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Browse published articles attributed to Amy Torres, with full-archive search.
There was a time in my life when I was separated from someone I loved because he had to do military duty in Iraq. We were able to text and send letters and occasionally we even spoke on the phone. Inevitably we said, "I miss you."
The concept of the Law of Attraction has become almost mainstream in American culture today. Instruction abounds. There's "Think and Grow Rich" by Napoleon Hill, the Seth material channeled by Jane Roberts, the Abraham teachings by Esther and Jerry Hicks, and, of course, the movie "The Secret." Essentially the Law of Attraction (LoA) states that "like attracts like," meaning that our thoughts are magnets drawing into our lives the equivalent of what we think. LoA makes it clear that positive thoughts are the way to go.
A Course in Miracles (ACIM) offers us a highly individualized curriculum where we use the body as a learning device under the direction of the Holy Spirit. Yoga is one of the classrooms the Holy Spirit offers me to use my body for spiritual purposes. ACIM provides a mind training, therefore all of its practices are in thought-form, or ideas. This can be challenging since the body demands our attention all day long. Yoga offers a body-based sadhana, or spiritual practice, using the body and breath to reconnect with God's Mind.
From the time I was 14-years-old, I had an interest in psychology. My mother was an aetheist and psychology seemed to be her religion, so I embraced it as mine as well. After many years of therapy, having tried several different psychotherapists and their modalities, and benefitting from them all, I had a spiritual awakening. At the time, I didn’t know what had happened. I just knew that something was missing–a big, chronic hunk of emotional pain and anxiety had broken off of me, like an iceberg floating away and melting as it went.
Last night we had a guest from Israel in our Course in Miracles class. About an hour into class, I referred to the Holy Spirit as “He” and she bolted upright with surprise! “He?” she said, making sure she heard me right. “Yes,” I answered, “The Course in written with Christian terminology. It’s a genderless “He” but the masculine is used.” “Not in the Hebrew edition,” she said. “What does the Hebrew edition say?” we asked. “She,” was the answer. And then a lightbulb went off in my mind: Shekinah–the Divine Feminine.
Have you ever been talking to someone who is looking around the room while you speak? Or who interrupts you to say something on a completely different subject? Maybe you were confiding in a friend who seemed distracted and when you accused her of not listening, she said indignantly, "I was listening!" and to prove it she parroted back the last phrase you had spoken.
A Course in Miracles (ACIM) is a brilliant form of spiritual psychotherapy which brings peace, purpose, love and joy into our lives. It is three books under one cover: the Text, Workbook for Students, and Manual for Teachers. The Course offers us a liberating new definition of forgiveness. As we use its forgiveness practice, our sense of identity is transformed. There is no turning back–our spiritual awakening process has begun.
When I started seeing a psychotherapist at the age of 37, I felt as if I had no happy memories. Without going into my family history, suffice it to say that my heart had been so scared, and occasionally angry, that there was no room for softer feelings. I was like an emotional quadriplegic, cut off from love, sadness, happiness, relaxation. It took a lot of patience on my therapist's part to offer me the unconditional love and support that produces a sense of safety and trust and leads to deep healing.
A Course in Miracles has an entire Workbook for Students which guides us through 365 days of spiritual practice. Let's look closely at Lesson 95 which takes particular care in describing how to practice. Once we have reached this lesson, we must be almost four months into our Workbook study. We are told that five minutes of every hour has special advantages at this stage of learning due to our human tendency to let the mind wander. Jesus knows we need mind training because we lack mental discipline. We are forgetful and distracted.
Recently a phrase popped into my head, "Inexplicably predictably happy." That's one way I experience God--words come to me and I can tell they are not mine (some people call this "channeling"). I was actually grieving at the time I "heard" those words, but even though I was grieving, I remembered to ask God to remind me of who I really was. In that moment, as I cried, I felt my heart expand and a peace move through me that was filled with joy. There was no logical explanation about why I needn't grieve--I just felt at peace, even as I wept.
More than one spiritual path explains that this world is an illusion. Even science now agrees. But what do they mean? And if this world is an illusion, what good does it do us to know that?
Saying the words, "I want to break up," whether with respect to a marital relationship or any other committed romantic relationship, is one of the hardest things a human being ever has to do. Making the conscious choice to end one of the strongest bonds we have ever made frightens us to our very core. We fear that we'll never meet anyone else. We fear the possible financial burden, the loneliness, the unknown. We feel guilty for being disloyal, abandoning a loved one. We dread seeing hurt or rage on our partner's face.
Many years ago, at an Al-Anon meeting, someone asked, "Are we human beings on a spiritual journey? Or are we spiritual beings on a human journey?" From A Course in Miracles perspective I would say we are spiritual beings on a human journey. Unde eath the limitations of our humanity, there is a boundless Light from which we can live. We can use our human journey as a classroom to learn about our true spiritual nature. There are many practices which can help us grow on our spiritual journey and, depending on your nature and circumstances, one may be more useful than another.
During psychotherapy many clients have admitted to me that they "feel ugly". What inevitably comes to light, as the work continues, is that feelings of ugliness are really feelings of shame and unlovableness. Our sense of who we are begins with how our mother looks into our eyes. What we see in our mother's eyes reflects us back to ourselves.
For most of my life, I assumed there was something deep, dark and shameful about myself that would make people recoil in horror from me, if they really got to know me. This belief was unconscious, and it actually took a lot of work for me to admit this to myself. It was necessary, because I kept getting involved with people who didn’t value me. This included boyfriends, bosses, friends, family, casual acquaintances, and strangers.
We all know the mood we call "feeling low." We may feel low because we lack confidence we can do something, or because we received bad news, maybe we're disappointed with life in general. Feeling low can be due to physical issues such as sleep deprivation or vitamin depletion. It can be an event in our lives which has lingering effects on us-e.g., a death, a breakup, or a job loss. Feeling low can be a form of chronic depression. Whatever the causes for feeling low, it is a muted state and calls for an infusion of energy.
Making love starts in the mind. It is what we're thinking that turns us on or off. Making love can be using the body sexually to express love, tende ess, and pleasure. Making love can be purely sensual-e.g., giving your partner a massage or a bath-fragrant with essential oils. Making love can be sharing companionship-doing things together. Most of all, making love is letting our partner know that we see the best in him or her, that we genuinely like who they are, that they inspire us. Love is generous, non-judgmental, appreciative, and brings us closer.
Feelings are not facts. This is important to understand because when we are under the influence of a strong feeling, we have the sense this feeling will never end. If the feeling is anger, we are consumed with fiery heat. If the feeling is sadness, we are heavy, lethargic. If the feeling is happiness, we are light-hearted and energized. In reality, feelings are a flow of 'e-motion,' or energy in motion. Anger can become chronic hostility, sadness can become ongoing depression, and happiness, when it abates, can leave us disappointed and afraid we'll never feel happy again.
There are ways to communicate which help us avoid arguments and develop harmonious relationships. Most people who use the techniques offered below report improvements, not just in their love life, but in relationships with other family members, co-workers, friends, and complete strangers. In other words, everybody!
"Webster's Dictionary" defines forgiveness as "ceasing to feel resentment against someone who has offended us in some way." How do we cease to feel resentment towards someone we feel has harmed us -- especially if that person in no way acknowledges any wrong doing? And why would we want to? There are many valuable reasons to forgive -- even if we're in situation that seems unjust. The most obvious is that, if we stubbornly hold on to resentment, it will eventually boil over -- causing ulcers, headaches, acid reflux, skin rashes and many other unpleasant symptoms.
The three practices below are easy ways to improve your confidence level. I use them myself and have shared them with great success with clients and students for years. They are effective, powerful tools for everyone, and will take you to the next level of personal transformation.
The reason people get terribly discouraged when they pray and can't hear God is because it seems as if God is not answering them. In order to keep faith, we have to open our minds to the idea that just because we believe "God doesn't care about me" or "God doesn't exist" doesn't mean it's true. Here are five reasons to keep faith even though, right now, you think you can't hear God: 1. God hears you even if you don't hear Him.r