Monday Mindfulness

Cultivating Strength, Joy, Calm & Resilience

Category Archives: diversity


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Swimming with the Rip Tide

Instinctively, as I get caught in the tugging, dragging, pulling pressure of the rip tide, I tense, tighten, and fight for control. I can’t see it but I struggle violently against this force that seems bigger than me. Then, just when all seems hopeless, I let go. I allow the tide to carry me.

Suddenly now I am floating on its surface instead of kicking against its hold on me. Instead of feeling I have lost control, I trust the waters to carry me.

Just then the fighting stops. When I release the resistance, I gain my freedom.

The current carries me farther and farther out but I relax more and more into the rocking motion of the water and the excitement of going somewhere new.

And then the current changes. I gradually float closer to the shore. I arrive not in the same place but still me, having lost nothing by giving up that control.

I stand at the water’s edge now wondering what other hidden currents are calling me to let go of resistance in order to arrive at some place new.


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Stepping Stones

There is a tendency for us to focus on the negative in the situations that are unfolding around us – to see the hate, the violence, the suffering, the injustices. We may see where we are and what is happening around us as a time of struggle, hopelessness, despair, darkness. We worry about what life will be like tomorrow. We may even fear hardship for our children as if the world around us is falling apart.

But our children are not afraid. They have confidence, perhaps just like we did when we were younger, that they are simply learning and evolving. They have a deep knowing that where we are today is an opportunity for them to succeed tomorrow. Those who are following their internal GPS are filled with hope.

So maybe instead of fretting about the politics, being angry about the hate and violence, and focusing on what is wrong or lacking, we are meant to relax into this darkness so that we can discover the light and have confidence in our children to know the way. Maybe what we see happening around us and to us today are actually the stepping stones our children need to lead us all to happiness, peace, and universal love tomorrow.


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Harmony

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When we all come together…

everything seems to come together.

That doesn’t mean we all have to be the same, but we all hear and see each other as the valuable contributions that complete our circle.


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Coeur…age

Think with your heart. Have faith in your instincts. Place yourself in unfamiliar positions and you just might find you are more comfortable and happier than you ever imagined you could be.


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Star Light

star light

Follow not the bright star

that leads from above,

but the light from within

that guides with pure love.


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Fly Freely

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The waters span wide.  The air open and clear.  We fly in a world of abundance yet so often we swirl in competition for the perfect bite.  Jockeying for our place in the sun.  Diving deep for what feeds us with such reckless abandon.  But, when we soar gently on the currents of the air, watch intently for the tell-tale shadow that slides below the glistening surface of the water, in that moment the abundance shines clearly …soaring and diving, not in fear of what others might take from us, rather in knowing there is plenty and we can in every moment be freely and completely fed.


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Simplicity

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Be grateful for the simple things…the love, the quiet, the laughter, each sunset, and the way that everyone in your life is there just as they are supposed to be perfectly annoying, perfectly intrusive, perfectly guiding you.

Embrace the simplicity of a plan already divinely created for you by you, all the pieces and all the players unfolding exactly as they are supposed to without layers of distraction, without redirection, not needing to be bigger or smaller.

Embrace the simplicity of it all and for that be grateful.


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Risk

 

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Invite new awareness in every experience with childlike innocence and freshness, illuminating parts of you that are dormant, numb, or forgotten.  Be bold and mindfully daring as you step beyond the familiar, trusting your intuition to live life fully – not cautiously, not routinely, nor steadily, rather knowingly and freely.


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Take a Stand

Stand Under

The feet are the foundation for the heart and head, the physical roots of Self.  They carry us. They know our struggles.  They tell our story – a story of how we have lived, our relationships with others, our deepest strengths, and where we have stood through every weakness.

Whether standing in the shadows or on the front lines of our experiences, we directly connect those experiences to our roots.

When we humbly and courageously stand under our experiences as opposed to standing up to them, we begin to open our hearts, strengthen our compassion for ourselves and others, and to exercise the most clear and powerful voice of action, that of the higher self.

We must stand under in order to understand.