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7 Easy Ways to Cleanse your Aura

Spirituality

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February 28, 2016

“I cleanse myself of all selfishness, resentment, critical thinking for my fellow beings, self-condemnation, and misinterpretations of my life experiences.

I bathe myself in generosity, appreciation, praise and gratitude for my fellow beings, self acceptance, and enlightened understanding of my life experience.” ~ Lidia Frederico

Though we all know the importance of keeping our body clean and healthy, we do not always give a thought to the health and cleanliness of our energetic world. Just like our body, our aura picks up dirt and grime as we walk and interact in the world, and needs a good cleaning to renew itself.

Our aura is like a magnetic light around ourselves. Though it has the ability to give out light, it also has the ability to receive energy from others. The aura acts as a magnet that pulls energy and vibrational debris from around us.

This can be an unconscious act, which may leave us attracting certain negative energies that we do not want any part of (this happens especially if we are a more sensitive or empathic creature). A “dirty” aura can result in us feeling lethargic, depressed, anxious, or give us a generally heavy feeling, almost as if our aura is pulling us down with its weight.

So, how can we protect our own aura from being filled with other people’s energies? And how can we cleanse our auras from what we experience?

Here are a few different methods that have been proven effective in cleansing and protecting our auras.

1) An aura cleansing meditation

Find a comfortable and relaxing place where you can unwind and concentrate. However, it is that you bring yourself into a relaxing space, do that; whether it’s listening to music, meditating, lighting candles, or focusing on your breathing.

Once you feel that you are completely relaxed, imagine a white light traveling from the top of your head to the bottom of your feet.

Whenever you feel your mind is beginning to wander, focus on your breathing again and return to the light. It may even help to imagine the light shedding off any unwanted energies from your aura.

2) Staying away from unwanted energies

Everyone knows someone who brings negative energy into the space. These people always have something negative to say, and you can usually feel them bringing down the energy of the room.

Though these people are especially in need of our love we need to make sure to first extend this love to ourselves. If you feel that these people are affecting you negatively then it’s time to take a break; at least until you are able to put up proper energetic boundaries.

Weeding out the negative people in your life will leave you feeling lighter and happier. The people who are in our environment have a huge effect on us, so hang around people who always have a smile and a kind word to extend. Good energetic influences in our life make all the difference.

3) Being wary of our own negativity

“..giving power to negative thoughts or fears was bringing ideas to life in physical world, Idea in mind became Emotion in heart, Emotion turned into words spoken, written, painted, strummed across guitar strings, or vibrantly held note by Tibetan singing bowl, thoughts affected physical world.” ~ Christina Westover, The Man Who Followed Jack Kerouac

Sometimes the negative energy we feel can actually be coming from us. Internally, we are constantly thinking and creating new energies. Thousands of thoughts go through us each day, affecting us deeply, and we need to make sure that these thoughts are having a positive influence on us and those around us.

Being conscious of our thought process allows us to weed through the good and the bad thoughts. When a bad thought is detected, it should be examined. Is this thought helpful, detrimental, untrue or delusional?

By being conscious of our negative thoughts, we have the power to push them aside or confront them with a countering positive thought.

Sometimes our mood has the power to change our thought patterns from positive to negative. Though it is important to acknowledge our negative moods and thoughts, we must then be able to confront it instead of wallowing in it.

Treating yourself to a nice coffee, a chat with a friend, or an enjoyable activity, is a good way to get yourself into a more positive thinking mood.

4) Cleansing your space regularly

Smudging is a good way to cleanse yourself and your area. Cleansing regularly, and especially after an interaction with a lot of people, or negative energy, is a good way to keep your space clean. Just like sweeping or dusting your house, it leaves your space fresher and makes you more at ease and relaxed.

Another way of cleansing your space (this one is my personal favorite), is to put an element in every corner of your room (or even just right around where you are sitting). This could be a candle, a plant, a glass of water, or an incense stick. If you are especially sensitive to nature vs. city, this practice will make you feel cleansed and relaxed right away.

5) Cleansing salt bath

Taking a ritual bath for cleansing is not just like taking a normal body cleansing bath. But the benefits of taking a salt bath is that you are balancing body and soul, making it a very special and useful ritual. Fill up a tub and drop in some salt and essential oils (use a good quality unprocessed salt, such as unrefined sea salt or Himalayan crystal salt.)

To make the experience even more enjoyable and cleansing, light some candles, put on some music, etc, whatever it is that makes you feel have a relaxed and uplifted energy. Soak for 20-30 minutes and set the intention of releasing any negativity that is stuck to you.

This is a good time for setting positive intentions and/or praying. (This same cleansing effect is also had every time you take a swim in the ocean.)

Meditation -Clearing Negativity (Strengthening Your Aura)

6) Putting up energetic protection

Before going out into the world each day it is important to put up a protection so as not to overwhelm our aura with all the energies around us. This is especially important for those of us who are more sensitive to energies.

To build a protective barrier around yourself, imagine a white light coming down over your head and form it into a shield or bubble over your body.

You can form it in any way you please, though it may take some practice to get a good stable image. Another way to do this is to put up mirrors as a shield as a way of deflecting energies away from you. Take a few moments now to practice this shield.

If you find yourself unable to connect with a stable imagery, it can also be useful to create a barrier through thoughts. Pick a positive and confident thought to take around with you through your day.

Whether it is “I am protected from the energies around me,” or “I carry a strong energy that does not allow unwanted energies to influence it;” these thoughts will create a much-needed protection between you and any negative energies you may encounter.

7) Energy healing

Another way to cleanse your aura is to have a aura “spring-cleaning” with a practiced healer. Meeting with a healer allows you to confront issues that are perhaps larger or undetectable by yourself.

Whether it’s healing from a past relationship or event, or dealing with emotional blockages, energy healing will have a huge effect on your aura and the quality of your life. You may connect to one practice more than others, or perhaps you do not want to be stuck with just one boring practice day after day; that’s why I’ve listed a few different ones.

Try them out and see what works best for you. A cleansed aura will lift your energy and enable you to live easier, and spread your own positive light outwards.

PSYCHIC PROTECTION "The Aura Shield" Meditation Music with Tibetan Singing Bowls

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Smudging

The Free Thinker’s Manifesto

Gary Z McGee

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February 26, 2016

2

“Man, whether he likes it or not, is a being forced by his nature to seek some higher authority. If he succeeds in finding it of himself then he is a superior man; if not, he is a mass-man and must receive it from his superiors.” ~ Jose Ortega y Gasset

A specter is haunting the status quo –the specter of free thinking. Alas, the mass-man is too much “mass” and not enough “man.” He is too much victim and not enough hero. He is too much fear and not enough courage. His brains, cadaverous from too much dead time.

His mind, worn thin from lack of imagination and too much propagandized divisiveness. His eyes, cow-eyed, eye-guarded, with a dead mackerel stare from being over-herded and playing the victim. His heart, repressed and stifled from too much nine-to-five slavery and not enough unf*ck-the-world anarchy.

The mass-man suffers from fixed thinking. He can only be usurped by the overman, who flourishes in free thinking. More importantly, the mass-man is an aspect of us all, and can only be appropriated and reconciled by its counterpoint: the overman within us all.

Similar to how it’s our responsibility alone to reconcile our own shadows in order to become more holistic, we must also reconcile our own mass-man in order to become more open-minded.

As it stands, the history of all hitherto existing human conditions is the history of free and fixed thinking. Non-conformist and conformist, disobedient and obedient, dissident and sycophant, unorthodox and orthodox, have been in constant conflict with one another.

An opposition that each time ended, either in progressive and creative evolution, or in regressive and stagnate devolution. It is high time that free thinkers should openly, in the face of the whole world, pronounce their liberated views, their flexible aims, their imaginative tendencies, their radical art, and meet the State-suckling, history-possessed, single-minded fixed thinkers with a manifesto of Free Thinking itself.

Hint: this is best accomplished using a mirror.

The marks of a free thinker are the ability to question everything, the ability to stretch comfort zones, the ability to flatten status quo boxes, and an exuberant curiosity in the face of the unknown.

Questioning everything

“Enlightenment is man’s emergence from self-incurred immaturity. Immaturity is the inability to use one’s own understanding without the guidance of another.” ~ Immanuel Kant

A free thinker questions everything so as not to acquiesce to authority, because even so-called authorities are still fallible human beings. Free thinkers understand that humans are flawed creatures, and even ideas or ideologies that have stood the test of time should be questioned to the nth degree, lest fixed thinking become entrenched.

Questioning answers, as opposed to merely searching for them, keeps our minds sharp. We are more likely to use our “own understanding without the guidance of another,” and thus more likely to rescue ourselves from self-incurred immaturity and to grow into self-actualized maturity.

Stretching comfort zones

“Too often we hold fast to the clichés of our forebears. We subject all facts to a prefabricated set of interpretations. We enjoy the comfort of opinion without the discomfort of thought.” ~ John F. Kennedy

Fixed thinking almost always takes place within a person’s comfort zone. But it’s outside the comfort zone where free thinking becomes manifest. When we’re too comfortable we have a tendency to become stagnant and inert in our thinking.

With just a little imaginative thought outside the comfort zone we can get free thought flowing again, which has the power to dismantle the clichés of our forefathers and may even instill within us the courage to assemble something more robust out of the dismantled pieces.

As our narrow-mindedness shrinks, our comfort zone stretches. Indeed. Our minds shrink or expand in proportion to our ability to think outside our comfort zones.

Flattening status quo boxes

“I walk through rooms of the dead, streets of the dead, cities of the dead; men without eyes, men without voices; men with manufactured feelings and standard reactions; men with newspaper brains, television souls and high school ideas.” ~ Charles Bukowski

There is nothing more certain to keep you inside the box than fixed thinking. The less you are able to question your ideas, politics, and ideologies, the more likely you will be unable to think outside the box.

Flattening the box is shattering the mental paradigms that are persuading you to maintain the integrity of the box. Keep in mind: there will always be a box to think outside of. Even if you think outside of your current box, there will just be another box waiting for you to think outside of.

The difference between a free thinker and a fixed thinker is the free thinker is aware of the box and questions it, whereas the fixed thinker is usually unaware they are even thinking inside the box in the first place, and they have neither the wherewithal nor the audacity to question it. The fixed thinker clings to the box, unable to criticize or disobey the dictates of the box.

The free thinker lets go of the box, fully capable of criticizing and disobeying its dictates because his thoughts are free. Such daring flattens all boxes and levels the playing field between thinker and dictator.

As Erich Fromm said, “At this point in history the capacity to doubt, to criticize and to disobey may be all that stands between a future for mankind and the end of civilization.”

Curiosity in the face of the unknown

“Reason and understanding must unite with unreason and magic.” ~ C. G. Jung

Curiosity is the free thinker’s cornerstone. Indifference is the free thinker’s Kryptonite. Fear of the unknown is subsumed by the greater fire of curiosity.

As Carl Sagan once said, “Somewhere something incredible is waiting to be known.”

Indeed. It won’t be the fixed thinker, full of certainty, who will discover the unknown knowns, but the free thinker, full of curiosity, who will make the unknown known.

Free thinkers embrace the unknown, realizing that astonishment and awe are almost always more rewarding than certainty and security. With the power of free thinking, the unknown becomes a playground or a daring adventure; a place to discover new realms, to relish in the Great Mystery, or to simply be okay with not knowing.

Where the mass-man is almost always indifferent and apathetic due to his fixed thinking, the overman is almost always curious and empathetic due to his free thinking. Where the fixed thinker is overwhelmed by his certainty, the free thinker overcomes his certainty through his curiosity.

In the end, free thinkers are the torch bearers toward a brighter future for our species. They are the tip of the spear of progressive evolution, free to drag their fixed thinking cousins kicking and screaming into a healthier world.

With their ability to question all things, to stretch comfort zones, to flatten boxes, and to remain lit by the fires of curiosity, they have the power to propel us past the need for rigid answers and into a realm of liberating questions; where the Great Mystery is allowed to be precisely that –great and a mystery.

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Dangerous
Tolstoy quote
Tesla quote
Einstein quote
Free Thinker

Understanding Addiction & Finding Freedom From It

Life

Nikki Sapp

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February 25, 2016

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Understanding Addiction & Finding Freedom From It

“There is no chemical solution to a spiritual problem.” ~ Unknown

Addiction is undoubtedly something that has plagued our society. It seems you can’t really go anywhere and find someone who has not been affected in one way or another by it.

Whether it be, ourselves, that has struggled with it or a family or friend, everyone who has been in touch with the monster of addiction can agree on one thing… it isn’t easy to overcome.

Addiction comes in varying degrees, from the person who can’t quite throw out the cigarettes once and for all to the person who is spending their last dollar trying to get their next fix. And it is the various shades of gray in between these two extremes that most people find themselves.

Unfortunately, many people believe that they would have to be lying in an alley way with a needle hanging out of their arm before they would be willing to admit they were addicted to something.

However, this denial stage is how most stay stuck inside their addictions. What many people don’t care to admit to themselves is that they are taking or doing something that is having a negative effect on their lives. Now, yes, it can be alcohol, drugs – the most common things we associate an “addiction” with, or it can be sex, gambling, food, relationships, shopping, video games and many other things as well.

Addiction is something that doctors and scientists alike have studied for quite some time, yet there is no “cure”. Presently, there are two ways that society looks at addiction.

One is as a disease, kind of like cancer, that there is no cure for but can be treated to inhibit the progress of the disease. In this view, an addict is looked at as someone who will always be an addict, like someone who has a terminal illness that has no cure but will always have that disease.

The other way society views an addict is as a junkie, criminal, menace to society type. In this view the addict is dismissed as some sort of a “bad guy” that is inherently evil therefore they go around stealing and lying.

It’s safe to say that neither way of looking at it seems to be working. The problem of addiction in this world seems to be just as bad if not worse as it ever was. Perhaps it’s time to take a new look at addiction and the reason why so many still suffer from this affliction.

Are you an addict? (the answer may surprise you)

“I used to think a drug addict was someone who lived on the far edges of society. Wide-eyed, shaved-headed and living in a filthy squat. That was until I became one…” ~ Cathryn Kemp

Before we can quit an addiction we must first be willing to admit to ourselves that we are in fact addicted to something. We cannot change a problem we won’t even acknowledge that we have.

As mentioned above, addiction comes in varying degrees. And just because you may not be robbing people in order to get the money for your next hit doesn’t mean you aren’t addicted to something.

People define addiction in all sorts of ways but the two most important questions one must ask themselves in order to determine if they are, in fact, an addict are: “Is there something I want to or have tried to quit on my own but can’t?” and “Is my life being negatively affected by my behavior?”

To answer these two questions we must be extremely honest with ourselves. Often we hear people say things like, “Oh I could quit if I really wanted to.”

And often this is used as a justification or an excuse. The second question will help us to determine if the behavior is something that is actually making our life worse. If that behavior was taken away, would our family life improve?

Would our work performance get better? Would we feel happier and better about ourselves? If the answer to these is, “yes”, it’s quite possible that we are addicted to something. Once we have determined that there is something that we would like to quit we can then start to dig a little further.

Re-connecting with ourselves

“Every addiction, no matter what it is, is the result of trying to escape from something by going in the direction of a need that is not currently being met. In order to move past our addiction, we have to figure out what we are trying to use our addiction to get away from and what need we are trying to use our addiction to meet.” ~ Teal Swan

From a spiritual and metaphysical perspective, everything is energy which includes our addiction. In our truest sense, we are completely fulfilled and have no need to crave anything.

So,energetically, the craving of something must be stemming from the subconscious belief that there is some need that is not being met therefore we must look “out” in order to find something to fill the void. In simple terms, the more disconnected one becomes from their authentic nature, the more disconnected they feel with others, and they begin to constantly try and find something to distract them from or to numb the pain.

And so the cycle begins, disconnection from our true nature leads to unhappiness, unhappiness leads to pain, in order to run from the pain the addict numbs it by indulging in their whatever addiction one has, indulging leads to shame, shame leads to pain, and you can see how the vicious circle continues.

Since love is not only what we are but also energetically the highest vibration, it is safe to say that as one re-connects with their true nature (love) the less they will feel the need to numb any sort of pain.

The first step in this process is to acknowledge the emotions that are our “trigger” emotions, and trigger meaning the emotions that cause us to want to indulge in the addiction. As we meet each emotion with compassion and empathy almost as if each one is a different aspect of our inner child that has never been loved or maybe even acknowledged before, we find that these emotions will begin to heal all on their own, and soon will rarely pop into our being.

As we offer love to the unhealed parts of our psyche we begin the process of loving ourselves out of addiction. Soon, loving ourselves causes us to find friends and hobbies that resonate with our new vibration vs. the old one that was stuck in shame, guilt and fear.

As we begin to re-connect with our hearts, we re-connect with the world and it injects into us a new found purpose in life. Rather than running from pain, we begin to welcome all emotions in with open arms.

When our hearts are simply loved, there will no longer be a logical need to harm ourselves. A life filled with love (which has to be towards ourselves first) joy, and genuine connections to others is ultimately how someone energetically transforms from an addict to a completely fulfilled human being.

The video below explains this concept and offers a fresh perspective on how we treat addicts in this day and age.

Everything you think you know about addiction is wrong | Johann Hari | TED

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Addiction
Paulo Zerbato
Internet Addiction

7 Signs You May Have Found Your Soulmate

Life

Ester Eckhaus

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February 24, 2016

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7 Signs You May Have Found Your Soulmate

“I seem to have loved you in numberless forms, numberless times…
In life after life, in age after age, forever.
My spellbound heart has made and remade the necklace of songs,
That you take as a gift, wear round your neck in your many forms,
In life after life, in age after age, forever.” ~ Rabindranath Tagore, Selected Poems

Soul Mate: Someone who is aligned with your soul and is sent to challenge, awaken and stir different parts of you in order for your soul to transcend to a higher level of consciousness and awareness.

Finding our soulmate is simple. We do not have to do anything but wait and receive this beautiful gift from the universe. The hard part can occur when trying to decipher whether it is the right time and person.

Of course, there is also a time and place when we meet our soulmates. You can meet your soulmate many times throughout your life but still only tap into the potential, or see these specific signs when it is the right time for both of you.

Another thing people struggle with is the idea of choosing a soulmate as a life-partner. We may meet many of our soulmates throughout our life who come to teach us worthwhile lessons; but what are the signs of a soulmate that will last?

These are the signs you may have found your soulmate ~

You are happy and peaceful

The first way to know if you’ve found your soulmate is to look at your own state of being. Though life continues to have ups and downs, you should feel that the majority of your life feels good. Sometimes people mistake intensity for soul; so they reason that if a relationship is intense and tumultuous, then it must be the real deal.

This is not always true, the most meaningful relationships are deep, but calm and happy at the same time. Being with a soulmate also gives you a feeling of peace, and the feeling that you do not have to keep searching.

Disagreements/arguments are chances to grow

“The meeting of two personalities is like the contact of two chemical substances: if there is any reaction, both are transformed.” ~ Carl Jung

With a soulmate, every disagreement can turn into a potential for growth and positive change. You should feel with your soulmate that disagreements turn into a growing experience instead of a dysfunctional argument.

Explaining instead of fighting, coming together instead of putting up guards, conclusions instead of vicious cycles. Finding your soulmate is always a growing experience in itself. Coming together with another is always a chemical reaction, but with a soulmate, the reaction should be one of healthy growing.

They bring the best out of you

With a soulmate, everyday is a learning experience because you challenge each other in a way that gently pushes the other to grow toward their highest selves. With a soulmate, you should be able to look at the challenges presented from them, and see clearly that they are the right challenges for you.

For example, your soulmate will push you closer and closer to the balanced version of your personality. Every challenge should end in the thought that you’ve gained more insight and balance from the experience. In short: your soulmate pushes you to be a better person, and you do the same for them.

You support each other

A soulmate will support your dreams and aspirations because they want to see you achieve and be happy.

They will be there holding your hand and guiding you toward whatever it is you dream of. Your soulmate will be your team mate as well, and be there to encourage you on your journey.

You feel safe and secure

“A loving relationship is one in which the loved one is free to be himself — to laugh with me, but never at me; to cry with me, but never because of me; to love life, to love himself, to love being loved. Such a relationship is based upon freedom and can never grow in a jealous heart.” ~ Leo F. Buscaglia

With your soulmate you should feel that you are safe and secure, as if you are back home. Home isn’t a place, it’s a person. You should feel completely comfortable in the presence of your soulmate. You also feel a sense of security because there is a mutual respect for each other that prevents the dysfunction of an abusive relationship.

You are able to share silence

“I closed my mouth and spoke to you in a hundred silent ways.” ~ Rumi

Past the hustle and bustle of good conversation, activities, sex, and shared interests, there is a place where souls meet, and that is in silence.

If you can sit together in silence and feel comfortable and at peace, then you have found something very special. When two people can be quiet together and just enjoy spending these special moments together, then they have found a very profound meeting place of the souls.

You know and understand each other

Soulmates understand each other, and each other’s essence. They know the other person past the externalities, or their likes and dislikes; they understand them in a way that no other can. They feel as if they’ve known them forever, and perhaps also that they would like to know them for the rest of their forever.

And the last one would be: You just feel it. It should feel right. Listen to your heart and intuition, because they know best the ways of the soul. This is why it is called a soulmate. It is not the mate of mind or body, it comes from the soul, and flourishes there. Listen to the fluttering of your soul as it whispers it’s truths to you.

Your soulmate will feel these as well if you are truly destined to unite. If you have not yet found your soulmate, look out for these signs, because these signs will point you in the right direction.

Have you met your soulmate?

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Twin flames

Is Conscious Materialism Possible?

Pia

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February 23, 2016

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We have been falling deeper and deeper into the web of materialism. We live in a time where there is a frenzied concentration of our attention on materialistic values that are thrust upon us by the media, peer pressure and so on.

How we are seen by others, what brands we buy, and our physical appearance is valued greater than our sense of community, love, learning and spirituality. This realization has prompted several groups since quite some time now to go the ancient way and take up spiritual practice.

The shift towards spirituality views materialism as something to be transcended, to be left behind. However, what if we viewed materialism differently. What if we took a spiritual approach to materialism?

Michael Stone, a Buddhist teacher and social activist, in this video below explains how spirituality is created by man, and therefore it’s understanding and application must change with time. It is important to keep re-observing and re-designing it.

We must remind ourselves that it is we who have also invented the duality that is materialism and spirituality. He warns against overlooking the environment, patterns and culture that makes us, by addressing the fact that the word ‘enlightenment’ itself takes us away from our experiences.

A deeper materialism: Michael Stone at TEDxToronto

Issues concerning the health of our planet and all of us at this time in our reality are of utmost importance. The world we live in needs our help, our actions not our abstractions. He feels that it is time for a paradigm shift.

“What if we gave materialism more love?”

By this he means not viewing our material reality as something to leave behind and ignore as we meditate deep within a mountain, rather engage more deeply with what is around us.

This would be a step up from ‘vertical transcendence’ to ‘horizontal transcendence’, where loving our environment becomes paramount. When we can become more at one with our environment, we become proactive about change for the better.

This doesn’t mean we shun consumerism wholly, but think of a new system wherein the resources this beautiful planet has to share are not endangered. Spiritual and loving action is as important as non-attachment and meditative practice.

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Meditation and corporate

Fractal Enlightenment

Here are a few different methods that have been proven effective in cleansing and protecting our auras.

1) An aura cleansing meditation

2) Staying away from unwanted energies

3) Being wary of our own negativity

4) Cleansing your space regularly

5) Cleansing salt bath

6) Putting up energetic protection

7) Energy healing

Questioning everything

Stretching comfort zones

Flattening status quo boxes

Curiosity in the face of the unknown

Are you an addict? (the answer may surprise you)

Re-connecting with ourselves

These are the signs you may have found your soulmate ~

You are happy and peaceful

Disagreements/arguments are chances to grow

They bring the best out of you

You support each other

You feel safe and secure

You are able to share silence

You know and understand each other

Have you met your soulmate?

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