2020 New Thought Walden Award Honorees

Seven of the country’s largest New Thought organizations joined together on August 1 to announce the New Thought Walden Awards, honoring those who use empowering spiritual ideas and philosophies to change lives and make our planet a better place.

The committee chose 20 honorees in six categories: New Thought Wisdom, Interfaith and Intercultural Understanding, Social and Environmental Activism, Creative Arts and Entertainment, Next Generation and Mind/Body Connection and Healing. In addition, the committee gave the Rising Star award to Greta Thunberg and the Champion of Change award to Lynne McTaggart.

“The honorees include both well-known individuals and relatively unsung heroes alike, each of whom has made a valuable contribution to furthering the ideas at the core of New Thought,” says Unity Magazine Editor Katy Koontz, a member of the selection committee. “Our goal with the Waldens is not only to honor these fine people and spotlight their notable accomplishments but also to inspire others to follow in their footsteps.”

2020 New Thought Walden Awards Honorees

1. New Thought Wisdom: Rev. Sylvia E. Sumter, Rev. Erin Fall Haskell, D.D., and Rev. Dennis Merritt Jones, D.D.
2. Interfaith and Intercultural Understanding: Pema Chödrön, Rev. John Scott and Rev. Ed Bacon
3. Social and Environmental Activism: Charles Eisenstein, Azim Khamisa and Rev. Vaile Leonard
4. Creative Arts and Entertainment: Rickie Byars, Jesse Campbell and SARK (Susan Ariel Rainbow Kennedy) 
5. Next Generation: Kendrick Chavez, Justin Michael Williams and Jon Miller
6. Mind/Body Connection and Healing: Siri Sat Nam, Ph.D., Gwen Kenneally and Paul Selig
7. Champion of Change: Lynne McTaggart
8. Rising Star: Greta Thunberg

Short biographies of each honoree are available at waldenawards.com.

Nominations for the 2021 New Thought Walden Awards began in mid-August at waldenawards.com.

The New Thought Walden Awards partner organizations are Centers for Spiritual Living, Association for Global New Thought, Agape International Spiritual Center, Divine Science Federation International, Unity, Universal Foundation for Better Living and Affiliated New Thought Network.

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Modern-Day Guru, Dr. Siri Sat Nam

“In modern-day understanding,” Dr. Siri Sat Nam says, “we usually think of a guru as a perfect being, a holy man or woman who is an incarnation of the Divine — a Mahan Rishi. The reality is that a guru is the intermediary between the individual and a higher power.”

He adds, “We all have the capacity to receive wisdom, if we but consciously sit, meditate and wait to receive it.”

Dr. Siri is a yogi, therapist, television personality, wisdom teacher and author of The Pocket Guru: Guidance and Mantras for Spiritual Awakening and Emotional Wisdom. He is featured in the September issue of Guide for Spiritual Living: Science of Mind magazine.

He shares his belief in the power of thought with Dr. Ernest Holmes and Religious Scientists. “As we look around,” he says, “we see what has appeared in our life; this is indicative of what we have been thinking.

“What we are thinking is one of the important factors that determines what happens in our future. Change our thoughts, and we can change the world around us. Create what we want by thinking about what we need.”

As he reminds us: “If you do the work, the work will, eventually, begin to work for you.”

As noted above, Dr. Siri Sat Nam was honored by the New Thought Walden Awards this month, in the category “Mind-Body Connection & Healing.”

Reach Higher in Faith

by Ernest Holmes

Convince yourself that you wouldn’t be here if there weren’t a Power greater than you. Learn to have confidence in this Power. Don’t be afraid to say to the Divine Presence: “I now lay down all my fears and doubts and anxieties. I pass them back into the great and perfect Life of which I know I am a part.”

Confess your fears to yourself before this Power and then reach just a little higher in faith than you were in fear. You will discover a miracle taking place. Fears will begin to recede until finally they appear only as a speck on the horizon of your mind. They seem to walk over that horizon and disappear entirely, like darkness fleeing the light. …

Fear has brought confusion. Faith will give birth to confidence. Anxiety has brought days of conflict and nights of dread. Faith alone can heal this confusion and drive from our minds all thoughts of fear and dissipate all anxiety.

And love alone can bring harmony into our lives.

Excerpted from The Contagion of Fear in the September 2020 issue of Guide for Spiritual Living: Science of Mind magazine.