Tag Archives: life

Inspiration

“Don’t Believe Everything You Think”

Don’t Believe Everything You Think

Have you ever seen or heard something that seemed like it was meant just for you?  Last night I parked behind a car with the bumper sticker, “Don’t Believe Everything You Think.”  What a wonderful message from the universe!  Peace has room to grow in your life once you stop taking your thoughts so seriously.

I have been more stressed out recently, from work and moving, than I usually ever am.  But once I stop believing in all of the worry thoughts, I have more space for peace and joy to rise.  The practice is moment to moment.  When I find myself pacing around a room, with my shoulders up to my ears, I have a new opportunity to take a deep breath and let go of my attachment to my thoughts.  When I start thinking of everything I have to do, and feel the heat of stress rising in my belly, I take a deep breath, and surrender to the present moment once more.  When I hear the din from the train and am about to freak out about moving to a place where I’ll have to hear it everyday, I take a deep breath, and remind myself how grateful I am to be so close to transportation.

In a new apartment, no matter how perfect and wonderful it is, it’s easy to see all of the little things that are wrong with it. What situations in your life provoke the voice of complaint? The easiest way to combat the voice of complaint is gratitude.  Whenever I hear the voice in my head complaining, I try to replace it with a list of the things I am grateful for.  I am grateful for my bedroom.  I am grateful to have a shower.  I am grateful for the stove.  I am grateful to be under a roof.  The list is infinite, and the best part is that it replaces the voice of the ego attempting to sabotage the peace of presence.

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Inspiration

How To Move With Equanimity

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I am sleeping in a new home tonight for the first time in five years.  Just yesterday I was struggling with the idea of how it would happen. The most helpful tool for staying in the moment, even when stressed, was reminding myself that whether I worried or not, it would happen just the same.  And wouldn’t you know, it happened.

Retaining equanimity does not mean that you don’t experience emotion.  Equanimity is allowing yourself to experience life in all of its manifestations, allowing life to be as it truly is.  In this way you become one with life, and are carried in the infinite flow of its energy.

As I experienced the ups and downs of my reactions through this transition, I was reminded by Swami Satchidananda, in an email from Weekly Words of Wisdom, how to ride the wave:

Reaching samadhi doesn’t means that you go into a trance or withdraw from life. If that were so, you can find a whole bunch of rocks sitting on a mountainside and you can say they are in samadhi. Samadhi means you retain your equanimity, you still function in the world without losing your equanimity. You become like a good surfer: well balanced as you surf the waves. A good yogi will always be balanced and surf in the world, facing both ups and downs alike. You will never get hurt, depressed by a depression in a wave or excited by a crest of a wave going upward. You will still remain balanced. That means you are perfectly healthy. Nothing and nobody can make you sick or can shake you.

God bless you. Om Shanti, Shanti, Shanti. (Swami Satchidananda)

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consciousness

Who are you, really?

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If there were nothing but thought in you, you wouldn’t even know you are thinking. You would be like a dreamer who doesn’t know he is dreaming. When you know you are dreaming, you are awake within the dream. (Present Moment Reminder, Eckhart Tolle)

You are not thoughts.  After that seemingly simple realization you have “woken up.”  You have the power to experience your true being, and to see life as it really is from the vantage point of the watcher.  You have the power to change the situation, to be an active participant in creating your own reality. There can be no diminishment of even the smallest glimpse of awakening.  Once you know, experience, that you are not your thoughts but the one who perceives, you have initiated the flowering of your own existence.
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Ego

“Scarcity Culture”

airplaneWhat decisions does fear make for you?  How do you react when you feel like you’re not enough?  The ego lives life through you by making you believe you are the ego.  That you are not safe, that your existence is precarious.  It makes you believe others’ perceptions of you, along with objects and thoughts, validate your being.

Of course, this is all true of the ego!  The ego is the mind when it attaches itself to objects, and thought forms.  It needs that attachment for its existence.  Without it, you would take back your life, and the ego would cease.  What would a life free of fear, judgment, and attachment look like?

The “Scarcity Culture” that Dr. Brené Brown discusses with Oprah, on this episode of Super Soul Sunday, is an example of a world created by the ego.  A world created by attachment, fear, and separation.

 

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consciousness

Need a break from the voice in your head?

The world comes alive the moment the voice in your head ceases.  Can you remember any moments in your life when you weren’t thinking?  They are usually very memorable, because your awareness of the situation increases astronomically.

What is life like when your attention is not dominated by your thoughts?  While it is miraculous, the only way to truly know what will happen, is to try.  This video provides the all important “how” for silencing your thoughts:

Thank you Eckhart and Oprah for that wonderful Super Soul Sunday discussion! This next video I’m including as an example of how the direction of your attention drastically changes any situation.  In this simple video of a father asking his child questions when she is crying, the principle of anchoring your awareness can be easily identified.  

Eckhart taught us ways to shift our awareness from the voice in the head to our inner body.  For this child, when her attention shifts from crying to answering a question, she is no longer in the grip of reaction. An adult mind usually has too much momentum to cease when interrupted by a question, which is why anchoring your attention first within the body helps to slow thought.

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Inspiration

“Every setback means you’re one step closer to seeing the dream come to pass.” – Joel Osteen

Have you ever experienced an obstacle in your life?  Maybe things didn’t go according to plan?  I’m sure for the majority of humans the answer might sound something like, “duh,” or, “why are you even asking?” While accepting that challenges are a part of life is healthy, the old tried and true negative reaction can cause further difficulty.

This video has the power to make you shout for joy each time a setback presents itself.  Instead of feeling discouraged when situations don’t flow with ease, this simple wisdom can allow you to experience those instances from a completely different perspective.  I love this clip of Joel Osteen on Oprah’s Lifeclass.  It transcends religion, and mental constructs, reaching right to the heart of personhood.  Thanks Joel and Oprah!

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Inspiration

“I’ve Got A Golden Ticket!”

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My parking spot was stolen. Admittedly, that is not the most accurate sentence. I don’t actually own a parking spot, so strictly speaking nothing was stolen. But another driver did prevent me from parking in the spot I was attempting to back into. It was at that point, when I decided to give it up and drive away, that I allowed myself to cry hysterically for about a minute and a half.

Was this an overreaction? It was clearly a very strong response. But the parking spot was just a small nudge over the cliff I had been teetering on since I left work. I had received some information about pay and hours for the coming year that was not in alignment with my thoughts about how it should be. Usually that is where frustration starts. There is a disconnect between reality, and the mind’s ideas about reality.

Intellectually I am aware that the events that took place today were all working for my good. My brain still trusts the universe. But that wasn’t how I was feeling. I felt frustrated, and unnerved. So when “my” parking spot was “stolen” I decided it was time to let out the negative energy that had awoken within me. If I hadn’t allowed that energy to express itself, it would have lived on within my body, leaving me more susceptible to illness and further negative energy.

I then proceeded to find a parking spot, and walk home in the gloriously clear blue sky. I find that after a less-than-desirable experience, it is necessary to rev myself up again. Instead of letting the space created from purging my negative energy fill up with a reaction to another event, I feel it is more helpful to choose what I let in.

For a few minutes I danced and sang about how grateful and abundant my life was. Then I decided to watch an inspiring sermon on YouTube, but instead found myself watching clips from Willy Wonka. Wouldn’t you know it, it was just what I needed! The first video featured the song, “Golden Ticket,” which displayed exactly the level of energy I was attempting to reach. What was more, I heard the lyrics spoken straight from the universe itself:

I never had a chance to shine
Never a happy song to sing
But suddenly half the world is mine
What an amazing thing
‘Cause I’ve got a golden ticket (Leslie Bricusse and Anthony Newley)

When I let go of thought, observe the world around me, and sense my own beingness in connection with all that is, that is what it feels like! I’ve got a golden ticket and the world is mine, or rather, I am the world. Consciousness is the real golden ticket. God can speak to you with exactly the right words, through any vessel in the universe. All that is required, in the words of Willy Wonka, is to “simply look around and view it.”

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spirituality

Going, Going, Almost Gone

Katie and ChrisNext week I’m moving for the first time in five years. My boyfriend and I have loved living in this little studio apartment all these years, but several months ago (even before the bed bug incident) I began having a strong desire for something new. Something with a bedroom.

The last time I re-signed my current lease I had some doubts, the inkling that I might want to live somewhere new.  But I was comfortable living here, and the price was affordable for my boyfriend and I.  Then one day I watched an Oprah’s Next Chapter episode that took place in India and featured a family of five living in a studio apartment much smaller than ours, which I had previously considered tiny.  I took this as a sign that I should stay in the apartment, that it was relatively large, and more than enough for just the two of us.

One of the blessings of staying here for a fifth year, is that now moving feels like a gift.  I am infinitely grateful.  Yet, even as my dream is coming true before my eyes, I am still trying to figure out how it will be realized. I know come September 1st I’ll be sleeping in a different apartment, but I haven’t yet figured out how. There is a huge list of tasks that must be accomplished; I can’t keep track of them all.

Can you feel it? I’m right at that point where I can choose to react, or to allow. It would be easy to let the “how” take over the enjoyment of this highly anticipated change. This is a transition I have dreamt about for months, and I am grateful it is finally coming to pass. So no matter how impossible getting a dishwasher into a car and up a flight of stairs seems, I choose to let myself enjoy the experience.

Is there anything going on for you right now that you can surrender to? For me, moving is an experiment in letting go. The easiest way to tell if you’ve actually surrendered, and aligned yourself with your present experience, is to ask yourself if you feel peaceful or stressed out. If you’re feeling stressed, that is a compass letting you know you should turn around and go in a different direction. It gives you another chance to say, “I am going to allow this situation to be as it is,” and find out how life unfolds.

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Inspiration

“This is how you manifest!” – Michael Beckwith

Flowers in WinterI am ridiculously excited to share this video with you tonight.  Many thanks to the brilliant author Pam Grout, who posted this video on her blog http://www.pamgrout.com.  I know her from reading E-Squared: Nine Do-It-Yourself Energy Experiments That Prove Your Thoughts Create Your Reality, which I have previously written about, and her travel blog http://www.georgeclooneyslepthere.com.  I asked if I could pass this video along, because it is so poignant, funny, ringing with truth, and inspiring!  Michael Beckwith will lift you up, and leave you laughing:

What is your “what?!?!?”  As I watched this video I was brought right back to the day I received a voicemail saying I had won a raffle.  The raffle prize happened to include a month of free Yoga on the same street as the new apartment I’m moving into.  I had been in the midst of Pam Grout’s first experiment from E-Squared.  Per the experiment, I asked the universe for a sign or gift, within forty-eight hours, as a clear message of its presence.  It showed up in a big way!  I will never forget that leaping feeling, the inability to contain my laughter and excitement.  That is my “what!?!?!” moment.

Evoking that feeling aligns you with its energy and everything that comes with it.  It’s like you and that feeling are on the same page, the same wavelength.  Then all you have to do is “ride the wave,” as Oprah puts it.  Get aligned with that feeling and watch all beauty it contains come to you.  Although none of us know what the consequences of evoking that blissful, “anything can happen” feeling, will look like, it will be quite a ride finding out.

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spirituality

“C’mon Get Happy!” – Ted Koehler

My Family Dancing on NYE 2010Thank you SoulPancake for dishing out the happiness with these two awesome pick-me-ups:

 

 

 

“Bus Stop Disco Surprise!” by SoulPancake

 


“Dancewalk!” by SoulPancake

 

Keep the fun going by challenging yourself to do a little freestyle dancing of your own today.  No rules, you can dance alone in your bathroom if it suits you.  Will it make you feel more joyful? Will be it super weird?  Only time will tell!

Letting go, and being “silly” is a sure ticket to changing your mood and changing your experience. I break into ridiculous dances pretty often. Eventually you can’t even tell if you’re happy because you’re dancing or you’re dancing because you’re happy.

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