Monday Mindfulness

Cultivating Strength, Joy, Calm & Resilience

Tag Archives: freedom


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Finesse

Why is it when I step out of my suffering, I am uncomfortable with the suffering of others?

Guilt arises at the feeling that I am free of pain somehow at their expense.

It is difficult to exercise compassion for the suffering of another when I hold no compassion for myself and the value of feeling pain free.

Compassion wrapped in guilt results in creating a false story in order to take on someone else’s.

True empathy is understanding suffering, holding a space of great strength and courage – enough for both of us – rising from my own pain and rising even higher from my own joy and knowing that by maintaining my balance, finesse, and freedom I offer more room for healing than by falsely taking on the suffering of others.

Compassion without guilt provides a clear path to alleviate suffering.

Compassion filled with joy brings independence, hope and healing.

Compassion is powerful.

Guilt smothering.

Empathy delicately empowering.


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Making My Way

Today I awoke feeling like a snake shedding its skin.

Soft, vulnerable, sensitive, expanding, growing, free.

Ripping through the layers of being that have protected, carried, and framed who I am, I thank those parts of me that no longer fit.

Purifying tears accompany the molting, helping to dilute any doubt.

Courage thrusts me onward – there is no halfway point in change.

The last pieces falling away, I barely recognize me.

For an instant I long for that familiar container.

In the very next instant it is clear I cannot squeeze back into that way of being.

I am destined to be soft, vulnerable, and sensitive

and for now that is what I am.


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Scattered

I wonder if our paths as humans are designed not to run in a straight line but to zigzag like the paths of butterflies in flight.

Zigzagging might not be an obstacle, but may just give greater freedom to go wherever we are inspired to go and break free from the predictable.

Perhaps the path is intentionally zigzag so that when we’re not sure where we are going, we end up exactly where we are supposed to be.


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Wide Open

Hope you stay open today to all the world out there has to offer you.

There are no wrong choices…even if you choose to be the object of pain or discomfort for yourself or someone else. There is a lesson in it all… a forward momentum.

Sense when to watch and when to leap. Don’t be afraid to feel – all of it. Know that it is all there for you to experiment with and none of it bigger than you…because it is there as a part of you.

Seek adventure curiously and joyfully…in your heart, in your mind, and in every action or inaction. Take on all that is out there in whatever way will grow and inspire you best.

Lift the blinds. Open the window.

Breathe it all in.

Now go live in it.


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Let Me Be Clear

So many times I have wished for a window into the future, into the consequences of my choices.

Seeking certainty in my decisions, weighing my intuition against the feedback in my environment, just to be sure I am getting the best deal, walking the right path, doing the proper thing.

All along I have sought clarity to fuel my certainty. I thought that clarity would provide assurance as if my choices could ever be right or wrong.

The day I chose acceptance over assurance is the day I began to realize there are no good and bad choices, no right or wrong.

When I seek assurance in my choices, I am doubting my capacity to be flexible, creative, and resilient.

When I seek to accept my choices I engage compassion for myself and confidence that I will be ok no matter what choice I make.


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Budding freedom

Taking away someone’s freedom is the ultimate infringement on being.

When I impose my ideas, my values, and my beliefs on you, I limit your freedom.

When I think that any part of your mind, body, or spirit needs changing, I build barriers to your freedom.

When I create obstacles that exist from my assumptions and preconceptions and believe I do not have the power to change the way we co-exist, you cannot be free.

When I say I am powerless to impact your sense of freedom and that it is totally up to you, I am shirking my obligation to give you space to be free.

It is not just you that controls your ability to be free. If I lose sight of the light of love that shines in every one of us – in you and me – the light that has a right to shine – we cannot be free.

Today I vow to do my best to cultivate your liberation, your resilience and your fortitude, to be free.


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A pebble in my shoe.

Here I am, walking along, awareness softly tuned to my surroundings.

Without any warning, the easy state of awareness suddenly funnels with precision into the soul of my foot.

A slew of messages instantly travels light lightening through my body alerting me to intense sensation.

There is a pebble in my shoe.

With each step now, I have a choice.

Do I immediately freeze, paralyzed by this unanticipated happening, shutting down, urgently driven to remove the discomfort?

Do I pause, taking notice, receiving the sensations with curiosity and kindness, quietly ascertaining my next step?

Or do I continue walking, noticing, and finding unique learning in every step, even through the unsettledness and unease?

Can I cultivate gratitude for the ability to feel, to move, and motivate, to decide with every step?

Whatever I do, it should be with care, not reacting but receiving, even when unexpected and uncomfortable, a constant reminder of my free will.


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What does it take to forgive?

To forgive requires an understanding of worth,

a belief that we are all equal and deserving of freedom,

free from the risks of learning.

It takes purity of mission,

integrity of intention,

clarity of thoughts,

truthful words,

and a loving heart.

Purity is the essence of forgiveness,

wiping away our grudges,

removing hurtles,

clearing the slate.

There is a lightness and ease for both the forgiven and the forgiver when judgment and expectation are released and we are each allowed to experience learning and loving

purely,

gently,

freely.


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No loss, just lessons learned

Change can be a trigger for grief when I view it as resulting in something I don’t want, something that requires me to lose what I have.

But when change is received as a marker of accomplishment of a stage or triumph over a challenge, it inspires a sense of renewal and growth.

To receive change in that way requires diligence and optimism. It requires a belief in me that all of my experiences are opportunities to get to know myself better and to play in the dance of life with you, this body, this world, even if it means it looks different along the way.

In this way, change becomes not suffering but nourishing, evolutionary, and a source of freedom.


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Soaring

Taking flight,

balanced in the nature of giving and receiving,

knowing that leaning too heavily into one force or the other will take me off course,

Cause me to tumble.

In order to give, I must receive.

To receive requires generosity.

When I balance these complementary forces I experience the grace and ease that can only be realized when I move from the center of my being,

Wings extended,

Heart open.

Souring on the currents of life.