Here is Jeanne’s message for this week, a call to connect with our spirits in quiet contemplation.

My heart pains for the beauty in all of you as yet untapped. Do not fear your innocence or your inner beauty. Do not fear your creative side, your spiritual side, your deeply knowing self. Do not fear revealing who you truly are. If you wish to change, this is where to begin, within the self, exactly where you find yourself now, at this point in your life, in this moment in time.

Note how you refuse the call of your spirit, though it calls repeatedly. Do not fear the outcome of your life, for if you heed your spirit’s call—though it may at first be a challenging road—it will eventually lead you to success and peacefulness.

Be pragmatic and fierce. Be determined and kind. Be loving and gentle with the self and others, yet be also intensely focused and attentive to your spirit’s guidance. Learn to listen to your inner truth, not the rhetoric of trends or outer world factions, but the voice of your deeply inner self. This voice will ask you to act only innerly. It will not ask you to project onto the world around you but only to reflect on the self. Your inner voice will never ask you to hurt another or the self. It will only ask you to be kind and loving. It will, however, seek to guide you to discipline so that you will find time within the context of living a busy and productive life for inner work and contemplation.

Seek the contemplative life in some form today and every day. This may mean you set aside a few minutes a day for calm sitting without distraction and that will be enough. The discipline required is a commitment to do this contemplative work on a daily basis. Eventually, its role will increase. As it becomes a more natural part of your life, like eating a meal or brushing your teeth, you will begin to notice your moments of quiet extending into the other hours of your life. You will begin to crave such moments and then you will know that your focus is working.

Commit to a contemplative life today. Set aside a time and place to be calm and utterly detached from the world around you. Do it daily and it will become easier and easier. I advise this above all else. Nothing will feed your spirit as the gift of quietude will. Just be quiet.

NOTE from Jan: Each morning before we jump into our day, we light a candle, a tall taper, and take a few minutes to gaze into the flame, closing our eyes every few minutes to experience the inner flame. It’s a great way to begin a contemplative practice. Even just 5 minutes sets a tone for inner calmness and connection to spirit. It calms the mind and the soul. I highly recommend it, though there are many other options available as well. Just do what feels personally right and is practical enough that you won’t have to make too much effort each day. Keep it simple and you won’t fail!