No original writing today, but plenty of great articles!

Link to today's GFP newsletter: http://soundofheart.org/galacticfreepress/content/gfp-newsletter-4292014

Today's writing is, "Seeing Past the Distractions":

Soul healing only comes when the being is fully Present, no need to make it any more complicated than that. You can bring incredibly transformative healing upon yourself in any moment, this one included. Any place, any time, those factors are really quite trivial, the only thing real healing takes is Presence. An intense awareness of what's going on within yourself, that's how you rediscover your authentic self, which is all that true healing is.

With all the recent spiritual authors, this knowledge is practically mainstream, but knowledge and actually applying that knowledge are two entirely different things. Everyone has beautiful moments of Presence, but they're usually very brief and not quite what it takes for radical transformation. Why is Presence usually so brief? That's easy, it's because we get distracted.

Modern life has become one big distraction, and there's a near endless supply of little distractions. People even carry around little computers around with them now, "smart" phones, so they can watch videos and play games everywhere they go. Such amazing potential for learning and communication through things like television and the internet, yet the potential is largely wasted. Now there's nothing wrong with entertainment, but making it a higher priority that your own personal growth is a very foolish thing to do. The entertainment becomes a distraction, a coping mechanism for dealing with emotional pain. It's used to avoid dealing with the pain, and through reinforcing these patterns you build up the bars of your own prison.

Read the rest here: http://soundofheart.org/galacticfreepress/content/seeing-past-distractions

Monthly donation total: $1,987 out of $3,000 monthly goal

Today's writing is, "Delivering Truth With Love":

Our culture is one where telling "little lies" is not only acceptable, it's often encouraged. When the wife asks the husband, "Does this dress make me look fat?" he'd better give the right answer! The right answer being what the wife's ego wants to hear. In a society ruled by ego, truth isn't very highly valued. Being "politically correct", saying the kinds of things people want to hear, becomes more important than actual honesty.

Such incredible growth we could have if we collectively stopped doing this. Instead of reinforcing others illusions, we could assist each other is raising above them. Personal development and uniqueness could be valued more highly than conformity. Imagine that! A society where we all help lift each other up instead of holding each other down.

In the meantime we can still be honest with each other, and I highly recommend delivering the truth with Love and tact whenever possible. Often we save our true feelings about someone for when that person really pisses us off, when we're highly emotional, then we tell them how we really feel. This is a kind of misuse of truth, it's using truth like a weapon.

There's a certain skillfulness needed when delivering a delicate truth to someone. It's tricky to do without creating conflict, one must be compassionate without getting all emotional. This is where Love comes in, Love assists you in assisting another without getting caught up in all the drama. Such an important skill to have, it's something all adults would do well to learn.

Link to today's GFP newsletter: http://soundofheart.org/galacticfreepress/content/gfp-newsletter-4272014

Today's writing is, "On Labeling Without Limiting":

There's this popular belief that we shouldn't label anyone, and there's a certain bit of wisdom there. Take Frank for instance, Frank could be anyone, we don't know anything about him other than he's probably a man. Now let me apply some labels to Frank, he's old and he's a conservative. Suddenly there's all these unconscious prejudices, positive and negative, that come up when we think about Frank. He could have been anybody at first, but now there's various expectations about what Frank is supposed to be like.

The danger here is, what if Frank doesn't fit into those labels? More importantly, what if he doesn't fit into the prejudices people have associated with those labels? I've just done a great disservice to Frank by labeling him. Human beings are complex and unique, yet by labeling him I've made him dull, one-dimensional. He's now a generic person, he's been pigeonholed in our minds.

To the dualistic thinker, it may seem like I'm saying "labels are bad", but that's not my message at all. In fact, I would hope the hypocrisy of "labels are bad" is obvious to the reader. Labels are largely unavoidable, they're how our language works. That's all words are, labels. The word Moon is not really the Moon, the word is like a finger pointing to that large sphere that revolves around our Planet. The word is simply a convenient tool for communication so we both have a similar understanding.

Read the rest here: http://soundofheart.org/galacticfreepress/content/labeling-without-limiting

Link to today's GFP newsletter: http://soundofheart.org/galacticfreepress/content/gfp-newsletter-4262014

Today's writing is, "If You Deny God, You Deny Yourself":

God is omnipresent, this is something even the backwards religions teach. Do you understand what this means, how amazing it is? God is not separate from you in anything you do, God is always there. And don't worry, God knows what you look like naked, the realization of God's omnipresence doesn't need to make things awkward when you're taking a shower or during sex.

For those who believe in a judgmental god, I can see how omnipresence can be a frightening thing. Supposedly the ultimate authority figure is watching and scrutinizing everything you do, even more so than the NSA! It's a good thing God Is Unconditionally Loving, which makes damning others through judgment impossible. Still, people damn themselves with their own judgements, and the judgments of others.

What kind of a dumb creator would judge their creations, and not also apply that judgment to themselves? Everything you create is a direct expression of you, and this is why we encourage artistic creation as a form of self-discovery. If an artist creates a painting, and then judges it, good or bad, he's also judging himself. You cannot separate the creator and the creation, the two are forever linked.

Judgmental people create judgmental gods. Jealous people create jealous gods. Angry people create angry gods. There's the whole story of religion right there. God didn't create stupid people though, God created beautiful, unique and Divine Beings who simply put on strange disguises and forgot what was underneath. They became their disguise, and they even fool themselves!

Read the rest here: http://soundofheart.org/galacticfreepress/content/if-you-deny-god-you-deny-yourself