Make a list of everything big and small that is a blessing to you… It’s worth the time and reflection to recognize the joy surrounding you everyday. See the beautiful blooms opening around you, inhale the crisp morning air, thank your body for allowing you the experience of existence, and anything else that comes to mind!
People are at various points in their understanding of others and situations. We cannot force others to change; we can only meet people where they are. Challenging people may be a less effective tactic than offering words of wisdom that have come from your own experience. Observation and time are excellent teachers. Words do not teach. Experience teaches. Yet, here I am offering words that I hope will be applied to experience and felt later for their worth.
In general, people respond to gentle allowance with acceptance. A porous path gives way for a natural immersion of what is and what is coming. Likening yourself to this kind of stone feature we use to designate spaces and possibly direction, is a note in letting yourself and letting others. Hold your space and allow for that of others.
What will you be for the interlacing of experience and truth? Can you allow yourself to tolerate others at whatever place they are in a given situation or perception?
Post by Jessica:
In a conversation, we listen. When we listen with empathy, interest and no personal agenda we ‘hold space’. If you have ever had someone hold space for you, you may instantly realize how good it feels to be witnessed in such a way.
We can hold space for ourselves while we are alone as well as hold space for ourselves within a group.
Notice your tendency within a group. I have recently started practicing not sharing every opinion or thought that comes my way. I chose to sit and let those thoughts be inspired and leave. Within a group if you are always quiet, is it possible to say something important to you the moment the inspiration hits? Could this be an experiment?
If you are always sharing and processing out loud could you keep those pieces inside? What does what feel like? How is it different for you?
These experiments are a part of being present and aware within a group. The act of challenging your nature for an experiment brings you to that moment and then the next with arrest awareness, engagement, and empathy.
See how you feel when you choose the other way, and if that way feels ok for you too.
Find a penny, pick it up. All day long, you’ll have good luck.
What can you do with with your pennies to bring joy into the lives of others? I like to leave them here and there for people to find heads up. If I see one on tails, I’ll flip it and pass the turning of luck to the next person who spots the omen.
If we look at currency as belonging to the whole of humanity, we can allow the exchange of pennies to become expressions from the heart while we share good wishes with other observant souls.
When in doubt – don’t. Pause, when you need. Give yourself time to know, when knowing is not immediate. Stop to listen to your heart and follow the direction you find there. You can’t go wrong when you’re able to balance being mindful of others with being attuned to your own rhythms, passions, and internal promptings.
Our First Teacher is Our Own Heart -Cheyenne Proverb
Carve out 10 minutes or more for yourself to enjoy the calm within. Can you leave the electronic world behind, the news, and any worry you may be carrying for designated time to sit with yourself in quiet? Mindfulness about shutting off from the outside world incrementally may prove to make you a better focused and active participant there when you return!
dis·cern·ment
dəˈsərnmənt/
noun
1.
the ability to judge well.
2.
(in Christian contexts) perception in the absence of judgment with a view to obtaining spiritual direction and understanding.
Regarding a previous post on moving through life with a fresh perspective and not bringing judgements along for interaction, we can also consider discerning what we want to allow. Judgements about the experiences we want to encounter are different than jumping to conclusions about a person,place, or thing that we cannot know without experiencing for ourselves and sometimes can still not know as change is ever present. When choosing direction, it is helpful to be discerning. The actions we take create our path in body (to a point – not to speak on illness or trauma in this post), in mind, and soul. Of all the options, which way will you go today?
A Weekend Reflection
What you receive is in direct alignment with what you create in your thinking, in your offerings, and in what you allow. The starting point in direction of what you receive lives in the mind. Taking time to clean up your thinking is worth the return. When thoughts arrive in your mind that do not line up with the feelings you wish to experience, practice letting those go. You may not be able to stop the thoughts from presenting but you can dismiss them with little time spent lingering there. It’s prudent to be selective with what you allow in your head; it is part of your sacred space. Practice being receptive to thoughts that feel best and notice how it changes your overall presence. There’s a warm ray of sunshine hiding behind that cloud of thoughts, just waiting for you to let it in!
Cycles, change, coming and going are natural parts of life. All things come and all things go. We cannot live permanently amid a changeless scene. What we can do is find a way to accept changes as they enter our lives and aim to move gracefully with them.
Meditation for Accepting Change:
I am safe and at peace. The world around me changes daily. I change with the world,too. I am open to accepting and learning from the new environments that are inherent in change.
“We don’t see things as they are, we see them as we are.” – Anaïs Nin
There’s a small bridge that lies across a narrow section of the creek nearby. This ‘bridge’ is a series of planks that is underpinned with a long piece of wood running the length of it and two additional pieces intersecting at each end to help provide stability where it rests. Because there is no attachment into the bank, the bridge washes down stream a bit whenever there’s a heavy rain and it’s left lying crooked. The land on either side is higher a few feet down where she slides and the bridge is rendered useless until someone moves it back into place. Until last week, I’ve either waded through the water in rubber boots knowing what I would find or I would take a different path when the bridge was out. I viewed the displacement as reason to enjoy another way.
An elderly gentlemen was at the bend before the creek when I was passing some days ago. He had wild white hair atop his head and a thick beard at his jaw. He called out to me, “Wanna help me put the bridge back in place?”. I said I would be happy to lend a hand. We went down to the creek together and my dog wagged his tail but barked his uneasiness to the stranger. The man was gentle and set about making the pup comfortable with a low stance and friendly greeting. In a moment, there was another man at the other side of the creek and I shared that we were aiming to set the bridge right. He agreed to help. All of the activity calmed my dog and we were soon in the water helping to move the bridge back. Not long into the motions of lifting and adjusting, I realized that we each had a different idea of where the bridge should be placed. This, however, did not cause much conversation. We worked together, naturally following the direction of the man with white hair, until the bridge was passable again.
At this time, we mused about our different views with the understanding that we’ve each seen that bridge situated in different ways at different times which would contribute to our perception of how it should be. Each person appreciated the perspective of the other and we all called out kind words of departure before we took up our individual directions again.
Presence and Positivity 