Throughout our lives, we ask for guidance, direction, and inspiration to help us along our way. And, something comes along – an impression, a feeling, a thought. But it’s not always clear…is what we’re hearing wisdom or wishful thinking?

We need an inner compass as we navigate through our lives, a guidance system that helps us filter out what is real and true for us, what is not.

Discernment is the process of listening to the input we receive – both internal and external – and deciding what to keep, what to set aside. As we create a helpful process of discernment, we are able to listen deeply and then respond from an aligned, centered place.

Quaker and discernment expert Melody Brazo and I sort through the issues that come up as we listen and learn to discern what is true guidance on Discernment: Wisdom or Wishful Thinking? Join us Sunday, March 20^th at 8 PM on Creating a Spirited Life.

Share your stories, comments, and ask your questions! Call in during the show at: 617-237-1234

Melody Brazo is a Social Justice Educator and Consultant with over forty years of experience working in schools, non-profits, community and religious organizations. She is an accomplished facilitator, having designed and delivered workshops and retreats for a wide variety of clients in the public and private sectors. She combines a background in Instructional Systems Design and training development with a commitment to equity and community organizing. Her early work included the design and delivery of training for private industry and the federal government. Eventually her interest in community organizing led her to connect her expertise in training and group dynamics, with her dedication to expanding the opportunities for equity in the workplace and in daily life.

Ms. Brazo is committed to dismantling prejudice by examining issues of race, class, gender, equity and access so that individuals and organizations can respond more effectively to the communities they serve. She has provided training, consultation, technical assistance and team building strategies for schools, community organizations and non-profits. She also leads spiritually focused retreats designed to deepen participant’s experience and appreciation of the sacred aspects of daily life.

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With Anne Starr & Pam Kristan

• Is there a spiritual lesson in rests, those seemingly insignificant moments we hardly notice in a musical performance?
• How does musical improvisation help us develop a spiritual life?
• Can memorizing a song make for a more touching, spirit-filled performance?

Spiritual lessons are offered to us all the time and through all means. While transitioning from musician to holistic practitioner, Creating a Spirited Life host Janet Kessenich realized that music had been the gateway through which many of her spiritual beliefs and practices had emerged.

Embedded in encounters with her most significant teachers, in music theory itself, and in personal life experiences were the kernels of wisdom that became Music Lessons for the Spirit, a collection of eight essays about music and spirituality.

Join Janet and her guests, Anne Starr and Pam Kristan as they discuss the spiritual lessons discovered in music, in life, on Through the Gateway: Music Lessons for the Spirit. Show airs Sunday, February 21 at 8 PM on Creating a Spirited Life.

Anne Starr is an executive coach, facilitator and researcher working with leaders and their teams in higher education, professional services, health care, philanthropy, global non-profits, manufacturing and finance, including UCLA, UC Davis, MIT, Tulane and Education Development Center. She draws on over 15 years experience serving as business liaison to Peter Senge, facilitating the development and implementation of complex events and organizational change initiatives around the world. In that capacity she worked with a diverse group of business leaders, thought leaders and consultants in organizational learning, appreciative inquiry and emotional intelligence. She developed her interviewing skills over 7 years as a partner in retained executive search, placing leaders in high tech, finance, manufacturing and biotechnology. She began her career at MIT, serving as Human Resources Officer for the Sloan School of Management.

Anne has an abiding interest in how the ability to recognize and embrace complexity influences one’s capacity to take effective action. Her You Are Here Mapping process draws on in-depth interviewing to surface systemic patterns that, when seen, allow for more choice and freedom of movement. She is certified by the Coaches Training Institute and is credentialed by the International Coach Federation. She is an ongoing student and active practitioner of Emergent Learning. She is co-author, with Bill Torbert, of “Timely and Transforming Leadership Inquiry and Action: Toward Triple-loop Awareness,” (Integral Review, 2005). Anne holds an MBA from Simmons College.

Pam Kristan has offered time management and personal organization skills training and consulting for over 30 years, helping thousands of individuals and organizations find practical, creative strategies to make their lives effective and comfortable. She is the author of Awakening In Time: Practical Time Management for Those on a Spiritual Path (2010) and The Spirit of Getting Organized: 12 Skills to Find Meaning and Power in Your Stuff (2003).

Experience as administrator, trainer, and classical musician gives her a unique position bridging the creative and the practical. Her work has appeared in Prevention magazine, Men’s Health, the Boston Sunday Globe, the ADHD Journal. She has been seen and heard on broadcast media.

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What is my life purpose?

Am I doing what should I be doing? Is my life purpose different from my career? Am I passionate about my life purpose?

These burning questions come up periodically throughout our lifetime. As spiritual beings, we recognize that expressing our life purpose is an important component of our spiritual path. We yearn to express ourselves, our spirit, through our work.

But identifying what our purpose is can be a challenge, and finding the right vehicle for its manifestation may be even harder.

Psychotherapist Claire Boskin and I discuss the challenges we face to live our lives purposefully – with meaning and satisfaction – on Creating a Spirited Life Sunday, January 17^th at 8 PM. Join our discussion – and call in with your own thoughts – on Purpose and Passion: The Fire in Our Lives.

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One year closes; the next begins. The completion of a cycle invites reflection and review. As this year turns, we’ll contemplate the past, present, and future by revisiting two spiritual practices from past shows.

Did you identify a one-word resolution last year as 2015 began? How has it held up for you? Tell us what comes up as you reflect on your previous year’s word and as you invite in a new quality for 2016.

Another practice, creating a blessing, is a powerful way of expressing our love, appreciation and heartfelt desires for the wellbeing of us all. As we did a year ago, listeners are invited to share a blessing– for themselves, for family and friends, community, for the planet – to honor the ending of the year, to welcome and consecrate the new. Start simply, “May you be blessed with…” and go from there.

Add your voice and presence on Creating a Spirited Life’s The Turning of the Year: Reflections and Blessings on Sunday, December 20^th at 8 PM. Call in to the show – or send some thoughts ahead of time – to Janet@spiraleneriges.com.

Share your stories, comments, and ask your questions! Call in during the show at: 617-237-1234

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It’s been said, “Silence is golden.” But in our culture, silence isn’t a valued commodity – it’s something we often disregard and have practically eliminated from our lives! Yet, underneath the constant noise and habitual level of activity most of us live with, there’s something about silence that we crave. We sense the rich gifts it has to offer – time to reflect, regroup, rest, renew – and we are drawn to bring silence into our lives.

Cultivating silence doesn’t mean unplugging from everything. It means learning to plug into our inner selves – into the silent, place of pure gold where we connect with the Divine Spirit within. By deepening our relationship with the quiet of our true Selves, we can live more peacefully and harmoniously – even when life around us is noisy and busy.

Quaker teacher and spiritual thinker Beckey Phipps and I will be discussing Silence: The Golden Connection on Sunday, November 15^th at 8 PM on Creating a Spirited Life. Join us in the silence.

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Transformations are happening all the time – from the micro to the macro level, from our personal lives to the planetary. There is a large arc of change in a transformational process – from the initiating point to the manifestation – and how we move through this process varies.

But any transformation – be it externally or internally inspired – has the capacity to affect us spiritually. Psychotherapist and spiritual thinker Claire Boskin and I will explore how we can best be present to the transformations within and around us in this month’s radio show Inner and Outer Transformation – It Goes Both Ways. Join us Sunday, October 18^th at 8 PM on Creating a Spirited Life.

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From The Fool to The World, the Major Arcana’s twenty-two cards of the Tarot deck mirror aspects of our personality and life journey. Each card is an archetype with a multitude of meanings and interpretations. Add in the Minor Arcana – four more suits of cards – and the seventy-eight-card Tarot deck is a rich and complex resource for wisdom and insight.

As a powerful divination tool, the Tarot connects us with Spirit. In this month’s show, professional Tarot reader Jennifer Badot and I will explore the spiritual symbolism and wisdom of the Tarot, highlighting some of the cards that speak most profoundly to us. We’ll also read the cards. Looking for some guidance? Listeners are encouraged to call in with a question or request for insight and receive a brief reading.

Join the conversation on Sunday, September 20^th at 8PM ET for The Fool and the Magician, the Sun and the World: Tapping the Wisdom of the Tarot on Creating a Spirited Life.

Jennifer Badot [www.tarotblessings.com] is a poet, artist, dreamworker and diviner. She has been studying and reading Tarot for over 30 years. Working with the Tarot to help others connect to their own wisdom, power and magic is her calling and joy.

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Reggie Odom calls it our greatness; I call it our magnificence. Whatever it’s called, “it” is ESSENCE – our Highest Self, Love, the Divine Within. Reggie and I set aside the vocabulary issue and agree that we are each fully worthy, great, and magnificent in our Essence and that Spirit calls us to embody our Essence and share our best Self in all we do.

Believing this is one step – living it is another. Reggie and I will discuss the obstacles and roadblocks that impede our Essence embodiment by talking through our philosophies and exploring her “Ten Commandments of Greatness.” Join us Sunday, August 16^th at 8 PM ET for Creating a Spirited Life: Honoring and Manifesting Your Magnificent Essence.

Reggie Odom [www.reggieodom.com] is passionate about authenticity, about aliveness and about connection.
About watching people’s eyes light up, and hearing their voices come alive when they touch and express deep truths about themselves they had forgotten, held back or hidden away.

As a Spiritual Teacher, Professional Coach and Life Purpose Hand Analyst, Reggie works with professional women to express their Spiritual Power through their Personal Uniqueness, speak up for what matters most to them and bring themselves fully, passionately and peacefully to life.

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Flow, purification, cleansing, creation. Water is a sacred element steeped in spiritual symbolism. It is also essential to our physical lives – making up approximately 55–75% of our bodies and covering nearly 71% of the Earth’s surface.

Yet, we are not tending this sacred, vital element with good practices or conscious stewardship. The quality and quantity of water is fast becoming compromised and scarce and will be unrecoverable if we don’t make changes soon.

Join the conversation Sunday, July 19^th at 8 PM as Dr. Judy Tsafrir, holistic psychiatrist, Anne Fitzgerald, facilitator for religious leaders discussing “Access to Clean Water” and I explore the spiritual and physical components of our beloved element, water.

Share your stories, comments, and ask your questions! Call in during the show at: 617-237-1234

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Frequent attacks of smiling…Feelings of being connected with others and nature…A loss of ability to worry…Are any of these familiar to you?

These are some of the Signs & Symptoms of Inner Peace, a list of twelve qualities identified by Saskia Davis (www.symptomsofinnerpeace.net). Most of us have begun the process already, but spiritual awakening is a “renewable” event that happens periodically throughout our lifetime. Over and over again, we have a new insight, illuminating experience or profound revelation that reawakens us and deepens our connection with the Divine.

Cultivating a sense of inner peace – a challenging quality to sustain given the intensity of our lives – is also an ongoing endeavor.

Join my fellow spiritual seekers Jay Weber from the Fresh Pond Quaker community and Lawrence Kessenich, spiritual poet (and my husband!) on Sunday, June 21^st at 8 PM for Creating a Spirited Life, Spiritual Awakening: Where Are You on the Path Towards Inner Peace?

Share your stories, comments, and ask your questions! Call in during the show at: 617-237-1234

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