As spiritual beings having a human experience, we all develop a set of survival skills. These skill are extremely important for personal development, self-confidence, and basic survival. Sometimes, we find ourselves under such severe distress that we get stuck in a pattern of using these skills for every day life and don't move past them into a level of life that I'll call thriving. Thriving is when we feel confident that our primary needs will be met and we focus our energy on more creative personally satisfying pursuits. Learning to shift away from survival mode and, trusting that our needs will be met,  can feel scary. But, it is well worth the journey.

As spiritual beings having a human experience, we all feel a sense of disconnect from Spirit and one another. In this episode of the podcast, we'll explore how we are all connected through an invisible web. Although we may feel alone, we are never truly all alone. I read a new chapter from my upcoming book, A Path To Be Spiritually Free, and then I discuss some of my questions that I hade when I finished writing the chapter.

When we look for the good in the world, that is exactly what we see! Join me as I explore how we are naturally drawn to darkness and how looking toward the light has its own rewards. This is the very first video podcast of The Practically Spiritual Show. In this episode, I share a story about my beloved step-dad and the lessons we learn both what to do... and what not to do.

What a way to start my very first interview on the podcast with the incredible Mezdulene! Even if you already know this dynamic woman, I'm sure you'll learn new things and be inspired by this interview. Mezdulene takes us on a journey through her spiritual upbringing from an early childhood in vastly different Christian churches to her unique blonde-haired-girl on a Native American reservation adolescence. It's a fascinating story that helped to shape Mez into the Spiritual Leader she is today. 

January 1st is an excellent time to assess the past year and enter into the new year with clear intentions for a happy satisfying year. Although, any day of the year is a good time to focus our intentions and put the past into context and move forward with positive intentions. In this episode of the podcast, I share my own system for reviewing the past year and making a plan of action for the year to come.  

Learning to set, maintain, and respect other people's healthy boundaries  is a practice we continue to develop throughout our lives. In this episode of the podcast, we explore how many of us experience emotional pain due to under developed and overdeveloped boundaries. And, also explore strategies for recognizing when we need to enforce stronger boundaries with people who refuse to respect our us. 

It's ALL about intention? Yup! That's what I said. Every interaction we have with others, every project we undertake, meal we cook, job we do, is infused with the intention we bring. In this episode I read a sweet chapter from my book, "Jane Street Cooperative Garden" about ways to observe intention's role in our lives. I also read from the first part of my upcoming book, "A Path To Be Spiritually Free" in which our intention manifests in everyday situation. 

Chapter five of my book Walk In Your Own Footsteps addresses the very human tendency to abandon projects and ideas without seeing them to their logical conclusion. While completing everything we start may seem like a great goal, sometimes it's even more important to walk away from something that actually doesn't suit us.  Systematically addressing all of our personal loose ends can help us find focus, joy and a sense of wellbeing.

A couple of weeks ago, I had an off day, and I  always  wait to record these episodes until I'm having a good day. So I'm doing my best to project a positive, uplifting, hopefully good experience for you guys.So when I was having an off day, I thought I'm going to be just really honest and vulnerable with everybody and let you know that, yeah, I don't always feel great. Sometimes I have emotionally challenging days. In that mini podcast, I also mentioned that I maybe should put together a full episode on strategies for managing my emotional well being and this is that episode.

 Hi, Laura Pallatin here. Welcome to a The Practically Spiritual Show check in moment. I'll come up with a better name, I swear. Um,  today is the fourth Thursday in November, therefore, in the United States, it's Thanksgiving Day. So whoever you're celebrating with, if you're in the United States, I hope that you have a terrific day.And if you're not in the United States, and this means absolutely nothing to you, I hope you stick around just for a sec, because I think holidays, including Thanksgiving, create a difficult expectation for us sometimes. It's easy for us to get caught up thinking about holidays that have passed and holidays to come.People who are no longer in our lives, people that we hope  will be in our lives next year. And sometimes we fall into a sort of worried spiral about everything not being good enough, not meeting past expectations and, and past, thresholds, right, past standards. So these expectations can become big and they can become very difficult to manage.  Anytime we enter into a situation with very specific expectations, we're kind of setting ourselves up for disappointment, right?  Because when we set these expectations, and we live by them, not only are we limiting how marvelous it can be because we've created this threshold, like, this is as good as it's going to be, just like last year! Or even, I hope that crazy so and so doesn't come and do whatever they did last year,  Instead of just opening ourselves up and letting the day flow, meet the people that come right where they are and enjoy their company and share their burdens because that's why we are a family.And I'm not talking about people that you have blood relations with. Your family is the people who you surround yourselves with, who you choose to be with. So my goal for Thanksgiving is not to make the perfect meal or to set the perfect table, but to set a table that makes everyone that comes through that door feel welcome and loved and then to join everyone in that moment that we're all co creating to have just the best day. So whether you're celebrating Thanksgiving or not, I hope that you can come to this holiday or any holiday or any day at all and set the table and create the space where people feel safe to be who they are, let the day unfold and don't forget to be who you are because you matter.So if you're a celebrant in the United States or around the world, happy Thanksgiving. And if not, I hope that you just have the best day and I will see you on Sunday at the podcast.