WORDS

     Words carry energy, and as such, they are powerful. How do we use them? Do we create misery with them? Inspire fear? Promote hope? Are our words choppy and frantic, or expansive? Do we feel "ok" or "exceptionally well" ? There's a difference. We can rise or sink by our words, and raise others up or tear them down in the same way.

I bring awareness to the way the words I use affect the way I feel, and use better words in order to feel better.

THE POWER OF ACTING AS IF

     "Acting as if" is a useful and transformative way of acting. Even if we feel lousy and tired, even if our hearts are heavy with family drama or financial fears, we can still act "as if" we feel good. We can be chipper and upbeat without being fake. Acting as if is not a way to wear a mask. It's a way to feel better.
     When hard things are happening in our lives, which hard things do, we can stay hopeful and willing to find solutions. We can act as if we have the faith that things will work out, even if we feel scared. By doing this, our energy shifts within, and suddenly, somehow, we discover that we actually do have the faith, or feel cheerful. or whatever it is. Without a doubt, there is something to be said for the benefits of keeping our chin up.

Even if I'm not feeling positive, I act as if I am, and the result is a mysterious transformation within me from darkness to light.

THINKING WE KNOW

     We all seem to think that we know what someone is going to say before they say it, that we understand directions before they are completely given, and that warnings apply to everyone else but not to us. There is a certain restlessness in this, and arrogance.
    Let's stop jumping the gun. Let's be better listeners and better learners and stop thinking we're experts when we're beginners. Let's stop pretending we know all about it when we don't really know anything at all.

I stop second guessing people and wait to hear what they actually have to say.

MOTHERING

     I always used to think that once my children were grown-up, that they would stop needing so much from me, so much love and patience and guidance, so much mothering. But as the stakes in life rise, so do the dramas and pitfalls and traps. I find my parental role more demanding now than it has ever been.
     For all of the adulthood and maturity and physical size, in some ways, my children are as baffled by life and people and the way things work as they were at age three. The challenges are bigger, and the cost of error and misunderstanding, but the perplexity is the same. Why? How? These are their questions still.
     And I am here, perplexed myself by certain things, but mother earth and grounding rod to them nonetheless, and carrier of lost dreams, and restorer of hope. I welcome them home with open arms and a heart full of love. I listen and comfort and send them back out into the world again with a backpack of courage and a gentle push.

When they are lost, I do not punish my children with threats and guilt. I love them and restore them and help them find their way home.    

ALL IN GOOD TIME

     Everything is accomplished in its own way and its own time. Even an abandoned project is its own kind of completed event. We wonder how we will ever get everything done that we have to do and we act with a kind of frenzied intensity doing it. We lose our sense of humor and our ability to go with the flow. We become a force field of focus and tunnel vision, and to anyone who comes near, the message is, "I'm on a mission. Don't mess with me." And maybe sometimes in life, this kind of effort is useful, and even necessary, but more often than not, it seems like an over-dramatization. If we're keeping it real, then life doesn't really require that we be so extreme.

I perform the duties of the day with joy and a minimum amount of drama.

POINT OF SURRENDER

     We can carry ourselves only so far on any path. There always comes a point of surrender and letting go. We can only do so much, and beyond that, we must invite grace to our aid. We must dedicate our lives and our work to something bigger than our own petty ends or we will perish by the limitations of our own grasp.

I give what I have to give. That is my responsibility. How it is received is a matter beyond my control.

GUILT AND PERFECTION

     If I'm honest about guilt, it's actually a form of resentment towards myself. It's a re-living over and over of a perceived error or wrong-doing. It's a repetition of voices from my past that told me I don't measure up. Guilt is a kind of negative self-indulgence, a false humility... that I are so bad, so wrong, and so imperfect.
     Let's stop chewing on the stale bread of yesterday and let it go. Let's live in this moment and this day, where we have endless opportunities to make a fresh start.

I needn't carry guilt for being less than perfect. I am a work in progress. Less than perfect is exactly what I am supposed to be.

THE ENERGY WE ATTRACT

     The energy that we put into the process of a developing project shows up in the result. If we are frantic and stressed-out preparing for a party we are hosting, then we will feel stressed out while it's going on. If we are full of fear on our way to achievement- afraid that we won't make it to where we want to go- then when we do finally make it, we will be afraid that our achievement will be ripped away. Stress begets stress. Fear begets fear, and insecurity begets insecurity. Just so, if we go about our work with cheerful faith and a sense of enjoyment, the result of our effort will be pleasure-filled.
    Let's bring awareness to the way we go about things and remember that we cannot attract good things to us with poison and dark thoughts.

I live in the energy of what I want to experience.

MISSING THE MOMENT

     Caught up in nostalgia and regret over the past, and angst and worry over the future, we miss the blessings of the day. We miss the changing light and breezes, and the scuttling of small animals in the undergrowth. We become literally lost in thought, reliving some event from the past, or fantasizing about the fulfillment of our hopes and dreams in the future.
     We chase our illusions around the track of our days like greyhounds chasing a mechanical rabbit. We race each other to get at it, and all the while, goodness and beauty are growing right beneath our feet. The truth is that everything we think we want, we already have. But we miss seeing it, busy as we are with our figuring and ruminations.

I stop looking forward and back for happiness and discover it right where I am.

THE BIG TRUTH

     Do all of the small lessons we learn as we go through life- about ourselves, about other people, about fame and fortune and family and friendship- lead us to one ultimate kind of lesson? And if there is one ultimate truth that all of our smaller truths lead us to, what is it? And is it the same for all of us? Or is it as different as our fingerprints?
     I happen to believe in the one truth idea and that it all comes down to love in the end: love in expression, love in action, love denied, and love forsaken... Everything is either love or a crying out for love. I believe it's the big truth underneath everything.

I am a force for love in the world.

THE MOVEMENT CURE

     In my experience, we just have to keep on moving through our aches and pains, and then somehow, magically, the movement ends up actually relieving us of the very reasons we are afraid to move in the first place. We have to be intelligent and not injure ourselves, but undoubtedly there are ways we can move that will help us. We have to be creative. But to stop everything every time we hurt sets us up for bigger problems down the road.
     It is our job to care for bodies, but not to be so precious about them that we don't trust them to do what they can do. The body is made for movement. It's up to us to discover what movement is best suited to the day's aches and pains.

I keep on moving no matter what!

ANOTHER PARADOX

     Sometimes, what seems to be the easier way turns out not to be in the end. Easy is relative. If no effort is required, often the result is less than satisfactory. Our effort begets its own rewards. And though instant gratification and quick fixes may soothe us for a moment, ultimately they leave us empty.
     Right action in life requires integrity and a good work ethic. These things may not be easy, or come easily, but they leave us full and satisfied, and always turn out to be worthwhile in the end.

Ease in life comes from lots of positive effort and hard work.

    

WHAT IF?

     We spend so much time trying to fix and perfect ourselves, but what if we're already whole and exactly as we're supposed to be? We are such good seekers and questers- in search of cures and partners and happiness and ideal jobs- but what if the thing we're really after isn't out there at all, but within us, smiling and waiting- patient for as long as it takes us to be able to see?

I am whole and perfect as I am.



Motivational Workshop tonight @ 7pm
Browns' Chapel, 11300 Baron Cameron Ave, Reston, VA 20190
For more info: http://www.nathaliewherrman.com/
Why not come if you can? :)

FEELING HAPPY

     It's ok for me to be happy, even if everything isn't perfect with everyone I know; even if I am aware of suffering and sadness and struggle all around me. I have my share of these as well, and my turn will come around. But if I'm feeling happy for whatever reason- just because I am- I don't have to pretend to be miserable. I can make a decision to claim my happiness and spread a bit of it around.

I am not bound to seriousness. It's ok to be happy whenever I feel happy.

THE BASICS

     There is something to be said for basic things- basic exercises and basic designs and basic truths. In our modern, technologically advanced culture, we are prejudiced against the old and out-of-fashion. We scorn the low-tech and critique the tried and true as uninteresting and second-rate.
     But maybe more now than ever we need to be able to return to the basics. They ground us. Their familiarity and simplicity soothe our overwhelmed spirits and they are often more effective than the newfangled gadgets and ideas that we cannot quite understand.
     In all of our forward progress, let's not forget the basics. They are irreplaceable and always in fashion. Truthfully, there are some things, maybe lots of things, that are just right as they are, and don't necessarily need to be improved.

I celebrate the basics. They are the building blocks of good living.

MOODS AND TOLERANCE

     I have times when I am less tolerant than others. I used to blame everyone else for these distempers, but now I am realizing that the issue is not really in them, it's in me. Perhaps I am hungry, or tired, or particularly hormonal. Maybe I need quiet time, or silliness, or to take a walk with the dog.   
     My moods are my business and my responsibility, and it's not up to others to keep me happy, or make sure all of my needs are met. It is not my place to spew judgment and negativity all over anyone. It is my place, when I have nothing nice to say, to say nothing at all.

I take ownership of my moodiness and don't make it anyone else's problem.

NATURE

     It's important that we all take time to be outside every day- in the weather and sunshine. We are creatures of nature, and as such, we are fed spiritually by being in the presence of trees and grass and the sky and wind. We protect ourselves behind glass in our houses and cars and look out at the world instead of actively participating in it. Our "protection" keeps us from what we may need the most.
     We need to feel the air on our face and in our lungs, whether it's hot or cold, humid or dry. And we need to feel the sunshine and absorb it and be out and about in it. It is the source, after all, of our energy and all living growth.

I accept myself as a child of nature and celebrate the sunshine and the fresh air.

THE RULES OF THE GAME

     When I coached, I used to tell my players that if they did three things on the field they would come away from every game as winners no matter the score. If they gave 100% of their best effort, had fun, and were good sports, then they would feel and be successful.
     I know these rules to apply in every life venture, but sometimes I forget about them. I get caught up in numbers, and become so busy keeping score that I forget to have fun. I lose sight of what matters the most.

However things turn out, I'm a good sport in life. I give my best effort and remember to have fun.

REALITY VS OUR EXPECTATIONS

     Sometimes it's the people we least expect who turn out to be the most loyal. We count on best friends and family and certain personality types based on our beliefs about the way things should be- but that's not always the way they are. 
     Let's allow for people to surprise us and not feel let down when those we thought would behave in a certain way do not. Let's be curious instead, and observe the way we rely on our expectations without them having any basis in fact.

I allow people to be who they are, and don't condemn them for not living up to my expectations. I quickly see that the mistake was mine, and change my point-of-view.

LOVE TO GIVE

     I have so much love inside me that it is a daily need to give some away. I see the beauty in people and animals and nature and the world and feel the sweet sadness of it all, as well as the joy. My heart aches for the lonely cow in the field, and the dog who cannot get enough attention, for the withering daisies and the vine covered trees, the man who cannot stand up straight, the child with a dirty face, and the struggling mother. These are the beauties and the sorrows of our world and they speak to me loudly. They make me ache with love.

I feel the sorrow of the earth as well as her glory.

END OF SUMMER

     By the end of summer, I am worn out by it, by the heat and the lack of structure and the widespread quest for fun. I am ready for cool, fresh air and changing leaves; for Canadian Geese honking overhead as they fly south, the first smells of wood smoke, and Sunday afternoon football.
     Everything has its season and I am grateful for that. As soon as one thing wears thin, here comes the new. Nothing stays and nothing lingers. Life and weather and people and moods come and go like birds to a feeder, or waves as they crawl up the beach and recede with the tide.

I am ready for the change of seasons.