Monday Mindfulness

Cultivating Strength, Joy, Peace & Resilience

Tag Archives: strength


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Seeking My Place in the Sun

I am never quite sure what challenges lie ahead.

I reach out, spreading my branches despite the fog.

I do not know what I will touch or be touched by.

I cannot help but feel a darkness lurking there, fear ever present in knowing there may be hurt or pain in the unknowns and unkinds that secretly swirl around me.

The fog fuels my insecurity as the branches of other trees press against me further threatening my place in the sun.

It is then that I remember that I am made to bend and sway.

I reach not with my branches but deep down through my roots.

I extend my roots for both of us, steadying me and gently holding you so that together we can face the fog and darkness with greater certainty.

I am grateful to feel your roots hold me in return.

Under the pressure to withstand, when I feel and share my roots I need not push away those that cast shadows.

We need not struggle to find our way alone.

As I lend strength, I find security.

As I steady others, we stand together,

equally thriving,

despite the fog.


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Ripples

Each of us is standing in our own ripples,

Not different but unique,

Finding our own way to stay steady in shared space.

In this familiar but sometime unpredictable environment,

Looking for patterns that help us feel secure,

Relying on patterns that helped us adapt,

We find ourselves courageous enough to learn new patterns that allow us to thrive even more fully

Amongst the ripples.


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The Power

Rolling in, rolling out.

The waves may be big. The waves may be small.

There may be great space between or a quickness that causes me uneasiness.

For a moment I feel unsteady, unable to trust. Is it the waves or is it me I doubt?

I soften and focus my awareness.

I find a rhythmic ebb and flow within.

Doubt disappears as my internal rhythms take over. I settle into the flow.

I create the ease that I crave. I am not the waves.

I am not the fear.

I am the power behind it all.


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Luminosity

The sun typically illuminates the moon.

The moon relying on the sun to be seen.

On occasion they come into complete opposition.

The earth interferes with the sun’s capacity to light the moon.

For a moment there appears to be total darkness.

And then the moon emerges more strikingly in the sky than ever before, full of deep, rich color.

The moon becomes something new,

The dark more luminous,

The sun still shining.

Adversity the catalyst,

Throughout the darkness.


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Lessons in Humility

How to be strong and vulnerable.

Look others in the eye.

Listen deeply.

Be Aware.

Allow.

Accept.

Fear less.

Laugh more.

Love.


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Ready to Receive

The more connected I am to you in compassion the more I realize my capacity to give and receive love.

It is in the receiving that I find connection to my higher knowing of my strengths and goodness, of my value and purpose, of harmony and grace.

Love me, but above all may I be capable of receiving that love.

For the love in me becomes the roots and branches of all that I am.


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Walking Confidently

How often I have longed for the confidence of another, the apparent success of others, and what seems the ease with which they live.

Then I remember I have my own gifts and talents.

These thriving others are likely not concerned with what I have or don’t have and rather are living within their own gifts and abilities.

It is in living within our gifts that brings ease to our existence, success in our challenges, and the knowing that each of us contributes a beautiful and very special piece to the tapestry of all.

Much like in painting, when the unique colors blend just at their edges they are often more vibrant than when they stand alone or try to take on characteristics of the others and simply become mud.

Today, I aspire to walk confidently and brightly in the shades and shadows of my own unique talents and abilities.


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Contain Me

For each of us there is a layer that surrounds and holds our thoughts and feelings, that ties physical material existence to a sense of being. Built into the walls of that container are our beliefs, values, and desires, ever connected and blending with the feelings of others. These characteristics are what give the container strength but can also become places of vulnerability, weakness, and destruction. Stress fractures can begin to appear over time in the container where the values, beliefs, and habits are challenged, become inflexible and brittle.

Signs of wear or weakness are not markers of fault in the container, but a means for assessing whether repair or replacement could be useful. It may be the values and beliefs woven into that section are ready for reconditioning.

When I visualize the materials, tools, and mending — stitching the fabric, soldering the metal, molding the clay – and give myself permission to reshape the container, perhaps even layering different media, I can begin to fill and empty with experiences in a way that projects and protects the me I have come to be.


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Steadfast

When I become the mountain that I see in the distance, I feel my steadiness, my ability to withstand the currents of the winds and the torrents of rain. I may be walked upon by people, animals and time, yet the cracks, worn paths, and decay only add to my character and beauty.

I reach towards the sky never forgetting the love of the earth – the earth within me.

When I feel my true strength, I no longer need to be strong


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Hmmmmm

A tear carves a cool path along my skin. My heart pounds furiously against the constricted edges of my body. Focused on my imperfections, I am frozen.

Motionless, my attention is suddenly diverted to a deep and robust murmur in the sky. I slowly turn and open my eyes to find a hummingbird still yet racing in the sky before me.

Wings fluttering so quickly I cannot see them, heart beating 500 times the speed of mine, there it hovers, searching just like me for nourishment in its motionless.

It’s lightness as much a reality as my heaviness.

Joy and freedom projecting from its racing heart and pounding wings.

My racing heart begins to feel less burdened.

My constricted body is now inspired to move.

The illusion I’ve created of my suffering fades.

I find nourishment in transforming my experiences into joy and lightness, choosing the qualities of a hummingbird over failure.