Living Compass Spirituality & Wellness

In Part 2 of Introducing the new Living Compass mobile app, Scott addresses the questiion, "What is Contemplative Psychology?" and explains how the new app is grounded in this approach to psychology.   Download the app for Iphones at:  https://apps.apple.com/us/app/living-compass/id6738334257   Donwload the app for Google/Android phones at:  https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.livingcompass&hl=en  

Living Compass has launced a new mobile and web based app that focusees on the integration of contemplative spirituality and wellness.   You can download the app on your Apple phone at: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/living-compass/id6738334257   You can download the app on youor Google/Android phone at:  https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.livingcompass&hl=en   You can also access all the content in the app on your web browser at app.livingcompass.org

This Easter episode explores the image of the earth softening in springtime as a sign of resurrection.  Scott even sings this verse from one of his favorite Easter hymns: When our hearts are saddened, grieving, or in pain, By Your touch You call us back to life again; Fields of our hearts that dead and bare have been: Love is come again, like wheat that springs up green. —John M. C. Crum

In this episode for Maundy Thursday and Good Friday, we reflect on this well-known passage: "Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends." 1 Corinthians 13:4-8. The episode concludes with a three-minute guided meditation on this passage.  

As we begin Holy Week, Scott reflects on how it is the actions and choices that Jesus makes this week that teach the most about walking the way of love.  The episode concludes with a three minute guided meditation.  

In this second episode of this week's focus on cultivating patience, Scott shares four passages from Scripture that are helpful guides as we seek to deepen our practice of patience. He concludes with a 3-minute guided meditation.  

The etymology of the word "patience" comes from a Latin word meaning "to bear suffering." This is why we call a person who is being treated by a medical professional a "patient." In this tenth episode for Lent, Scott talks about how cultivating patience is particularly challenging when we or someone we love is suffering. We are called to go deeper in our faith to draw strength. The episode closes with a three-minute guided meditation.

A European Folk Tale known as The Story of the Stone Soup has much to teach us about generosity. Scott explores this story in this episode, and then closes with a 3-minute guided meditation to help listeners apply the lessons to their lives.

In this fourth week of Lent, we focus on Practicing Generosity. In this episode, Scott shares a story about Ab Nicholas, the primary benefactor of Living Compass, and how he modeled generosity in the way he was present with others. He closes with a 3-minute guided meditation to help listeners hear how God calls them to practice generosity.  

"I've got that joy, joy, joy, joy, down in my heart....." is the theme of this episode.  Scott not only sings the song but reflects on what that really means when we access that joy, which is a true gift from God.  

Scott starts with a funny story about how sitting around waiting for joy to grow on its own rarely bears much fruit.  We need to do the little things, day by day, that cultivate joy in our lives and the lives of others. 

Jesus calls us to be peacemakers, and often times that means that we will be called to move out of our comforat zones and make peace with people who we find challenging to make peace with. To do this it can be helpful to consider our thoughts, words, and deeds around being peacemakers.  

This fourth episode for Lent 2025 focuses on Cultivating Peace. Jesus calls us to be peacemakers, not simply people who feel peaceful. To be a peacemaker means to enter into situations where there is conflict--and as Scott shares in this episode, sometimes being a peacemaker means bringing peace to a conflict that we have caused.   A guided meditation is also offered during the last 3 minutes of this episode.   If you don't have a booklet, sign up to receive the daily emails for Lent from Living Compass at www.livingcompass.org/lent-signup. An archive of the daily readings can be found at https://www.livingcompass.org/living-well-through-lent-2025-readings. 

This third episode for Lent 2025 focuses on Cultivating Faithfulness. Faithfulness is described as "trusting in the slow work of God" and also as practicing deep listening--to one another and to God.  A guided meditation is also offered during the last 3 minutes of this episode.   If you don't have a booklet can sign up to receive the daily emails for Lent from Living Compass at www.livingcompass.org/lent-signup. An archive of the daily readings can be found at https://www.livingcompass.org/living-well-through-lent-2025-readings. 

This second episode for Lent 2025 focuses on Cultivating Faithfulness. Faithfulness is described as "a long obedience in the same direction," and the journey of faith is compared to running a marathon.  

This first episode for Lent 2025 begins our focus on Cultivating the Fruit of the Spirit with All Your Heart, Soul, Strength, and Mind. In this episode we look at how humility is the soil in which we can cultivate these fruits. The Parable of the Sower is explored as a metaphor for our inner lives.  A guided meditation is also offered during the last 3-4 minutes of this episode.   You can sign up to receive the daily emails for Lent from LIving Compass at www.livingcompass.org/lent-signup

This year, our Living Compass daily readings for Lent will focus on Cultivating the Fruit of the Spirit. In this episode, we look at the Parable of the Sower and discuss how tending the soil of our inner lives is good preparation for Lent.    

This episode explores the wisdom from Buddhist monk and teacher Thich Nhat Hanh who said, "There is no path to peace. Peace is the path."

What flowers are you being called to plant right now?

Scott tells the story about a fish who wanted to see the ocean and discusses how it is a metaphor for living a contemplative life. 

This episode is a 6-minute guided mediation on a quote from Howard Thurman about "listening to the sound of the genuine" within ourselves.  The entire quote is: "There is something in every one of you that waits and listens for the sound of the genuine in yourself. It is the only true guide you will ever need."

This quote from St. Benedict is the focus of this episode as Scott talks about prioritizing our spiritual growth in the new year: "It is for us to train our hearts to live in grace, to sacrifice our self-centered desires, to find the peace without want, without seeking it for ourselves; and even when we fail, always we begin again." 

In this episode, Scott shares a Christmas Eve story that touched his heart many years ago, a story that reminds him of the peace that comes when we are able to soften our hearts.  

In this episode, Scott discusses a beautiful thing about sowing light, love, joy, and peace: giving away as much of these things as possible never diminishes what we have ourselves. I can light countless candles from a candle I am holding, and the flame of my candle is never diminished.    

In this episode, Scott reflects on the well-known scripture, Philippians 4:5-7, daring to try to understand the peace which passes understanding:  "Do not worry about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus."   

There is a deep connection between being still and being at peace.  This episode explores this connection and also explores the idea of "Be still and 'no!'"

In this episode, Scott talks about how the wisdom of the Twelve Steps can help guide us as we focus on making peace with ourselves. Here are the Twelve Steps: 1. We admitted we were powerless over alcohol — that our lives had become unmanageable. 2. Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity. 3. Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood God. 4. Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves. 5. Admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs. 6. Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character. 7. Humbly asked God to remove our shortcomings. 8. Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all. 9. Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others. 10. Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it. 11. Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood God, praying only for knowledge of God's will for us and the power to carry that out. 12. Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these Steps, we tried to carry this message to alcoholics and others, and to practice these principles in all our affairs.

During Advent, we will release two weekly episodes focusing on our Advent theme of "Practicing Peace with All Your Heart, Soul, Strength, and Mind." The booklets are all gone, but you can receive the daily reflections by email.  Visit www.livingcompass.org/advent-signup In this episode, Scott Stoner helps us gain a deeper understanding of peace by discussing how the Peace of Christ is not dependent on external circumstances. 

During Advent, we will release two weekly episodes focusing on our Advent theme of "Practicing Peace with All Your Heart, Soul, Strength, and Mind." The booklets are all gone, but you can receive the daily reflections by email.  Visit www.livingcompass.org/advent-signup In this episode, Scott Stoner helps us gain a deeper understanding of peace by discussing how peace is not just about calmness and serenity but also the transformative power of forgiveness and reconciliation. 

As we pause to focus on gratitude, we see a deep connection between gratitude and peace. In this new podcast episode, Scott talks about this and invites everyone to join Living Compass as we focus on Practicing Peace this Advent. 

What if we could share our gratitude as easily as we are able to share those things we are worried about? Looking at life through gratitude changes so much as opposed to looking at life through those things we don't have or can't control.

Scott reflections on the quote from Amanda Gorman, "There is always light. If only we are brave enough to see it. If only we are brave enough to be it." Here is the entire poem, "The Hill We Climb," from which this quote comes:   The Hill We Climb When day comes we ask ourselves, where can we find light in this never-ending shade? The loss we carry, a sea we must wade We've braved the belly of the beast We've learned that quiet isn't always peace And the norms and notions of what just is Isn't always just-ice And yet the dawn is ours before we knew it Somehow we do it Somehow we've weathered and witnessed a nation that isn't broken but simply unfinished We the successors of a country and a time Where a skinny Black girl descended from slaves and raised by a single mother can dream of becoming president only to find herself reciting for one And yes we are far from polished far from pristine but that doesn't mean we are striving to form a union that is perfect We are striving to forge a union with purpose To compose a country committed to all cultures, colors, characters and conditions of man And so we lift our gazes not to what stands between us but what stands before us We close the divide because we know, to put our future first, we must first put our differences aside We lay down our arms so we can reach out our arms to one another We seek harm to none and harmony for all Let the globe, if nothing else, say this is true: That even as we grieved, we grew That even as we hurt, we hoped That even as we tired, we tried That we'll forever be tied together, victorious Not because we will never again know defeat but because we will never again sow division Scripture tells us to envision that everyone shall sit under their own vine and fig tree And no one shall make them afraid If we're to live up to our own time Then victory won't lie in the blade But in all the bridges we've made That is the promise to glade The hill we climb If only we dare It's because being American is more than a pride we inherit, it's the past we step into and how we repair it We've seen a force that would shatter our nation rather than share it Would destroy our country if it meant delaying democracy And this effort very nearly succeeded But while democracy can be periodically delayed it can never be permanently defeated In this truth in this faith we trust For while we have our eyes on the future history has its eyes on us This is the era of just redemption We feared at its inception We did not feel prepared to be the heirs of such a terrifying hour but within it we found the power to author a new chapter To offer hope and laughter to ourselves So while once we asked, how could we possibly prevail over catastrophe? Now we assert How could catastrophe possibly prevail over us? We will not march back to what was but move to what shall be A country that is bruised but whole, benevolent but bold, fierce and free We will not be turned around or interrupted by intimidation because we know our inaction and inertia will be the inheritance of the next generation Our blunders become their burdens But one thing is certain: If we merge mercy with might, and might with right, then love becomes our legacy and change our children's birthright So let us leave behind a country better than the one we were left with Every breath from my bronze-pounded chest, we will raise this wounded world into a wondrous one We will rise from the gold-limbed hills of the west, we will rise from the windswept northeast where our forefathers first realized revolution We will rise from the lake-rimmed cities of the midwestern states, we will rise from the sunbaked south We will rebuild, reconcile and recover and every known nook of our nation and every corner called our country, our people diverse and beautiful will emerge, battered and beautiful When day comes we step out of the shade, aflame and unafraid The new dawn blooms as we free it For there is always light, if only we're brave enough to see it If only we're brave enough to be it    

  Scott talks about how the overwhelming response to being able to see both the northern lights and the ATLAS comet speaks to our longing for a higher, spiritual perspective on life. We all need to be on the lookout for moments of awe and wonder because they are always to be found if only we have the eyes to see. 

We can't pour from an empty cup. Self-compassion is an essential practice for avoiding burnout and exhaustaion. This simple 5 minute practice, done on a regular basis, can help refill our spiritul and emotional cups.  

Listening is the most caring, the most healing gift we can give to another person, especially when that person is suffering in some way.  

Loving speech is a core practice that both flows from a place of peace and centeredness and also creates such a place for ourselves and others. When it comes to loving speech, as with so many spiritual practices, it is a matter of progress, not perfection.

In this episode, Scott talks about the difference between listening and hearing. He expresses his concern that he sees an increase in "loss of listening," which is the root of many conflicts in our relationships and our larger community.  

As children across the world head back to school, it's an excellent opportunity to reflect that we are all lifelong learners when it comes to the school of spiritual growth. Who are your favorite teachers? What lessons are you learning right now?  

  In this episode, Scott discusses how the illusion of separateness fosters an attitude of 'othering,' leading to actions that undermine both our wellbeing and the wellbeing of others. He explains that awakening from this illusion provides the spiritual foundation necessary to love ourselves and others, including those we find difficult to love.

Loving what is, is a practice, a spiritual discipline.  As with any spiritual discipline, when practiced regularly, it can profoundly affect our wellbeing and the wellbeing of our relationships.  

Scott discusses the power and practice of prayer and reflects on how what we witness in the Olympics can help us deepen our understanding of prayer.  

The Olympics remind us of the power of ceremonies and rituals. In this episode, Scott discusses how ceremonies and rituals are equally important in our personal lives and in our families, friendships, and communities. 

Walking meditation is a contemplative prayer practice that many people find works for them better than sitting meditation. Scott witnessed thousands of people doing walking meditation on his recent trip to Dharamsala, India, and shares how this practice has become important to his spiritual life.  

Loving Kindness is both a form of prayer and a way of being. It is a practice that can be done as part of sitting prayer/meditation and/or walking prayer/meditation.  Scott recently experienced the power of this, both as prayer and action, from the Tibetan people he recently spent time with in Dharmsala, India.  

Scott recently learned about the Tibetan Buddhist concept of Spacious Minds (seems pa chen po) on his trip to Dharamsala, India. This concept has a profound positive effect on our mental and spiritual wellbeing.  

Scott has just returned from almost three weeks in India, including a "Mindful Medicine Conference" that he and his wife Holly were part of in Dharamsala, India, home of His Holiness the Dalai Lama. In this first of several episodes, he talks about what he learned from the Tibetan people that were his hosts, and how that learning can help all of us.  

Continuing the series on "Holy Listening," this week Scott talks about "Wholly Listening." This involves listening to God not just through prayer and meditation but also through our bodies, emotions, and relationships. It is a whole-person approach to listening, one where we listen with all our heart, soul, strength, and mind.  

One expression of Holy Listening is contemplative prayer. In this form of prayer, our primary focus is to be still and listen to God. In this episode, Scott talks about how practices like centering prayer and meditation can help us listen more deeply to what theologian and civil rights activist Howard Thurman calls "the sound of the Genuine."

Continuing the discussion on holy listening, Scott talks about how "believing is seeing," in that our filters can often interfere with our ability to truly hear one another, and to hear the presence of the Holy in one another.  

In this episode, Scott makes the case that listening is at the heart of both a deeper spiritual life and a life of wellness.  He invites each listener to reflect on their own practice of listening--to themselves, others, and the presence of the Divine.  

The concept of Soft Start-Ups is one of the most helpful practices for enhancing all of our relationships.  Learn about it in this episode.