This can’t be said too many times: make time to feel gratitude, focus on the parts of life you’re thankful about, tell people, and write it down!! Find a journal you love and commit to a simple practice that can change the dominant themes in your life for the better. It’s especially heartwarming to go to sleep feeling grateful. Try for 10 minutes of writing before going to sleep and I bet you’ll see a happier trend in your mornings!
Affirmation for pure contentment:
I am satisfied with who I am. I feel so pleased with life and myself.
Not to be egotistical or conceited but to feel satisfaction and worthiness in loving yourself… I hope you’ll practice saying this until the affirmation sinks deep into your bones and becomes part of you! Feel the perfection that you are – the work in progress – the blossoming beauty with more to come!
If you can find a few moments in the next days to be absolutely present, take time within those moments to focus your energy on your heart center. Notice your body and your life force. Does the energy you possess feel scattered? Is it caught up in something that happened yesterday or are you worrying about events that could be part of tomorrow? Can you call all of your attention and energy back to you and focus on it collecting at the heart? Be with your heart as your only objective. Let the rhythm of your heart beat be the voice that draws you inward. Try for a while to meditate on this pulse. From here, imagine the collected energy as a color that resonates with you. Send the color into the room around you. Let that beam be filled with the feelings of joy, adoration, and love. Imagine the color surrounding and brightening the hearts of those you cherish.
Joy emanates from my core. Feelings of adoration surround my loved ones. We are light and love.
How wonderful will this day be if you allow yourself to focus on the things that easily fit and flow with you!? Let things, people, places, and experiences that lift your spirit be highlighted in your thoughts and conversation.
Whats’s easy? What feels good? This is what deserves your attention. Tell everyone about the good in your life!
“In a beautiful world that has come to hooray the hustle I find my sweet loving soul rebelliously dancing to the contrary — an upside down, inside out, reversed, lapsed beat. It’s mysteriously boundless, surprisingly wholeheartedly, perfectly un-calculated and wrapped in a tangible fabric that is made out of shooting stars and moonlit expanse. For this season, busy has no place.” – Tess Guinery
Let your life take a hiatus from busy for a little this weekend. Take a moment to notice what the earth is up to around you, which at this time of year is particularly beautiful! When you’re back in the hustle of everyday, perhaps you can carry along an internal feeling of abundance and blooming!
Have you ever found yourself drawn to another without being quite sure why? This can be romantic, platonic, or any number of scenarios. It could even be fascination bordering revulsion but nevertheless you’re drawn in… It’s simply someone that captures your attention.
Consider the qualities about the person. Could it be that they’re hosting attributes that are complimentary to your own? Could it be that you are drawn to what feels absent in you? On the path to becoming the best version of yourself without seeking to live that through or in opposition to someone else, it can be helpful to understand the pull of others.
Practice noticing your internal atmosphere to nurture the next steps in relating.
Getting back to the workweek, if you’re on a traditional Monday- Friday schedule, can feel less than desirable. Maybe you’d rather be under the covers for a lay in and looking forward to a late brunch. For this Monday, I hope you can let yourself appreciate yesterday for whatever it was and also appreciate today for whatever it is. Let possibility be an enchantment as part of this Monday. Embrace not knowing absolutely what today will bring you. Greet today with anticipation – even if only mildly so. Let yourself expect something good and see what naturally stems from there!
Your mind is a precious space, like your heart center and body. All of you is sacred and what you think turns into words, which sometimes turns into action. It is so important to watch yourself with love and compassion so that you can know your center. Knowing your center gives you more input on the source of creation in your thinking, words, actions, and the overall landscape of your life.
From where do you want to define you -and create your experiences? Do you want to create from frustration? Do you want to create from low energy and sadness? Do you want to create from peacefulness? Do you want to create from joy? You can guess what the various emotional states would lead to and determine what will be the source of your creation. Anytime you see an unfortunate pattern (which sometimes doesn’t happen until after an argument or wreckage) be kind to you, and try again for what will make the best outcome for you and your loved ones!
Walking Meditation by Thich Nhat Hahn
Take my hand.
We will walk.
We will only walk.
We will enjoy our walk
without thinking of arriving anywhere.
Walk peacefully.
Walk happily.
Our walk is a peace walk.
Our walk is a happiness walk.
Then we learn
that there is no peace walk;
that peace is the walk;
that there is no happiness walk;
that happiness is the walk.
We walk for ourselves.
We walk for everyone
always hand in hand.
Walk and touch peace every moment.
Walk and touch happiness every moment.
Each step brings a fresh breeze.
Each step makes a flower bloom under our feet.
Kiss the Earth with your feet.
Print on Earth your love and happiness.
Earth will be safe
when we feel in us enough safety.
Photo taken by Cindy Weaver
( “Call me by My True Names – The Collected Poems of Thich Nhat Hanh”, Parallax Press, 2005.)
“To be human and to be adult means constantly to be in the grip of opposing emotions, to have daily to reconcile apparently conflicting tensions. I want this, but need that. I cherish this, but I adore its opposite too.” — Anonymous
Let this moment be a time to breathe deep and exhale fully. Bring your belly into the spine on your exhale to empty out the last breath in you and anything stagnant you’ve been holding. The inhalation that follows may bring you to center, where you can see the wants and needs suspended in a delicate balance around you, separate but linked. From center, you can appreciate them without being entangled in the tensions. You may be able to see anything that pulls you away from center as an energetic expenditure over which you have authority.
Have a lovely day!
Presence and Positivity 