Monday Mindfulness

Cultivating Strength, Joy, Calm & Resilience


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Sheer Connectedness

Sometimes I just don’t realize the sheerness of the stories I wear.

How they seem to protect me and at the same time be filled with holes.

I wear them to create a sense of separateness, of control, and the ability to shield myself from others.

I can never truly hide from that connection. A part of me will always remain exposed.

Perhaps a part of me pokes out beyond the edge hoping to be seen so that I can come out from under the stories.

When the veil of story is pulled back authentic, vulnerable, unfiltered connectedness can begin.


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Reflections

How often I stand in this being of me, just not sure what I see.

Insecurity on the inside

Appears as rejection on the outside.

Longing for love and positive connections

Show up as judgment and disappointment from others.

Feelings of shame and inadequacy

Manifest as attacks of anger and disgust.

The stories build not on what is really surrounding me but in the distorted view I have of the reflections.

My experiences and relationships are like a hall of mirrors.

The distortion produces more distortion until the internal and external judgment and criticism becomes too great to bear.

And then, I let go of the differences, weaknesses, faults.

I soften the gaze.

I let the edges of everything blur.

And then I see it is all just me.

I become curious not about what I see in the endless reflections in the mirrors, but in the source of the projection.


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Reasons

I can choose to encounter my world through friction and tension…

Or synchronized and harmonious.

There is feedback and purpose in both.

Tuning to aversion or alignment as the compass points on my path,

I can either move towards what feels comfortable, favorable, and right

Or rub up against imbalance, back up, turn away and go around.

I can always choose resistance or resonance.


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Powerfully chill

Oh, to be in a state of body and mind in which I am

wholly connected to my inner radiance,

my vitality,

my strength,

my wholeness,

my joy,

in such an unconditional way that I interact with the world

with such grace, vibrancy, and connection

that I glow and flow

in all that I am.

Soft and focused,

Clear and free,

Confident and humble,

Knowing and speaking universal truth,

that I am

Powerfully chill.


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Budding Joy

Challenge can breed fear.

Fear fosters insecurity.

Insecurity inhibits growth.

Growth is a fundamental quality of living.

With growth we can overcome fear.

With every little bit of fear we face

We grow and that growth produces wider bands of safety

Making the next challenge a little easier to face,

Until more and more often the challenges yield directly to growth over fear,

And growth becomes the natural next step closer to joy.


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No Ties

They say it’s the rainy season,

But this sweet hibiscus might disagree.

Roots reach out for a hint of moisture

Only to find dry fissures.

Body wilting,

Edges curling

Under the heat of the

Unrelenting sun.

Is it possible to need less?

To hold out for the rain?

Leaves start to yellow and fall to the ground.

It may be unrecoverable.

The sky grays,

The wind picks up

Tugging on every branch.

Pounding rain bounces off the parched ground

Smacking the undersides of the few remaining leaves.

The clouds break.

The ground is soft.

The leaves are green.

Out pops a blossom.

No ties to suffering.

No lingering struggle.

Just strong, vibrant.

Resilient.


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Manifesting

Like begets like.

Peace leads to peace.

Kindness breeds kindness.

Suffering can lead to ease.

Mistakes become opportunities for growth.

Loss makes room for freedom.

Fear dissolves in faith.

Whatever I cultivate as my experience, I have the ultimate power to accept or shift the paradigm. Every experience serves me even when on the surface it may look grim. When I align an experience with the goal of knowing love, the love that is there always – not between people but that creates people – everything comes into balance, harmony prevails.

I no longer need to label my experiences as good or bad when I know that all experiences unfold before me so that I can explore what it is like to be my best self.

This is the process of trust.


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Resonance

There is something timeless in the rolling sea.

Individuality is lost as droplets leap into the air then instantly become consumed by the primal tugging, pulling, pushing, of the random rhythms.

There is something familiar in the curling, crashing surf. A sound and feeling calling me into its whisper, a deafening roar somehow barely audible.

It speaks of protecting me,

clearing my hurts and the world’s imperfections even before I know of them.

The spray catches my cheek.

Resonance of life force and love pulsing on the tide, pulsing through me.

I am consumed, transported back to the space and time when all I knew was the wooshing, whirling roar of silence in the womb.

My individuality is imperceivable.

I know precisely who I am…I am all.

It is with this magnificence that I crest the next wave dancing momentarily, singularly in the air and time and time again am happily reabsorbed into the flow,

into the moment of truth where I know I am the love and the life force that pulses with and through it all.

I am the resonance.


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Exposed

Sanding and scraping at the scars, dents and built up layers of protection releases not only the renewed beauty of the untouched core but reawakens all the senses as the scent, taste, and feel of the raw nature is revealed.

It is hard work to peel away the layers and return to that soft exposed space of vulnerability. It also comes with a lightness and freshness that invites expanded breath and awe at the ability to renew and return to untouched purity.

It is the purity and vulnerability that allow the true Self to be revealed, rekindled, and invited to be seen, smelled, tasted, and heard.

I sand, scrape, and rub at the layers of my existence to expose the grain of my soul, renewed with freshness, clarity, and beauty in my raw, natural state.

While I may still need a soft coat of protection for survival, this time it will be applied lovingly and gently by me, and leave room for my natural imperfections to shine through.


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Reclaiming Ground

Cracks in the foundation.

Gotta dig deeper.

Move more dirt.

Secure the footings.

Rising fear like flooding waters.

Climbing higher

Full of frailty

Mounting doubt

Insecurity

in the instability

existence threatened

Could it all crumble?

Maybe it should.

Digging deep.