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?

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!

 

Post by:   Tracy Weaver, Life Coach, EFT Practitioner

The “Be Your Own Best Friend” trend has certainly gotten off the ground and it is all psychologically very sound. You are the only with one with you 24/7, and hopefully you do know yourself better than anyone else.  Being your own critic really isn’t good for you or your health and yes, you can learn how to be inwardly loving and positive to yourself. But all that isn’t actually what got me going on finding ways to be good to me. It was the timeless comic strip Calvin and Hobbes.

At one point, Calvin wrote letters to his future self, posted them, got them back in the mailbox the next day and read them aloud to Hobbes. The idea always tickled me and many years later, I decided to do some friendly things for my future self, things that would make me feel good when I got them or came upon them.

One is easy. I love music and so I occasionally find a used music CD online and buy it. Then I forget all about it which, in my case, is really easy to do. A few days or a week later I get a padded envelope in the mail with something new to listen to, a nice surprise for that evening. I also do this for my wife and occasionally other folks. Just a nice little surprise in the mail, and something new to listen to that evening while making dinner.

Another is setting up the coffee for the morning before I retire. I’m picky about coffee, so I set it up just as I want to find it in the  morning. I’m also an early riser, waking up ready to do things while daylight is still a couple of hours away and the house is cold. Since my wife does not share this habit, I lay out whatever I’m going to wear in the morning in such a way that I can easily pick the items, figure out what they are, how they are oriented, and get dressed quietly in the dark without falling over hopelessly tangled up.

I’ve found it’s fun to do for myself and that my future self appreciates it! I don’t go overboard, just a few thoughtful little things. I wonder, if you were to try something like that, what would your future self most appreciate from you?

You are Loved

You are Loved

You are Loved

 

Show what you know.

Show it to EVERYONE.

Everywhere

in every way you can imagine.

This Day of Love can be a Year of love

and then a Life of Love.

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.

Pema Chodron advises approaching life as if it is one big experiment.  The hang up with this, at times, is that we grown ups can take our experiments extremely seriously and can be devastated by the results.

When I watch my 3 and 5 year old paint or dance or dig it is a different level of experimentation that I admire.  They truly have little attachment to the outcome and have little care for how they look to someone else in the process.  It’s not a show or a recital.  It’s not a piece to be framed or a paper to be disgusted by.  It is a process that is here to participate in and so they DO!  When it turns out all brown and torn from the mix of colors and aggressiveness of the artist, they toss it around and usually laugh at their attempt and move on.  When ‘it’ falls over as they build or they fall over as they dance, they continue on and or move on.

I will try, with more consistency, to approach life as an experiment with child-like enthusiasm and passion.  When it’s time to move on, I will move on.

When it’s time to laugh, let’s just laugh.

 

 

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.

Light a candle and send good wishes to the people in your life and perhaps even those you encounter but do not know intimately. Sending a blessing to that which is part of your experience and also that which is impacting the world can do good for your heart and possibly beyond.

Drawing attention to the positive aspects of today can be helpful to both you and to those that share in daily experiences with you.  Should you find that someone you know is facing difficulties, perhaps you can help guide conversation to things that are going well.  It is very easy to fall into a pattern of finding the negatives and it is just as easy to fall into a pattern of finding the positives; everything depends on where you place your focus.  Beyond placement of our own focus, helping others to feel better by talking about topics that generate positive energy aids in lifting vibration.  You can be a bright spot in someone’s day.  You can be a light unto others!

.

 

If you are placing judgement on a person or a place you are either in the past or the future.  This act of judgement is based on some sort of knowledge from your experiences thus far, or a fear, possibly even an assumption of what could be.  To be present is to discover a person, establishment, or experience for the first time, every time.  Let it teach over and over and over again, giving it full and curious energy.

This does not take away from a ‘gut feeling’, THAT is present moment.  Letting the original SOURCE in you express knowledge, protection and guidance is very different from a life lived through judgement.

…and so we choose which one we partner with for life… Present exploration with intuition  OR living in the past and future through judgement?