THE LIMITATIONS OF FIXED BELIEFS

"Learn to go beyond the jabbering of your mind... to the deeper aspects of your consciousness..." 

~ Swami Rama ~

I can be at peace inside even if it's noisy. I don't think I can, but I can. It's a question of allowing and adjusting, of letting be what is. I fall into all or nothing thinking. I have fixed beliefs and they limit me like a straight-jacket.
     But life is variable and constantly changing. The challenge of this moment is quickly forgotten as we move on to the challenge of the next.

I can be ok with whatever happens. No matter what it is, this too shall pass.

TIME

"But what minutes! Count them by sensation, and not by calendars, and each moment is a day." 

~ Benjamin Disraeli ~

Time is a fascinating thing. We have both more of it and less of it than we think. The key, I am certain, is to simply enjoy it, but we tend to make demands instead. We insist on good times, and hard times, and running out of time. We think in absolutes. We impose ourselves upon it, and want something from it. We expect it to give us something to satisfy us, but time passes on like a winding river making its way, and doesn't seem to care what we expect, or how we feel.
     Desire is at the root of all of our suffering. If we could stop wanting time to be something or deliver something in particular to us, and enjoy whatever the day presents, I wonder how much happier our journey might be.

I relax and experience the rhythm of the day.

I BELIEVE IN US!

"If you hear a voice within you say 'You cannot paint,' then by all means paint, and that voice will be silenced." 

~ Vincent Van Gogh ~

You're worth it. You're worth your time, attention, compassion, energy, and love. You're worth fighting for, worth caring about, and worth investing in. You're worth happiness, worth success, worth soul satisfaction, the manifestation of your dreams, and unending bliss.
     We sell ourselves down the river. We discount ourselves at every turn. We criticize and demean our efforts. We sabotage our progress and stall our hopes. But we don't have to. We have a choice. We can choose to believe that we matter. But if we can't, for whatever reason, then at least know that I am here steadily believing it for us, for however long it takes.

I am valuable beyond measure and worthy of my highest hopes.

CHOOSING A DIRECTION

"Great ideas need landing gear as well as wings." 

~ CD Jackson ~

Lots of people don't want any part of New Year's resolutions, and I understand that, but I do still think we need goals to work towards. Without purpose, our lives lack interest and passion. Without purpose, we are just idling along, maintaining a status quo that is questionable at best. If nothing changes, then nothing changes, and that can go on for years and years.
     Let's establish a direction instead, and get moving. We may not get where we're headed exactly as we envision it, but at least we will have something to aim for.

I give my life meaning by establishing a personal purpose.

CONTROL FREAK

"As your faith is strengthened you will find that there is no longer the need to have a sense of control, that things will flow as they will, and you will flow with them, to your great delight and benefit." 

~ Emmanuel ~

I can be a bit of a control freak. I like things a certain way and when my sense of rightness is interfered with, my first response is distress.  I want things to be the way I want them to be, and when they're not, I feel irked.
     But there's another response, a better one that gives me more peace. It's neutrality. Things are only good or bad because I label them that way. I define my reality. I determine what's satisfying or annoying by the way I think about it. And at any point, in any direction, I can raise my awareness and change my direction of thought.

I stop fighting things beyond my control and let them be what they are.

EARLY MORNING

"Up at dawn, the dewy freshness of the hour, the morning rapture of the birds, the daily miracle of sunrise, set her heart in tune, and gave her Nature's most healing balm." 

~ Louisa May Alcott ~

There are unquestionable advantages to early rising. Morning sun shining on hard frosted grass sparkles like diamonds, and an hour later, it's all melted and gone.

I rise early and relish the day.

FINDING OURSELVES

"One's action ought to come out of an achieved stillness: not to be a mere rushing on." 

~ DH Lawrence ~

It's easy to get lost to ourselves through addictive behaviors, ambition, obsession, over-responsibility, busy-ness, lust for power, resentment, and the myriad demands of our insatiable ego. To find ourselves again we have to stop and recover through stillness- through listening and sitting and self-reflection. We forget so easily what matters and what we are all about. We enslave ourselves to the tyranny of the urgent.
     Let's not. Let's wake up fresh and start anew; mindfully, courageously, and with our hearts full of love.

I commit to stillness so that I can experience peace.