinations. Amphetamines would have the opposite effect. Continue Reading »

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Part 6 of 7 in a Soul’s Code series about codependence

BY DAVID RICKEY — From a psychological perspective, codependence is an issue of inappropriate boundaries.

The codependent person has difficulty experiencing adequate separation. As Paul Kaihla describes in the previous installment, you are so psychically plugged into someone else that you experience anxiety any time that person—your partner, mother, brother, lover, whomever—is suffering, or you’re afraid they will suffer. Continue Reading »

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The last of a 7-part Soul’s Code series about codependence

BY DAVID RICKEY — From a spiritual point of view, especially if you wanted to freak out a passing fundamentalist, you could say that the Jesus of traditional Christianity represents the Nth-degree of codependency: he owned the sins of the entire body of humanity, and sacrificed himself for them.

A more “enlightened view” of Jesus’ life would be that out of his own experience of marginalization as a child (see “Rabbi Jesus” by Bruce Chilton), he so intensely identified with other marginalized people that he dedicated his life to proclaiming the inclusion of ALL. Continue Reading »

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(Cassandra is using a pen name to protect her privacy).

GUEST COLUMN: CASSANDRA KELLY

I only now realized that I have something in common with John Edwards, who went sideways on his wife while he was raising funds and razing his future in a public bid for approval called a presidential campaign.

But I probably have much more in common with the world’s most famous Kabbalist, Madonna (flanked in the photo by her husband Guy Ritchie and baseball player Alex Rodriguez), whom A-Rod has recently called his “soul mate.”

Besides the fact we both like dance music . . . we both seem incapable of leading a monogamous life. Continue Reading »

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FATHER DAVID RICKEY — In the public perception, the mighty are just waiting for a fall — and in the public mind the rush to watch the fall is swift.

It is always easier to anticipate, or watch, someone else fall, than to do personal reflection. The public can say: See, they are just like me — or worse.

So, the tabloid-nurtured masses missed the import of John Edwards’ recent true confession: (left, with his wife, Elizabeth, and activist actors Tim Robbins and Susan Sarandon). It wasn’t about the affair, it was about his inner awakening:

I started to believe that I was special and became increasingly egocentric and narcissistic.

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Welcome to a new, six-part Soul’s Code series by RAQUEL TAVARES, both author — and model. Born in Brazil, she learned yoga from her mother as a child. Raquel is now a certified Ashtanga instructor.

Introduction: Love and Yoga

The meaning of the word “yoga,” like the meaning of word “love,” has been butchered. The cynicism prevalent in America, coupled with the discredit of love as a concept, has led to an odd detachment from the word and its real meaning. Continue Reading »

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The Art of Devotion: Part 2 of a six-part series.

SAVASANA POSE

By RAQUEL TAVARES — Savasana, known as the corpse pose, is the ‘Until death us do part’ aspect of the yoga practice. In savasana you experience the ultimate yama or moral code. In the posture you are asked to withdraw your senses, and lay completely still. Eventually, you should be able to still your breath so that an observer cannot tell that you are breathing. Continue Reading »

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Part 3 of a six-part series.

LOVE-ASANA

By RAQUEL TAVARES— Postures like this one, known as the Half Bound Western Intense Stretch, in essence rewire your energetic and physical anatomy. It triggers the flow of subtle energies that affect various Koshas and Chakras. Continue Reading »

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