Tara Brach shared this poem in a meditation and I’m passing it on to you… Continue reading “The One Deep Inside Your Chest”
On the temporary nature of things…
Ajahn Chah writes:
“Do you see this glass?” he asked us. “I love this glass. It holds the water admirably. When the sun shines on it, it reflects the light beautifully. When I tap it, it has a lovely ring. Yet for me, this glass is already broken. When the wind knocks it over or my elbow knocks it off the shelf and it falls to the ground and shatters, I say, ‘Of course.’ But when I understand that this glass is already broken, every minute with it is precious.”
I love being a freelancer in the summer…
As soon as I click publish, I’ll skip a shower, but on 4 pieces of light clothing, gather my gear and get on my bike for the 3.3 mile ride to work. Once I get there, I’ll meditate, do a little yoga and have breakfast. No getting kids off to school, no drama, no nothing. Just a nice morning. Some moments are easier to be present in than others… :-D
…but while it was responsive it did not have custom posts, hence, back to the old look. Click the image for things to think about when choosing a theme…
What is this self inside us…
A great quote from Kristen Neff’s book on self-compassion which I highly recommend…
10 Reasons Why You’re Enough Just the Way You Are
Ally Palmer writes:
- Everyone’s a work in progress: Nobody’s perfect including yourself so stop putting so much pressure on yourself to be so.
- You have unique strengths: There’s a quality you have right now that someone else wishes they had. Stop focusing on what you don’t have and make the best of what you do.
- Your strength lies in your ability to be okay with your weaknesses: We don’t have to be ashamed of our weaknesses. We’re human, we all have them. When you simply accept that you have weaknesses, you can stop spending so much energy trying to hide them. Continue reading “10 Reasons Why You’re Enough Just the Way You Are”
Radical acceptance…
If self-acceptance is an issue with you [as it is with me] may I suggest the following book which has been giving me deep insights in this area:
Wholeheartedness = courage, compassion and connection…
Time to mix things up again. Thanks to my friend Tim Kastelle for sharing Brené Brown’s TED Talk on vulnerability. She writes here on cultivating worthiness…
Practicing courage, compassion, and connection in our daily lives is how we cultivate worthiness. The key word is practice. Mary Daly, a theologian, writes, “Courage is like—it’s a habitus, a habit, a virtue: You get it by courageous acts. It’s like you learn to swim by swimming. You learn courage by couraging.” The same is true for compassion and connection. We invite compassion into our lives when we act compassionately toward ourselves and others, and we feel connected in our lives when we reach out and connect. Before I define these concepts and talk about how they work, I want to show you how they work together in real life—as practices. This is a personal story about the courage to reach out, the compassion that comes from saying, “I’ve been there,” and the connections that fuel our worthiness.
Brown, Brene (2010-09-20). The Gifts of Imperfection: Let Go of Who You Think You’re Suppose to Be and Embrace Who You Are (p. 7). BookMobile. Kindle Edition.
Here’s the TED Talk in case you haven’t seen it yet…
How to Make Tea
Lately, I have been turned on to the joy of loose leaf tea. My ‘tealologist’ Jenelle of Caffe Tlazo in Algoma, WI says that the tea we buy in the grocery store is the ‘hot dog‘ of teas made of from the floor sweepings of the good stuff. You can learn more about making good tea here: How to Make Tea – Prevention.com. Ask Jenelle if you want to know more about buying good tea once you know how to make it…
Oh, Discipline! We Need To Hang Out More Often!
Donna Gates writes:
Chop wood and carry water. According to meditation masters and seasoned yogis, the path to greater awareness is unadorned and practical.
In order to awaken to our essential self, all we need is determined effort.
And after we “wake up,” the story is the same: Chop wood and carry water.
Too often, we glamorize spirituality. We are accustomed to finding peace in a place that we need to go to. In reality, our greatest source of strength and peace is within.
And the only way to get there is with consistent effort and discipline.
Discipline can take us to deeper and more fulfilling places in life. It can make our dreams a reality and it can bring our goals within arm’s reach.
Full story at: Oh, Discipline! We Need To Hang Out More Often!.
20 Videos That Went Viral in 2012
See on Scoop.it – What I see, what I feel, what I’d like to see…
Since the advent of YouTube, short, homemade videos have skyrocketed to Internet fame in just a few days time. We’ve got some of the best videos in health and fitness to go viral over the past year.
See on greatist.com
Endless possibilities…
My wife and sons have departed to visit family for the holidays and leaving me with five glorious days alone in the house. The question is how to best spend this treasure. Five empty days without interruption. To some people that might sound like a nightmare but to a father of six boys with three teenagers an eight-year-old currently at home it sounds like heaven. The question is and how to best spend? The possibilities are truly endless! One possibility? Buy a case of beer and load up on sausage and cheese and make it my objective to watch all five seasons of Castle back to back while never changing out of my boxers. Somehow I feel as if I have a higher calling and that this time could be better invested. What if I used the time to actually read the books on my Kindle that I thought I couldn’t live without? What if I use the time to actually do the exercises I gloss over in those self-help books I’ve purchased? What if I ate nothing but good food? What if I use the time to reduce or eliminate coffee from my morning? See what I mean? The possibilities are truly unless but the choices that I make will tell me more about who I really am than anything that I’ve ever written here…
Tell me, what is it you plan to do?
simple-reminders:
“Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?”
Mary Oliver
via Tumblr
Who Are You (Really)?
Shelly Bullard writes:
What masks are you wearing? What I mean by this is, what are the ways you’re hiding from the world? How do you veer away from your authentic self? How do you change or alter yourself in relationships? The answers to these questions can be very telling as to why you aren’t feeling happy, complete, or fully embodied in your life.
Your mask has a lot of different names: the “false self,” the “conditioned self,” the “learned self,” the “ego.” Basically what it is is the version of you that is not authentic. We all have this version of ourselves (and some of us have many versions, one for every occasion). The fact that you have a false self is nothing to feel ashamed of. It is, however, a part of yourself that you might want to get to know; especially because happiness comes from learning how to take your mask off.
Here’s a short history of where your false self came from. We all received messages (overtly or covertly) when we were young about how to be in the world: “you should or shouldn’t be, act, feel, think” a certain way. Naturally we internalized these messages to mean that we needed to be different than who we really are to be accepted. Hence the birth of the false self (good girls, bad boys, etc etc).
Unfortunately many of us have never taken those masks off–we are still walking around as an altered version of our real selves. This causes us to feel like something is “off;” either our relationships don’t feel fulfilling or we feel a little fraudulent or incomplete. If you feel “off” in a general way it’s a good indication that your false self has taken over. It’s time to take back the reins.
One of the most common places for a false self to appear is in romantic relationships. Why? Because romance makes us vulnerable, vulnerability makes us scared, and when we are scared we want to put our masks on! We do this for two reasons: #1 we think that altering ourselves is a way to get people to approve of us (like when we were young) and #2 we believe that hiding behind a mask keeps us safe. Neither are actually true. Really all your mask does is make you feel distant from others. It is a protective measure that backfires in a big way; rather than helping you, it just keeps your authentic greatness hidden from the world.
Your mask is not the real you! The real you is behind all that altering and changing. The real you is your essence, your authentic self, your SOUL. Your Soul may be hidden behind a bunch of stuff, behind the masks, but it’s there. And it’s waiting for you to make contact. Ask yourself these questions to realign with your true self:
- Who am I really? (really, really)
- What do I stand for?
- What is my purpose?
- What is my message?
- What am I here to do? (like, on this planet type-of here!)
- What is important to me?
- What is my gift? What do I want to create?
- What inspires me?
- What do I really love?
Now live your life according to your answers! Is it always easy? No! It’s vulnerable as hell! But it’s worth it. Trust me. The fact is you are going to feel limited in your connections if you are mainly operating with a mask on. Your mask hides you–it keeps you at a distance. So in order to really start living your life, you have to start showing up in a more authentic way.
Let yourself out! Greatness does not come from hiding. You have greatness within you and it’s dying to be set free. So show the world who you are. We’re all waiting to see…
Create Healthy Habits!
Take 21 days to create a new healthy habit and the habits you create will take care of you! With what healthy habits would you like to start the new year? A year from now, you’ll wish you had started today…
Oh, and by the way if you’re a geeky type you might want to look into tools like Habitforge to get you started!
image via Visual Inspiration: Create Healthy Habits!.
When life falls apart
Gemma Stone writes this about our mutual friend Farhana Dhalla:
Sometimes a crisis is a summons to reconfigure our entire lives.
Even though we are resilient creatures, we are still easily hurt. There are times when living hurts. A lot.
There is purpose in pain; often life falls apart exactly when it needs to be rebuilt.
Our stories become burdensome & false.
Our defenses become exhausting & crumble.
When we are no longer able to maintain the stories and defenses that protect us, we can easily dissolve to bits.
When our lives fall apart, it’s the perfect opportunity to build something newer, truer, fuller.
When Farhana’s life crumbled, she used it as a catalyst for transformation. She courageously ventured within herself, found truth, and emerged glowing with love and light.
And that is why I rely on to her to pull me along when I’m dragging my feet and to shine some light when all I see is darkness.
Thank You for Leaving Me is being released today. Farhana’s story is a heartfelt, refreshingly real account of her journey through divorce.
If you’re moving through the end of a relationship, struggling with heartache, or questioning your relationship patterns, I’m confident this book will be helpful. If you’re hesitant, check out this video. If this sounds like the medicine you need, head over here to pick up her book.
Kudos, Farhana! For the book and a life well lived in the face of overwhelming hardship…
Healthy Dependency?
I didn’t know what it looked like either until I read this book. I knew what it looked like to be unheathily attached — it looked like codependency. I knew what it looked like to be unheathily detached — it looked like ‘eff you — I’m taking my marbles and leaving’. If you struggle with either being overly detached or attached, this book will help evision what healthy dependency looks like…
How to make your blog more ‘pinteresting’…
Afraid it’s a massive time suck? Here are two ideas for having your Pinterest cake and eating it too…
Bright, shiny objects! 
You must be logged in to post a comment.