“Life will give you whatever experience is the most helpful for the evolution of your consciousness. How do you know this is the experience you need? Because this is the experience you are having at this moment.” — Eckhart Tolle
Author: valeriecameronmerritt
Remember to Breathe
Sometimes the start to a week can meet you with some resistance, depending on life stressors and the components that make up your reality. My family started Monday off with a few bumps that we need to address, and I’ve been reminded in another conversation of how important it is to just breathe.
In for 5
Hold for 5
Out for 5
It’s so easy and so very helpful!!
Mudita
Quite a number of years ago, I attended training for music teachers in Orff Schulwerk, and in between homework assignments for barred instruments and making up incredibly silly lyrics for preexisting melodies with other elementary music teachers – someone introduced me to the musical, Auenue Q. This show is hilarious in a sarcastic, rolling over with side splitting laughter, sort of way. One of the songs in the production is called Schadenfreude. This is a German word and it means: happiness at the misfortune of others. If you follow reading this post with searching for that musical number or perhaps the entire show, be prepared for profanity, adult humor, and poking fun at a lot of touchy subjects… fair warning to you all.
Now, over a decade later, I am training in yoga and combining this with graduate work in education, with an eye towards supporting yoga and mindfulness as an integral part of public education to create better learning environments. Recently I came across a Hindi word that means the exact opposite of schadenfreude: mudita. Mudita is the pure joy in the wellbeing of others. Hindi has an opposite for this too, and that word is invidia, though there are no catchy tunes called Invidia that I know about to lead in on this topic of how we feel regarding the wellbeing of others. While the showy song is funny, the overall themes of the musical Avenue Q actually reflect the ideals of yoga (purposeful living, helping others, and surrender to the present moment). It’s presented in extreme jest for the sake of relating to a broader spectrum of people and connecting them to truths.
The take away here is that there is much happiness to be experienced in honoring the good fortune of someone else. When we are practicing joy, forgiveness, and compassion inwardly, it becomes easy for that practice to reverse it’s course in an outward expression. Feeling centered, connected, and content, you will be able to truly delight in the growth and wellbeing of others!
What Lights You Up?
For the weekend, think about something that lights you up. Go and do whatever that is. Be with it. Lift off the layers that this week has laid on you, and if you have more layers to lift than from this week alone, take the time to shed it all for at least a little while. Underneath those layers of life stresses, there is a luminous body of bliss that is your true self. Do something to honor the glowing, glorious core of you. Take time to light up. See how long you can leave that light on and find someone to share it with. Perhaps your beautiful light will show through in such an infectious way that you’ll see others lighting up too!
Angles
Being a person that used to persist in getting to the bottom of things when it came to the motivation of others, I used to believe that every action had an angle. I’m very glad to now be in place to tell you that it doesn’t have to be true. Also, I’m glad to know and say to you that you don’t have to spend one minute of your time figuring out another person’s angle – it’s not much fun! If you have a gut response to steer clear of something or someone, trust that, but using your own time to hash out another person’s thinking is not your work. The inner workings of someone else’s mind is their concern, not yours!
Ta-da! You. Are. Free.
The only person you need to be concerned with is yourself and your intention.
If you set your intentions with purity of heart, and you do not seek fruit from your actions, it is my belief that you will create a network of good flowing energy around yourself. Love to love. Give to give. Share to share. Speak to speak. Listen to listen. Smile to smile. And so forth and so on. Expect nothing in return. You will be free of angles and you will attract others who understand the heart centeredness you engage. If you encounter those who are not yet there with you in understanding, you may find yourself in a temporarily isolating demonstration, but this is sometimes the path of a teacher (and we are all teachers intentionally or unintentionally at some point or another). In time it will be understood that you expect nothing in return and that there are no strings attached… or it won’t and that’s okay! Let it all go as it will.
It is so good to love, give, share, speak, listen, and smile for action alone. You will be free and you may be able to set someone else free from karma (which translates from Sanskrit as “deeds” or “action”). Give yourself the gift of release from angles and the bonds of expectation.
Love and Happiness to you all!
Blissed Out
An exercise for experiencing pure bliss:
This is known as loving kindness meditation or metta meditation.
The first thing you need to do is get comfortable. Come into a position lying down, seated, or standing. You can close your eyes or leave them open. Closed eyes may be easiest here because you’ll need to visualize people.
Begin the meditation by bringing into your focus someone you love dearly. Speak to the person in your mind saying: May you be loved. May you be healthy. May you be happy. This is next repeated with another person you love and maybe several others. After blessing each person that comes into your mind for loving kindness (don’t forget to include yourself), move out to someone you don’t know as well – maybe a neighbor or someone who helped you recently at the store. Say a loving kindness meditation for them: May you be loved. May you be healthy. May you be happy. Continue this blessing moving on next to anyone that may cause you pause in loving kindness. If there’s a difficult situation, or a person that is harder for you to work with, send this blessing to them. Give yourself space here to say the words several times and notice how it becomes easier with repetition.
You’ll close the meditation by working out to a broader sphere, encompassing your neighborhood, your community, sending the blessing to the country, and from there the world: May you be loved. May you be healthy. May you be happy.
A Constant Attitude
Forgiveness is not an occasional act, it is a constant attitude. – Martin Luther King Jr.
When we find ourselves in situations that call for forgiveness, this often needs to be a regularly exercised act before it becomes fully realized. (Meaning: you have to practice! It may take a while to forgive and to learn the art of forgiving readily.) After forgiveness has been felt and given for a perceived injustice or trespass, you may find that it has to be constantly in practice, a skill developed by you like any other that can be called on and applied again and again.
Love to you all in the practice of persistence !
Practice for People Pleasers
Repeat daily until you believe it:
It’s okay if everyone does not like me. I will offer myself as I am, and that is enough.
We can hold reverence for our uniqueness and that of others. We can honor individual personalities without demanding that each is in sync, coming into full appreciation when they are and also appreciating when they’re not as an act of acceptance.
Happy Monday!!
Perfect Self Expression
As we prepare to ring in a new year, many people will plan to make resolutions for improving some aspect of their lives. How about considering components that are uniquely you and not necessarily those that are implied as something you should want by the masses. What if you called for your perfect self expression. Whatever it is that more clearly defines you and brings you joy, that speaks directly to your heart so that you can better share your essence with others… what is that? How can you allow more of that? Can you make time for something you’ve been overlooking? Can you let yourself say something you couldn’t before? Can you love yourself through allowance of what is before undertaking a change that you believe will bring more happiness to your day?
Love yourself and the honest expression of you. The rest will fall into place.
Happy New Year!!
Resilient
This is a song by Rising Appalachia that Jess shared with me a while back and we both enjoy so much! Hope you’ll appreciate the words as much as we do:
Presence and Positivity 