Cleanse

 Nothing in the world is as soft and yielding as water. Yet for dissolving the hard and inflexible, nothing can surpass it  Tao Te Ching

                                              

Sometimes a person just needs a fresh start with new energy.  Even when there is nothing wrong and you are just tired of plodding along the same old path. When you just have this restless feeling that something has to change, I like to start with the ancient elements: earth, fire, water and air.

Earth:  

• A shower with a good salt scrub feels cleansing for both earth and water  
• Getting outside barefoot 
• Laying on the ground, letting the earth to energize me through mother nature
• Working with crystals
• Bring fresh flowers in the house
• Garden

Fire:  

• I will write down those things I wish to release, whatever is not serving me
• Sage smudge my home and body with the intention of releasing the past and having a fresh start  
• Light a candle-drawing the warmth from the candle in cupped hands to my face.  
• Lighting a fire in the fireplace
• Lifting my face to the sun

Water:  

• Drink plain water-lots for a good flush
•  A long shower with a salt scrub
• Herbal teas
• Soups
• Soak my feet

Air:  

• Breathing in combination with meditation through mantra or just attention to the breath
• Being outside smelling the fresh air
• Essential oil diffuser or on my pillow
• Feeling the wind on my face

Mistakes

 The only man who never makes mistakes is the man who never does anything      Theodore Roosevelt

                                            

I do believe that saying is true.  To add to that.  The more you do and the more you try to do outside of your expertise or comfort the more likely you are to make a mistake.  I believe most mistakes come from rushing, not paying attention or not understanding what it is you are doing or the intention behind what you are doing.

My mom had a saying to counter act fear of making a mistake, " Do something, even if it's wrong."  That is a pretty good motto when you think about it.  In other words-Don't just stand there-take action.

The trick with mistakes is to not beat yourself up.  I think that I spent most of my twenties and thirties beating myself up for actual or perceived mistakes.  When I think about it, I get a chill.  Wasted hours, unnecessary stress, making up stories both to shame and defend myself.  So much of that came from a fragile ego and from no sense of self at all.   That was a bad time period for me and one I don't think I really got out of until I was into my forties, it peaked in my mid-thirties and gradually lessened.  I got released from that trap through a few things: about 500,000 dollars' worth of self-help books, talking with my friend who was going through much of the same, making mistakes and living through them and finally having enough hard hits that I had to and learned to release much of my ego.  If I could know then what I know now I think life could have been so much more fun and so much easier. 

Mistakes still are not easy for me.  As a recovering perfectionist they are still difficult.  I now am ego resistant and resilience strong both of which are cultivated states that grow over time.  

Bottom line: Take some risks, make some mistakes-tell your ego to take a hike and practice resilience and letting go.   Making mistakes gets easier.  Life gets easier.

Let It Be

 There will be an answer.  Let it be.  Paul McCartney

                                             

 

We need to be.  Just be.  We don’t need to be anything for anyone.  We just need to be who we are.  Sometimes that is the hardest thing to be of all.  There are so many influences on our lives.  Family, children, parents, coworkers, work, clogged drains, sour milk and dog vomit.

It is so easy to let these things define who we are.  We want to be the perfect Mom, so we snap at our children for making us look bad in public.  Are we acting out of love for our children, gently correcting their behavior or are we acting out of our own ego afraid what other people will think of us as if our children aren’t well behaved.  A coworkers off handed comment becomes a reflection on our character instead of a result of their bad day.

That mirror that we reflect other people's thoughts of us back to ourselves can be a circus mirror, full or distortions, bends and tricks of shape that fools us even though we are seeing with our own eyes.

Seeing the dog vomit as dog vomit, not the universe persecuting us for our sins.  The sour milk is sour milk not our lives gone down the tube and a sign of our inefficiency as a human being.

We can be who we are as humans of character and value and not look at the reflections of who we think we are based on what others may or may not think. 

Look inside, look the dog vomit square in the eye, grab a paper towel and think next time I won't give Benji the liver treats, not why does this always have to happen to me.  Assessment of what is- not judgement of what should have been.

Smell the milk, wrinkle your nose and pour it down the drain. Think, ok no cereal for breakfast what else is there.  Not..if only I were more organized.

Today is today… It is what is, it be what it be.  I am who I am. I am not defined by others judgement. I am a whole person.  I don’t need to work on myself.  I am perfect as I am.

In the words of those wonderful philosophers, the Beatles…Let It be…

 

Begin Again

 Every day is a new opportunity to begin again.  Every day is your birthday  Dalai Lama

 

Every day is a new start.  Every day we are given an opportunity to wake up and do things differently.  In the contrast we find significance.  In this, is a chance to be born again, move in a different direction, Every day.  A chance to do things differently.  An opportunity to choose a new attitude.  A new way of being in the world.  An opportunity...

 I believe the universal pattern was planned to allow us to exercise our choices, free will.  Each morning can be a new choice, a new life.

There are many things that prevent us from seeing that a choice exists.  Each of us has our own drapes that can obstruct our view.  Choices are always present.  They may be hidden behind the curtains of patterns, routine, money, expectation... At times there can be so many curtains they look like a wall.  It takes courage to draw them back and look for the choices behind them.

Never be afraid to make a different choice.