I have recently connected with an organization IPaintMyMind that supports art in the classroom and art teachers with resources to fulfill their work.  This reminded me that years ago, I wanted to be a classroom teacher.  I had so many teachers in my life that really influenced me and my education, I thought I would love to give that gift back to other generations.  With a degree in music, I ended up teaching K - 8th grade music.  It was HARD! There were so many other things to juggle as a teacher other than teaching the lesson of the day.  Ultimately I stepped away from that career path because I was so concerned about the stress I saw the students and teachers trying to manage.  I realized that I didn't want to teach quarter notes and the famous pieces of music by Bach or Mozart.  I wanted to help teachers and students discover tools they could use to have a better experience in the classroom.  That year of teaching was one of the factors that led me to my work today!  
As the school year continues to get its footing, all sorts of support is taking place to help students do their best and manage not only the work, but the stress of being a student.  But what about the teachers?  One of the most challenging stresses I remember as a teacher, was my own judgements about my efforts.  No matter how prepared I was, I wanted to do better, I wanted to give my all to my students.  This definitley made me prepared and ready to teach and I think be a great teacher.  However, I stressed myself out, my anxiety was way too high and I didn't have a great network of support.  The stress of our own thoughts and opinions is always something to watch regardless of our profession, but I thought I would offer 10 affirmations for teachers to soothe some of the impact of that internal chatter as they step back into the school year.  Share this with a teacher friend if you know one.
Affirmations are a great tool and exercise to shift our awareness....even if we may argue with the statements sometimes.  To give the mind and heart a break from the often harsh toned self talk can do wonders for the nervous system.  Give these a try.
Take 5 minutes for yourself and try out this practice.
Take 5 slow breathes in and out then slowly read throught these affirmations.  You can also turn this into a writing exercise for your self too by rewriting these affirmations in a notebook.
1. I am a poweful teacher.
2. I bring authenticity and integrity to my work.
3. I treat myself and my students with kindness.
4. My teachering ability grows everyday!
5. I make a difference in my students' lives.
6. My work, my teaching matters!
7. I am grateful for the opportunity I have everyday to impact the future!
8. I am a champion for my students learning and wellbeing.
9. I believe in myself and my skills.
10. I am calm at peace and ready to meet this day.
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May all of our amazing teachers feel and know their impact, importance and power this year!

Good day all.  I am sitting in the lobby of a great chiropractor and healer, contemplating healing.  Healing the physical body, healing the mental body, healing the emotional body, healing the body known as our family, community, country and world.  There is a helplessness that I know I and I am sure you have experienced.  You ask yourself, "what can I do?  It's out of my hands!"  Whether the situation is Ukraine and Russia, a chronic physical challenge, a relationship in your family or your friend network that just isn't going well...what can we do?

This isn't THE answer, but an invitation.  From the spiritual idea that there is an inherent wholeness in Life, God, the Universe...whenever anything is seeming less than whole, it is an opportunity to not always fix something or someone, but to rather remember wholeness in the face of whatever is there.  This is not an invitation to be passive or apathetic, rather to do our best to always speak, act and choose from remembering the wholeness of life.  Why?  If we don't then we contribute to the idea of brokenness, we add to the power of fear, contempt, judgement and othering.  Whether stopping to say to yourself in a brief prayer,  "God is whole, I am whole, therefore Life is whole" and moving on with your day or stopping to do something more involved like a longer meditation or prayer practice, come back, remember and reconnect to the spiritual truth of wholeness.  Life is whole right now.  Life has everything it needs to further itself, won't you help that truth to be embodied?

 I am really excited to start a weekly Soul Gym session in the New Year!  As I check in with my own well being and others, I am acutely aware that some regular proactive measures would benefit all of our souls in 2021.  To that I will be offering a weekly session on Mondays from 7:30-8:30pm CST starting January 4th.  Each month of the year has a theme and each week we'll drill down to a lesson and a practice.  Here is how a session will basically flow.

7:20 - 7:30pm Zoom session opens early for hello's and connection
7:30 - 8:10pm Welcome, Lesson & Spiritual Practice
8:10 - 8:20pm Small Group Discussion
8:20 - 8:30pm Large Group Take Aways and Closing Prayer

There are multiple intentions behind these sessions.  First and foremost I want to support you in engaging spiritual practices on a regular basis to maintain a greater sense of well being and connection to the soul of your life.  Second as we continue to experience greater physical distancing, I want to support social connection.  I know we can create an amazing community around these Monday night gatherings and I will use the technology to allow for some small group, even 1 on 1, hello's to foster a greater sense of social connection.  Lastly, 2020 has been a year of fear, rightfully so, there has been so much uncertainty with our health care, presidency, social justice and balance...AND fear has taken the front seat to our collective experience.  I want to foster a New Year that has a stronger relationship with fear.  Fear may still be present, but it doesn't have to rule the roost.  We can boldly stand in our spiritual knowing that there is something greater than any fear we may experience, love, hope, possibility, freedom and more. All of these qualities and mind states when embraced on a regular basis, down regulate the power of fear.  I want some of that and I hope you do too!

Please go to the Soul Gym page or the Eventbrite page to register.

I look forward to embracing a year of Love, Light & Laughter with you!

Rev. Darrell

My back, the Alton Sterling shooting, my calendar/time management...what do all of these things have in common?  They are all area's of my life where I am currently experiencing pain, physical, emotional and psychological distress.  Why do we experience pain, what is it really and what is its purpose?  Webster's online define's pain as:

• the physical feeling caused by disease, injury, or something that hurts the body
• mental or emotional suffering : sadness caused by some emotional or mental problem

In both of these definitions, pain is the result of something else, be it physical, mental or emotional, pain only exists as an effect of some other cause.  From the space of looking at our lives to always being in service to us, pain then (although we may not like it) is here to serve us, it is an indicator that something has happened in our body or body of affairs that has caused injury.  Once the pain is experienced we can then tend to the source of the pain right?  Well what if the source of the pain is really nothing immediate in my life, something I come into contact with through the news, like the Alton Sterling shooting, how can I tend to the cause of that pain?

Like many of you I have experienced many different levels of pain in my life, but the common truth regardless if the pain is in our body, mind, emotions or spirit, the agony of chronic pain or the persistence of pain is where we can meet the pain (life) and plot a different course other than sustained agony.  

But first we must meet our pain and understand once the initial sting has been felt, why does it persist.  Tonight in a meditation conference call I will explore this very thing with anyone who call's in.  Feel free to join me at 7:30 CST, Wednesday, July 6th, 2016

Call 641-715-3287 Access Code:431735#