Steve Ryals
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Articles by this expert
SelfGrowth articles and saved writing connected to this expert.
Article
With Enough Love
With enough love, anything can be healed. It's easy enough to say, but how does it work in the real world? People such as Victor Frankel, who wrote Man's Search for Meaning , the now classic treatise on the subject, chronicled how, with a enough love, even years spent in a concentration camp could be healed. Though Victor wrote that book decades ago, the idea that with enough love anything can be healed can still seem startling, even suspect. nnThis seems especially true when
October 21, 2007
Article
Trust
Learning to trust continues to be one of the most challenging spiritual practices of my life. A long time ago, when I was a boy, I clearly remember making the choice to trust people I met. When I was young, friends seemed rare and precious. I felt fortunate to be able to call even one person a true friend. Today, I am blessed with many friends, and they are deeply precious to my heart. What's changed for me is that instead of trusting people to do what I want them to do, I tr
September 5, 2007
Article
What if Peace Broke Out?
I recently realized that I have a story (yes, I have lots of them, even though I've written at some length about letting go of our stories so that we may more fully embrace our spirituality). This particular story says that in order to be "spiritual" I need to stay above the fray of messy human affairs such as politics. The truth is, in spite of my best efforts, I do have strongly held views on any number of issues. I just usually keep them to myself. But something happened t
July 20, 2007
Article
Feeling is Healing
From my perspective, our emotional wounds don't live in our minds. So healing our minds, as Dr. Eve Woods teaches on her show Healing Your Mind, Body, and Spirit, from September 19, 2006 titled "Rewrite Your Internal Script," does not actually get at the core issue. I find this idea - that somehow we can heal our minds with our thoughts, and that this will take care of the dis-ease that often permeates our lives - to be an all too common misconception.nnOur emotions don't liv
June 11, 2007
Article
Is God Real?
In a recent Newsweek (4-9-07), avowed atheist and best-selling author Sam Harris squares off with Rick Warren, pastor of the Saddleback Church in Orange County, CA and author of the world-wide best-seller The Purpose-Driven Life, in a piece titled "Religion: Is God Real?"nnI found it to be interesting reading, as far as it went, but wholly missing a crucial point. While I share Harris's certainty that there is no "Biblical God," I do not share his conclusion that there is no
June 11, 2007
Article
Is Too Much Testosterone a Terminal Illness?
So here we are in the twenty-first century. Sounds like a long time, doesn’t it? So much has happened. Certainly times and experiences have waxed and waned. So many families, children, laughter, terrified screams, unutterable joy, unimaginable savagery.nnAnd we now know of at least sixty centuries of people building towns of cities, trading and competing for resources, going to war. Our ancestors, distant almost beyond imaging, were using fire around a million years ago
June 11, 2007
Article
Creating a "To Be" List
Like many people today, I have “to do” lists that I often seem to measure by the foot. Sometimes I measure a successful day not by how many tasks I accomplish, or even how good a job I do in completing these tasks. Rather, I measure success by how many inches I knock off the list. I know I’ve gone way off the deep end when I start comparing my “to do” lists with others and feeling smug when mine is longer or more intense. Somehow, I’ve made
June 11, 2007
Article
A Weeping Man
President Harry Truman said that, "a weeping man is an abomination." Truman was president from the close of World War II into the early 50s. I saw this quote just the other day, and was reminded of my grandfather, Oren Ryals. Oren was my father's father, and when I was a boy I idolized him. He ran a chicken farm on a seven acre spread near McMinnville Oregon in the 50s and early 60s. I got to go down and spend time working there just about every summer between 1956 and 1963.n
May 29, 2007
Article
Don't Go Back to Sleep
Rumi, the legendary Sufi mystic and luminous poet from the 13th century, famously advised, "Don't go back to sleep." He was referring to the idea that most of us, most of the time, are essentially sleep-walking through life. We're "asleep at the wheel" whenever we're allowing our old, unconscious stories and programs to run the show. Many of us, for example, are absolutely convinced that we are victims of one thing or another. It might be a parent, a spouse, the government, a
May 27, 2007
Article
We Are Pure Energy
Quantum physics clearly demonstrates that energy, in one form or another, constitutes the most fundamental building blocks of the universe. To be even more precise, these building blocks, called quarks, or quanta, are actually the potential for a particular frequency, or state, or amount of energy. I use the word potential because we cannot measure the actual energy involved until we specifically observe it The universe, then, is a field of pure potential that is continually
May 26, 2007
Article
Hugs are Healing
It is clear that safe, caring physical touch is as important to our health as food, air or water. It's been amply demonstrated that newborns deprived of nurturing touch can actually die, even if their other physical needs are met. Sadly, in our culture physical touch, particularly in the form of hugs, is often seen as unsafe. In particular, men are discouraged from hugging each other lest it be seen as somehow "gay." (As though there's anything wrong with being gay. There isn
May 26, 2007
Websites & resources
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Website
Drunk with Wonder
The book âDrunk with Wonder: Awakening to the God Within,â thoroughly explores the nature of reality, from quantum physics to metaphysics, and the vital role of emotions in coloring our experience of life. Steve shows how emotional literacy is the missing link in healing emotional trauma.
January 21, 2008
Website
Drunk with Wonder
Drunk with Wonder is about reconnecting with that innocent, precious place inside us where our passion lives. It's about learning how to gently heal emotional wounds and begin making a positive contribution to the world. In other words, "To be the change we wish to see...."
September 23, 2007