Thinking Outside the Church: 110 Ways to Connect with Your Spiritual Nature

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Andrews McMeel Publishing, 2004 - 306 pages
Thinking Outside the Church examines 100 ways people connect with their spirituality. It does not seek to supplant the religious feeling many people experience inside a church, but seeks instead to supplement that experience by suggesting a more expansive view of spirituality. In this view, the world and our activities outside the church are also seen as the sites and rites of worship and spiritual practice, as ways of connecting with our personal vision or version of the sacred.From art, nature, and dreams to dancing, traveling, and parenting, Jennifer Leigh Selig points readers toward the potential and the power present in diverse pathways that may not traditionally be seen as religious or spiritual. In addition to her own thoughtful introductions, Selig collects quotes that span cultures, time periods, religions, and wisdom traditions, each testifying to the universality of seeking the spiritual by Thinking Outside the Church.

 

Contents

Celebrating
2
Cooking and Dining
4
Daily Living
8
Dancing
11
Doing
14
Flying
16
Gardening
19
Giving
21
Dying
93
Enjoying Small Pleasures
96
Gifts and Talents
98
Grace
100
The Heart
103
Intuition
105
Letting Go
108
Living
110

Healing
23
Laughing
26
Learning and Education
28
Making Love
31
Meditating
34
Parenting
36
Playing Sports
39
Praying
41
Reading
44
Sleeping
46
Speaking
49
Studying Religions
52
Teaching
54
Traveling
57
Visioning and Dreaming
59
Working
64
Worshipping
67
Writing
69
EXPERIENCES
73
Adversity and Suffering
74
Aging
76
Becoming
79
Believing
81
Chaos
83
Contemplating Eternity
86
Desire
89
Dreaming
91
Losing Ourselves
113
Marriage
115
Miracles
118
Mystery
120
Pregnancy and Birth
123
The Spirit Within
129
THE NATURAL WORLD
137
The Earth
143
Nature
149
Science
155
The Sky and Its Bodies
162
PEOPLE
168
Babies
178
Family
185
Spirit Guides
191
STATES OF BEING
225
Being Childlike
231
Being Inspired
238
Being Present
246
Being Unique
254
Compassion
260
Happiness
268
Humility
275
Questioning
289
Color 203
297
Copyright

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About the author (2004)

Jennifer Leigh Selig is the author of What Now?: Words of Wisdom for Life After Graduation, the resulting AMP mini book What Now?, and Reach for the Stars, an exploration of the power the stars have over our dreams and imaginings. In addition to writing, she has found both teaching and learning are some of her main methods for connecting with her spiritual nature. She has taught high school English for 16 years and recently earned her Ph.D. in Depth Psychology

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