Allow yourself to play with the freedom that comes from being ordinary and nobody special. The pressure is off. You can relax. Nothing special is expected of you. Nobody is watching. Why should they? You are just an ordinary child of the earth. Perfectly unexceptional, perfect just as you are.
from Legacy of the Heart: The Spiritual Advantages of a Painful Childhood by Wayne Muller, Simon and Schuster, 1992, page 84.
When I am miserable it is usually because my mind is full of negative, discounting messages. That might happen because I’ve done or said something I think was wrong or stupid, because I am worrying about some future event, or because I’m upset about something someone else has done. I have to admit that when I am stressed and/or miserable, I am likely to go to the store and buy a big cookie, a doughnut, chocolate or ice cream!
While sugar is all too often part of my “fix”, I generally don’t stop there. I have learned many things over the years about quieting the mind. As I remember the teachings, or use the techniques I have been taught, my inner critic tends to calm down. Continue reading “Silencing the Mind”
“Self-love requires you to be honest about your current choices and thought patterns and undertake new practices that reflect self-worth.” ~Caroline Kirk
If one more person told me to go love myself I was going to levitate into the air and pull one of those impossible martial arts moves from Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. I was sick of it!
What the heck does loving myself mean? Were they talking about bubble baths, pedicures, and cucumber masks? It turns out there is so much more to self-love than just pampering ourselves. I found this out the hard way. Continue reading “What Self-Love Means”
I suspect all of us prefer living from a sense of abundance rather than scarcity. Moving from scarcity to abundance, however, requires that we change our unhealthy beliefs and behaviors, many of which have probably become habits.
Over the years, some of my clients have found it helpful to make the abundance contracts that I describe in this post. Each contract is based on principles I have learned in my personal and/or professional journey. Continue reading “Creating Your World of Abundance”
Do you think I know what I’m doing?
That for one breath or half-breath I belong to myself?
As much as a pen knows what it’s writing.
Or the ball can guess where it’s going next.
— Rumi
From Open Secret: Versions of Rumi by John Moyne
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Jelaluddin Rumi (30 September 1207 – 17 December 1273), was a 13th-century Persian poet, jurist, theologian, and Sufi mystic. (Biographical information and picture are from Wikepedia)
In 2004, I was in Amma’s Amritapuri ashram when the tsunami hit. That morning, I was practicing bhajans (devotional songs) with a group of people on the temple roof. At one point, we heard screaming below and looked down to see the ashram grounds flooding. Continue reading “2004 Tsunami”
I don’t like waiting. If something is wrong, I want to fix it NOW! If I have an idea, I want to create it NOW. I don’t even like to wait in lines. The reality of course is that everything in my life is not under my control. Learning to let go and let things unfold in their own time is a lesson I am likely to be working on my entire life. Continue reading “Waiting…..”
The sixties were a tumultuous time to be growing up. As a twelve-year-old I was elated when John F. Kennedy was elected president. His vision for the country was so exciting to me. That excitement and optimism began to evaporate with the tumultuous and devastating events that came next. Continue reading “1961 and Beyond: Moving from Elation to Disillusion”
Sometimes, because of the chronic health problems and aches and pains that so often accompany growing older, plus the fact that my mother died at 74, I have felt like my life is winding down, even though most of me doesn’t think that is true. The dilemma about what I want to do when and if I retire adds to that unsettled feeling.
I met someone in India this past December who was such an inspiration. It is a memory I can hold in front of me during the times I am feeling down. Continue reading “Inspiration Comes in Many Forms”
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