by Tracy Connery

Created on: January 17, 2009   Last Updated: January 26, 2009

If there was ever a time over the course of these last several generations to want and need a spiritual connection, a lifeline in many cases, it is now. These financial times have brought many to their knees, and rarely in prayer. Jobs, homes and any semblance of financial viability have, for millions of people in North America and around the world, been lost and they find themselves overwhelmed, in a sea of debt, and in search of that which will keep them hanging on, moving forward, when the challenges seem insurmountable. Spiritual peace becomes that which we strive for when all else has proven to have failed us.

Often, it is when times are tough that people are most inclined to look beyond themselves, their pocketbooks and their big screen TV's to seek that which is greater, a reassuring power allowing, encouraging, an attitude of surrender, promoting a feeling of safety in letting go and entrusting our fates to something infinitely more powerful than ourselves. It comes under many titles, in innumerable forms, to each one of us and it is only through the acceptance of the importance of balance in our lives amongst that which is so dreadfully out of balance that we can experience peace in our minds, hearts and souls.

The bad news swirls around us, increasingly dire with each passing day. The choice we have, and it is a choice, is how we process the information, our circumstances and our feelings about the future. Do we get angry? Yes, most certainly. Do we look for someone to take blame? Often, yes. Do we rebel, lashing out at those in offense? Sometimes. But ultimately as anger, resentment and blame take hold, a healthy sense of equilibrium is further from our grasp. These are emotions offering but short-lived satisfaction and an empty feeling of accomplishing something amid the chaos, but ultimately, these responses serve merely to empower and embolden the external forces, be they personal, professional or financial, more firmly settling us into a position of powerlessness and despair.

Perhaps, rather than indulging in the simpler, more readily accessed, but far less constructive emotions, each finding its root in fear, we look inwards. Possibly, through prayer and meditation, calling upon the innate, divine power within as well as that beyond, no matter what we call it, we are able to quiet the mind, opening it to the infinite possibilities that define the universe and its power. Whether its sitting in peaceful contemplation, appealing to the unique competence

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