Monday Mindfulness

Cultivating Strength, Joy, Peace & Resilience

Tag Archives: quality of life


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Seeking Beyond

In the cold, still hours of dawn, the frost surrounds me. Like a fortress, ice cakes the windows.

Agitation builds as I feel blocked from the broader landscape that lies beyond that wall of ice.

Straining to look past what’s right in front of me, I fear I am unable to move forward, somehow missing out. Life out there is happening without me.

And then my gaze shifts. As easily as the breath transitions from exhale to inhale, I see it…the beauty that lies before me as these little crystals of life come into focus.

Shiny…Small…Magnificent…Fleeting.

They dance before all else that lies beyond and will, as the sun warms them, part to change my view.

For now I rest in the marvel of how they gathered there to share their beauty and their story of the importance of not overlooking what’s right in front of me to hurry to the beyond.


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Hard work or heart work?

Are my decisions truly aligned with what is best for me?

Do I jump into action to make a big splash?

Are my actions tied to some sort of outside message board?

Can living just to feel happy be enough?

What if I chose empathy for myself instead of sympathy?

Or kindness and forgiveness instead of shame and blame?

Can I integrate my experiences, even the ones that result in mistakes, redirection or pain as essential parts of me?

Am I working to prove something?

Or am I living in these moments for my own higher good?

Could it be that by holding a space of peace and love for me I am holding it for you as well…

…and that is heart work.


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Slowly Shining Brighter

I am the moon, ever-changing, cast in the shadows and light of the sun and the adjacent stars.
Some days I might shine brightly. Some days I show more darkness.
To make things more complicated, clouds may obstruct your view of me. Your light and the light closest to you may dull my shine.
I may also choose to shine by light that becomes explosive, that combusts when it meets your atmosphere.
I may take on many faces and seem unpredictable, perhaps even volatile at times. Other times, I am distant, cool, and elusive.
Whatever light surrounds me, whatever stars I close to align with, it is just for this moment so that you and I can play with this light and these shadows.  
I do it all in the hopes that you will still see me through it all, reflecting light and absorbing darkness so that you can get to know me even better with each moment we share together.
In that space between the light and the dark, there is a great place of hope, grace, and love where we all can learn to slowly shine brighter.


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Emptying

When I start with the exhale, I start with a release, emptying space so that I can fill it just so. Filling becomes not as urgent when I am no longer grasping for the next inhale but expanding intensionally to receive it.

Emptying allows the filling to happen with less effort, with the simple purpose of fulfillment as opposed to rescuing or catapulting me.

With intensional emptying comes graceful, careful filling.

For it is not the act of filling that carries me on as much as the emptying which provides the space and focus for me to move on more fully.

Slowing down and extending the process of releasing creates more emptiness, more space for nothing that in return leaves me more ready to fill with everything.


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Dependence Day

Today I celebrate my free will and the ability I have to care for myself and live as I choose.

Today I celebrate my dependence.

My dependence on my self.

My dependence on my feelings to be raw, true, and guiding but not ruling.

My dependence on my mind to judge risk, reward, and my ultimate well-being in every decision I make.

My dependence on my body to tell me when I am making good decisions.

My dependence on my judgment and confidence to not always need to control the outcome.

My dependence on my ability to allow you to have your opinion and me to have mine.

Today I will have such great dependence that I will not need to assert my independence.


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Growing with Grace

It’s not in the mistakes that we make where our lessons have value, but in how we recover.

Recovery without backwards glances laced with accusations, excuses or judgment is growth. Growth is the ultimate form of healing.

Healing is recovery made good by grace, love, and kindness.


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Take a Stand

Stand Under

The feet are the foundation for the heart and head, the physical roots of Self.  They carry us. They know our struggles.  They tell our story – a story of how we have lived, our relationships with others, our deepest strengths, and where we have stood through every weakness.

Whether standing in the shadows or on the front lines of our experiences, we directly connect those experiences to our roots.

When we humbly and courageously stand under our experiences as opposed to standing up to them, we begin to open our hearts, strengthen our compassion for ourselves and others, and to exercise the most clear and powerful voice of action, that of the higher self.

We must stand under in order to understand.