Value, Embrace, Celebrate Individuals

CSL Spiritual Leader Dr. Edward Viljoen asks us to consider this question: What sign of welcome is radiating from my heart? He suggests embracing “radical welcoming,” the practice of including the gifts and voices of people traditionally on the margins. “The outcome of welcoming is that everyone can be transformed by their relationship with each other,” he writes in the August 2020 issue of Guide for Spiritual Living: Science of Mind magazine.

He adds, “The radical part of this practice is intentional inclusion, which asks us to carefully examine our intention and make sure it conforms to our values and informs our choices and actions.”

Diversity and inclusivity are among CSL’s shared values. “When we know who we are and our daily practice of dwelling in the Divine is strong,” Viljoen writes, “we become able to embrace differences, not as threats but as the out-picturing of the Divine and therefore something to cherish.”

Five Steps to Embracing

Diversity with Empathy

On the website www.govloop.com, certified executive coach and organizational strategist Frieda Edgette examines how we can embrace diversity in the workplace, using empathy as a tool. She suggests that the key is better understanding ourselves: “We can’t connect and be real with others if we can’t be honest with ourselves.”

As part of her exploration, she shares five steps for doing this work:

1. Be authentic. “Seek a better understanding of who you are. Develop self-awareness by exploring your identity, background, principles and life experiences. … Seek to understand your triggers and fears.”
2. Self-manage. Understand your default response to differences or conflicts. Practice controlling your response by taking a deep breath or exercising.
3. Practice active listening. “Make sure you turn your inner voice off for a moment and focus entirely on the other person,” Edgette suggests. “Let go of the stress of needing to respond.”
4. Get curious. Open the doors to solving problems, being creative and bolstering interpersonal relationships by assuming a mindset of learning.
5. Respect, connect. Better connect with others by being more open and more respectful of one another.

--Learn more about empathy and diversity at:https://www.govloop.com/embrace-diversity-empathy/

Center, Celebrate, Cultivate

The work of inclusion is sacred work, enabling us to embrace practices personally and institutionally that allow us to heal separation and celebrate diversity as an inherent gift of the Divine. CSL’s Diversity Inclusion Commission engages in this work every day, examining the depth and complexity of Oneness.

The commission’s members work to center, celebrate and cultivate the truth of our diversity and the everyday practice of inclusion. Celebrating the inherent diversity present in the world and cultivating inclusive behaviors and systems allow us to see Spirit’s divine manifestations clearer and feel our innate oneness with all life.

The Diversity Inclusion Commission leads CSL’s efforts in developing plans and programs for attracting and retaining a diverse population in our member communities and for inclusion in leadership, conference speakers, committee memberships and all aspects of the organization. These efforts support the continual growth of CSL globally.

The commission continues to innovate and partner with CSL’s other teams to create content and foster a diversity inclusion lens that can be used throughout the organization to focus on diversity and inclusion in all we do.

Learn more about these efforts in the August 2020 issue of Science of Mind magazine. To connect with the CSL Diversity Inclusion Commission, email Inclusion@CSL.org.

Love Reflects Our Own Soul

By Ernest Holmes

We are falling into a deep reverie of universal love. You know there is no person whom we could hate if we loved him. It is a terrible thing to feel dis-united with life and the world and each other because this it to us a reflection of our own soul.

This is to us this vast panoramic picture mirror, whatever if may be. It is more than nothing and less than something. It has an office to perform, to give expression to that which animates what we see and what we animate. And we animate what we see. This to us is the projection of our own soul.

We cannot help but be filled with love. It is true that love is the lodestone of life. It is, as Ella Wheeler Wilcox said, “a love so limitless, deep and broad, that men have renamed it and called it God.”

Love asks to return just the joy of the giving. … Love.