Our host has had to call on all of her inner strength, courage, and wisdom to start off the year with a decision that calls her to let go—albeit briefly—of what she loves. It’s time to face the mystery of the unknown. But she has a plan.

Our host loves any excuse to gift wrap a present. Here she ties a bow around this year’s Activate Your Inner Mystic theme and, with a few festive bells, gifts listeners with a beautiful meditation wrapped in love and decorated with ribbons of peace.

Our host resonates with a quote that says, “Having somewhere to go is a home. Having someone to love is a family. Having both is a blessing.” In this episode, she shares resources and a few pointers for how to be with family when all on the home front may not be merry or bright.

In this year’s Hope for the Holidays episode, we take time to tend our hearts with music and meditation; allowing the tears to flow, knowing these diamond streams are merely expressions of love.

In this episode, our host has been inspired to consider a different way to sustain that thanksgiving list. She invites us to consider a new spin on a familiar practice that may well prop the gratitude horse back in front of its cart.

The results of the recent presidential election evoked raw emotions of shock and despair, or jubilation and relief, depending on which candidate one was rooting for. However, our host and her special guest, Dr. Joan Borysenko, both believe we were born for a time like this: to call upon all our spiritual tenacity and Truth and become catalysts for healing—for the country and our world.

With help from network manager Jeremiah Samborski, our host uses this landmark U.S. Election Day to say “Thank you" to listeners for their vote for her and the Touching the Stillness broadcast these past eight years. She also invites us to participate in a postelection prayer activity designed to promote unity in our hearts and ripple out as peace in the land.

Our host, is familiar with the old-fashioned concept of “painting by numbers” but had never, until now, met anyone who actually prays by numbers. And, while her aversion to numbers is not of phobic proportions, she was still surprised to find herself enraptured as episode guest, Rev. Jim Gaither expounded on his unconventional meditative practice.

Our host takes us on a trip down memory lane to refresh for our modern times the ABC’s of affirmative prayer and, during the episode’s meditation, uses her mesmerizing voice to season those potent statements of Truth with a dash of salt.

Monasticism has had a makeover. As modern-day mystic Rev. Robert Brumet suggests, the contemplative life is now more readily available to almost everyone. We no longer have to cloister ourselves away to effectively live a reflective life.