Sally Cronin has started her Christmas season at her Smorgasbord Blog Magazine where she chooses a holiday post from bloggers to share. She chose the post below that I shared last year. Some heart-warming videos to touch your hearts.
Greatest Holiday Commercial Ads to Touch Your Heart by D.G. Kaye
Since this series began in January 2018 there have been over 1200 Posts from Your Archives where bloggers have taken the opportunity to share posts to a new audience…
The topics have ranged from travel, childhood, recipes, history, family and the most recent series was #PotLuck where I shared a random selection of different topics.
This series is along the same lines and is a celebration of Christmas and New Year.
I do appreciate that this is not a religious festival for everyone but it is a time of year when families and friends come together and our thoughts turn to our hopes and wishes for the coming year. At the end of the post you can find out how to participate in this festive series.
Every year the retail industry makes an effort to steal not just our hearts but also to bring some entertainment to their sales messages. D.G. Kaye, Debby Gies has found two heartwarming ones to share with us.
Greatest Holiday Commercial Ads to Touch Your Heart
This Christmas will be difficult for so many this year, and mine is no exception. I’m not going to write any fancy or bougie words here about how cozy and mushy this time of year is for me and for so many others, between loss, hurt and this damned Corona virus, but I do want to share these beautiful commercial ads I came across. These ads reach far beyond whatever they are selling; they all encompass the human spirit of love, kindness and empathy. If you need a reason to smile (even though a tissue needed will be a guarantee), please enjoy. Hallmark has some strong competition!
Please hop over to Sally’s blog to watch the videos
My latest article at Sally Cronin’s Smorgasbord Blog Magazine in my Spiritual Awareness series is all about Astral Travel. Have you ever taken one of these trips? Learn more about what’s involved with OBE – out of body experience.
Smorgasbord Blog Magazine – Spiritual Awareness – Are you familiar with Astral Projection? by D.G. Kaye
Explore the spiritual side of our natures as D.G. Kaye shares her experiences and research into this element of our lives.
Welcome back to my Spiritual Awareness series here at Sally’s Smorgasbord. Today I’m speaking about the act of Astral Projection. So, what is Astral Projection?
The astral plane is the realm of dreams and spirits. When we astral plane, we are taken to a level beyond the physical where we live here on earth. Astral Projection is the vehicle method we use to visit an intermediate world of light between heaven and earth. Those who have astral traveled say when in the astral, they can feel they are in the present, along with all their senses. People often experience this during illness or if they’re involved in a near death experience, if not practiced intentionally.
Astral planing is a spiritual journey of the out of body experience, known as OBE. It is like floating out of our bodies and watching our body below, not unlike what many tell us they experience in near death situations, or while in an operating room as their soul spirit watches from above. The nature of astral traveling is we can explore another plane that does exist. It is said that approximately 10% of the population has had an OBE (out of body experience). So how would we know if we’ve astral planed?
Astral planing is basically, lucid dreaming. It is the separation of our spirit body from the physical body allowing us to experience the astral realm. And remember, our body is still connected by a silver cord, enabling us to return anytime. In actuality, it is the brain’s body schema (its perception) of our physical form being altered. Nothing is “leaving” our body, we can literally only feel our conscious self, leaving our body when we start to fall asleep, that is why we sometimes feel like we’re falling while dreaming as we are startled and our body shakes us awake. the first step to starting an astral projection.
The goal is to transcend our physical being, mentally. Our soul doesn’t disconnect completely from our body, it’s just something people say as a way to describe astral projection.
It’s important to do our research before attempting astral projection, making sure we have a clear and pure intention because astral projection is the law of attraction for the soul, meaning that whatever we reflect will come back to us during our soul journey. While we sleep, our subconscious is in control. The difference between unconscious astral travel when asleep and dreaming, and practiced astral projection, is by using conscious astral projection, we’re able to control where our soul travels, also referred to as conscious sleeping.
x
How to Astral Travel
Lie down or sit in a chair in a quiet place and focus solely on your deep breathing. Do this until your mind draws blank and the only sound you hear is the sound of your deep breathing, and you’re just about to fall asleep, but still awake. Continue on with deep breaths for approximately 20 minutes when you will begin to feel a tingling or numbness within your body, and you eventually lose consciousness of your physical body. Don’t panic, stay focused, and do not move or allow in any thinking, just stay focused on the breath, this is part of the process. Once we’ve achieved this vibrational stage, we can begin to use our willpower in one of several ways.
Vibrational Stage
Our vibrations have now been shifted to an alternate frequency, which enable us to project. We must next visualize ourselves moving – without moving, as we need to begin lifting ourselves out of our physical bodies. . . please continue reading at Sally’s Smorgasbord . . .
Next in my spiritual awareness series at Sally Cronin’s Smorgasbord Blog Magazine is – Cutting Emotional Cords that bind us with the help of archangels.
Cutting Emotional Cords with Archangels by D.G. Kaye
Explore the spiritual side of our natures as D.G. Kaye shares her experiences and research into this element of our lives.
Welcome back to my Spiritual Awareness series. While we’re still on the topic about angels, today I’d like to share with you a method of how to remove internal negative energies, or energetic form of attachment, with the help of two of our highest Archangels, Michael and Raphael. We are all connected to higher source through vibrational energy, and we refer to ‘connected’ by way of etheric or psychic energy cords. But what are these invisible cords? And how can we eliminate them to help release a negative energy connection we prefer not to keep within us?
We can learn to practice the art of cutting these invisible cords. And to help with the releasing of these cords that sometimes drain us and sap our energy unknowingly, we look to Archangels Michael and Raphael. Michael is the highest in the order of all seven Archangels. He is recognized in Christianity, Judaism and in Islam. Raphael is regarded as the angel who possesses God’s healing powers.
The energy cords we’re most linked with are people in our close circles, and almost always, family. These same cords also connect us to profound events in our lives that remain in the back of our sub-conscience – some good, some bad. And it’s those unhealthy attachments we want to eliminate.
All the negativity we carry because of unhealthy cords that bind us should be cleared from within every once in awhile, just as we cleanse ourselves and our homes. If you find yourself continuously carrying bad feelings, harboring negative energies, reliving unpleasant events of unfavorable conditions, or taking in energies from someone close to you, allowing them to take up too much residence in your head leaving you feeling unsettled within, it’s probably time to begin cutting. .
I am thrilled and excited to share this post by Rebecca Budd of Tea Toast & Trivia. Rebecca interviewed me a little while ago and I was delighted to come across the post she wrote with the podcast audio attached. I hope you will listen.
Season 3 Episode 50: Debby Gies on Being an Eclectic Memoirist and Conversationalist
I am your host, Rebecca Budd, and I am looking forward to sharing this moment with you.
I am delighted that blogger and non-fiction writer, Debby Gies and I are connecting Toronto and Vancouver, Canada.
Debby is a Canadian author, writing under the pen name of D.G. Kaye. She writes about life, matters of the heart and women’s issues. Her intent is to inspire others by sharing her stories about events she has encountered, and the lessons that have come along with them.
Debby is an empathetic fashionista and shopper extraordinaire who loves to laugh. She is an eclectic memoirist and conversationalist who writes to empower by sharing slices of life. Her blog is a wide-ranging mix of randomness, where you will find anything from writing tips to tales from the past, to travel tips, book reviews, and author interviews.
I invite you to put the kettle on and add to this exciting conversation on Tea Toast & Trivia.
Thank you for joining Debby and me on Tea Toast & Trivia.
And a special thank you, Debby, for sharing your insights on living life in the now, with humour and expectation. You have inspired me, and I know that you have inspired readers and listeners to head into the unknown with courage and determination.
I invite you to meet up with Debby on her blog, D.G. Kaye Writer.com , on her Amazon Page and on Goodreads. It is a place that welcomes profound conversations that reminds us to Live, Love, Laugh and Breathe.
Until next time, dear friends, keep safe, keep reading and be well.
Realms of Relationships – Wrapping up the Year and Covid Lingering Effects
Welcome to my Realms of Relationships post finale for 2021. I hope you all have been enjoying my articles where I share some of own experiences about different types of relationships. Next year I’ll be back with my travel columns and later in the year I’ll be back with more relationship talk, and maybe even something new! Today I’m sharing this post here I originally wrote for my monthly column over at Sally Cronin’s Smorgasbord Blog Magazine.
In this edition, I want to talk about relationships that have been altered or have taken on new awakenings through the global pandemic we’ve all been living through for almost two years now.
Once all the lockdowns began, life as everyone knew it changed. Suddenly, moms and dads are working at home, trying to get their jobs done as they had to adapt to helping school their kids digitally – a feat in itself for the technically challenged.
How we’re affected by the ages:
Many couples forced to spend more time together during lockdown discovered they loved and missed going to work to get out of the house to avoid 24/7 with a partner, while some other relationships were strengthened in that time as many re-discovered, reconnected, and re-evaluated their relationships. Some friendships were strengthened, while some others were let go of as realizations and evaluations of our lives took place when we were restricted from seeing anyone. So many were affected from quarantine conditions from unemployment adding financial strains, dealing with sick and dying loved ones, disrupted homelife, home schooling and growing mental illnesses because of forced conditions having created havoc in so many people’s lives. Many statistics have been cited about the increase of divorce enquiries and proceedings. I also must make mention of the many stranded at home stuck in abusive relationships with no escape.
Young children are equally affected at differing crucial stages of their learning, as well as hampered social skills while not being able to play or interact in person with others. Many young children and toddlers missing crucial interacting at nursery schools and play dates spending two of their earliest years either missing social interaction – where they learn to socialize by playing and learning together with other children, while others too young to realize the way they are growing up in their earliest years at home isn’t situation normal.
Middle-grade and teenaged kids were desperately missing social interaction. As they craved their usual activities with friends at a time of exploration of the world at their curious ages, suddenly having their ‘regular’ lives ripped out from them stuck at home with family in their new constricted lives, have had to find ways to adapt. How many suicides do we even imagine have occurred because of the mental disruption of their lives?
The elderly have had to endure not only extra lonely times with aching hearts as their loved ones ached with the worry for them, but many of the elderly who rely on the help and visits from others were devastatingly left out in the cold. The long, lonely hours of being alone became so much more profound for both the sick and the agile – those that require daily visits for care, and those denied the ability for visitations from loved ones. Yes, digital apps helped to connect some and not others, became the backup for visual virtual visits, but there is no substitute for a real human visit where we can look into someone’s eyes and feel the love, a touch, a hug, and human physical compassion, and this missing of human interaction left a gaping hole in the hearts of too many.
The sick who couldn’t get proper medical attention and consequently dying before their time – like my husband, who died BECAUSE of the Covid epidemic halting regular doctor visits and no way to get into a hospital unless there was an evident and immediate emergency. Those that actually feared going to a hospital for serious ailments because they were afraid they’d catch the Covid inside the hospital. The undiagnosed cancers, deeming treatment too late – LIKE my husband. The strokes and heart attacks people died from because they refused to go to hospitals during Covid. The delayed testing for the so many with yet to have diagnosis that did and will ultimately end these people’s lives earlier than would have pre-pandemic. And the list goes on and on.
I know what I write of is merely touching on the tip of the icebergs as so many in the world have suffered losses – loss of lives, sickness, and financial draining. These devastations in all our lives in some way or another have become the rude awakenings for us, and worse for many more.
Realizations. This pandemic gave us all a time for reflection and reckoning, a look around, and insight as to who’s caring about us? I know I’ve certainly had startling revelations myself after losing my husband seven months ago and discovering that my own family (save for two) doesn’t have the time of day for me, as well as discovering that my husband’s family were just that – my husband’s family. This rude awakening for me just brought me back to Maya Angelou’s famous quote: “When people show you who they are, believe them.”
What I’ve learned during this pandemic: Keep your circles small and tight. It’s all about the quality of the people in our lives, not the quantity. And friends are the family we choose.
If anyone here would like to share some of your own awakenings and discoveries you’ve had through these trying times, please feel free to share.
Let us all pray for a better year globally, the sick to heal, the virus to die, and peace, love, and brotherhood to return to mankind.
Below are links to just a few articles on how the pandemic has wreaked havoc on many relationships:
Welcome to my September edition of Realms of Relationships at Sally Cronin’s Smorgasbord Blog Magazine that I contribute to monthly. There are many kinds of relatioships, but often, we forget about the one with ourselves.
Smorgasbord Blog Magazine – D. G. Kaye Explores the Realms of Relationships – September 2021 – The Relationship with Ourselves -Self-Care
Relationships with ourselves – Self-Care
Welcome to my Realms of Relationships column at Smorgasbord Blog Magazine. Today I want to talk about the most important relationship we can have, and that’s the one we have with ourselves. It’s often easy to overlook ourselves, especially when times are tense, fast, and frazzled with life’s daily grind. And if we have loved ones to care for on top of daily living, often, the last person being served is usually ourselves.
I’m a living testament of what self-neglect can leave behind as resulting damage. Often, we get so wrapped up in our lives and lose track of time – the time we let ourselves go. So yes, self-compassion and self-care are just as essential for us to live in good health – not just to survive.
Sometimes, some of the most nurturing people forget that taking care of others requires us to be in good health in order to care of someone else. But often in the middle of trauma, our focus often falls on the loved one we’re caring for – both young and old, without giving a second thought for our own well-being. I know this because I lived it.
Self- care encompasses the daily things we do for ourselves to keep our health in check – hygiene, eating properly, taking meds and required vitamins, and getting in exercise and enough sleep. Most importantly, any ailments we feel coming on should be dealt with as soon as possible once we notice things aren’t running as smoothly with our bodies, and not left to fester until such time we decide to stop pushing aside things a doctor needs to have a look at. And then there is emotional health.
If we are living through a stressful time, not just our physical health needs tending to, but, we need an outlet to relieve some of the mental angst that can sometimes translate to more physical ailments. Trust me, it’s not a myth, stress and worry have the ability to do great damage within us. Just like a health regimen followed daily creates cumulative benefits that add up daily, not following one will most certainly chip away at all the goodness we’ve already accrued through time as we continue to neglect ourselves.
Taking care of ourselves is vital for us to function optimally, but especially when someone else is relying on us to take care of them. When chaos or trauma strike, it shouldn’t mean that we abandon what’s important for us to remain in good health, but so often we’ll sacrifice what’s good for us and put others before us. Here’s what we need to know about taking care of ourselves:
Make sure to get enough sleep – not getting enough sleep can initiate other health problems.
Make mealtime a routine at least twice a day if you can’t manage three squares. If you eat a good breakfast it can sustain you through the day in case you do happen to miss out on lunch. But even more important to eat a healthy dinner, especially if we’re missing that lunch.
Don’t stop taking important vitamins and supplements, especially if you’re deficient in them. Not eating properly during stressful times, then not taking supplementation, doubles the drain on our bodies leaving us without efficient fuel or nutrients.
Take a timeout and go for a walk, read a chapter, listen to music – whatever you enjoy for a mental health break from high stressed life. If you’re caring for someone 24/7, arrange for someone to come by and give you a break for some down time and time to get household essentials looked after, and maybe even to eke out some personal time.
How I can attest to this advice? Because I became one of those self-neglecters.
During my husband’s illness when I was caring for him 24/7, the last thing on my mind was about what I needed. While my world was spiraling out of sense, I didn’t care about eating properly, sometimes not eating at all. I had no appetite. I’d sneak in a shower when my husband would sleep, or if one of his personal support workers were bathing him.
I was full of preliminary grief and anxiety, and I wasn’t hungry. . . Please continue reading at Sally’s Smorgasbord to learn the repercussions after we forget to take care of ourselves.
A quick hello as I surface from chaos and grieving status quo. I’m in the midst of packing, donating, and trying to sell stuff online that requires frequent attention – just what I don’t feel like doing. I’m moving in two weeks and trying to figure out the puzzle, deciding how to keep as much as will fit in the smaller unit, which isn’t really small, but compared to now, well, let’s just say it’s A LOT of stuff. I probably won’t have a Sunday review ready this week, but I’ll have a new edition of Writer’s Tips next week. In the meantime, I’m sharing Sally Cronin’s recent article in her new fabulous, Author Series, where she offers valuable PR tips on how to best present ourselves, from bios to pictures.
Smorgasbord Public Relations for Authors – Part Two – Author Biographies -Tips and Translations by Sally Cronin
The definition of Public Relations in business is“Public relations is a strategic communication process that builds mutually beneficial relationships between businesses and the public”
In the past my focus has been on book marketing, which did include how to reach potential readers with blogs, social media and as part of the writing community. Whilst this series will revisit those platforms along the way it is an opportunity to focus on some key areas of our public profiles that might influence the public to buy our books.
This week it is the turn of the biography that we put on selling sites such as Amazon, Bookbub and Goodreads.
Author Biography – Tips and Translations
With approximately 150 authors across the Cafe and Bookstore and the Children’s Reading Room, I am in Amazon and Goodreads daily checking for new releases and reviews to share in the updates. In the current series of Meet the Authors I am also updating biographies to include and I am afraid that I have had to update quite a few myself with new books, or the numbers of books that have been written.
My suggestions today are not carved in stone, and how you write your biography is entirely your decision. The one area that is key and seems to be echoed around the writing sites is the fact that a biography that is overlong will be overlooked.
The biography is your advertisement that combined with your photograph is going to grab the attention of the potential reader who has landed on your author page.
Last week I shared the fact that there are 20,000 new ebooks uploaded each week on Amazon that are in direct competition with your books. Provided you have listed your books with the genre or sub-genre, when searching for books a reader will be offered a selection to choose from. Hopefully that will land them on your book page or your Amazon Author Page.
Having got them there.. and smiled at them from your author photograph they will look at the first line of your biography and with any luck will decide to read the rest.
However, they are not going to stay their long! Which is why the recommended length of an author biography is under 1000 characters (Amazon recommendation) or 300 words.
The primary aim of your biography is to establish your credentials as a writer and to give a quick resume of your work with a dash of personality that makes them think they might enjoy your books.
It is recommended to write the biography in the third person. I have played around with both first and third person and I have just revamped mine with the latter. (I am still playing around with it)
Not all of us have degrees in literature or are award winning or USA Today Bestselling authors. However, those that do should lead with that.
Failing academic credentials, then get creative on how to hook a reader into trusting you know what you are doing. One of the ways to do that is use third party endorsement by using snippets from your reviews.
For example you could select one of your top reviews for a book and start your biography.
James Smith is a writer whose readers consider ‘is a master storyteller who brings characters alive’
Samantha Johnson’s first novel Desperate Authors received five star reviews ‘Johnson’s creative world building left me breathless’
If you have awards for other books mention you have several including two or three stand out commendations.
Following this, and if you have more than one book, it it a good idea mention your most current book with a brief synopsis.
It is not necessary to list the titles of all the books you have written within the biography as the covers are featured on the page. However, after the main biography you can add further information on series of books for example, so that the reader has a better idea of which book to begin with.
Many of the sample biographies of best-selling authors that I have read over the last couple of weeks have been written with a certain amount of humour which made them stand out.
It is a good idea to put the link to your website with a note – For more information about the author and their work etc.
Amazon new look Author Central
Amazon have made it easier for you to share your biography, not only on other sites but in other languages.
Potential readership around the world.
The other key element to think about is your visibility on an international platform such as Amazon which sells our books on 17 sites (maybe more as growing fast) with a reach of approximately 58 countries. This means that you need to make sure your biography is on as many sites as possible. . . Please continue reading at Sally’s blog.
I have been a storyteller most of my life (my mother called them fibs!). Poetry, song lyrics and short stories were left behind when work and life intruded, but that all changed in 1996.
My first book Size Matters was a health and weight loss book based on my own experiences of losing 70kilo. I have written another thirteen books since then on health and also fiction including three collections of short stories. My latest collection is Life is Like A Bowl of Cherries: Sometimes Bitter, Sometimes Sweet.
I am an Indie author and proud to be one. My greatest pleasure comes from those readers who enjoy my take on health, characters and twisted endings… and of course come back for more.
As a writer I know how important it is to have help in marketing books.. as important as my own promotion is, I believe it is important to support others. I offer a number of FREE promotional opportunities on my blog and linked to my social media. If you are an author who would like to be promoted to a new audience of dedicated readers, please contact me via my blog. All it will cost you is a few minutes of your time. Look forward to hearing from you.
A big shout out to Sally Cronin at the Smorgasbord Invitation (my second home), for keeping my online spirit alive during this difficult time for me. She has kindly been resharing my Relationship Columns I’ve written for my series at her Blog Magazie. Today I’m sharing the recent replay here of Forming Healthy Relationships, as I prepare to publish my next article in the next week or so.
Smorgasbord Blog Magazine – D. G. Kaye Explores the Realms of Relationships – Forming Healthy Relationships – Rewind – What’s Inside the Box?
As many of you already know that D.G. Kaye’s husband passed away on April 7th and our thoughts are with her during this sad time.
Debby is working on her next Realm of Relationship Columnbut rather than have the pressure of a deadline, we thought we might share the first posts of the series which began in January 2020 every Monday to bring new readers to the blog up to speed.
Forming Healthy Relationships – What’s Inside the Box?
Welcome back to this month’s edition of Realms of Relationships. In this segment, I’m delving into how we judge and are judged by others – First impressions and Body language and discovering what’s underneath the wrapping.
As humans, we are often judged by our outward appearances first. But if we never gave someone a chance to approach us to potentially form a friendship or relationship just because we couldn’t see beyond appearance, our circles would be pretty limited.
People come wrapped in all assortments. Who and what we attract or gravitate to stems from the vibe we give off – this vibe consists of a combination of traits we emit with our words, body language, and our physical appearance. All these elements comprised will help to determine who chooses to approach us.
Our demeanors and physical appearance send signals to others leading them to form a perception of what we’re all about. But without learning what’s on the inside, and perhaps what’s perceived as a first impression, we may not always adequately represent who we really are. Depending on how we choose to present ourselves on a given day, we’ll undoubtedly be judged by our actions as first impressions, so it’s a good idea not to misrepresent ourselves. Sadly, society does label people based on appearance, and as much as appearances do play a part in determining who we approach and how we’re accepted, appearance alone is not a great indicator of what’s inside our box.
Now we all know the old saying – don’t judge a book by its cover, but sadly, it’s human nature that people are judged by their covers. Yes, it’s unfair, but there are shallow thinking people among us. And pity for those who judge because they may just be missing out on opportunity for a satisfying relationship or friendship because they couldn’t see beyond difference.
What do we want most from a relationship? Acceptance, love compassion, trust, understanding, communication and reciprocation. These are the most important qualities a relationship should offer, and the qualities that will sustain a solid relationship. These aren’t qualities you can necessarily decipher based on looking at an individual. Yes, it’s easy to make judgement, but until we learn about what’s behind the cover, we aren’t able to make a complete assessment.
We are hard-wired for judgement. We all have our own version of what’s acceptable to us and peeves we hold in our mental lists of what we seek out of a relationship. But maybe we need to look beyond those physical peeves and explore personality and values.
DGKayewriter.com 