Do you practice self-judgment?

Really, how well have you perfected the skill of self-judgment? What are the areas in  your life where your inner judge is particularly active?  What is the difference between judging and:

  • noticing
  • acknowledging
  • discerning

Next time you find your harsh, inner judge all too active, pause. Give the judge a rest and try being with yourself in a gentler, softer way. Take a deep breath. Notice. Acknowledge what is present. Discern what, if anything, you would like to shift and accept the rest for now. Take a step.

How does your being respond to gentle?

Beyond the fresh coat of paint …

There is something about the chaos of painting that invites a deeper cleaning, rearranging, and clearing out! As I put the room back together, careful not to mar the freshly painted walls, I couldn’t help but move some things around and view the space from different perspectives. And before restoring all the knickknacks, I had to open the drawers and the doors and clean and discard and make the hidden areas fresh and lighter as well.

What about our insides, our thoughts, beliefs, ideas and practices?
What needs rearranging?
What needs to be released?

What will lighten our inner load?

On gentleness…

Flower

Today finds me practicing gentleness … toward self. I am adding in a large dose of compassion, forgiveness and love.

Why?

It is so easy to get caught up in doing, accomplishing, helping, running. In the process, I can forget me, forget to listen to the call from within that desires rest, play, pause, nourishment.

What I know about life is this: if I am experiencing “it” — so are others. So today, I write for you just in case you are one of those “others” who needs to hear “it”.

When you stop, breathe and turn within… what do you hear?

What map are you following?

TreasureMap4By6

Have you thought about your life map lately? You know the one: it has clear directions which guide your choices day to day on the road to a happy, healthy, fulfilling life.

You don’t have such a map? You just roll with the punches, let life push you around, or perhaps just go through the motions of living?

Oh! You have a map and, truth be told, it is actually very limiting so that you “succeed” and make no mistakes along the way.

Not that? Maybe you are following a map very carefully – but it isn’t your map.

Most likely, you are somewhere on the continuum between no structure and over-control or self-responsible and giving all your power away. And perhaps you are at a different point depending on which aspect of life (work, primary relationship, self-care …) you are thinking about.

Today I’d like to invite you into a few simple questions around any area of life that is chaotic, unhealthy or even just too comfortable.

Who is in the driver’s seat?
If nothing changes, where are you going?
What do you want to discover?
What shifts will insure that you DO?

What if …

What if you knew that everything you desire in life was waiting for you to recognize it, claim it, live it?

What if the only path forward was to be here now?

What if this now moment was all that mattered?

What if this moment, this activity, this breath fully experienced was guaranteed to lead you to the greatest version of the grandest vision of your destiny?

What if …

How would you choose to experience “now”?

Check out these lyrics: Each and Every Moment