In light of what happened on September 11, we all have been struggling with ways to cope with this tragedy. The Expanding Light would like to offer the support we (Ananda Sanga) have been given from our community, to you, our larger spiritual community. These are some tools to deal with this tragedy spiritually.

1. Meditate, Pray or Visualize
If you have a meditation, prayer or visualization technique for increasing the power of light and love into the world, now is the time to use it. Spend time throughout the days ahead sending light and healing energy to those souls in need that are suffering from this calamity.Don'tunderestimate your own power to do good. One more person meditating and praying for the current situation can and will help. Prayers and visualizations you can use right now

2. Remain Centered & Calm
Keeping centered and calm from within will do much more for others and the current situation than constantly emphasizing the negative things that have happened. The more we focus on the negative details of this situation, the more darkness and fear gains power. From a spiritual perspective, much healing is needed now. Healing occurs when love and light is received by the souls in need. Learn a simple meditation technique for calming and centering yourself

3. Limit your TV news time
It's important to catch up on the highlights, but listening to too many news details over and over can actually increase your own fear, numbness, sadness & grief during a critical time when the planet needs light, healing and love to conquer this great darkness. Rather than soaking up the news early in the morning or before bed at night, start and end your day with a meditation and positive prayer that sends light into the world. If you need to catch news details, the Internet news sites have the latest news reports offered in written form, which is usually without the histrionics and emotionalism that television news tends to emphasize.

4. Join together with others in your nearest church, temple, meditationgroup, or spiritual group to offer healing prayers, love, and light to all those souls and situations that are experiencing grief and fear. At Ananda Village, we will regularly meditate and pray for this situation daily PST (Pacific Standard Time) from 12:00 noon - 12:30 p.m. During these times, you can join us or meditate and pray in your own home, feeling as though you are joining a united effort to send out more light and healing for the current situation. To locate a meditation group or prayer group nearest your home, you can e-mail us at sangha@ananda.org and we will do our best to help.

5. Join our Healing Prayer Council
The Healing Prayer Council offers a way to receive spiritual help in times of need, and an opportunity for you to serve in prayer. The Healing Prayer Council is composed of over 800 people who pray regularly for souls in need of healing for all types of situations. Each day, our prayer council receives prayer requests from individuals throughout the world. If you know of someone who is in need of prayers during this time, we can offer our prayers of support. To send your prayer request or for information on joining our prayer council, please e-mail us at prayers@ananda.org

Author's Bio: 

The Expanding Light retreat center is part of Ananda Village, a
cooperative spiritual community founded in 1968 by Swami Kriyananda; (J.
Donald Walters, a direct disciple of Paramhansa Yogananda) The
Expanding Light has been offering programs on yoga and meditation for the last
30 years by members of this unique spiritual community.
Sara Cryer has been a free-lance writer for the last 20 years, author
of "Reflextions on Living" and was the owner of a successful public
relations firm in the Silicon Valley. Presently she has been a resident
of Ananda Village for the last 15 years.