Are You Ready?

Have you ever tried to DO something or BE someone because someone else wanted you to...

and it didn't feel comfortable...or natural?

And yet perhaps you still attempted to deliver someone else's expectations, forcing yourself to ADAPT or, even worse, PRETEND to be something you are not.

Did you do this because you didn't want to disappoint someone...or because you wanted to make the other person happy...or because you didn't believe you had the right...in fact, what you considered the PRIVILEGE  of being yourself?

And what was the result of your performance?

I'm betting things didn't end well. 

And, if so, perhaps that is because we are never truly peaceful about donning a masquerade to "appear" to be something we are not.  We want to come to the PARTY dressed as ourselves and when we do, we feel natural and free.

It takes courage and faith and trust to always appear exactly as we truly are.  

And it takes the awareness and acceptance that who we are at any given moment is a beautiful indication  of  where we are now landing in the evolution of our life

and

it's the EXPRESSION of our journey, including the joys, the challenges, the triumphs, the unhealed hurts.

And...it's all good.  It's the tracking of our progress at this point in time.

This is true for us and for everyone else. 

It's the way we move through Earth School.  There are many side roads to travel, misadventures to recover from AND victories to celebrate.

When we reveal our authentic self we display a picture of a work in progress based on how much "construction" has been underway and how much has been left  undone...so far.

It is important to CELEBRATE our humanity and our common journey and most especially to offer acceptance and support to ourselves and each other for being fearless enough to display who we truly are, thereby providing the most perfect environment for our spiritual evolution.

Are you ready? 

image from Pastiche Family Portal

Rockin the Lessons of Earth School

"I don't have to be perfect.  All I have to do is show up and enjoy the messy, imperfect and beautiful journey of my life.  It's a trip more wonderful than I could have imagined."
              Kerry Washington

                                                         

The person who  "Shows Up" for life knows she is the star player in her story and she is enjoying every moment...the fun, the lessons, the screw-ups.  

She is very clear that life is ALWAYS teaching her something amazing about herself  and she is "all in" for the ride.

She feels no pressure to be perfect.   (What a relief!)  

She is just her real, authentic self with all of her quirks and idiosyncrasies... unselfconscious about what her actions look like to others.

She is the source of her own approval 
AND as long as she is open to life's surprises and invitations...
AND confident of her ability to embrace and navigate them...
AND is always looking to learn something new, she is good to go.
 

She does not "phone it in" as the creative arts are fond of saying...she is no watcher from the sidelines.

Oh, no.  She is alive and well, jumping and jiving...and sometimes
kicking and screaming her way to a new lesson.


 She "Shows Up" and wrests the juice out of every moment.  She is present...engaged...she rocks the lessons of earth school. 

The jewelry she wears are the stars in HER eyes.  She IS the bling...the master who gives herself up to the moment 

and


she is our inspiration for the life well lived...messy, colorful, full of pitfalls and the glorious lessons which accompany them.  
 

THIS starring role is always available in the on-going performance of earth school...just waiting for each and every one of us to step  up and step in.  

Can you bring it?


image from colourbox.com

Sending in Your "Best" Self

   

A mantra is a formula or phrase which is often repeated.  

On a subconscious level, our mantras, I feel, direct and inform our actions, whether we audibly voice them and reflect on them...or not.  

They are beliefs firmly lodged in our thinking and, if we observe the decisions we make and the actions we choose to take, we can easily see what they might be.

Sometimes, our governing mantras indicate our lower vibrations.

 
Do any of these less-than-positive "mantras" sound familiar to you?

 

I can't take time to rest until my to-do list is completed.

If I'm not perfect, no one will like me so I had better do what is being asked of me.

Looks like I have to bite the bullet.

Here we go again...I knew trouble was coming.

Why does this always happen to me?

 
I get so angry every time someone says that.

Recently, I've become more aware of the significance of the subconscious mantra powering our reactions to circumstances and events that we find unsettling.
 

I've been considering M. Scott Peck's comment:
 
“Life is difficult. This is the great truth, one of the greatest truths—it is a great truth because once we see this truth, we transcend it.”

I tried to make Peck's comment fit for me and it somehow wouldn't resonate, but this morning I came up with a version of it that fits me and my experience of life perfectly...

and here it is:

Life is intense...and so often it feels vibrant, spirited, passionate...but when I experience that intensity in a painful or distressing way (because of unhealed hurt), I choose to transcend it by becoming a source of Love.  

This is my REASON for choosing this path:

Physical symptoms and emotional upsets indicate a DISCONNECT from Pure Love.  It is the Reconnection to this Love that returns me to HEALTH and WHOLENESS.

I am finding this new mantra really helpful because now when I recognize pain/distress coming in, I have a clear path to follow. 

It feels like a LIGHT is shining in the darkness, guiding me to my Higher Self.
 

Whenever I am facing a difficult situation I always want to  SEND IN MY "BEST" SELF  to deal with it but this hasn't always been easy to do.  I can get to it eventually (usually after a lot of hard work) but having this new mantra makes the job much easier.  It's ready and waiting when I need it.  

I have made a life choice that can apply to every painful circumstance.  I don't have to go search for it and find it under a symbolic pile of distress and hurt feelings.
 

I aspire to making this mantra my go-to place when things feel difficult.  I would like it to become my default in moments of distress.
 
Do you have a mantra ready and waiting to help you when things get tough?
 
And, if so, are you clear on what SUBCONSCIOUS BELIEF is determining the direction of YOUR actions?



image from people-clipart.com

The Seeds of BLISS

 

CALLING ALL GARDENERS 

OF THE WORLD...


And, by the way, that's every last one of us

because

we are ALL "gardeners" who plant the seeds that bring forth the blossoming of our lives!

OK, then, Gardeners....

Regardless of what is growing in your garden now...regardless of what that reality is... decide what you want  the next, grandest version of your garden to look like and totally immerse yourself in the picture,,,the feel, the scent, the ambiance of that  gorgeous, breathtaking view.


See the roses perfuming the air with their love and radiance...the lilies standing tall with pride and purpose, the daffodils reflecting the sunshine, the bluebells nodding in caring and compassion, the tulips speaking their truth with strength and authenticity, the violets sending love from their hearts to every one of God's creatures.

Sense the feeling, the ambiance of RADIANT HEALTH AND JOY exuding from every inch of the garden with beautiful VIBRATIONS rising from it and spreading to everything in its radius and beyond.

In this vision YOU are the roses, the daffodils, the love, the RADIANT HEALTH because you planted the SEEDS OF BLISS.


Hold that vision of the Seeds of Bliss and the beautiful bounty they give birth to firmly in your heart for YOU are creating your new reality. 


You are choosing to bring this loving vision into your life.
 
THIS is the place to bring your energy, your longing, your desire...your ATTENTION.

Choose to grow beautiful things in your garden.  Place ALL of your attention on this exquisite reality you are manifesting.

Plant the seeds of bliss!

image from picturesflowers.net

One Moment, Please

 

 

Here's a phrase we've heard many times when we are attempting to accomplish a business task during a phone conversation..."One Moment, Please".  

And during this "Moment" events are occurring that will help  us achieve the goal we are trying to pursue.

Our inquiry is routed to the appropriate office; the people in charge of helping us with a particular problem are being contacted; records of our interactions with that office are being accessed...all for the sole purpose of helping us gain satisfaction and accomplishing our goal.

It's a good system (even  if it sometimes takes awhile to make the connection).

 
That "One Moment" pause enables our transaction to eventually proceed smoothly...and, perhaps, can offer us some very good inspiration regarding the way we conduct our personal affairs.

 

Like the sometimes sticky situation when something someone says triggers a reaction from our past...a reaction linked to some unhealed pain that may very well make a rather dramatic resurrection in this present interaction if we do not take "one moment" for ourselves.

And what might  actually transpire during this "Moment"?

For starters, 

As we recognize our emotions surging up,  we could take a deep, balancing breath for the purpose of helping us check "our records" and recognizing what belongs to the past and what is transpiring now.

Next, 

We could  offer ourselves compassion for the pain we are still carrying.

 
This generosity toward self could soften our suffering, helping us recover our equilibrium and making it a little easier to feel compassion in our heart for the other party involved in the transaction,  recognizing that they have inherited the vibration of the emotional fallout of our previous wound.

And,  perhaps, in our conversation we might want to softly refer to the personal history of ours that has just been accessed...or not.  A gentle comment about how we are receiving this moment can be of great value to the other person, empowering them to understand us better and, perhaps, offer emotional support. 

But, even if we choose not to discuss our process, we will have experienced a vibrational shift that will help us navigate the conversation with  patience and sensitivity for ourselves and anyone else involved in the interaction.

 

Taking "A  Moment"  is a wonderful way to use our consciousness to help us navigate a challenging situation.  And we can make it a spiritual exercise to have the intention to access the soul view (bigger picture) of what is happening.

Can you imagine a sprinkling of heavenly moonbeams entering your heart to help you see how this conversation is directing your attention to something in you that needs healing?

Do you need "One Moment, Please "?

image from kingdomofwomen.net

Barking Up the Wrong Tree

ENERGY IS ABUNDANT.

All that we seek can be experienced and created from tapping into the infinite source within. 

When we forget about this we find ourselves in conflict with others as we attempt to get energy from interactions instead of THE SOURCE. 

Peace begins with each of us choosing to tap in and turn on ourselves.  Then showing up fully energized we share and amp up our collaborations and fun.

Meredith Murphy 

Ever hear the saying you're barking up the wrong tree?  That's what Meredith Murphy is talking about here and it's something we all like to do.

We go to others to get our energy amped up.  

We have some pretty high hopes and expectations regarding the experience we would like to have and when the interchange or encounter doesn't deliver what we desire, we are VERY unhappy and we feel sure that "the other guy" dropped the ball and let us down.

What's wrong with this assumption?

"The other guy" isn't here to read the lines we write for him or tell us how great we are doing.   Oh, no.  He's got his own drama going and, like us, he's smack dab in the middle of it. 

What's really happening is a conglomeration of endless dramas, many of them intersecting...each one is of primary importance to the show's principal character.  That's you and me and everyone else.  All of us.  WE are the principal character in our own drama.  It's the human condition.

And, as the principal character on this vivid earth-stage we need to ascertain the fountainhead of our own strength.  And we needn't look far.  All that we have to do is focus on the Divine, Infinite Source within us to find the juice...the power...the energy ,as Meredith Murphy says, to tap into and turn on ourselves.

And it's a tremendous relief to be our own Life Force.   There is no question about getting connected.  No waiting,  No anxiety about being left behind.

And there is no judging or blaming others.

It's a matter of recognizing and taking responsibility for what we are designed to do.  We are Divinely connected.  Our Higher Self is ever-present and is just waiting for the opportunity to guide and serve us.

THAT'S  the right tree to climb and the view is SPECTACULAR from the highest branches.   Up there we have oceans of energy for all of the adventures we have only imagined and, once we access this treasure, we can enter into all the vignettes of our life prepared for full engagement.

image from georgeideasandconcepts.blogspot.com

Easter Morning Journey

 

It's Easter Sunday and the most beautiful occasion to experience a connection with the earth and its countless earth-dwellers.  

This morning I awakened to a wonderful impulse streaming into my consciousness.  

The impulse was to spend the day in the state of EXPANSION except, of course, for the moments when I was directly engaged in a specific activity.

 First, let me give you a little background on this concept of expansion

Shortly before Christmas I was involved in a car accident and, after the physical healing was well underway, my body began to experience multiple episodes of post-traumatic stress.  

These proved to be a huge challenge and I had to learn how to embrace and work with these experiences so that my body could RELEASE the trauma it was carrying.

I did this work by  practicing sitting quietly and observing my body  

as the physical symptoms moved through it...observing them objectively, with no judgment...tracking their movement and how they changed their expression over time.  

This I was very willing to do and, after practicing this for awhile,  I found that when the symptoms finally abated, i naturally moved into a state of expansion (openness, airiness, weightlessness, pure peace and harmony).  

This state felt WONDERFUL...so wonderful that sometimes I didn't want to leave it.

 

As time went on, I found myself often choosing to engage this process leading me to expansion whenever I became physically or emotionally distressed. 

 
.
But this morning things were different.  

I felt a very strong impulse and yearning to engage in EXPANSION FOR ITS OWN SAKE (and not because of any problem I was experiencing).  And I wanted to enter into this state immediately.

It was soon after the recognition of this feeling that I discovered how the Divine Matrix was working to bring me to this place of peace.

And here we get into more back story.
 
Blogger statistics which are available to individual writers reveal the location of countries which are reading their blog.  I already knew from my statistics that people in ninety-four countries had read my blog but it had been a long, long time since a new country had shown up on that list.

This morning when I went to check the stats I saw that a new country was reading me right at that moment and it was one I had never heard of before.


It was the Maldives, a group of about 1,200 islands, separated into a series of coral atolls, located just north of the Equator in the Indian Ocean. (Only 200 of these islands are inhabited.)

And here is the astounding thing about the Maldives showing up in my blog statistics. 

 
As I researched this country I  learned that many of the the tropical atolls and islands In the Maldives are simply gorgeous, with swaying palms, white sandy beaches and deep-blue lagoons.
 
Now, if I had to come up with a physical, earth-bound description of what EXPANSION might look like, I would say the Maldives are it.

 

Here is the exciting discovery I made:  

I felt the peacefulness of the Maldives (where someone was reading my blog) coming into me through my waking impulse to enter into expansion.
 

Wow!

What a fantastic connection...and how wondrously beautiful...the Divine Matrix showing us yet again that we are ONE... all of us living facets of the same experience...all of us coexisting in a lovely harmony of the heart...separated by distance but ministering to each other and sharing our journey by reaching out and through time and space, expressing the Oneness of Everyman.


 
image from naples-marco-island-florida.com

Today, Creator...help me to recover my awareness so that I can see you in everything I perceive with my eyes, with my ears, with all my senses.  Let me perceive with eyes of love so that I find you wherever I go and see you in everything you create.  Help me to see you in every cell of my body, in every emotion of my mind, in every person I meet.
        
                                                                                          Don Miguel Ruiz



                                                                                                            

Follow the Leader

I am intensely intrigued with the concept of  Surrender. 

To be more precise, I  am speaking of surrendering to whatever the present moment brings.  

 Even if we don't like what is showing up...and it is not what we expected
...or even requested.

  Many spiritual writers discuss the folly of RESISTANCE to "What Is" and how resistance will up the ante, creating more intensity in the situation we find ourselves in...possibly making things even more difficult and distressing.

On the other hand, I find it ultimately to be true that what is showing up in our lives is there to further our soul's evolution.  

Sometimes, it may take awhile for us to discern the wisdom of the gift we are being given...but it is ALWAYS there and we can choose to recognize the lesson, acknowledge it and integrate it into our lives.

 

It's pretty clear to me that the most direct path to finding peace in our lives is to embrace life as it unfolds for us.  (Special emphasis hopefully noted regarding the words "FOR us".)

 

After a good deal of study and reflection on this subject I have found a way to do this that feels comfortable, though challenging.
 
I call it  FOLLOW THE LEADER. It is based on lessons I have learned from Eckhaart Tolle and Dr. Betty Sue Flowers.

And here is how It goes.

First, I consciously choose to "be the space" for what is happening.  I observe what is happening.  I do not try to interfere with it or point the outcome in my direction.  I am a non-judgmental observer of "what is".

And, as I do this, I consciously choose to  let the experience LEAD me instead of trying to steer it in the direction I wish it to go.

 

When we hold the very strong belief that we are loved and affirmed and supported by the Divine Universe, we are able to stop trying to direct the flow of what is happening and, instead, ride the sometimes soft, sometimes undulating and sometimes turbulent waves as they carry us through to our next adventure (step to enlightenment).

But we must ride the waves with curiosity and interest and, most of all, faith in the good will of the Divine Universe to help us grow in love and abundance.

 

Once we get the hang of it, we find that when we abandon our pressing need for control and instead FOLLOW THE  (Divinely inspired) LEADER, life feels much safer and more mellow and that is  because it is most definitely a Divine Truth that LOVE is ever-present and is designed to  honor, enhance and heal all of creation, including any burdens we are carrying in our heart.

 

And that is why we must SURRENDER any aspirations we may have to BE the leader.  Instead, we need to become aware that the Divine Universe is designed to graciously and gracefully LEAD US to our soul's desire.

Whatever there is for us to know... Whatever lessons there are for us to learn... will ultimately be delivered to us as we hold space for the message of the moment.  And THAT is the beauty of Surrender.

image from art-clips.blogspot.com

The "Honor" System

Every person has his own unique and individual way of being in the world as revealed by his personality,  idiosyncrasies and habits.

Some of these approaches to life mesh easily with ours.  

Some...but not all.

And when we find ourselves encountering the approaches that are less than compatible with ours (and, sometimes, produce an ANNOYING clash) we are challenged with the issue of how to proceed.

Do we swallow our annoyance, grit our teeth and pretend to be OK?

Should we routinely "give in" or "give way" with the feeling that we wouldn't win under any circumstances anyway?

Should we have an outright confrontation about the merits of how we see things vs. the other person's point of view?

All possible ways of dealing with what feels like a disturbance in the emotions of our worldview.

There's still another approach that could shine a different light on the situation.


I call it The "Honor" System because it HONORS ANOTHER'S PROCESS. 

And it does this even when someone else's approach doesn't make much sense to us or it's not what we prefer.  

It's an honoring of what is important to them in their life...given their experiences, concerns and fears.  

It honors the place in the evolution of their lives where they reside right now...in this present moment.


And when we honor (respect, support)  someone's approach to life...we convey our caring for their sense of well-being.  We remove the threat of conflict for them...the threat of having someone they may need to push against in order to defend or try to prove their point of view and, instead, by standing out of the way, we empower them to see how their approach serves them...or not.


Best of all, our generous understanding will be met with gratitude and appreciation and things progress forward smoothly with everyone freed up to evaluate their own way of doing things.

The world is full of the various colors of expression chosen by others.  When we accept and embrace this variety, we participate in The Divine Matrix which ministers to and supports EVERYONE.

Best of all, honoring others is actually honoring ourselves...honoring our higher yearning to live in a beautiful peace and harmony with our fellow earth-dwellers.

image from mycutegraphics.com