Dear Mana Managers

As you know, this class is a work in progress for me as well.  I have run out of time to finish writing the course for this year. *hangs her head in sorrow* However, I will leave you with an outline version of our final mana habit, which is cultivating an inner sense of peace.

My intention for this habit was for each of us to spend at least a small part of each day in a meditative frame of mind – whether or not you actually practice traditional meditation or not.

Rather than sermonizing as I usually do *blush* I planned to simply email a theme for each day, for you to meditate on as you wish.

The emails will go out as planned (in fact, are already going out) but I doubt that the actual lesson as I had envisioned it will be written by the end of the month – heck, I still haven’t even finished all the emails for the self-esteem habit!

Here are a few of the thoughts that I will someday expand on for this habit:

• To feel truly well and make your mana surge there is one more aspect of wellness you need to attend to: your connection to the greater world.

• Spirituality can have everything or nothing to do with faith. All religions encourage their followers to develop and mature their spiritual natures. Meditation and/or prayer feature strongly in nearly all faiths. However, the non-religious also benefit immensely from the practice.

• One goal of spirituality is to reach out and experience a connection with something that is bigger than yourself. To reach that goal requires at least some measure of peace.

• Peace is not at all synonymous with boredom.  We tend to think of places like lakes, and beaches, and mountains as peaceful. But what place actually brings you peace?  Where do YOU most feel that sense of inner calm and connection with all of life?  I personally feel my most peaceful at an amusement park. Go figure.

• Pause to appreciate and contemplate all the unseen forces around us.

• A very good meditation word is shalom, the Hebrew word for peace. Inhale on “sha” and exhale on “lom.”

• “The mind dislikes meditation.”

• “The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy” on Infinity

• “Space is big. You just won't believe how vastly, hugely, mind- bogglingly big it is. I mean, you may think it's a long way down the road to the chemist's, but that's just peanuts to space. (It goes on for a bit here before finally settling down with things you really need to know).

Here is a complete list of the meditation words. They are in no significant order:

Gratitude

Joy

Humility

Purpose

Love

Evil

Eternity

Sin

Peace

Faith

Generosity

Tolerance

Hope

Grief

Success

Patience

Compassion

Sadness

Beauty

Wealth

Serenity

Desire

Hatred

Treasure

Simplicity

Suffering

Energy

Wonder

Fortune

Infinity