Stand in your joy!
Exude love,
kindness,
generosity.
Not because they will gain you respect
or stature
or power
or success.
But because that is who you are,
and you deserve to walk into every room before you,
swinging that door open with healthy arrogance,
ready to share your grace and goodness,
just as you are,
with those fortunate enough to be in your presence.
Dark and heavy clouds fill the sky.
There is a moist, chilling feel in the air.
Worry, doubt, and greed swirl on the wind.
At the center of it all,
like an eye opening timidly from a long slumber,
a small space opens.
Unleashed absent effort,
unconditional,
unassuming,
extending unrestrainably outward,
an ancient healing balm,
a penetrating and permiating force,
stirs and
rises up.
It moves and shifts,
overcoming,
discerning,
dissolving,
and shifting.
Without seeking,
or striving,
it appears,
almost effervescently,
greeting all of the
anguish,
pain,
and
suffering
with gentle kindness,
patience,
humility,
and peace.
Love moves from within,
chosen
to be
seen,
felt,
and heard.
.
What would happen if I unleashed my wild self?
The parts of me that move freely, wisely, and instinctively.
If I tore off the garments of social norms and constraints that subconsciously influence my thought patterns and actions?
What if I could be in control and uninhibited?
Harness my passions and balance discipline with fearlessness.
Could I harmoniously exist between the light of rationality and the darkness where my wild, latent parts reside?
Can I embrace and express the dual aspects within me of passion and wisdom, freedom and structure, consciousness and instinct?
In honing my adaptability, I find the courage to assert the authenticity of my multifaceted self,
To roam freely yet wisely under the moon,
To unleash the inner beast and utilize knowledge and intuition to fully experience life,
and for life to fully experience me.
Embrace this new beginning.
You are protected and guided by love.
There is no need to pretend to be something you are not.
Lay down the sword you hold against your own heart.
Be who you are.
Allow your memories to sing like sweet songs of triumph and strength,
Of your courage and vitality everlasting.
Have faith that what is yet to come will nourish and comfort your soul.
Move forward with humbled confidence,
A vigilant warrior armed with a quiver of compassion and sensitivity.
Find power, stability, and strength in the quiet and stillness of the winter,
Knowing that you are never truly alone,
And will forever and always be loved.
Hope twinkles like tiny stars.
Courage forms in the constellations of small hopes coming together.
Darkness besets as guidance,
a backdrop for creation,
clarity, and definition.
Once the constellation appears,
even when darkness fades,
even when engulfed in light,
the stars are connected,
the constellation remains,
for once seen it can never be forgotten.
I am not cold.
I am feeling.
I am not sad.
I am informing.
I am not striving.
I am opening.
I am not ignorant.
I am growing.
I am not disappointing.
I am redefining.
I am not disconnecting.
I am transforming.
In this discomfort
I find my greatest knowing
And the courage
to share it with you.
So, I sit here day after day wallowing in my mistakes, misfortunes, pain, and suffering.
I hold onto them in my body like appendages…the tension in my muscles, the crookedness of my bones, the heaviness of my head…and heart.
I carry them as reminders of my faults and flaws.
And yet, when I sit in stillness, when I fill and empty with awareness on my breath, I find only peace…ease…joy.
Remembering…
…the gentle touch of others, through their hands, hearts, and smiles.
…the power of my cognition to work the puzzle pieces of every day life.
… the essence of my kindness and great capacity for love.
…the gifts of receivership and gratitude that present so abundantly and frequently.
I’ve been conditioned to hold onto and dwell on the lack and sorrows as if they belong permanently.
Love, joy, and freedom are somehow deemed as temporary.
Today I give myself permission to release it all – to breathe in and out with equanimity in every moment, to imbibe and cleanse, receive and release, storing none as defining me and simply allowing it all to live through me without reliving or retaining any of it as me.
Clearing the channels of experience so that all flows, informs, and re-minds me that I am everything and defined by nothing.
There is not just one way to be happy.
one form of happiness.
We are limitless beings with infinite possibilities for happiness.
There is always the potential to find fulfillment, accomplishment, significance, and satisfaction in absolutely every experience.
When locked into one way of feeling or recognizing happiness, faith and trust are trampled.
Happiness is bypassed for the more familiar feeling of disappointment, failure, lack, and shortcomings.
When we step out of the familiar way of seeing things
and can imagine the potentiality for happiness in every moment,
we cannot help but to live happier.
Boundaries contribute to positivity.
When I establish a parameter by which I can protect my values,
I increase my sense of stability and clarity.
That directly enhances my capacity to remain sure, confident, and clear.
In that state of certainty I am able to tamper negativity and remain open and flexible.
I maintain absolute dedication to my own well being.
I feel greater patience accompanied by assurance.
This cultivates positivity that directly fuels my ability to love.
Here, I feel nothing but joyful, confident, and free.
To the north I find the earth and sky.
The east brings new beginnings.
The west lowers the veil of transition, the mark of endings.
It is in the south where I meet my soul.
We sit and watch the rising and setting sun cast against the earth and sky over and over again.
Humbly and joyfully admiring the ever changing landscape of transitions, the beauty in the unknown as it takes shape each dawn and dusk, and the vast expanse of opportunity in between.
Monday Mindfulness 