Scattered thoughts or free thinking?
Procrastination or cultivation?
Anxiety or excitement?
It all depends on the filter you apply.
Whether perceived as negative or positive, when aligned with intention, all things meet in the middle, the filter dissolves, and in the valley of the heart, where labels and values are neutralized by the Self, the real work of joyfully being can begin.
Dance like sunlight on the grass…paint an ever-changing pattern that stirs delight and marvel…and cast your shadow without bending a single blade of grass.
The art of happiness is to serve…not just those you choose to serve…not just at times that are convenient to serve…not just from the excess reserves…but to serve…all.
When I am truly present, I feel each experience within my body. I receive it with my breath. I prod it with my thoughts and explore it with my feelings. Then, as I peel away these aspects of experience, these many layers of me, my inner wisdom welcomes that experience, absorbing it like a sponge, until that experience becomes me.
When the layers dissolve, all that I experience is me.
Brave hearts do not express courage with reckless abandon, fearlessly, wildly lunging forward. Rather, with discipline, wisdom, and awareness they intentionally explore a space that feels unfamiliar, unsafe, and with trust in themselves they willingly go there anyway.
Meek is not to be cowardly, rather it is gentle, patient, non-violent, and creates a soft space from which your power emerges in its most natural form – one of compassion, vision, abundance, and joy. Be meek.
My body is the vessel of my being.
It holds me, carries me, represents and protects me.
Why do I judge it, harm it, ignore it?
My body has unconditional love for me, always doing its best to support whatever next idea I have about how to decorate it, what to put into it, how to use it.
It will not last forever and it may not always be able to do or give me what I want, but in the still of the night, no matter what I ask of it, if I listen very carefully, I can hear it saying, “I love you”…every organ, every bone, every muscle, every cell.
It’s time to love it back…unconditionally.
Can I ask “How are you?” for the sake of simply caring?
Can I learn of your pain, your mistakes, your successes, without judging?
Can I know that your different opinions, ideas, and ways of doing things are exquisite because they are you?
Can I trust that all of your decisions are yours, not good or bad, but those necessary to lead you along the path that is you?
Can I resist the urge to selfishly invade your experience just to feel more powerful from the distant shores of my perceptions?
Can I love and respect you enough to allow you to mind your own business?
Can we all just live freely and in peace to exist in the space of our own decisions, to learn and grow in our own unique ways, and just go to work at the task of being what we were made to be…our own selves?
Awareness is like a lens that allows you to choose your perspective, to decide what part of the view is clear or fuzzy. The perspective you choose determines your story.
Photo by Jamie Bridson
Monday Mindfulness 