As I scan the Twitter posts from the folks I follow every morning, I jot down the quotes that call to me that day. Here are the ones from this morning:
I remind myself daily that I'm not seeing things as they are but seeing things as I am. - Fay Hart
As long as you have certain desires about how it ought to be, you can't see how it is. - Ram Dass
We must be careful what we imagine, fear, or hope for. The echoes of our thought live on in eternity.
- Robert Fanney
A man is made by his belief. As he believes, so he is. - Bhagavad Gita
We all have a tendency at times to read too much into a word, a phrase, a situation when we really should just let it go, let it roll, let it be. We are all just people living in our own bubbles, and we don't always see what goes on in other's bubbles.
We bring the darkness and the light of our own thoughts into that which is our own reality. Note I said "our own reality." The Reality is not necessarily what we think it is or should be. It simply is what it is. And we need to learn to let it go, let it roll, let it be.
Namaste.
Sunday, October 7, 2012
Sunday, August 19, 2012
MaXIMIze - Honesty and/or Openness
The below came to me in a (not-so) blinding flash of light while watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Season Four, the episode titled "Doomed."
There is a major difference between honesty and openness. Not everyone is a living, breathing book with every page accessible to others. Some are like dairies, locked and hidden, or mysteries with clues to be followed and ferreted out, or puzzles to be pieced together.
Sometimes one just comes into life as a mystery.
Other times one comes into life with the openness of a small child and then trauma - lots of seemingly small traumas that result in the thousand little cuts that bleed trust away day by day or the one major trauma that blows trust to smithereens, the pieces of which are not always findable again, or a combination thereof - causes one to pull into oneself, away from others, away from the risk of being hurt yet again.
As long as the honesty is always there, the openness comes with time, and perhaps even the trust. And time requires patience. Therefore good things truly do come to those who wait.
Who or what in your life is worth the wait of patience and time?
There is a major difference between honesty and openness. Not everyone is a living, breathing book with every page accessible to others. Some are like dairies, locked and hidden, or mysteries with clues to be followed and ferreted out, or puzzles to be pieced together.
Sometimes one just comes into life as a mystery.
Other times one comes into life with the openness of a small child and then trauma - lots of seemingly small traumas that result in the thousand little cuts that bleed trust away day by day or the one major trauma that blows trust to smithereens, the pieces of which are not always findable again, or a combination thereof - causes one to pull into oneself, away from others, away from the risk of being hurt yet again.
As long as the honesty is always there, the openness comes with time, and perhaps even the trust. And time requires patience. Therefore good things truly do come to those who wait.
Who or what in your life is worth the wait of patience and time?
Sunday, August 12, 2012
MaXIMIze - Thoughts Have Legs
Your thoughts have little legs that go out and create what you think about. ~ P. Hayes
I am nearly done re-reading Women Who Run With the Wolves, Myths and Stories of the Wild Woman Archetype by Clarissa Pinkola Estes, PhD. - a book I have read several times over the last 15 years.
There were several seeming coincidences this week that made me stop and go "huh" - made me realize once again just how interconnected everyone and everything really is.
The first had to do with humor - a dear friend of mine at dinner one evening was deliberately being lighter and finding the humor in things, apparently because someone told him he needed more humor in his life. The next day, I read a passage in the book about laughter and its healing power, which I'll share here (page 336, if you have the book - Chapter 11):
"In laughter, a woman breathes fully, and when she does, she may begin to feel unsanctioned feelings. And what could these feelings be? Well, they turn out not to be feelings so much as relief and remedies for feelings, often causing the release of stopped-up tears or the reclamation of forgotten memories, or the bursting of chains on the sensual personality."
Now, this passage is referring to what Dr. Estes calls "dirty Goddess stories," however, I have found that finding the unexpected humor in any situation can cause the same reaction. The key is the ability of whatever you find this type of humor in to, as she says in her book, "...loosen what was too tight, to lift gloom, to bring the body into a kind of humor that belongs not to the intellect but to the body itself, to keep those passages clear."
The second seeming coincidence had to do with working through anger, or rage as she calls it, and moving to forgiveness - as some of my readers know, life has dealt me an interesting hand this year - one of those cards being divorce. In working through trying to save my marriage as well as the fallout from the divorce, I let go of the veil of anger through which I dealt with things most of my life. That letting go has allowed - sometimes forced - me to feel all the other emotions there are out there, including pain, sorrow and grief. That letting go led to the most recent coincidence between life and this book.
The first paragraph in the chapter titled "Battle Scars: Membership in the Scar Clan" reads:
"Tears are a river that take you somewhere. Weeping creates a river around the boat that carries your soul-life. Tears lift your boat off the rocks, off dry ground, carrying it downriver to someplace new, someplace better."
I read that particular passage on a day when I was feeling very low, very vulnerable, very sensitive emotionally. I took the inferred advice, made it through the day and cried my river that evening after work - I let the natural rhythm of emotion flow as it should and released the torrent of emotion rightly, which enabled me to see clearly again and keep things in perspective.
To pull back to the quote at the beginning of this passage, I have read this book several times over the years as a way to discover what it is I need to have, do and be to heal rightly, to heal cleanly, to move forward in life instead of ending up in an endless spiral.
Thoughts have power, more than we realize sometimes, and what we focus on is what we bring into our lives. We need to be cognizant of the rhythm and flow of our thoughts, and do the appropriate course correction in order to move forward in life rather than getting caught in the spiral of repeating things over and over and over again.
What is repeating in your life currently? What course correction can you make to continue moving forward, right here, right now?
The smallest of actions can have the greatest effect.
Namaste!
I am nearly done re-reading Women Who Run With the Wolves, Myths and Stories of the Wild Woman Archetype by Clarissa Pinkola Estes, PhD. - a book I have read several times over the last 15 years.
There were several seeming coincidences this week that made me stop and go "huh" - made me realize once again just how interconnected everyone and everything really is.
The first had to do with humor - a dear friend of mine at dinner one evening was deliberately being lighter and finding the humor in things, apparently because someone told him he needed more humor in his life. The next day, I read a passage in the book about laughter and its healing power, which I'll share here (page 336, if you have the book - Chapter 11):
"In laughter, a woman breathes fully, and when she does, she may begin to feel unsanctioned feelings. And what could these feelings be? Well, they turn out not to be feelings so much as relief and remedies for feelings, often causing the release of stopped-up tears or the reclamation of forgotten memories, or the bursting of chains on the sensual personality."
Now, this passage is referring to what Dr. Estes calls "dirty Goddess stories," however, I have found that finding the unexpected humor in any situation can cause the same reaction. The key is the ability of whatever you find this type of humor in to, as she says in her book, "...loosen what was too tight, to lift gloom, to bring the body into a kind of humor that belongs not to the intellect but to the body itself, to keep those passages clear."
The second seeming coincidence had to do with working through anger, or rage as she calls it, and moving to forgiveness - as some of my readers know, life has dealt me an interesting hand this year - one of those cards being divorce. In working through trying to save my marriage as well as the fallout from the divorce, I let go of the veil of anger through which I dealt with things most of my life. That letting go has allowed - sometimes forced - me to feel all the other emotions there are out there, including pain, sorrow and grief. That letting go led to the most recent coincidence between life and this book.
The first paragraph in the chapter titled "Battle Scars: Membership in the Scar Clan" reads:
"Tears are a river that take you somewhere. Weeping creates a river around the boat that carries your soul-life. Tears lift your boat off the rocks, off dry ground, carrying it downriver to someplace new, someplace better."
I read that particular passage on a day when I was feeling very low, very vulnerable, very sensitive emotionally. I took the inferred advice, made it through the day and cried my river that evening after work - I let the natural rhythm of emotion flow as it should and released the torrent of emotion rightly, which enabled me to see clearly again and keep things in perspective.
To pull back to the quote at the beginning of this passage, I have read this book several times over the years as a way to discover what it is I need to have, do and be to heal rightly, to heal cleanly, to move forward in life instead of ending up in an endless spiral.
Thoughts have power, more than we realize sometimes, and what we focus on is what we bring into our lives. We need to be cognizant of the rhythm and flow of our thoughts, and do the appropriate course correction in order to move forward in life rather than getting caught in the spiral of repeating things over and over and over again.
What is repeating in your life currently? What course correction can you make to continue moving forward, right here, right now?
The smallest of actions can have the greatest effect.
Namaste!
Wednesday, August 1, 2012
MaXIMIze - Vitalize!
The theme for August in 365 Science of Mind, A Year of Daily Wisdom from Ernest Holmes, is Vitalize.
In order to MaXIMIze life, we have to vitalize it. We need to debride and scrub away that which no longer serves our highest purpose. We need to bring our focus back to the light and shun the dark, for the light is the vitalizing force of life.
A mantra I found recently on Twitter goes like this:
I am enough; I have enough; I do enough and whatever anyone thinks of me is none of my business. ~@anitabondi
To truly vitalize ourselves and our lives, we must shut ourselves away from the negative flotsam and jetsam in life, constantly focusing on what is good and true and positive instead.
We are enough, right here, right now, and no one can take that away - we can only give it away by turning away from the light and letting the negative flotsam and jetsam move over us, blocking out said light.
The good news is that even if we allow ourselves to be temporarily plunged into darkness and despair, we can move aside the curtain of negative flotsam and jetsam and see the light once again - if we choose to do so.
Life is about choice - what do you choose to focus on today - vitalizing your life, or letting the negative flotsam and jetsam curtain close around you?
In order to MaXIMIze life, we have to vitalize it. We need to debride and scrub away that which no longer serves our highest purpose. We need to bring our focus back to the light and shun the dark, for the light is the vitalizing force of life.
A mantra I found recently on Twitter goes like this:
I am enough; I have enough; I do enough and whatever anyone thinks of me is none of my business. ~@anitabondi
To truly vitalize ourselves and our lives, we must shut ourselves away from the negative flotsam and jetsam in life, constantly focusing on what is good and true and positive instead.
We are enough, right here, right now, and no one can take that away - we can only give it away by turning away from the light and letting the negative flotsam and jetsam move over us, blocking out said light.
The good news is that even if we allow ourselves to be temporarily plunged into darkness and despair, we can move aside the curtain of negative flotsam and jetsam and see the light once again - if we choose to do so.
Life is about choice - what do you choose to focus on today - vitalizing your life, or letting the negative flotsam and jetsam curtain close around you?
Sunday, July 29, 2012
MaXIMIze - Drawing in the Light
It is all about where you choose to focus your energies. You attract the vibration in which you are dancing. @EkhowBarnes from Twitter
Whatever you worry about, find its contrast. This is what you want to think about. - Marion Ross
Whenever insecurity raises its ugly head, we need to stop and look at what is really in play there. Why did it raise up? What was the trigger? How do we really want to be, feel, react instead of how we did?
Each one of us is worthy of every good thing we want in our lives. What holds us back is ourselves - our assumptions, our insecurities, our lack of belief that we are worthy and deserving of all the riches in the world, our focus on the outer things instead of the inner life.
So many of us focus on being fulfilled by people and things outside of ourselves that we forget we have to love and accept ourselves before others can do so! What we project out into the world is what we draw back to ourselves from the world.
We need to believe we are good, loving, beautiful people before others will. Each of us has the unending capacity within ourselves for love, and therefore is loveable. Each one of us has a deep inner beauty and therefore is beautiful. Each one of us has an immeasurable well of good within us and therefore can share that good with the world.
We each have our own beautiful, unique and treasured light to share with the world. Some of us, however, choose to hide that light under a bushel of insecurity, of fear, of not feeling like we are enough.
Each one of us is enough, right here, right now.
When you believe, you can achieve - so what is stopping you from believing and achieving right here, right now, today?
Whatever you worry about, find its contrast. This is what you want to think about. - Marion Ross
Whenever insecurity raises its ugly head, we need to stop and look at what is really in play there. Why did it raise up? What was the trigger? How do we really want to be, feel, react instead of how we did?
Each one of us is worthy of every good thing we want in our lives. What holds us back is ourselves - our assumptions, our insecurities, our lack of belief that we are worthy and deserving of all the riches in the world, our focus on the outer things instead of the inner life.
So many of us focus on being fulfilled by people and things outside of ourselves that we forget we have to love and accept ourselves before others can do so! What we project out into the world is what we draw back to ourselves from the world.
We need to believe we are good, loving, beautiful people before others will. Each of us has the unending capacity within ourselves for love, and therefore is loveable. Each one of us has a deep inner beauty and therefore is beautiful. Each one of us has an immeasurable well of good within us and therefore can share that good with the world.
We each have our own beautiful, unique and treasured light to share with the world. Some of us, however, choose to hide that light under a bushel of insecurity, of fear, of not feeling like we are enough.
Each one of us is enough, right here, right now.
When you believe, you can achieve - so what is stopping you from believing and achieving right here, right now, today?
Wednesday, July 18, 2012
MaXIMIze - Bringing Things into the Light
If the shadow is repressed and isolated from consciousness, it never gets corrected, and it can burst forth at any time. ~ C.G. Jung
When I read this quote, I immediately thought of my own insecurity issues and how I need to bring them into the light and face each one of them head on, looking them square in the eyes and letting them know they are not going to control me any longer - I will live up to my potential to the true best of my ability.
What shadows do you need to bring into the light and deal with right here, right now so you can truly live your best life?
What is stopping you from doing so?
What is there to truly be afraid of - what is the worst that could happen, really?
Each one of us is worthy of living our best life right here, right now - especially you!
When I read this quote, I immediately thought of my own insecurity issues and how I need to bring them into the light and face each one of them head on, looking them square in the eyes and letting them know they are not going to control me any longer - I will live up to my potential to the true best of my ability.
What shadows do you need to bring into the light and deal with right here, right now so you can truly live your best life?
What is stopping you from doing so?
What is there to truly be afraid of - what is the worst that could happen, really?
Each one of us is worthy of living our best life right here, right now - especially you!
Sunday, July 8, 2012
MaXIMIze - By Resting
A friend recently pointed out that when my life is good or I seem happier my writing drops off. I don't know if that is true for this most recent furlough - although he is right, I am in a better place than I was a few months ago when I started this blog - or if the lack of recent writing is part of the peaks and valleys of life.
Life is about cycles - spring is when everything comes back to life after the deep sleep of winter, just as morning follows night - activity follows rest. A few months ago, my life was a flurry of activity - some yin, some yang - and I wrote a lot to deal with particular parts of the flurries. Now my life is more even keel and the muse has been enjoying a well-earned rest.
As anyone who farms or gardens knows, the ground we plant in needs time in the rotation to lie fallow and gather nutrients to feed the next crop planted there. So too must we honor our own personal cycles of activity and rest, for if we do not allow the time for rest and rejuvenation we will drain our energy to such a level as to invite illness and disease into our lives.
As stated in the book of Ecclesiastes, Chapter Three, Verse One - to everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under heaven - so there is a time to be active and a time to rest. So, discover and honor your cycle of rest and activity. However, take care not to rest too long, for there is still plenty of live to be lived!
Namaste
Life is about cycles - spring is when everything comes back to life after the deep sleep of winter, just as morning follows night - activity follows rest. A few months ago, my life was a flurry of activity - some yin, some yang - and I wrote a lot to deal with particular parts of the flurries. Now my life is more even keel and the muse has been enjoying a well-earned rest.
As anyone who farms or gardens knows, the ground we plant in needs time in the rotation to lie fallow and gather nutrients to feed the next crop planted there. So too must we honor our own personal cycles of activity and rest, for if we do not allow the time for rest and rejuvenation we will drain our energy to such a level as to invite illness and disease into our lives.
As stated in the book of Ecclesiastes, Chapter Three, Verse One - to everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under heaven - so there is a time to be active and a time to rest. So, discover and honor your cycle of rest and activity. However, take care not to rest too long, for there is still plenty of live to be lived!
Namaste
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