Yutori

The Japanese have a word for the beautiful concept of spaciousness...YUTORI.  Writer and story coach Sally Fox describes it as: 
living with enough time and enough space to allow the world to fill you, often in simple ways.

Seems easy enough to do, doesn’t it?  But so often we find ourselves rushing to an event or appointment arriving exactly on time or, perhaps, even a few minutes late and, thereby, leaping directly into the scheduled activity, missing the beautiful ambiance of the moment.   And, yet, it is in this wondrous and mystical ambiance that the world speaks to us and fills our souls with the energy of every element that is a part of each scene we enter.

We live truly enchanting lives.  Each new setting we find ourselves in holds vibrational  character and potential personal impact.  Each setting is just waiting to interact with us having been assembled by the Divine Universe to address the issues we care about and are concerned with.

But we must trust our hearts to be the connectors, inviting them to listen, see and feel the moment.  Every living thing has an animating spirit.  Every animating spirit exists to support our journey.  All we need do is invite and engage the support we seek.  We are surrounded by thousands of opportunities, by animating spirits excited for us, joining together to help us evolve.  Everyone and everything is BREATHING this joyful ministry.

Messages are waiting to be delivered to inspire and motivate us.  The scent of a beautiful flower may evoke a tender feeling in our hearts.  The sight of a child’s playfulness can remind us of the purity and power of authenticity.  The coldness of the steel we touch may evoke the memory of a news report of immigrant children sleeping on cement floors.  Any or all of these moments may stir our hearts to take action in the direction we wish to grow.

But to SEE all of this, to not pass it by we must invite each moment of our day to speak to our hearts and we must create the spaciousness for this to happen.  We must pause in our valiant efforts of DOING to choose BEING instead.  Being present.  Walking into a moment and breathing it into our hearts.  Feeling ease.  Seeing the love and support awaiting us.  Inviting the spirit and beauty of all things to engage with us in our SPACIOUS lives. 

YUTORI



                                                                                       Marie Helena


image from pinterest
Starry Night Sky and Girl Art - Watercolor Print | Art journal ..

Aperto Alla Luce!

Yesterday I held a Gerber daisy in my hand, gently touching the velvety softness of the petals, enchanted by their gorgeous color which seemed as if an artist had mixed his most precious and beautiful oils together to achieve the vibrant hue.  My eyes were drawn to the center of the flower where I found delicate concentric circles of vivid accent colors.  The effect was stunning.

How beautiful, I thought.  I felt I was holding an exquisite objet d’art.  And then I realized that this daisy...and every rose, each droplet of water, the bark on my sycamore tree...EVERY manifestation in nature IS a masterpiece.  All we need do is notice its design, its symmetry, its vibrancy.  How could we not be aware that there is an exquisite and loving Source of all of this beauty! 


These natural masterpieces are profound and loving gifts for us.  They are here not only to illuminate our planet for our awareness and delight;  they are also way showers for us.  They are symbols of OUR beauty.  We are as lovely and vibrant and captivating as our counterparts in nature except that we are in the process of courageously divesting ourselves of our earthly limitations.  We are essentially as translucent as the exquisite Gerber daisy and lovely rose.


Underneath our earthly cares WE are luminous and eternal.  Our paths are laden with these lovely gifts to remind us of OUR beautiful, joyous nature and guide us through our journeys.


As we successfully navigate our earthly challenges, our masquerade of stress, burdens and anxiety drops away, revealing our profound beauty through the simplicity of our now free and naturally loving hearts.


In the wise and wonderful words of actor and artist Jim Carrey:
Flowers don’t worry about how they’re going to bloom.  They just open up and turn toward the  light and that makes them beautiful.

 Aperto Alla Luce!



                                                                                    Marie Helena





If we could see the miracle of a single flower clearly our whole life would change.

                                                                   Buddha

The Office Manager

Good MORNING! This is the Office Manager.


Your soul station directs, your life force moves and we choreograph your day!

What is your pleasure this morning? We have several packages always available for you.

The Blues Cruise
Are you in the mood for a sad day where everything seems to be slipping away from you?
Perhaps you’d like...

The Gothic Glow
Mostly dark with a small spotlight shining on all of your problems.


Or, you might preferThe Rainbow Reward
No matter how things unfold, there is always the hint of a rainbow around the corner, encouraging you to keep moving.


Or,

The Sunshine Stream
A bright and focused light helps you to examine each event and circumstance in a dispassionate and objective manner.


Then, there is what is rapidly becoming our most popular package,

Love Light
A sprinkling of moonbeams falls gently on every moment helping you see with soul eyes what is really happening.



Remember, we are not limited to these packages. We can design whatever you can imagine.Please leave your order for the day and the heartbeat at which you can be reached for delivery.

                                                                         Marie Helena

The Cutting Edge: Soft and Gentle

The words CUTTING EDGE tend to evoke a strong, vigorous effort, a high level of energy and a huge commitment to stepping up to meet a pressing need head on.  There are, however, also other ways to engage a cutting-edge approach than with a zealous, strapping enterprise.  Like a soft, sensitive, gentle effort that also requires a strong commitment and enlists a conscious reshaping of energy so that it flows with warmth and compassionate tenderness towards others and also towards ourselves.

This approach is as simple and profound as these three words:  just keep talking.  But the "talking" here  needs to be of a special quality and intention.  Its purpose is twofold…to understand others and to help ourselves be understood.  The outcome it desires is a sense of peace and harmony.


This particular cutting edge approach involves creating a space which invites heart sharing and self honoring and the honoring of others.   This choice of a grace-filled effort enhances the opportunity to resolve pressing issues of discord with mutual intention and cooperation.


Recently, when I have found myself dealing with an agitating incident, I have chosen to sit down with the persons involved and gently talk about all of our feelings regarding what is going on...to listen with an open heart to others and try to understand how each person feels while also authentically expressing how I feel...softly, gently, in a healing way.


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Here are some SUGGESTIONS for how to begin to open this kind of conversation:

I want to share my feelings with you and hear what your feelings are.

I want to tell you what I would like to do and have you tell me what you would like to happen. 

I want to honor my feelings and also honor yours.  

I trust that we will find a way to navigate this moment that will take care of both of us.

I want to give and receive love, support, joy and wisdom.  And I thank you for taking the time and making the effort to do this with me.

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By introducing this beautiful intention and modeling what we wish to accomplish we can set the stage for others to relax into this loving energy.  As Ghandi expresses this thought to us so eloquently:   "Be the change you want to see."

There is great power in accepting the leadership for resolving issues of dissent.  And also great rewards.  This cutting edge approach is a beautiful instrument of healing.  I have found that in these situations as we keep talking and listening to each others' needs with the gentle, soft voice of the soul and, with an open heart, considering their importance to others, we ultimately come up with a solution that honors how everyone feels. 


I have never seen this approach to fail.  Never.  What a beautiful way for all of us to take care of ourselves…together!


                                                                                        Marie Helena

The Cutting Edge: Lose the Default

As we travel through the life map our soul has designed, we adopt a LOT of coping mechanisms to help us navigate the journey.  When things get really difficult, we find ways to sidestep the enormity of the lessons and rest our weary selves in the comfort of a subconscious, conditioned reaction, honed to perfection by our repeat visits to this isle of escape.


Tension in the workplace?  Misunderstandings?  Misinformation?  Traffic holdups?  Long lines at the supermarket?  Fretting family members?  Briefcase full of unfinished assignments?   
 
Stop!  Enough already.  

And here our culture and conditioning step in to give us options for these kinds of difficult moments.  A wine cooler...or chocolate...football...games on the IPhone...shopping...Whatever...

We may get some temporary respite from our chosen "distraction".  But, ultimately, it is not enough to drown out the din inside us.  Next, we have learned to figure out where we can assign the blame.  "Mikey" did it.  The world is full of potential "Mikey's".  It's their fault.  Whatever is wrong is their fault.  We can always make a case for why our problem and our reaction are someone else's responsibility.

And so, in the face of pressure and stress, we find the easy way out.  And these "easy ways" become our defaults.


But these default reactions don't serve us well.  Although they give us some short term relief, they ignore the Message we are receiving.  Something we are doing is not in alignment with our Higher Self.  And we need to see what is really transpiring.  And we need to find a new way to get that information.


HERE is the perfect moment for us to LOSE THE OLD DEFAULT.  Here is where we can recognize that we have been hiding by defending ourselves, attacking others or ignoring or covering up our upset with methods of comfort.  Here is where we can bravely try something new...lose the old default and design a new and better way to deal with what is bothering us. 

Like letting ourselves FEEL what is happening to us instead of "beating it out of there".
Like recognizing that our angst is coming from some unhealed pain from the past...pain which we originally buried because we did not have the tools to deal with it.  Pain we have been watching ourselves resurrect over and over and over...whenever we are triggered. 

How great it would feel to finally get that negative, stuck energy out in the open...see it for what it is...offer ourselves compassion for experiencing it and give ourselves and/or others understanding and forgiveness for, in reality, only doing in that moment "what we/they knew how to do".
 
This is tough, brave work and we must be gentle with ourselves when we undertake it. Now, our "default" may need to be quiet moments in nature, meditation...a cup of herbal tea. And a message delivered to ourselves and possibly to others that we need time to process what has happened and our reaction to it.

THIS is how we gain the opportunity to become our best selves, to begin to live what we aspire to be.  We change our old, predictable ways of reacting by FINALLY hearing the wisdom of the "Message".   By realizing that any upsetting reaction that we experience is really about us and some unhealed pain in us that needs to be addressed.  By owning our feelings and resolving to hear what they are trying to tell us.  It is THEN that we are able to lose the old defaults and replace them with something much better.  Something that makes us feel self-respect and self-affirmation regarding our response to VERY difficult situations.  

Simple...but not easy.  Cutting edge.  

 
                                                                      Marie Helena




 
image from hatoola13.deviantart.com

The Divine "Nudge"

Sometimes we find ourselves in a holding pattern in our life poised in a place where the stress we encounter is consuming so much of our energy.  

And we are aware of the price to our well-being but for many reasons we stay there because there are multiple factors involved in making a change.

And then...

The Divine Universe who has been watching us with beautiful, loving attention gives us a "nudge"...one that we cannot ignore and this nudge presents us with the  opportunity for some very important work...challenges that test us to our core.  And we have to summon up our courage and strength to "deal" with these surprises.

But these surprise-gifts are well-planned and beautifully chosen and ultimately they jettison us onto a new path of growth and discovery, clearing out what is in the present picture of our lives and creating space for a new and a-ma-zing transformation.

 

We ARE well-loved and cared for.  The gifts of the future only await our discovery and they will happen in the perfect time for us.

Know deeply in your heart that the perfect moment will come and watch for and listen to all of the promptings to action that will show themselves and move you in that direction.

There are no coincidences.  Only LOVE watching ever so gently over us.

                                                                  Marie Helena

image from watton.org