How can your day be altered by your intention or basis in approach?  How does your everyday look if you approach things with dullness, imposed duty or even exasperation as opposed to a gentle compassion, with a sense of newness for this particular day.  What would be part of an ideal daily vision if you took a moment to look inward?  How would you feel and behave in an ideal day with no limits imposed on your imagination?

As an example in practical application, let’s say you have an exercise plan and you do it because you know it’s good for you, you want to have a certain number on the scale, and you’ll feel better after. How does this look differently if you do it because you like showing up for yourself, you notice the way your body has the capacity to move, using that  as an opportunity to take joy in movement (even if it’s not quite where or how you’d like). How does that approach change anything, if at all? Are the first reasons made subsequent instead of primary? How does exercising change with approach?

You can shift the approach to anything in your day: the way you feel about desk work, meetings, cleaning, yard work, or even standing in line — anything that has previously been viewed as a “have to” can be a “get to”.

Let positive intention and approach help you to feel your best as often as possible!

 

 

  I am finding that mindfulness begins with allowing there to be time and space to watch.  Just watch.  It does not come from sitting and problem solving, searching for hidden meanings, contemplating the cosmos or even ‘trying’ to love yourself.  Mindfulness begins with watching.  Find something simple to watch.  This is healing to your nervous system that is ruled and run by a chaotic world.  It is an act that momentarily draws us away from our own natural obsession with self.

Did you know that bubbles do not pop when they meet a pond?  Did you know that the skim and surf and skip even in reckless wind?  I didn’t.  Did you know they can make it 50 yards by the wind across a pond and meet cat tails? I didn’t.

Bubbles can live quite along life of interaction if you just watch.

What’s good in your life this weekend?  Go small and go grateful for anything that brings you joy!  See how long you can stay with that joy.  The better you feel, the better you’ll be capable of helping someone else to feel!

The gratitude list here so far this weekend:

1. cheerful tableware

2. scrumptious summer peaches

3. neighbors who share their farmers market finds with us!

4. sharing our gratitude with others

In recent weeks I’ve been thinking of the fondness I feel for southern magnolia trees with their large, sometimes ground skimming limbs, thick shiny leaves, and elegant yet substantial blossoms. This was a solo exploration in fondness and I thought too how lovely it would be to have sight of a magnolia from one of my regular windows.  About two weeks after thinking this, a neighbor of mine asked about sharing one or two trees with me.  What kind of trees were these? Magnolia! How fortunate.

What may happen in your experience if you don’t rush to answer yourself and instead allow room to be answered?

 

 

The more we are able to hold a space for ourselves, the more we become a presence in which others can also flourish. — Alana Fairchild 

How can you hold space with loving kindness for yourself today? What’s one shift or release that would allow you to be absolutely present with the glorious being that is you, even if only for a few moments – what does that look and feel like?

“It is the worst kind of extravagance, the way some people spend their chances.”  -Hope Floats

I remember how this struck me from a sweet Sandra Bullock movie in high school.  I thought it was so important to soak in that I printed it, popped it into a zip lock and tacked it up in my shower bathroom wall.  I believe I had it there for about a year so as to fully leave an impression on my life-STYLE.  Reading this brought forth a combination of gratitude and fearlessness to grab and relish the moment.

 

An activity for presence-ing:

If you have an apple to work with physically, that is fantastic, but this can also be done with your knowingness of an apple through past experiences and visualizing.

Hold an apple in your hands.  Rotate the fruit in your palms and feel the flesh on your fingertips.  Notice the weight of the apple.  Notice the color of the apple. Notice the stem and leaf or absence of those.  

How does the apple smell?  Notice the space between your nose and the apple as you smell.  Take a few breaths in, with the apple at your nose and mouth.  Notice the breath at the tip of the nostril. Notice the breath as it moves into the nasal passage. Notice the breath in your body.

Take a bite of the apple.  Let the apple stay in your mouth as you notice the shape and the touch on your tongue. Slowly chew and notice the sound, the taste, and the texture. What do you notice about the sound as you continue to chew this first bite?  What do you notice about the taste and texture as the fruit is made smaller and ready to swallow?  

When you swallow, notice the sensation of the food moving along the esophagus and toward the stomach if that sensation is available to you and notice if it isn’t. There is no should be, only what you experience.

Breathe in with the apple at your nose and mouth again before the next bite. Continue on with slow consumption and deep noticing, taking time to fully presence with the fruit.

Guided Apple Script

 

 

While this week unfolds for you, remember to move through or process life with perfectionism and a false sense of omniscience at bay.  Allow yourself room to be imperfect so that your original self can come forward in genuine expression.  Keep curiosity about you, a little clumsiness even, and some room for error.  You may find that room provides the opportunity to grow into a way of being that is far beyond what you thought possible.

Be with what is available to you now and let movement stem from there.  Move as best you can and deem that as perfect instead of some malevolent practice of perfectionism suggested by an overculture that would bend you from your natural expression.

 

Today is the Full Moon! Known under these several names; Strawberry, Honey, Mead and Rose Moon.

Strawberry Moon originated from the Algonquin tribe as a sign to pick wild strawberries and fruit.  All names were symbols of what nature gives at this time of year.   How will you recognize and move with the cycles in nature?

What can you gather, enjoy and share?

 

Recently, my family and I had the joy of submersion.  A spring process that happens constantly, but never right in front of us.  With many lives running more simply these days we had the time and space to watch the more than 50 caterpillars that took refuge on our house for their transformation, their metamorphosis.  Most made this transition like clockwork.  A few came out as fragile butterflies and fell before their wings could dry.  Several did not make it out of chrysalis and about 2 were not able to form a chrysalis.

This process reminded me of OUR process as a whole.  When we look at each person individually, life can seem cruel, nonsensical and very confusing.  We perceive events and transformations negatively and as personal insults as well as punishments.

Some of these creatures were successful only in caterpillar form.  Some were successful in 2 stages and others saw all 3 stages and flew on to possibly a roller coaster year of life, a bird’s mouth or a car’s window shield.   Every single detail isn’t ‘easy’ or ‘fair’.  These two words that we use so often in our lives to describe what SHOULD be.

The large picture.

Life beyond our own details.

Sit back and watch the larger process.