Monday Mindfulness

Cultivating Strength, Joy, Peace & Resilience

Tag Archives: hope


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House Cleaning

Life is not about suffering. Yet, frequently I fall into a pattern of thinking I am not fully living my life if there is not conflict or hardship.

I have made up a story that there is no room for me to be happy, no time or purpose for self care, rest, nourishment, and companionship. No space for laughter, play, and love.

Yet without those features my life is not complete and I move farther and farther away from my natural state of being.

I don’t even realize that the life I think I should be leading, the life that constantly tells me I am not worthy and not enough, is shrouding me in darkness, not because that is who I am supposed to be but as a reminder of what I am deeper inside.

I am enough just the way I am. I am successful right here and now. I am capable of feeling strong, happy, and healthy always. I am worthy of goodness.

I am made of love and my real purpose here in this place and time is to be a source of love for myself and others.

All the other stuff – the striving, the suffering, and self-deprecation — is just like cobwebs and dust, painting a picture of dismay and decay. However, quite easily with a swift and conscious swipe I can clear them all away to restore the beauty of the forgotten objects that reside just below.

In this cleaning of my house, I once more feel the freshness, spaciousness, and goodness that is intended to be. In devoting just that little bit of time and attention, that quick swipe, to restoring the luster, everything seems to fall into place. When that shroud is removed all that remains is the goodness that is in fact my life and who I am supposed to be.


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Agency

Poor behavior is a sign of a loss of agency.

Lashing out at the circumstances around me instead of diving into the power within me.

There within I always have the capacity to choose, to “re-cognize” and bring back into my mental awareness my own tools of agency. I don’t need someone else to pick me up, to defend me, or clear the way for me.

I can feel confident, strong, and happy through my own decision making.

Whatever the story, with agency I can produce my own powerful, beautiful ending.


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Crystal Clear

My mind says the work shows my value.

My emotions say the work provides purpose.

But my body say the work is tiring.

When out of balance, my body knows suffering, strain and illness.

It goes along with the plan for quite some time until systems become so taxed that it begins to breakdown, accelerating the natural limitlessness of this container.

And still I push on, the ego shouting louder about value and emotions crying for purpose.

Desperate for ease and repair the body collapses.

Foolishly, I believe that this is the only way.

Until I start to listen.

I hear my body’s call for balance now long before exhaustion.

I put down the baton and slow the doing.

I rest.

And I rest.

And I rest.

Sometimes it’s hard to turn off the voices of the doing, the voices of the wanting.

But it is in the space of rest where the tiny voice inside of me reminds me that greater value and purpose is born of nurturing.

Of nurturing this body, this mind, this heart.

Not just feeding, but honoring and loving, all of these aspects of me equally.

In this space, the desire to do and be something blends with the peace and stillness and then it becomes crystal clear that I need nothing more.

It is in the quiet space of rest where I am most powerful, most beautiful, and undeniably most complete.


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Part of Me

part of me - clouds

The pain weighs so heavy on my body,

Pressing deep into my chest,

Down into my bones,

Constricting every drop of my being.

 

Yet, the breath still flows

Light and free.

There is courage, hope, relief

As I recall that the pain is just a part of me.

 

No matter how sad, or mad, or defeated I want to feel,

The pain can never be bigger than me

Because the pain is just a part of me.

 


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Soft ripples

A rhythmic flow of thoughts, sensations and movement ripple along the surface.

There is a stillness in that rhythm, a fluid sense of presence, direction, clarity and completeness.

There is no pressing onward, no need for more. In the stillness, I am the me that I am to be.

So why do I seek waves and torrents when the stillness is the essence of my being?


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A little bite will do

cake

A cake baked rich and full calls us to dive in.  Taste buds perk up, enzymes dance with anticipation, the whole body awakens to receive the treat.  In one bite everything else around fades away…thoughts, senses, feelings all tie into this moment.  There is a full sense of aliveness, of nourishment, of awareness and special connection in knowing that this bite can never be duplicated and would never need to be.  This bite fills the space of needing anything else.  At one in this moment with this sustenance, we know it is enough.  That is all we need to feel complete, full, satisfied.

Each moment in life is like that bite of cake, so rich, so filling, and completely satisfying when we are aware, when we allow ourselves to be fully consumed and to fully consume the deliciousness.


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Within

The cold and dark descend upon me like heavy clouds. My focus draws inwards. Folding into that stillness without resistance brings crispness and clarity. There I discover warm radiant light in the cool crisp darkness.