Decoding The Spiritual Messages Of Everyday Life

How can science help us develop our deeper spiritual potential? This unique approach to the question, from a trained psychiatrist, combines spirituality with key concepts from modern psychology to help us overcome challenges and become more perceptive, creative, and fulfilled. Dr. DeBell draws on such rational tools as cognitive-behavioral and Piaget developmental psychology to detect and decode feedback from the deeper dimensions in life. Contemporary, down-to-earth, and extremely practical, it shows how to bring spiritual intention to bear on daily routines and specific challenges, such as anxiety or depression.

In everyday life, people negotiate on issues, entertain offers and counteroffers, and gain or lose in terms of economic capital, political power, communal status, and social influence. Although life goes on in the form of compromise, feelings of discrimination or misfortune haunt consciously or unconsciously in the minds of living individuals. History continues in the spirit of forgiveness, but residues of exploitation or injustice remain conspicuously or inconspicuously on the records of progressing civilizations. This study follows an average everyday life to compare individuals with individuals, individuals with organizations, and organizations with organizations in their everyday interactions. Through the eyes of the person, conspicuous and inconspicuous discriminations by one against another, whether individual or organizational, are identified in different occasions, on a typical day, at home, in the workplace, in the community, within the country, around the world, and throughout the course of life. In the style of Socrates, Plato, Wittgenstein, and other classical scholarship, this study uses ordinary, typical situations to demonstrate critical points, reveal subtle connections, and present important arguments. It offers vivid examples for what social scientists strive to find: the extraordinary from the ordinary, the unfamiliar from the familiar, the different from the similar, and the significant from the trivial. This study offers an opportunity for readers to reflect upon their social experiences, and rethink and reshape their everyday acts and actions.

This book examines a variety of critical issues pertaining to the psychology of men and masculinity and presents successful, evidence-based strategies for treatment. Part 1 focuses on treating men in couples counseling, group work, and career counseling, as well as counseling men about their health. Part 2 explores the intersections of identity for sexual minority men, older men, and fathers, and discusses spiritual work with men in life transitions. Part 3 addresses the concerns of men in the military, prevention of sexual violence, and treating men with addictions and trauma-related issues. Part 4 provides the specific clinical frames of female counselors using relational–cultural theory with men, and examines using motivational and masculine-sensitive therapy with men. Examples and vignettes throughout the text provide clinical relevance, and reflective questions in each chapter encourage readers to explore their own biases and ideas about working with men. *Requests for digital versions from the ACA can be found on wiley.com. *To request print copies, please visit the ACA website here. *Reproduction requests for material from books published by ACA should be directed to [email protected].

It could be a cloud in the shape of a loved one's face or an extremely relevant song playing on the radio at the exact time of a friend's death--if we allow ourselves to stop, look, and listen, we can identify what spiritual teacher Ann Bolinger-McQuade calls personal oracles. And when we tune into these subtle messages from Spirit, we will discover guidance for navigating life's most trying situations. In this illuminating book, readers will learn that the universe is constantly conspiring in our favor and is ready to lend a helping hand when we need it most--if only we can look closely and open our hearts to the divine messages that are on display around us. Sharing stories of divine inspiration from her own life, as well as the lives of others (many of them well-known historical or contemporary figures), McQuade shows readers how: A PAIR OF SPARROWS SAVE A MAN'S LIFE: Journalist Byron Pitts narrowly escaped being hit by a car and saw a couple birds circling in front of him. The birds reminded him of the lyrics to his mother's favorite hymn: "His eye is on the sparrow, and I know He watches me." The comforting reminder of guidance and provision encouraged him to persevere in his challenging career in broadcast journalism, which was ultimately rewarded when CBS offered him a position on 60 Minutes. A LITTLE BOY BRINGS HOPE BACK INTO A WOMAN'S LIFE: Nancy was reeling from her husband's recent diagnosis of AML, a rare form of leukemia, when a seven-year-old boy knocked at her door collecting donations for AML research. He smiled at her warmly as he told her how he had had AML since he was two, and then he announced proudly that a transplant had saved his life. SIR ISAAC NEWTON'S APPLE WAS ACTUALLY AN EVERYDAY ORACLE: Many are familiar with the story of how Sir Isaac Newton first discovered gravity when an apple fell on his head. It is a lesser known fact that Newton was interested in the supernatural. Born in the 1600s, when astronomy and astology were considred one and the same, the highly respected alchemist looked to the heavens to assist him in his quest to decode the mysteries of the universe. The falling apple that arrested his attention acted as a personal oracle. In addition to illuminating oracles through examples, McQuade discusses the history and science of oracles in general and of personal oracles specifically, offering the reader practical instructions for identifying and decoding the divine messages in their own lives.

Karl Rahner, a Jesuit Priest who died in 1984, is widely regarded as one of the most influential Catholic theologians of the 20th century. His writings played an enormous role in shaping the documents of Vatican II. But while he is best known for his academic theology, his deepest goal was to help ordinary Christians to recognize and respond to the presence of grace in their everyday lives. Rahner famously observed that the Christians of the future will be mystics or there will be no Christianity. With readings for Advent, Lent, and the other liturgical seasons, these sermons, prayers, and reflections offer spiritual nourishment for the whole year.

Dreams told in the group are conjoint individual and group creations. They are both influenced by the group atmosphere and may in turn influence it and the individual, promoting change and development. Dreams have a deepening effect on therapeutic work and, due to their unconscious content, they may represent the most authentic exchange between individual and group. This state-of-the-art book provides help for therapists encountering a dream told in their group. It covers the major theoretical perspectives for their understanding, as well as representing different psychological schools and their approaches to the technical issues of group dream therapy. Despite the variety of sources, the clinical approaches described complement each other, and the book details many case studies, including a first dream in the group, an unconscious meeting between women and men, and other polarities within the individual and the group.

Shapiro explains why unresolved psycho/emotional issues can affect physical health, how feelings and thoughts are linked to specific body parts, and steps to take to heal the body with the mind, and to heal the mind with the body.