RESISTING INSISTENCE

"Easy does it." 

~ Bill Wilson ~

There is a lot of urgent pushing and insistence in our modern world, which is hardly conducive to relaxation and being able to go with the flow. We are so much about making it happen that we lose our ability to let it happen instead.
     Let's soften the energy around ourselves by slowing down a bit and easing up. Let's create openness and possibility instead of systematically and hastily shutting things down because we don't have the time or imagination.

Though the world around me may push and pull in a kind of urging frenzy, I don't have to participate. I can take it easy and make a decision to relax no matter what.

THE HIGH END

"The bitterness of poor quality is remembered long after the sweetness of a low price has faded from memory." 

~ Aldo Gucci ~

When it comes to certain things in life, I like high quality and I am a bit of a snob. With other things it doesn't matter. and sometimes I even prefer the cheaper brand. But where quality matters, the cheap version completely rubs me wrong and even goes so far as to disturb me on some level.
     My particular likes and dislikes are personal to me, I suppose, but what's not personal to me is that we sometimes choose marginal things when we'd better serve our spirits over the long haul to go higher end.

I refuse to chintz myself. Where quality matters, it matters. 

THREADBARE

"When you have worn out your shoes, the strength of the sole leather has passed into the fibre of your body." 

~ Ralph Waldo Emerson ~

I seem to like to keep things until they are threadbare and worn thin, especially when I've grown attached. I worry that the replacement may not be as comfortable, or suit me as well; and yet, I become more and more bedraggled looking the longer I hold out.
     Letting go is hard, but necessary, and postponing it creates a certain amount of its own kind of angst- a sense that change needs to happen and we are standing in the way. Let's just move forward instead and see what happens. Let's welcome fresh new energy into our lives.

I can allow my life to be worn, but I dis-serve myself if I let it become completely worn out.

HONORING OUR INNER KNOWING

"Trust yourself. You know more than you think you do." 

~Benjamin Spock ~

When we get an intuitive message, we need to pay attention and follow the guide. If we don't, we risk having to live with the uncomfortable knowledge that we knew better after the fact when disaster has already struck. And by then, it's too late.

I prevent the unwanted from happening by listening to my gut.

TOLERANCE

"Judge not, lest ye be judged." 

~ Matthew 7:1-3 ~

What's the point of being hateful, holding grudges, and seeking revenge? This is poisonous energy to be playing with, and it cannot bring us any kind of happiness or lasting satisfaction. Unforgiveness makes us bitter, and bitterness makes us ugly.
     Let's be loving instead, and seek to understand others even if we don't necessarily agree with them. It's a much more comfortable and sustainable space to occupy.

Being highly fallible myself, I am willing to forgive others their mis-steps. 

CARE-TAKING THE SELF

"Man is never alone. Acknowledged or unacknowledged, that which dreams through him is always there to support him from within." 

~ Laurence van der Post ~

Sometimes when I stop long enough to let life settle, I feel a profound sadness. I always seem to discover after the fact and years down the road that I have misunderstood things, been foolish, had toppled priorities, and allowed others to dictate my path for me instead of establishing my own direction.
     I have betrayed myself in so many ways- by rushing, insisting, justifying, and pretending- and even as I understand that's just the way it is, and I have no regrets necessarily, it's still a sadness in my soul. I want to be less impulsive, learn from my mistakes and not repeat them, stop spreading myself so thin, sleeping so little, and disregarding my limitations so much.

I make a commitment to live with more care and less haste.

OPEN TO THE SKY

"To one who has been long in city pent,

'Tis very sweet to look into the fair

And open face of heaven,- to breathe a prayer

Full in the smile of the blue firmament."

~ John Keats ~

Riding in a car with the top down in just the right weather at just the right speed is a pleasure sublime. It doesn't happen often, but when it does, what bliss! It restores me instantaneously to appreciation, inner delight, and pure joy.

I take note of the moments when life is deliciously good.

SO MUCH GOOD

"If you count all your assets, you always show a profit." 

~ Robert Quillen ~

I love the sunshine breezes in the leaves of trees, music with a good message and a good beat, inspiring movies, intellectual conversations, and lazy afternoons. I love solitude and space and unstructured time. I love feeling excited about possibility and the reality of hope. I love getting into bed at the end of a long day, and warm sunny mornings. I love watching people. I love shopping at Costco when I am not rushed for time, iced coffee, and the power of faith.

My life is rich and pulsing with all of the things that I love. 

IRRITATION WITH DELAYS

"Be happy, and a reason will come along." 

~ Robert Brault ~

No matter how efficient we are, when we are dealing with the world at large, things take time. Congestion holds us up, and traffic lights, computer shut-downs, lines, unexpected detours, complaints, accidents- it's an endless list. And the faster we want things to go, the more roadblocks we generally encounter.
     So maybe we should stop pushing so hard and trying to pack so much into our days and our lives. If delays make us crabby and irritable, maybe we should look within to discover what's really going on, because chances are it's something deeper and more important than just the jammed up traffic.

If I am impatient and upset, the answer is an inside job.

OVER COMPLICATED LIVING

"Besides the noble art of getting things done, there is the noble art of leaving things undone. The wisdom of life consists in the elimination of non-essentials." 

~ Lin Yutang ~

I live with a certain intensity, some of it culturally encouraged, and much of it self-imposed. I have convinced myself that I thrive on compulsive activity- it's a multi-tasking era after all-  but the truth is that for me to live a long, happy, richly sensuous life, it has to stop. I have to stop. I am missing the subtly of so many beautiful moments. I catch one here and there, but so many more I experience under pressure, the tyranny of the urgent, and resistant thinking to the overwhelm of my life.
     But it doesn't have to be the way I've made it, and I hereby stand up and claim a gentler way of going about things. I don't have to be a monk in the mountains to live a simple and spiritual life.

I choose simplicity.

BEING ENOUGH

"There is just one life for each of us: our own." 

~Euripides ~

What we have is enough and who we are is enough- more than enough really, because our purpose is to share. We have experience to share and the ability to guide others as they come along down the path we've already traveled. And just so, we follow those who have gone ahead. We are equally leaders and followers, teachers, and purveyors of hope.
     Let's own our part in life and stop playing small. Let's be students when we need to learn, and knowledgeable when we know.

I refuse to shrink myself. I have earned my right to stand tall.

TOO MUCH TO ABSORB

"Reality is too much to take in heapfuls... sprinkle it upon life's path... and tread it lightly." 

~ Terri Guillemets ~

Too much information overwhelms me. I reach an absorption point beyond which I cannot go. I need a break, a walk, a breath of fresh air, and a change of pace to regroup emotionally and intellectually. I have to empty my pockets. They will only hold so much.

I recognize when I am maxed out and give myself a break to refresh.

THE POWER OF ACTION

"Do not plant your dreams in the field of indecision, where nothing ever grows but the weeds of what if." 

~ Dodinsky ~

Actions have power, and what we do determines our experience. Staying stuck in situations of our own making out of fear shrinks us, while stepping boldly forward in the direction of our dreams excites our life. We can choose greatness, confidence, courage, and faith, or we can be victims and allow others to de-value us at every turn.
     So what do we choose? What do we do? And are we honoring our highest calling with our actions, or living in the shadows because of our inability to consistently show up for ourselves?

I make choices that honor my worth.

FACING THE DARK

"It is not the mountain we conquer but ourselves." 

~ Edmund Hillary ~

The sport we engage in everyday whether we know it or not is competition with our own self-doubt. We have an inner voice that mocks us, fears that paralyze us, and a world that is so preoccupied with itself that for the most part it doesn't notice or care if we are having a bad day. So it's up to us to take on our own darkness- to shine a light on it and tell it not today. We have to rise above the handicap of our limiting beliefs and be willing to shift them to limitless instead, because limitless is the bottom line truth of who we really are.

I am willing to believe in what I know in my heart to be true.

THE MERITS OF MIDDLE GROUND

"Moderation is the silken string running through the pearl chain of all virtues." 

~Thomas Fuller ~

There's a fine line between just the right amount of caffeine to make me feel perky and too much that makes me crawl inside my skin and itch with angst and an inability to sit comfortably still. And that's true with so many things. Moderation leads to pleasure, enjoyment, and a quiet heart, but excess leads straight to stress.

I save myself from agitation by remaining balanced and calm.

LEAVING HOME

"And here might be the place to squirt one perfect tear, all bittersweet and shimmering with dreamy resignation." 

~ Tom Robbins ~

A home holds memories, and leaving it when it's time to move on is a clean slate, but also a lump in the throat and a pit in the belly, especially when the home has been a good one, and the memories rich and vast and full of soul. And though we may carry them with us in a way- in our blood - there is still the energy of place and space that we leave- the walls and windows; the angle of light and the sweet mountain views.

I honor the sadness I feel when it's time to move on from something I have loved.

THE OPTION WE ALWAYS HAVE

"If you don't think every day is a good day, just try missing one." 

~ Cavett Robert ~

Thinking positive can help us. It's a simple thing, and a choice. When we get fearful, doubtful, miserable, and dark; when we find ourselves whining, griping, and criticizing; when we worry; when we fret; when we are out-of-sorts in any way, we can choose to think positive. This is not a panacea or a Pollyanna thing. It's simply an option- to allow ourselves to believe that no matter what's going on within us or around us, that things may actually be better than they seem, and may actually work out better than we can imagine.

I entertain a positive perspective to shift my mood.

HAPPY IN THE DISTANCE

"What a wonderful life I've had! I only wish I'd realized it sooner." 

~ Colette ~

I'll be happy when... fill in the blank. We string ourselves along this way. Once the house sells, once we find a new house, once we move, once we unpack, once we establish our new routine, fix everything that's broken, and on and on it goes. But where does that leave us but unhappy now? Let's find the good in the moment, and let that be enough.

I stop pushing happiness away and out into the future and let it be now.

TAKING ADVANTAGE OF OUR LOVED ONES

"Sometimes it is the person closest to us who must travel the furthest distance to be our friend." 

~ Robert Brault ~

We can be un-necessarily critical of the people we love the most- pick on them for insignificant details that don't really matter and ride them with rudeness and a lack of consideration; almost as if our love negates the impact of our actions... which, maybe, it does... but only just a little.

I behave lovingly towards the people I love.  

BEING AS ONE

"Know the silence that stands for the thing they never speak of." 

~ Robert Brault ~

If we are open hearted, we can be deeply touched by the sorrow, sensitivity, uncertainty, and joy in those we encounter. We can be viscerally aware of their light, their confusion, or their despair. And we can feel their feelings in a compassionate kind of way that makes us one. We can shed tears of shared emotion, be touched by the beauty of human connection, and understand somehow what is beyond our rational ability to understand.

I open my heart and share in the human drama that is unfolding all around me.

CHOOSING TRUST

"Choices are the hinges of destiny." 

~ Edwin Markham ~

I choose to trust that things will work out and that life will bless me. I let go of creeping fears and attempts at controlling what is beyond my control. I take appropriate action in the direction of my dreams, and then surrender to divine orchestration and the unfolding of my life's path.

I choose to trust whatever happens, and believe in blessings instead of lack.

DAILY CHANGE

"Our only security is our ability to change." 

~ John Lily ~

Going too long without significant change in our lives stagnates us and we become like standing water. We must trickle and flow like a creek or a brook- bubbling over rocks and down ravines. We must make change a priority in our lives lest we become stale. The more we invite change into our lives, the more energized our lives can be!

I make change a regular habit in my life so that I suffer less when big changes come.