Here we are, again a month with a fifth week.

In months with five weeks, on the fifth Thursday there is no channeled blog or Dear Guides Journal. This way subscriptions to Dear Guides Journal are always four to a month.

However, the great news is that people who subscribe to Dear Guides Journal or who are signed up to receive the Beauty & Spirit Note will get a special message e-mailed to them on the fifth Thursday of the month.

Wink wink nod nod, go ahead and sign up! (See sign-up box at right.)

You can view past issues at:
http://www.julieengelmann.com/Beauty&spiritTOC.html

Enjoy!

In the spirit of love,
Minda & Julie

Photo (c) 2010 Amber Engelmann

Dear Guides,

To me, my life feels hard. But compared to others experiencing war, sickness and starvation, it seems easy. Are my struggles as significant spiritually as theirs?

Excerpt from Minda’s channeling on 7.13.2010:

Dear Ones,

. . . It is less a matter of which challenges you face than it is of how you choose to face them. That is where the “significance” comes in. If you can learn to choose peace in your heart when faced with whatever seems challenging that appears in your life, then you are taking the steps you have programmed as challenges for yourself.

The circumstances of the challenges can range from war to internal disruption. There is a vast difference between these in your world to the outer eye, and you can enjoy your gratitude that you are not struggling with the former; but at the same time, you do not need to feel guilty or under-challenged or like you are getting off the hook in this lifetime.

Each soul has certain tasks that you have laid out for yourselves. If you did not require of yourself to face the great worldly outer life-and-death struggles, it does not mean that you have not chosen other equally important inner struggles.
. . .

Let yourself be open to learning from whatever you present yourself with in this lifetime. With the intention to move forward on the path you have set out for yourself, you will be given the opportunity to choose how you do it. Set your sights on destinations before you, and how you want to feel once you arrive. This is a wonderful practice, leaving much room for variety.

It is you, yourself, who will bring the evaluation of your work or accomplishments to the tasks in front of you. None other.

This answer continues in Minda’s “Dear Guides” Journal. For the full channeling, please join “Dear Guides” by clicking button at right.

Channeling (c) 2010 Minda Bernstein
Painting (c) 2010 Julie Bernstein Engelmann

Painting title: “Easy” vs. “Hard” Problems 7.13.2010

Dear Guides,

When my business failed, was it because I didn’t follow my inner guidance; I had a soul lesson to learn, for example about compassion; or I was simply “stupid,” lacking common sense or expertise?

Excerpt from Minda’s channeling on 6.28.2010:

Dear Ones,

You are launching a question that will bring you to the essence of judgment as you can see it from the various sides of the fence.

On your side, you see your lives from your present vantage point. You see things as obvious black and white tones, winning or losing, success or failure. From our side, these things are all nuanced; sometimes they are barely distinguishable from each other.

It is almost as if the gradients of color or definition are so “forced” in your world that they create a whole other set of criteria that adds a layer of intensity, drama, significance to the game of life in which you participate. It does create excitement, color, lots of emotional investment and thrills. It ups the ante and puts you immediately into the thick of the action. That is its main benefit.

From our view, these are the minor details, as if you have many choices and any one will do. Whatever is appealing to you, you will learn the lessons through that medium. If you are committed to experiencing situations which will bring to the fore certain types of challenges in order to round out your soul experience, to strengthen some core learnings or structural weaknesses that you have chosen to deal with in this lifetime, then you can create the situations in many various choices or arenas or situations which will deal with these same issues.

This answer continues in Minda’s “Dear Guides” Journal. For full channeling, please join “Dear Guides” by clicking button at right.

Channeling (c) 2010 Minda Bernstein

Painting (c) 2010 Julie Bernstein Engelmann
Painting title: Why Do We Fail? 6.28.2010

Dear Guides,

When we review our life from the other worlds after we die, what will we consider our successes, and what will we deem we could have done better?

Excerpt from Minda’s channeling on 6.21.2010:

Dear Ones,

We love you jumping to the heart of the question! If you can grasp the perspective which you will have in your review position after death and implement it during your lives, you will give yourself the gift of always jumping to the heart of the issue in this manner.

This is the kind of perspective which we are constantly striving to share with you, and the more you can adopt this in your everyday thinking and decision-making, the more clearly you are in tune with the choices you set out for yourselves before you came into this life.

And then, as a consequence, you will be more happy with the results when you review, seeing the many times you “hit the nail on the head” and satisfied the exercises which you wished to master in this life.

How to describe this process? It is like you set up a certain obstacle course that you thought would be fun and a learning experience for your soul. You knew, as a result of counsel and review of other lives, the areas where you were soft or unformed or missing a substantial piece.

. . .

Similarly, you looked at your soul shape and saw the areas which you considered as missing some attention, strength, support, muscle, structure. You can choose any of a myriad of words to describe this.

But if you imagine this visual description we have made above, you see that it is not a question of judgment, of saying, “Gee, you are really weak in this area!” and being condemning towards yourself or another. You would simply say, “Oh, I notice a spot which needs support. Add that to the list of challenges I’d like to work on next time around.”

This answer continues in Minda’s “Dear Guides” Journal. For full channeling, please join “Dear Guides” by clicking button at right.

Channeling (c) 2010 Minda Bernstein
Painting (c) 2010 Julie Bernstein Engelmann

Painting title: Viewing Our Life From Beyond 6.21.2010

Dear Guides,

What happens when we die?

Excerpt from Minda’s channeling on 6.14.2010:

Dear ones,

You each choose long in advance the moment which you foresee will be a good time for your passing over back into pure Source Energy. This “moment” is extremely flexible, and your decision and soul direction on this event can change many times during the day-to-day events of your life.

Things are not fixed and required, but much flexibility is always there, so that the soul can adjust to the myriad of influences and situations which call your attention, things you may want to include in your lifetime as part of your fulfillment plan.

When the time comes when all things converge to underline that this is the opportune time for you to cross over, you have an agreement between the multiple levels of your soul’s activities, those that are more or less conscious on the Earthly plane and those on the higher planes.

When all of these are in harmony on this decision, the territory is prepared and the choice is made as to how it will occur. Then all things align to invite this blessed moment to occur.

While the moment can hold much fear for you on Earth since it represents the unknown and you can only conjecture about what may occur after death, it is a much more simple and joyful moment than most give it credit for.

It is much like when you come back from a run and you feel hot and sticky and then you take a refreshing shower. You appreciate that the sweat and grime is washed from your outer shell and even if you find you need to make a slight adjustment to adapt to the unexpected water temperature, it doesn’t take long before you are glorying in the refreshing qualities that it brings to you.

This answer continues in Minda’s “Dear Guides” Journal. For full channeling, please join “Dear Guides” by clicking button at right.

Channeling (c) 2010 Minda Bernstein

Painting (c) 2010 Julie Bernstein Engelmann
Painting title: Death Transition 6.14.2010

Dear Guides,

I’m watching my elderly relative go downhill in a nursing home, only perking up when I visit. How important is it that I try to spend more time with her?

Excerpt from Minda’s channeling on 6.9.2010:

Dear ones,

The elderly are on a timeline of their own. Actual moments, hours, weeks, months do not have the importance you may be attaching to them. Here is where the phrase “give or take a little” comes to the fore.

There is a wide range of possible moments to exit from the Earth experience, and it is not so precise as you are looking at it. If the person goes now or if they hang on for more months or years, it does not change tremendously their outcome and learning.

Yes, certainly if events occur, things shift for the soul. But it is a lot like when you are preparing something and have a number of tasks to accomplish. . . .

On the one hand, you may be thinking everything has to get done today (in this lifetime, before death), but maybe there are things that can be done on future occasions you can’t be aware of, or perhaps they don’t even need to be accomplished at all.

All this to say that your lives are much less driven by things you “should” and “need to” complete than you may be aware of.

When you decide how much to be involved in someone’s life, such as this elderly person, it is much more important to weigh the impact it has on your own sense of self than on theirs. Do you enjoy the meetings? Do you feel it is important for you to fulfill what you consider to be a choice you make because of your belief system? Do you feel a more whole and complete and fulfilled person by carrying out visits that you feel support your value system?

. . .

We would love it if we could inspire you to cut yourselves some slack and reduce the expectations you place on yourselves to impact your world, your lives and those lives around you. Know that you will succeed in inner ways even more when you relieve the stress you place on yourselves to accomplish, achieve, be everything to everyone, etc.

. . .

You life will develop its own vitality, which is much more important for you to achieve than attempting to affect others’ vitality.

This answer continues in Minda’s “Dear Guides” Journal. For full channeling, please join “Dear Guides” by clicking button at right.

Channeling (c) 2010 Minda Bernstein

Painting (c) 2010 Julie Bernstein Engelmann
Painting title: Visiting the Elderly 6.9.2010

Dear Guides,

What is the best way to handle being with someone who is in a bad mood or who doesn’t like us or who is angry with us?

Excerpt from Minda’s channeling on 5.31.2010:

Dear ones,

This is a difficult situation you describe, one which challenges your very ability to stay centered in your world. You are always longing for love and acceptance, the reflection of the environment you recall from the realms of soul from whence you came. And feeling alone and unsure of so many pieces of your lives on Earth, you are already so vulnerable to the difficulties.

When this is compounded by being in the presence of negative vibrations it can feel like you are in the wrong experiment, one that is counter-productive and altogether missing the point.

You may wish you could get out of this situation as soon as possible, flee to better conditions and try to re-establish your feelings of belonging and inner stability. And perhaps you can do just that.

But when you find yourselves in these positions . . . and it seems to you that you cannot just separate yourself from the situation, or it doesn’t feel right to do so, then this is a moment when you can work on your inner attitude.

Here you can cultivate your inner garden, your inner beauty, regardless of what is going on around you.

. . .

For whatever their reasons to sojourn in that less-than-positive energy, it is not beneficial to you to have it creep into your space. It is theirs to choose, live with, learn to transform, and release. You have your own challenges, but dealing with or fixing their energy is not one of them.

You cannot change them, and it is not a constructive use of your intention to do so. However, you can be very clear with yourself that this belongs to them, and not to you.

. . .

In fact, there will come a day when your garden will shine in its own beauty regardless of those around you – whether they are negative or positive towards you. You will feel more and more the close support within you and know that the inner well never dries up. That is the greatest truth of all.

This answer continues in Minda’s “Dear Guides” Journal. For full channeling, please join “Dear Guides” by clicking button at right.

Channeling (c) 2010 Minda Bernstein
Painting (c) 2010 Julie Bernstein Engelmann

Painting title: Being With Someone Resistant 5.31.2010

Dear Guides,

When it comes to diligence about everyday responsibilities, procedures and schedules, how is it that some people operate with simplicity, somehow enlisting help or getting by, while others see no alternative but to juggle a multitude of details with great effort?

Excerpt from Minda’s channeling on 5.25.2010:

Dear ones,

You receive our compassion in the roles you have chosen in a context which appears to run like a watch, full of precision, interlocking gears, dependencies upon sequences and a support system to surround you in order to respond to the various surprises and challenges that arise.

It is easy to see how some souls sensitized to this level of order of your world can feel inundated with this kind of an operation which seems to require constant vigilance and alertness. Yes, it seems to demand so much attention just to function on a day-to-day basis that it can easily be overwhelming, stretching the limits of your capabilities.

Does it in fact require more than you have to give? Is it up to some people to carry the weight of the system and others more or less get pulled into the jet stream created by them? And what is the role of joy in this scenario?
. . .
In the ideal, most smooth-running model of the machine of your lives, you are intertwined and some are leaders and others followers in a given situation, then reversing the roles for other types of situations, or with other people and their various expertise and experiences becoming valued and precious for the whole.
. . .
Here is where you can ask for help on all sides. From us, from the Universe, from the grace of God, from your fellow man.

This is perhaps why you or others are in the position to feel much responsibility shunted onto your shoulders – in order to develop this very ability to share the “wealth” and feel the support of others. Look to cultivate the feeling that you are not alone, not overcharged with duties. Aim to see yourself in an interwoven well-functioning system of mutual support.
. . .
And know that this exact process of encouraging the participation of others is a major challenge and ability that you wish to achieve in this lifetime.

Do not gloss over it as a means to an end. No, it is the end in itself.

This answer continues in Minda’s “Dear Guides” Journal. For full channeling, please join “Dear Guides” by clicking button at right.

Channeling (c) 2010 Minda Bernstein
Painting (c) 2010 Julie Bernstein Engelmann

Painting title: Handling Life’s Details 5.25.2010

Dear Guides,

Can we judge whether we are being of true service by interpreting people’s reactions? Or is that the wrong measurement system?

Excerpt from Minda’s channeling on 5.18.2010:

Dearest ones,

You are living in a world of reflections. Everywhere you go, you see images of yourselves reflected back to you, giving you that perspective of how you appear in the world.

In fact, most of you have a certain fascination with discovering all the permutations of how you appear, how you fit in, how others think of you, view you, like or love you, admire you, respect you, how they see you fitting into the big picture.

No wonder it is fascinating to you, because part of the reason you are on Earth in the first place is so God can see Him/Herself, to put it into one type of language, or so the Great can experience the many or so the Whole can enjoy all the parts which together make the sum of the whole.

Given this backdrop, you can understand and have compassion for your desire to always examine this phenomenon: how you fit in to the greater picture. It is a wholesome and natural question.

Where it can befuddle you and become detrimental to you, out of proportion, is when you begin adjusting your own actions and feelings about yourselves based on how you judge these reflections from the outside.
. . .

When you find yourself questioning whether you are on the right track, achieving what you intend - especially with a service which aims to help someone else - be very aware and open to the possibility that you may receive inner feedback, an inner nudge, as to the value of what is happening. There may be a deeper lesson in this instance that is coming to serve you or both of you, as to what you are to learn from each other, or who is helping whom, or what is the meaning of this interaction or exchange.
. . .

There is a lot of room to move, room for error, leeway as you may receive all kinds of reactions and impressions from others. In the end, none of these are hugely important, and if you can remove yourselves from close scrutiny of these kinds of feedback, you will, in fact, be freer in your movement forward. This will feel just a little lighter and more fluid.

This answer continues in Minda’s “Dear Guides” Journal. For full channeling, please join “Dear Guides” by clicking button at right.

Channeling (c) 2010 Minda Bernstein
Painting (c) 2010 Julie Bernstein Engelmann

Painting title: Judging Our Service 5.18.2010

Dear Guides,

What is the role of sleep in our lives? How can we reap the most benefit from this period each night? How can this time help us in our waking lives? Can we connect with God, Source, consciously during that time? Really nourish our soul’s thirst?

Excerpt from Minda’s channeling on 5.11.2010:

Dear ones,

We feel your energy tingling on a topic full of such mystery to you. We realize that, in your experience, a lot of this period of sleep you feel like you are actually checked out of your active lives, taking a break, stepping aside to let regeneration occur and keep your systems healthy.

But from our perspective, there is much more happening during this fertile time. It is a time when you receive injections of soul strength and nourishment, the will to continue to pioneer the pathways you are clearing in your world.

There are many aspects of interactions occurring on the soul level, some of which might resemble a boxer in the side of the ring, where he gets towel dried, bandaged and patched up, whispered encouragements and coached on moves to make and adjustments to apply during the next round.

These interludes lift the morale and bolster the spirit to go back for more of the day experiences which may include confrontation and rubbing shoulders with many different energies, each with diverging intentions, many in opposition or completely different target lines from your own.

During your sleeping hours, you are attended to in a most loving and nurturing way. Who gathers around you? Your guides, your team of souls, all those who are watching out for you, your partners in this life, all the beings and higher guides who are concerned with you and / or upon whom you call for this rest and recovery period.

This answer continues in Minda’s “Dear Guides” Journal. For full channeling, please join “Dear Guides” by clicking button at right.

Channeling (c) 2010 Minda Bernstein
Painting (c) 2010 Julie Bernstein Engelmann

Painting title: The Soul Purpose of Sleep 5.11.2010