Voice of the Spirit

Website review:  The Spiritual Blog Reviews Blog

http://spiritualblogreviews.blogspot.com/
 
 A couple of weeks ago when the Urban Monk Blog was reviewed here, we received comments as to how nice it was to find a community with like minded thoughts and ideas.  This week, I have discovered a great spiritual blog whose purpose is just that – to review spiritual blogs for the purpose of helping people finding an online community appropriate to their needs.  The author, Darcy, does a great job!  The blogs reviewed are quite diverse and truly have something for absolutely everyone, ranging from spiritual poetry to Buddhist wisdom, to the writings of Carlos Castaneda.  And they are all good! I was going to check out just a couple of entries, and two hours later, I was still there. 

One of the nice features is that Darcy begins her blog reviews with a section on what touched her about each blog.  The reviews are fair and honest and give a real feel for what to expect from the blogs themselves.  This is a truly great site for anyone with an interest in spiritual blogs!

Website Review:  Psychological Self Help
http://www.psychologicalselfhelp.org/

Psychological Self Help is an intelligent site with the mission of giving psychology away in order to educate and help others heal themselves.  Written by a clinical psychologist, the site is really a massive book on how we can help ourselves.  The site covers everything from values and mores to depression and anxiety to love and relationships.  There is a whole chapter on how to use the material, including a problem checklist that is quite helpful

The writing is intelligent, clear and concise and, with the exception of a few overview chapters, not overly academic.  This is a meaty, substantial site, useful for long term study and is especially appealing to those who prefer an intellectual approach to changing behavior.  Because of its depth, it is not the place to go to get a five minute sound bite.  The site also links to a forum for support and sharing with others.

The Urban Monk Blog

http://www.urbanmonk.net/

This is a really fascinating blog geared towards personal development and spirituality.  The tagline for the blog is “Personal Development for Bliss, Success, Love.”  The approach is direct and practical, advocating self-growth and spirituality that is designed to improve our day-to-day lives in areas such as career, romance, social skills and financial success.

The site is free and contains a number of interesting and clearly written articles that are really helpful for self-improvement.  There are series and articles on subjects such as the ego, emotional mastery, fear and anxiety, and gratitude, just to name a few.  There is a great article on the important but often misunderstood principle of non-resistance.  Instead of general esoteric principles, all of the articles use real world examples (such as confronting your boss) to teach a useful, practical spirituality.

As a nice bonus, you can subscribe to the blog via email and have entries sent to your email box!

Lessons in Daily Living Website

http://www.lessons4living.com/

Lessons4Living.com is a website dedicated to helpful information about the psychological and spiritual aspects of living maintained by a clinical psychologist. The site focuses on what the author calls awakenings, a moment of clarity in which a new insight or awareness is gained that offers new insights and possibilities. The site offers some helpful tips and information on areas such as stress, depression, resiliency and attitudes

While the site is rather small, it does offer some interesting information, including several short articles on dealing with difficult people and assessing without judging. There is a interesting article series on attitude called “Do You Want to Be Bitter or Better?” at http://www.lessons4living.com/attitude.htm.

A Course in Miracles Website

http://www.acim.org/

Almost everyone interested in spiritual growth and well being has heard of A Course in Miracles.  The material is considered by many to be the sacred text of New Age Literature.  The channeled material, which came from a source that identified itself as Jesus Christ, has been studied by  millions of people and has inspired numerous books on love and forgiveness by authors such as Marianne Williamson and Gerald Jampolksy, just to name a few.

The Course is described as a unique, universal, self-study spiritual thought system that teaches the way to Love and Inner Peace is through forgiveness.  This website gives not only the history of the Course, but free daily lessons from it in both text and audio form.  There are 365 daily lessons which start on January first and run through the year, but each lesson can also be accessed individually so that the course can be started at any time.

For more interesting facts on the Course, there is a great Wikipedia entry here.

Tools offered:  Free Lessons from a Course in Miracles

Recently, I discovered a wonderful series of books by Peter McWilliams called the Life 101 series.  These books are not only extremely helpful but truly inspirational!  Peter McWilliams has a web site that has his books available online for free. 

http://www.mcwilliams.com/