Promise

Dear Self,

Make one simple yet great promise:
That you will keep EVOLVING--

That you will keep growing, learning from your daily experiences,
Particularly the ones that challenge you, frustrate you, or appear as problems or mistakes.

Promise me that you will keep EVOLVING--
That you will move deeper into that place inside which no words can describe and no one knows of
except YOUR SELF!

Please see yourself as a BEING who “IS”, rather that a PERSON who “DOES”,
Please STOP relying on your accomplishments, your physical appearance, or your possessions to show you WHO you ARE.

WHO YOU ARE is invisible to the eye!
And yet WHO YOU ARE is so powerful, loving and full--

YOU influence the world in a positive way,
by BEING set free,

YOU ARE EVOLVING

The Turn Around

In the midst of an arduous task we may struggle and question "Why am I doing this!!?"... Our emotional state affects our thinking and hence our perception of reality. I was recently reminded of this truth. Here is a story about it.

The last two days of scuba diving certification:
Saturday: Fatigue from the week and a 6am wake up.... followed by intense discomfort to walk half my body weight in scuba gear a distance to the beach.....to enter the ocean in high interval surf which attempted to log roll me... followed by the rapid onset seasickness once I made it out past the breakers..... Gagging I thought "There is no way I can make it through a weekend of this torture!" and "Damn, we have put so much time into this class and I am going to quit." My emotionally charged thinking was telling me that I was in a lose-lose situation. Saturday finally ended but not after some tears, negative thinking, and a little puking.
I hope you are still reading because THIS IS WHERE IT GETS GOOD:
Sunday:
Sleep..... followed by the simple thought "This can be a better day." which then led to what I call The Turn Around.....

We arrive at La Jolla cove and meet up the scuba class. I look around at the glory of the early morning. My focus is on the present-- I learn more skills and actually enjoy them. I volunteer to "lead" the first dive. We don our scuba gear. We kick out to the buoy. We receive a warm welcoming by 4 harbor seals. We drop down to the bottom and I turn my compass heading to 30 degrees and start moving. The group follows and we successfully stay together. I observe beautiful fish, the kelp forest, starfish, and before long--- the sweet reward: a small black and white spotted harbor seal is looking at me, nudging his head into my shoulder. He wants to play. He bites another student's fin. Then he returns to me and I wave. He is so close that he puts his hand in mine. We high five twice.
Then before I know it, dive 4 has ended. Dive 5 has started and ended. I feel relieved, calm, satisfied. Perhaps even thrilled.

I learned a lot more than scuba this weekend. I was reminded to pay closer attention to my mental state and my the way in which emotion or discomfort can distort my perceptions. One of the best things you can do when in the middle of struggle is simply, be patient.

May every struggle lead to a Turn Around.
Peace and blessings, my friends.

Welcoming

A affirmation for today

I welcome this day.
I welcome my Self into this day.

Today I will strive to appreciate all lessons,
Which are often born from mistakes

I will strive to be gentle with myself,
Acknowlege my growing wisdom,
And always try my best.

I will remember that my life is a blessing for me to enjoy
And a gift to others~
That I can use my Self (my strengths, my mere existence!)
to contribute to the well being of others and the planet.

Today I will remember that when I think positive thoughts,
I generally feel better--

Today I will remember that assumptions are hazardous.

And that by focusing on the present moment,
With acceptance
With kindness

I am walking a healthy path,
Living a good life.

And I deserve this.
I deserve this.

You

Stop,
Be still,
Drink in
The pure simple air,

That we never see,
Rarely feel,
But always, always
Breathe

Know
And just rest in knowing,
That every place you have traveled
Whether physical
emotional, mental
or spiritual

Every experience,
Remembered or forgotten
Was the only path to Now

To the YOU of now

And every human human flaw,
Every ounce of suffering or joy
Was crafted for you, specially

For your understanding and wisdom
Your breaking open,
Or breaking free--

Whether you believe this or not,
You are perfect in this moment
Because you are here,
You

Sacred

Take time each day to.....

Watch a patch of graceful clouds as they move
Silently
Without need for command or approval

To gaze up at the bows of a living tree,
Grateful for the air which moves its branches
And allows us to breathe....

Take time each day to....

Feel the warmth of sunlight on your skin
Or appreciate the heaven's rain, our Earth's nourishment
Or both

To shift your focus from ceaseless thinking
To your constant breath flow,
Your living essence....

And that which cannot be seen

Take time each day send love to someone you care about
Either with words, or thoughts, or actions

And simply radiate Love from your heart
To all Beings
And to your Self

Aum Shanti

We will not hold these physical embodiments forever--
Let us spend our time carefully,
For Life is Sacred

That may be hunger

There are two kinds of emotional suffering we go through as a humans.
There is the emotional reaction to an unfortunate circumstance -- the resultant feelings of sadness, disappointment, anger, confusion, worry, etc. Life contains its fair share of ups and downs. Many of those we have no control over.

Then there is the type of emotional suffering that seems to come from nowhere -- that sneaky and often persistent unhappiness, stress, worry, restlessness and malaise. It can catch us off guard and we think -"Huh? Why am I feeling bad?" Often this leads to identification of external sources of blame (I am not happy because I am without a partner, or I my career has not advanced yet, etc.)

What is going on here?

The malaise often stems from a deficiency in a basic human need. You are working very hard to cover all the bases of life (work, home, social life, etc.), right? You do this because society conditions us to believe that when we "have it all" we will be happy. And it is hard work! We are busy. We exist in a constant flurry of thoughts and tasks and interactions. This leads to an overactive and exhausted brain. Especially if enough sleep is not being found.

"Doing it all" or trying hard in life often means forgetting a basic human need -- to "Do nothing at all".
Here is my advice: do nothing at all for at least for a few minutes every day.
Preferably in a warm and quiet natural setting. Right now I am sitting on my front porch in half shade, under an expansive jacaranda tree. This appears to be working...

The "doing nothing at all" is not really doing nothing at all. It is very powerful practice called meditation.
There are many different traditions and teachings of meditation, some with a spiritual focus, some without out.
To me meditation is simply sitting in stillness and in observance of what is happening now- eye open or closed. You may focus on your breath to quiet the talking voice of thought in your head. But you do this gently,
With a softness, with an allowing~


It is amazing how hard it is to meditate every day for at least five minutes.
I know. I became starved over the past year with the exception of a few spiritual Sundays, sneak moments of gratitude and peace. My wheels were spinning fast and constantly; yet I didn't feel a sense of change, of effort paying off, of forward motion into a more peaceful and content existence. I thought when I passed my licensing exam that I would be happy (and experienced my fleeting "high"), but truly I felt the same uneasiness. I continued to bound out of bed and hit the coffeepot and then the gym. Same old routine, regardless of whether I was tired or not. Tea? Meditation? Where did you guys go?

They never went anywhere; I did. Ironically a recent injury changed that. I have had to stop doing most of regular stuff (working, exercise, walking, taking showers standing up). I am on crutches. I lost something for a period of time. But I gained some wonderful things - Change, and ahhh - Insight. The routine broke. With less to do I rediscovered peace in the now. For staring in awe at the jacaranda tree. For chanting with my Tibetan sound CD, for paying attention to my breath more than once a week.

I am sharing this because I can't help it. And I hope that they benefit you.

Ask yourself -"How am I feeling?"
Then ask - "When did I last feed myself with meditation, or other means of full immersion into the Now?"

Chances are you hungry.

Namaste my friends

Hard ground

Hard ground
The ground is always hard. It is supposed to be.
But sometimes we forget this, and we complain about it,
"Damn it hurt today when I fell."

But the softer our landings, the more we take for granted,
The more entitled we feel,
The more our egos tend to think we need to be happy-
"If only I had...
or this were better....
Maybe when...."

I fell pretty hard recently while skiing,
Not on fluffy white snow
I had never injured myself before,
And I began to think of myself as broken,
Until I realized,

We are always breaking in small ways, breaking free,
Growing and reinventing ourselves

Every new experience-- every person we truly listen to, we help
Actually helps us to grow.
And every mistake, failure or disappointment,
Contains the opportunity to learn -
And can remind us to appreciate the next step forward

This life, this day, is a brilliant gift of limitless potential!!
We have a powerful ability to Love, to Grow, to Change, to Help, to Create

It is easy to get distracted by the Egoic influence of society's selfishness, materialism
And express something other than our True Selves,

I know. My mind had been hovering somewhere else, forgetting my Purpose,
My Value

So I thank my recent landing,
Not the injury part,
But the wake up call
And reconnection

Uncertainty

When I am stressed out I have a harder time dealing with uncertainty.
It is almost a dirty word.
Because there exists a false perception that if we KNOW what is about to happen, that things will turn out favorably.
Right?
But it is a false sense of security.
Because we can never know for sure what is going to happen tomorrow,
And "control" is an allusion,
And no matter what our minds trick us into believing,
We are always OK.

There is always Light
Even in the dark moments

Tomorrow when I meet the orthopedic surgeon,
The person I believe has all the answers;
Who, because of the letters, MD-- I think he can "fix" everything (a common Western belief, even though our bodies deserve more of the credit for healing that they receive)....

I remind myself, and you,
That no matter what words are spoken in that medical office or (other difficult place you find yourself):

I am not alone,
And I am always OK
As long as I remember,
That Light

If you want something to change...

There is a simple yet powerful quote by motivational speaker and spiritual teacher Wayne Dyer:
"Change the way you look at things
And the things you look at change."
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Have you ever felt stuck with a ________ problem? (insert any of the following: work, relationship, health, financial, etc.)

Yes, right?

In fact there is probably something right now that is bugging the mind with unhelpful worry or noise.

I can say that is the case for me. I seem to always have a "problem of the week". And often my very thinking about the problem (distress, distraction) becomes more of a problem that the problem itself!

For example, I recently fell while skiing. I was going a little too fast, hit a little bit of ice and, bam! There was a moment or two of excruciating physical pain, followed by a pop! in my knee. Since then there has been little physical pain but quite a lot of painful mind activity.

The emotional/mental pain I have been putting myself through with my THOUGHTS and worries over the past week (while awaiting an MRI and treatment commencement) has been far worse than the swelling and limping, which are annoying but certainly manageble.

What is the lesson here?

I need to stop viewing this treatable injury as a major problem. I have even blamed myself for it (if I hadn't rented a helmet I wouldn't have been so cocky, and I never would have....yadayada) Pretty useless, huh?

Do you want to feel better about an favorable issue? Do you want to glide through your day in a more peaceful state of mind? You can!

It is not easy to reframe our "problems" or pay more attention to a thin silver lining than to a thick black cloud. But the benefit of doing this is massive.

Ok, time to go practice what I preach.