Touching the Stillness

With September being designated as "Recovery Month," there's definitely healing going on. In tandem with our Prayer series, we delve into the spirit of the Serenity Prayer with Unity Online Radio host Rev. Anna Shouse to explore what role prayer plays in the recovery of addiction 12-step programs.

For 125 years, Silent Unity® has kept a symbolic light burning and a prayer vigil going for anyone who needs a prayer. Mighty prayer currents keep our own lights burning in this episode, where Silent Unity Vice President Rev. Lynne Brown teams up with our host to pray up our lives and pray up the world!

In an episode that includes a meditation on the most famous prayer of all, our host and her guest Rev. Maggie Oman Shannon agree: there's no right or wrong way to pray. It's all about our intention. And, much like a box of chocolates, there's plenty of variety for every taste.

With matchbox in hand, and in his inimitable style, "Dream Doctor" Michael Lennox, Ph.D., sets alive the subject of storytelling and dream symbology; and the role both can play in the art of sacred ritual.

In Hebrew times, not observing the Sabbath was punishable by death. Surprisingly, in these modern times, this may still be true. In this episode, special guest Rev. Erin McCabe makes a compelling case for why satisfying our souls' unconscious longing for sacred sabbath may very well save our lives.

We're putting the "rich" back in "ritual" and attempting to more keenly experience another level of blissful living, which can occur when we honor ourselves and the disparate parts of our lives as sacred.

Renowned "Ritual Lady" Barbara Biziou is on hand to get this month's Blissful Living theme rolling, with a few pointers on how to turn daily mundane and repetitive routines into rich rituals-and explains why we would even want to.

Not everyone who comes into our life is destined to stay forever. In this final part of our practice before the practice, we contemplate how to move on when surrender might mean allowing the ones we love to leave.

Grab your broom and garbage bags. We're clearing the space for a deeper more tranquil experience, by letting go of the stuff that is creating clutter and hampering all the good work of our meditation practice.

Get ready for an emotional and spiritual detox in this episode where we are encouraged to experience blissful living through surrender and release hang-ups, guilt, worry, stress, and anything else that no longer serves us.

We may roll our eyes or squirm in discomfort at the very idea of it but, as our host discusses with special guest Ester Nicholson in part one of this month's theme of blissful living through surrender, radical forgiveness is an essential spiritual practice to engage in before the practice.

While taking an online meditation course with our host, a student found himself plagued by tumultuous emotions that stymied his good intentions for sustaining a meditation practice. This was until he broke his foot; then he discovered the only place he could go was within.

If it's true that "Tears are a river that takes you somewhere" then cry me a river, says our host who in this episode, without being maudlin about it, suggests it's perfectly all right to shed a tear or two in one's quest for blissful living through authenticity.

We're experiencing blissful living through authenticity this month. What better way to start it off than with the wisdom words of the well-known guru Dr. Seuss who says: "Be who you are and say what you feel because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind."

Do you have trouble getting to sleep? Or, do you toss and turn all night and wake up feeling groggy? In the final part of our self-care series for May, our host provides suggestions for quality sleep and leads a lullaby meditation that will probably have us out for the count and slumbering like a newborn baby.