Lifestyle

At Mind Key we focus on finding our inner strength and peace. As members we rely on a small voice that calls us to determine our true destiny and to reach our highest potential. To do so it takes practice, patience, and enlightenment. Focusing on new milestones is something we often do at the end of a year. As the holidays approach and we ready ourselves for 2016, we’re faced with the future. Where will our hearts take us? Will we find the right path? Will we conquer our fears and accomplish what we were created to do? Sometimes the answer to those questions comes in the form of resolutions, a common practice when confronting a new year. As for me, I call mine ‘New Year...

personal development relationship with self resolution

Holiday Season Stress? Yes, You’ve Got in Under Control

December 11, 2015

This month Mind Key will be sharing stories and tips for living in the moment with ease and brilliance this holiday. Inspirational author and motivational speaker, Azuka Zuke, provides encouragement and insights on how we can remain positive and present with our loved ones and the beauty of peace during even the most stressful moments this holiday.author Azuka Zuke * * * It’s holiday season again. A time when we get into the frenzy of celebrations. From holiday songs to decoration adorned houses lining streets of holiday shoppers. For some people, this is an exciting time. But for others, this can also be a tough time of year. We all want peace, beauty, mindfulness, happiness, strength and joy, but oftentimes...

holidays

Becoming Whole: Making peace with the light and the dark

November 7, 2015

At Mind Key we believe are all whole and perfect, exactly the way we are. The only way to accept and make peace with this truth is by exploring the shadow side of ourselves and bringing it to light. In our anthology, Yin and Yang: The Duality of Balance our healers, artists and writers share their insights and journeys into achieving wholeness via both the yin and yang sides of themselves and the world around them. Let them inspire you on your own path of healing and happiness in the following reviews of their contributions to this beautiful, full color work of art:Award-winning author, inspirational speaker and radiant life coach, Barbara Steingas, helps people find the pieces they need to solve their personal health...

inspiration Yin and Yang

What if God were still making up his mind? Poetry by Gene Myers

November 3, 2015

Creativity, Energy, Lifestyle

Gene Myers lives his passion as a journalist, musician and poet. He started with a deep love of music—writing lyrics in middle school, frustrating his bandmates by neglecting the melody. In high school a friend finally said, "That would be poetry, Gene!" After that realization, Gene fell hard for poetry. Today, Gene is a columnist for the Haiku Society of America, and his poems have been published in journals such as Frogpond Journal and The Rutherford Red Wheelbarrow Anthology. Still, music never took a backseat. Gene's column, The Joy of Life, which runs in New Jersey newspapers, features celebrity music interviews that go deeper. He always looks for melodies to accompany his poetry—even, he said, the most cerebral examples. And he has never stopped singing in the car...

Confessions of a Ghost Hunter

October 29, 2015

There are really ghosts, spirits, whatever you wish to call them. How do I know? I’ve had conversations with them. After taking a paranormal certification course, I went on several “ghost hunts”. Though initially reticent, I finally began asking questions in an empty room using a tape recorder, video camera, and K-2 meter. Although I wasn't speaking to a “human” being, I seemed to record real interactions with something otherworldly. The heck with those TV ghost programs, I’ve heard my name called and what sounds like guinea pigs squealing. I've since learned that angels sound like that because they vibrate at such a high frequency. Soon after we got our black lab Watson, my Jack Russell named...

In a Nutshell: All about the Darkness

October 26, 2015

Career, Creativity, Currency, Energy, Health, Lifestyle, Relationship

Darkness has always been associated with the scary, frightening or evil. The light, on the other hand, seems to represent goodness, comfort and ease. Mind Key writer, Rebecca Godina sums it up in her blog Embrace the Dark, when she said: "We have been taught to fear the dark. After all, our myths inform us that is where the monsters lurk."But what of those peaceful moments at night? Those sweet dreams, or midnight trysts?Destruction is often represented by darkness, Rebecca said, and destruction represents change, and change can be scary. But it doesn't have to be this way."Imagine how much more painful the process of transformation would be if it was done in the full light of day," Rebecca said.After all, in Three Reasons to Love...

Embrace the Dark

October 20, 2015

Energy, Lifestyle, Relationship

We have been taught to fear the dark. After all, our myths inform us that is where the monsters lurk. Is this the truth, though? How can we be so sure something evil awaits us in darkened closets and shadowy places under our beds? We aren’t sure, and therein lays the real root of our fear. Ours is a culture obsessed with knowing, and the darkness reminds us of that which is inherently unknowable. What is it that really waits for us in the formless dark? Anything-- like the Void preceding all of Creation, the darkness houses limitless possibilities. It’s interesting to note that darkness was often attributed to a Goddess figure in many cultures. Take, for example,...

relationship with self

The Inconspicuous Dream

October 16, 2015

'Tangled Branches'- Kely Luzio-CardonaEver since the inception of civilization dreaming has fascinated humanity. From Joseph interpreting the King of Egypt’s dreams to modern psychological research, dreaming has always exposed a captivating and mysterious aspect of our minds.Throughout the years, as most people, I’ve had my share of colorful dreams; in particular one that has occurred since I was a little girl. It is an incomprehensible dream, one that focuses more on sounds and feelings rather than the visual aspect of what happens in it. The emotions tied to this recurring dream have left me drained, confused and really unsettled. In my waking hours, I’ve tried to analyze exactly what the dream means or better yet, what message it tries to send me. The fact that...

Flowers of Fall–Harvesting strength for body, heart and soul

October 14, 2015

As my all-time favorite season, spring seemed to hold the most award winning blooms. Fall is ordained by the leaves, spring is for the flowers. Not until I became an herbalist did I find a true appreciation for autumn flowers. Now my yard is full of goldenrod, queen ann's lace, evening primrose and flowering artemisia—plants I never gave much notice before. Each of these plants have their blessings and beauty in both the medicine cabinet as well as the garden. They are bright and cheery, and these attributes are mirrored in their emotional and physical benefits, perhaps to strengthen us for the winter ahead.Evening primrose She is known on the shelves for women's hormonal support. Evening primrose oil comes in coveted capsules, particularly for women going through...

Wild Flowers are God’s Make-up – a Photoblog

October 7, 2015

Creativity, Energy, Lifestyle

My family and I took a road trip a few years ago to the Grand Canyon. It was Spring Break for the kids and it had been less than a year since my mother had passed away. I was depressed. Really depressed. I did my best to put on a good face, but I spent a lot of time staring blankly out of the truck window, watching the still barren landscape of southwest Colorado pass us by at 65 mph. “Wild flowers are God’s make up,” I told my husband. I think I scared the man, because he jumped. I hadn’t said anything in a while. “What?” he asked. “Wild flowers are God’s make up,’ I said again. “They’re the blush that God puts on to show that...

art environment

What is Raven Reiki?

August 19, 2015

One of the core values of Reiki is the notion that the healing does not come from the healer but moves through the healer from a universal energy source. In other words I am a conduit, a hollow bone. In Reiki there is no ego. I have known healers who become impressed with themselves, thinking they are healing their clients. Shortly their energy becomes depleted. The universe doesn't condone that notion and reacts accordingly.The other tougher concept is the necessity to forgive all those who have acted unkindly to you and ask for only the best for them. Hard to get up in the morning and ask for blessings even on those who have wronged...

What is Reiki?

August 18, 2015

I don’t purport to speak for every Reiki healer, but learning Reiki changed my life. The International Center for Reiki Training says that “Reiki energy comes from the Higher Power, which exists on a higher dimension than the physical world we are familiar with. When viewed clairvoyantly, Reiki energy appears to come down from above and to enter the top of the practitioners head after which if flows through the body and out the hands. It appears to flow this way because of our perspective. However, the true source of Reiki energy is within ourselves. This does not mean that we use our personal energy when we do Reiki, but that the energy is coming...

Protect Yourself and Your Family

August 6, 2015

Energy, Lifestyle, Relationship

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Health

Teachers and Students Connecting Through Nature

June 25, 2015

Creativity, Energy, Lifestyle, Newsbreaks

Every day I am a runner in a maze as if I were Zelda from the first Nintendo system. One day I teach, and they learn meanings of words like "scruples" and facts about the real Dracula. The next day I am shadowing a student who at any moment could disappear into the woods, or I am intervening in a verbal battle between a bully and his or her prey. "Enough with the side conversations. Get off the table, please. Focus on your work. Stop cursing." These are a few of my favorite daily declarations. But then there might be a Wednesday or Thursday when I get to play Scrabble with my struggling readers. There may be a Friday when I can get the...

Mind Key the Novel: A Review

June 5, 2015

Career, Creativity, Lifestyle, Newsbreaks

After the disappointments of a sour break up and the troublesome relationship with her abusive father, Noelle heads to the Jersey Shore. It’s supposed to be another brief vacation with her mother, dull and numb after the Noelle Ricci as drawn by Michelle Farencirecent heartaches. Still, the rumbling waves of the Atlantic shore make Noelle feel at home, as if she’s belonged there all of her life. But it’s not just the salty breeze and the soft wet sand under her feet that draw her in. Arden, a boy vacationing a few apartments away, captures her attention and before she knows it— her heart. The two spend only a couple of days together but somehow she feels as if she’s known him for years. It...

In a Nutshell: Past Lives, Parallel Lives, and Future Lives

June 1, 2015

Career, Creativity, Currency, Energy, Health, Lifestyle, Relationship

The idea of past, parallel and future lives almost seems ridiculous to a metaphysical heart surgeon who believes in the power of the present. However, who we are and who we are to become is affected greatly by how we view the broad spectrum of our life (or lives).“Our bodies live this current lifetime and label it the present, but the continuum of our entire existence isn’t limited to the restraint of time,” Tamara Rokicki says in The connection of parallel lives. “The past is what we see when we look as far back to the day we were born. Our future is the years we have yet to live until we reach the end of our journey. But is there more?”In Past life regressions...

In a Nutshell – Charlapalooza

May 18, 2015

Don't forget to read and vote for your favorite Charlapalooza poems! Charla Dury and I have done a fantastic job (if I don't say so myself) writing about all your crazy topics in record time (less than 72 hours I believe...

Advice for seeing faeries

April 29, 2015

photo by Kely Luzio-CardonaPeople often ask how I see faeries.Like most things, seeing faeries (at least for me) is a good measure of faith and imagination. The imagination being the place where creative beings such as the faeries who paint the sunset or drop dew on the flowers live. Faith is believing your gut when it tries to convince the heart that these stories—this imagination—is something more than flight of fancy.There are always signs when the faeries talk. Some people get the chills, some hear the voice in their head change in pitch or timbre. Sometimes the signs are more subtle—diary entries that mimic subsequent events, or dreams that come true. Sometimes the sign is as simple as a song on the radio at just...

Community as a source of connection

April 21, 2015

Career, Energy, Lifestyle, Relationship

The Mind Key Community is not only a source of talent, information and guidance, but it is a community of support. Each member believes that some form of connectedness is important for our journey as human beings.The method of connection to community differs greatly from person to person. Community is more than just the sum of the individual relationships within it, and as a whole functions as a higher vibrational energy.“Humans crave (and need) to be connected to each other, to the environment and to community,” writer Charla Dury said. Charla enjoys sharing her life and her views on life through her writing, using her blog as a place to open dialogue and stay connected to others.Healer Vera Remes volunteers. She also stays connected through...

Welcome to the New Mind Key

March 20, 2015

Career, Creativity, Currency, Energy, Health, Lifestyle, Relationship

Once simply a novel, Mind Key has blossomed into The Mind Key Project - a hub of knowledge and resources, a community of practitioners and artists, and a calendar of events aligned with connecting people with each other and with their goals and dreams. Why “Mind Key”? The term was chosen because we each have the potential within to create the life we want. There’s no healing, no reality, no dream that is beyond our reach… but finding the resources to bring these things to fruition can be difficult. Especially in a world full of “nos,” “can’ts” and “impossible.” It is my belief that nothing is impossible, if only the space is created for it to happen. That space begins within our own bodies, our minds and...

Who are the faeries?

December 3, 2014

My last faerie blog did its best to define faeries and what they are. The term “faerie” is one I use predominately to discuss a number of different beings - from elementals, to characters and archetypes from folklore around the world that fit into the energetic realm so closely intertwined with Earth. Why not use the spelling “fairy” people often ask - and my answer is that the term fairy tends to represent more-or-less a pixie-like character with wings. Faery, on the other hand, represents a rather large contingent of energetic, earthy beings, many of whom simply wouldn’t be caught dead in a set of wings or pink tutus. Faerie artist and tattooist, Scarlet Sinclair, almost never uses “fairy.” “Faerie” speaks to her of the Ancient Race,...

The Belcastel art of Grace Ng Dung

October 8, 2014

Creativity, Lifestyle

A week of Magical EncountersGrace Ng Dung with her sketchbook, Brian Froud looks onAs an artist, Grace Ng Dung’s intention is to take on the role of storyteller. Faerie artist, Brian Froud was an inspiration not only to her art, but on her path of spirituality and self-discovery. The thought of meeting and learning with him and Wendy Froud in Belcastel, France, was a dream come true.“It was completely surreal when I got there,” she said. “I knew it would be magical to some degree, but I had no idea what it would be like. It was like living in a fantasy, but [unlike most fantasies] nothing shattered.”Her time with the Frouds brought her experiences and beliefs in faerie full circle, opening the door to...

Autumn Lights Festival – for healing and growth

October 5, 2014

Lifestyle, Newsbreaks

I am excited to be a part of this year's Autumn Light's Festival in West Milford, taking place from 10am to 5 pm on October 11th. Beginning at the intersection of Union Valley and Macopin Roads, and running along the street for about a mile, this festival has a ton of activities and vendors the whole family will love. Mind Key will be there with card readings, spiritual healings, and art from Grace NgDung and Danielle Rose inspired by faerie and spirit, as well as activities and crafts for the kids.We will not be the only booth for healing there, however. Please check out the following to learn more about our friends in the realm of health and self-development.http://www.northjersey.com/community-news/finding-health-wellness-at-the-festival-1.1100386?page=allInformation on parking and traffic detours:http://www.northjersey.com/community-news/parking-road-closures-1.1100365...

“Retrash” – Finding beauty in lost things

May 28, 2014

Creativity, Lifestyle

Today’s guest blogger, Nathan Devine has pulled together the work of 82 designers that create beauty from trash in his book “Retrash.” Learn more at www.retrash.com and facebook.com/retrash**********************************************************************“Retrash” is a book all about trash.I remember going to the dump when I was a kid and being excited by what treasure I might find, and at the same time feeling saddened and confused by the amount of trash that was being thrown away. I feel the same way today as an adult as I did back then, and I want to do something to change all of this.I’ve spent the last three years compiling the work of 82 designers and artists from 20 countries around the world to show the beautiful and innovative things that can...

The magic of spring today

May 1, 2014