valeriecameronmerritt

Everything is Possible

From Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll:

“Alice laughed: “There’s no use trying,” she said, “one can’t believe impossible things.”
“I daresay you haven’t had much practice,” said the Queen. “When I was younger, I always did it for half an hour a day. Why, sometimes I’ve believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.”

What seems impossible at this moment that could have an altered path or perception that has yet to be seen by you? How can you open to what you haven’t considered? Sometimes stepping back or away and letting go allows room for new ideas and understanding to come forward.

What becomes possible when you stop defining impossible?

What happens if you let yourself lean into the world of ideas and visions, if you make room for a quiet unknowing space? What if you allow anything that wants to present in that openness? That is where everything is possible…

What would it be like to align with possibility and move with nature in the present cycle of letting go? What can fall away for you so that new growth and new possibilities can take shape?

Simple

One thing to ask yourself as you go through the next days and make choices about your activities:

Will this be nourishing to me or to someone else ?

That is not to compare and suggest that one of those is in greater standing than the other, but simply to check in with yourself and notice your choices. Is the next thing you’re going to choose nourishing in some way to someone? If the answer is no and you proceed, how does that unfold? If the answer is yes and you proceed, how does that unfold?

Let yourself notice how nourishing choices show up in your life.

What I Like

You’re invited to add more positivity to your life!

If something comes up that is difficult for you, could you possibly find something else in your life that balances that difficult thing? This doesn’t mean that you ignore what’s going on – deal with what is before you – but see if you can find one or two other things that are holding steady at their usual or even going well. Choose to divert some of your thinking to what you like or can appreciate right now in this moment.

Try this with yourself:

What do I like in this moment?
What’s good? What’s not wrong?

_______________________

I’ve been slowly implementing this practice for about eight years and I am so glad that I’ve had this understanding in my toolkit. It works. It lifts. It moves and shifts negative or stagnant energy. It may even help you to experience very little negative.

There was damage to my home during a recent storm in areas that have had work in the past year or so, all now needing similar repairs again. I stood there watching water pour into a room around a light fixture and across the ceiling into the wall, bubbling up under the paint, with almost no emotional reaction, acting enough in response to collect water in a bucket, bring in towels, look at the roof, call the roofer, and take pictures of it for insurance purposes. I also took a long pause in rooms that look like they always do to appreciate the fact that while some things need work – other areas are just fine! This thinking and response are direct result of practicing looking for what I like in each day. I’ve even noticed that I can look for what I like in situations where personal connections are linked in ways that could be perceived as unfavorable, which many would find more challenging including myself —- until I remember that I have choice and I can always take a moment to find what I like in every situation, be that a part of the situation or something else altogether.

Anyone can do this, with awareness and with a want for calm, soothing peace. How do you want to close off your days, even the difficult ones? I hope you can do it with a bit more positivity and find consistent wellbeing in this practice!

Notice

How can the next few days be met with noticing? What would happen if in each day that greets you, you stop for two minutes, just two minutes, and notice yourself.

Perhaps it would look something like this from the perspective of the mind:

I notice my breathing. I notice the floor beneath my feet. I notice the support of the floor beneath me and the expansion of breath in my body…. etc.

If you have a moment where you’re not sure what else to notice, pause. Sit with the pause, breathe into the pause, and wait until something else shows up for you to be with.

This is simple and seemingly small, but the minutes after the practice of noticing and taking pause could show you something larger. You may have clarity filter into your awareness elsewhere.

Kindness

A Poetry Share

Naomi Shihab Nye – 1952-

Before you know what kindness really is
you must lose things,
feel the future dissolve in a moment
like salt in a weakened broth.
What you held in your hand,
what you counted and carefully saved,
all this must go so you know
how desolate the landscape can be
between the regions of kindness.
How you ride and ride
thinking the bus will never stop,
the passengers eating maize and chicken
will stare out the window forever.

Before you learn the tender gravity of kindness
you must travel where the Indian in a white poncho
lies dead by the side of the road.
You must see how this could be you,
how he too was someone
who journeyed through the night with plans
and the simple breath that kept him alive.

Before you know kindness as the deepest thing inside,
you must know sorrow as the other deepest thing.
You must wake up with sorrow.
You must speak to it till your voice
catches the thread of all sorrows
and you see the size of the cloth.
Then it is only kindness that makes sense anymore,
only kindness that ties your shoes
and sends you out into the day to gaze at bread,
only kindness that raises its head
from the crowd of the world to say
It is I you have been looking for,
and then goes with you everywhere
like a shadow or a friend.

From Words Under the Words: Selected Poems.

Receptivity

“Listening means forgetting yourself completely — only then can you listen. When you listen attentively to somebody, you forget yourself. If you cannot forget yourself, you never listen. If you are too self-conscious about yourself, you simply pretend that you are listening — you don’t listen. You may nod your head; you may sometimes say yes or no — but you are not listening. When you listen you become just a passage, a passivity, a receptivity, a womb.”
– Osho, The Transcendental Game of Zen

Thank You

Slow down and take notice of every place in your life where a thank you could be just the recognition someone you know may need. Have you appreciated something someone has said or done but offered only a surface expression or nothing at all? Perhaps you let the thanks pass without verbalization. It’s not too late to say it now or to say your thanks at a much later date when it peeks out to be remembered. You can send thanks for something from years ago if it crosses your mind.

Say your thanks for things, for thoughtfulness, for listening, and for presence. Let yourself feel the resonance with anything large or small that reminds you to feel thankful and share that with others to let them know you appreciate them. Say your thanks with enthusiasm and love. Watch the people around you light up with being seen!

Wild Geese

A poem from Mary Oliver:

You do not have to be good.
You do not have to walk on your knees
For a hundred miles through the desert, repenting.
You only have to let the soft animal of your body
love what it loves.
Tell me about your despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.
Meanwhile the world goes on.
Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain
are moving across the landscapes,
over the prairies and the deep trees,
the mountains and the rivers.
Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air,
are heading home again.
Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,
the world offers itself to your imagination,
calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting —
over and over announcing your place
in the family of things.

Part of the Dance

“You can do it like it’s a great weight, or you can do it like it’s part of the dance.” — Ram Dass

Creation and growth are not only beautiful and joyful, but uncomfortable, sometimes difficult, and painful. Accepting and working with what is uncomfortable, what is hidden, what feels more natural to the shadow, can bring forth the most beautiful expressions when they’re ready for the light.

Recall

I heard recently that it takes 20 seconds longer to recall a positive memory than a negative memory. I haven’t checked the facts around that, but it was during a training for mindfulness by a reliable source and even without knowing for sure the accuracy – the idea of it is worth considering: for most people it takes longer to access a positive memory.

How much of that can be addressed through habit change and learning to be a positive thinker?

If you take time to dedicate a portion of your morning, just a few minutes everyday to focus on and write down the things in your life you’re thankful for and feel positively about, could you more easily draw on positives throughout the day?

Take a little time to know what brings you joy and experience the feeling of gratitude more often. You may find yourself outside of the norms and numbers on negativity. 💕