In search of my mother’s garden, I found my own.

— Alice Walker

Sparks of Divine Love

“As spiritual beings and sparks of Divine Love, we are connected to an unlimited supply of ideas, solutions and possibilities,” Mary Davis writes in the May 2022 Science of Mind magazine. “When we create anything, be it a simple meal or a symphony, we are creating with the Creator as the hands and feet of the Divine.”

Davis suggests the following ways in which we can each invite the Divine to be our companion, bringing joy and meaning to even the mundane activities of life:

1. Say a short prayer to set our intentions.
2. Approach each task before us with passion, energy and gratitude.
3. Be mindfully present in each moment.
4. Practice self-compassion.
5. Look for signs and synchronicities, what Davis calls “those whispers of guidance that set us on the right path.”

— Read the full feature in the May 2022 Science of Mind magazine.

Practice Emotional Intelligence

Why does a high IQ not necessarily guarantee success in the classroom or boardroom? In the 1980s, psychologists, biologists and others studied how processing emotional information plays an important role in success, leadership, personal fulfillment and happy relationships.

In 1990, psychologists John Mayer and Peter Salovey coined the term “emotional intelligence” (EQ), breaking it into four areas: Identifying emotions on a nonverbal level, using emotions to guide cognitive thinking, understanding the information emotions convey and the actions they generate, and regulating your emotions, for personal benefit and the common good.

Beginning in 1995, psychologist Daniel Goleman took the concept of emotional intelligence a step further, offering five competencies of emotional intelligence:

1. Emotional self-awareness: Knowing what you are feeling at any given time and understanding the impact those moods have on others.
2. Self-regulation: Controlling or redirecting your emotions; anticipating consequences before acting on impulse.
3. Motivation: Using emotional factors to achieve goals, enjoy the learning process and persevere in the face of obstacles.
4. Empathy: Sensing the emotions of others.
5. Social skills: Managing relationships, inspiring others and inducing desired responses.

Trusting That Love Is Life

By Ernest Holmes

You must learn to have confidence in Life — to believe it, to trust it, to have faith in it. And you must come to feel that It returns that love and confidence; that as your love goes out to It, Its love returns to you multiplied, just as it does when you love people, for love begets love, confidence inspires confidence and faith is met with faith.

Having come to the conclusion that you belong to the universe — that even God has need of you and that love is really the well-spring of your life — learn to feel this about all people. For back of the mask people so often wear — the attitude of coldness they assume — there is always that soft, tender thing in the strongest man as well as the gentlest woman. Reach back to it. Unite with it.

This is your adjustment to life. This alone can make you happy. And don ’t feel that in doing this you will become a mere sentimentalist, that you will become weak or inefficient. Quite the reverse. It will make you self-reliant; it will give you confidence in life. It will help you get along with people. It is a sure guide to the only success that is worthwhile.

—Excerpted from the May 2022 Science of Mind magazine.