I have a few strange ways that help with reusing the packaging that common household items come in….  It’s simple, I just put specific containers of sacks into a drawer for projects I know are coming within a few weeks.

Sheets, pillow cases and sometimes toys or gift wrapped present from AMAZON come in little sewn bags with either Velcro or a draw strong cord.   I like to….

1. make belly breathing bags for Pranayama work (controlled breath). I will them with rice and cheap beans, sew the one open end shut and give them as gifts, especially to friends who suffer from chronic anxiety and stress.  This is the perfect addition to your Nightstand for a bedtime routine of calm, meditative breathing.  You can also fill a long bag (one came with my kids pick up sticks) full of rice that is NOT instant), add a few drops of desired essential oils, sew the end and you have a microwavable neck wrap.  Use a square of rectangle bag for heated tummy help.
2. makeup compact mirrors.  I have a history of camping and hiking.  I keep the little mirrors for ‘tick checks’ as well as a tiny travel mirror for on the go plucking and futzing.  These tiny mirrors also tend to entertain your kids for way longer than expected when given on a road trip – who doesn’t love to watch themselves make funny faces!!
3. Many cold cuts come in tiny less durable Tupperware.  Even the packaging at Chic-fil-a and to-go containers from restaurants!!  These containers do well in the top rack of your dishwasher.  Instead of throwing them away of even recycling them – they are great for sending people home with left overs.  Sending kids home with craft projects or for packing school lunches.

This probably show how eclectic my life is…but there you have it.  Some ways I reuse packaging!

It is a choice…how you see the details of your life.

A choice to see it for good or for harm.  To see it as an obstacle to struggle through or a lesson you are flowing through.

It is a choice…to be offended, hurt, even devastated or to be humbled, grateful and inspired.

There is no definite wrong or right at all times.  Both can be experienced and both are necessary in different times.

Just remember, it is a choice. 

Seeking fulfillment outside of yourself is a lively game, that has many of us captured in it’s allure for the majority of our time.  We seek fulfillment in our work, defining and inflating the sense of self with our accomplishments.  We look for it in physical pleasure, through technology, games, and movies.  Sometimes we partake in over indulgences with food, drink, and other vices because it helps to numb the emptiness we feel.  We associate this emptiness with an outside need.  We need other people and things to fill it up or distract us from this void we feel inside.   There are so many distractions that we see as normal in our culture.

There is nothing outside of you that can satisfy you indefinitely.  You will grow bored with what you have and you will seek more or you will seek different.

Everything you need to feel fulfilled is  inside of you.  It’s hidden under the layers of distractions that have become the standard in your life.  A quiet space with dedicated focus on deep breathing and connecting to your inner self will lead you to a greater contentment and peacefulness than anything you will find outside of yourself.

The love, the sense of wholeness, the feelings of contentment are all waiting there for you to uncover…

We think about waving a white flag when we want to quit something, when we give up or when we need help.  Often a mark of desperate measure and exhaustion, it’s not perceived as a positive sign.

What if we saw the white flag under a different light?  What if instead of giving up the flag could stand in it’s simplicity as a representation of surrender to what is?

In surrender, we can find ease because we are no longer resisting. Surrender, perceived this way, isn’t about giving up control though you’re willingly handing it over to the powers that be.

Surrender is acceptance and trust in the process of this incredible environment that hosts our experience.

We want to help those around us.  It is up to the other person to accept our offers or not.  We can help heal old hurts through these interactions.  They give an opportunity to build trust and safe space between people.  There is healing ready and waiting within these interactions.  When we ground our bodies and breathe before we ask to help we give that person neutral space with which to answer honestly.

If we reach for them or ask out of desperation or felt obligation- resentment, irritation and mistrust can grow.  Ground your feet, breath and then ask with no exceptions.  Whether they accept or refuse makes no difference.  That is the intention of living in LOVE and respect.

To remain positive through our days can be difficult, yes?  Social media, the news, negative movies and music all around, watching people become angry at the smallest of misunderstandings in stores, at work and with their families leaves little room to feel LOVE around us.  We can feel so heavy instead of light and hopeful.

There are a few ways that I have learned to help see the good in life, in people and in the MESS.  When I find myself asking ‘Why?’ or when I find myself judging my surroundings, I come right back with, ‘It is what it is.‘  This simple statement that I learned from Eckhart Tolle brings my present moment into a nonjudgmental way of seeing, watching and observing life.  I do not have to begin to categorize ‘right’ and ‘wrong’ or how to change the moment to make it more like me.  ‘It is what it is.  I am Here.’  I say this when my kids are having big reactions, when I see all of the violent movies advertised on Netflix or when I watch an argument.

Life is contrasting.  It is dynamic and unpredictable.  Nature is unbelievably fragile and gorgeous and also brutal.  ‘It is what it is.  I am Here.’  We can only affect our present moment and our inner state.  The butterfly affect of THIS way will create a larger change than you could ever campaign or rally for.

Smile in the mirror. Do that every morning and you’ll start to see a big difference in your life.

Yoko Ono

 

“Luck is believing you’re lucky.” – Tennessee Williams

So much of luck is in how you choose to see situations and people.  Focusing on the good aspects can lead to a heightened awareness of just how lucky you truly are.

Surround yourself with good feeling thoughts and make time to do things that bring joy!

“The highest form of love is to be the protector of another person’s solitude.” -Rainer Maria Rilke

We may associate being alone with loneliness but this doesn’t have to be the case.  Creativity is often born in aloneness.  There’s plenty to be said about group dynamics and the energy found there for creative interplay, but it can be important to honor solitude as the positive space that bridges the unmainfest with the manifest.  What is and what will be need a meeting place as do the earth and sky.

It could be that what comes from solitude is a form of artwork, as was the case for Rilke, or it could be a quiet reflection, or a time of  rejuvenation that produces result in the quality of interactions to follow.  When you offer the gift of solitude you open a door from which many other gifts can flow.

“Silence is a source of great strength.” – Lao Tzu