What are you thinking?

Perhaps you’ve heard: “Thoughts held in mind produce after their kind.” In a lyric composed many years ago, I wrote:

There’s no getting around it:
the world is what you make it to be.
You see and hear, yes you perceive,
and then the mind such stories it weaves!

Our minds are very powerful human computers! And their job is to think. That can be a very good thing. With our minds, we solve problems, explore possibilities, and vision the future we wish to create.

Our thinking minds, however, if left unguarded, can guide us astray. Continue reading “What are you thinking?”

Meditation and Stillness: What’s the big deal?

Undoubtedly you’ve heard the word meditation tossed about in recent years. You’ve been told that it has value, helps reduce stress and anxiety, clears your mind and helps with focus. (If you want more, Deepak Chopra offers much in his article, Why Meditate?)

If you are still not convinced or willing to devote time to a personal meditation practice, I’d like to give you an image that may help. Continue reading “Meditation and Stillness: What’s the big deal?”

The Gift of Awareness

Bring the gift of awareness into your day today. Choose a touchstone, a reminder, to keep with you all day long. Perhaps it is a ring on your finger, or clouds, or the act of walking through a doorway. Then, each time you see your touchstone, pause. Invite a message from each of your senses: sight, touch, hearing, taste, smell, intuition.

What is really here now?

The Void

Last time, I wrote about THE LIST, that never ending wellspring of ideas of where to invest your energy, your time, talent, and financial resources. You may have such a list for your life, your business, your family and home.

You don’t have such a list? Are you in that place of feeling stuck, not knowing which way to turn because you believe you have exhausted your options? Maybe you don’t believe you are creative and are waiting for someone else to tell you what comes next? Or perhaps you have been on the treadmill and exhausted yourself, checking things off the list and now feel empty, drained, without ideas?

I’d like to share an idea about the creative process that can help. I suspect it has been written about many times before (because it works!) yet my most recent encounter was in The Intuitive Way by Penney Peirce. Simply, it is a cycle of creation that requires listening. We must listen to the energy inside and notice when it says:

“Yes! Do it!”

and when it says:

“This doesn’t feel right. What is really needed now?”
or “I’m tired. Take a break.”

Simply put, the cycle is this:

  • BE – return to the void and listen; allow space in your activity to hear intuition, that still small voice within, and to be inspired
  • DO – once inspired in the listening, we know the steps to take
  • HAVE – having taken the steps, we experience completion or “having”

Sometimes, the cycle looks like this:

BEDOHAVEBEDOHAVEBEDOHAVE 

Sometimes it looks like this:

BEDOHAVE – DO – HAVE – DO – HAVE – BE

Often, when we are too focused on completing the list, it looks like:

BEDOHAVE – DO – HAVE – DO – HAVE – DO – HAVE …

and we never return to BE.

Today, consider breaking the cycle. Set the list – or the non-list – aside. Perhaps just gift yourself with 15-60 minutes of solitude. Go for a walk. Sit alone under your favorite tree. Go for a swim and treasure the feeling of floating on your back soaking up the sun. Sit in the chair with your pet in your lap and quiet music in the background.

Whatever you choose, the gift is one of being in the void. Invite your mind to rest. Deepen your breath. Calm your inner agitation. Just be.

What do you notice here?
What feels easy to release from here?
What inspiration is present here?

Finally, before you leave this place, make a date with yourself to return. Then do it!

 

Enough Already

ItsTimeBreakFree4By6

Spring has arrived in Wisconsin even as tornadoes, snow, rain and wind rampage other parts of the country. And I am grateful. Coffee in hand, I sit on my porch and listen to the birds sing their song of morning delight. I sense the stillness all around and the anticipation of wonder within. My heart chakra opens, expands, and I feel the connection to all that is.

Then, without warning, I notice that my thoughts are actively planning – the day, the summer, my work with others. Really?

So I breathe. I gently return to the present moment. I gently invite my busy mind to rest. I gently invite my being to BE.

Does any of this sound familiar? Is your human “doer” challenged to stop and simply be with the beauty around you? If so, know that you are not alone! It is the nature of our mind to think. We have been shaped by a society that values thinking, planning and doing. And there is a place for all of this!

Yet, as a former compulsive thinker and doer, I would like to invite you today into a practice of stillness, of quieting your mind, of allowing, of simply being. Begin with a few minutes or a few deep breaths or a slow, mindful walk around the block. Whatever you choose, begin. Then notice:

How does your heart chakra feel?
What happens in your nervous system?
What “urgent” matters are no longer urgent?
What is the magic in stillness for you?