When I “try” I am saying “a part of this doesn’t resonate with me.”
When I am “trying” I enter a space of potential failure, guilt, or shame.
Trying creates a river of resistance.
Instead, I think I will simply choose to “do” – do what feels right, do what I can do, do what resonates as what I am supposed to do.
Do without resistance.
Know that your kindness, your happiness, and your goodness are what sparkles and shines in this world…and that IS enough.
Compassion, peace, and calm cannot be forced. One cannot demand that someone be compassionate. One cannot command peace and calm. Rather, one must model it, live it, and know that the path to peace in ourselves and others is a steady process of balancing ego and replacing envy and judgment with love and inspiration. And that is the hard work that we must individually choose to do.
No matter that anger laps at your feet,
No matter that fear and distrust appear to form walls around you,
No matter that hope feels smothered,
Spiral upwards, out of the ashes of perceived despair,
Fill the air with compassion.
As long as the flames of compassion dance,
We can know only peace and joy.
In the stillness of my breath, the pain goes away, life’s challenges lie outside of me, and I know true peace. In every breath, I am me, the me that exists beyond time and space, the infinite, radiant me, the me that I sometimes forget until I rest in the cradle of my breath.
Can I open my mind without thoughts rushing in? Can I clear the path and feel expansive and light when all my thoughts and feelings seem so dense and heavy? I focus on my breath — its softness, its calm and gentle assertiveness as it moves through my body — and I begin to notice the light, to feel the freedom, to be the quiet…to know the peace of just being. On my breath, the fog lifts and I expand beyond.
Practice peace, love, and joy…not just in the ability to restrain exterior actions, but in every word, every thought, non-harming. Love, truly love, within and let the peace begin.
Whether the Universe creates the nook
or you carve it out yourself,
climb in, cuddle up with peace and joy,
and let everything else go.
The breeze blows.
The water glistens.
The sun shines.
…always in the place of my heart.
Sitting in stillness…waves come crashing in…loud, powerful, ferocious. Yet, in the stillness, I know only their beauty, their strength, and their humble gifts of positive change.
Monday Mindfulness 