Just Breathe

Click on this video from Gilles Chamoraire  for a lovely way to start and end your day and

Just Breathe……………………….

Simple Reminder

My thoughts drifted to Don Luis Ruiz this morning and his very simple yet profound guidance of The Four Agreements.  To paraphrase:

BE IMPECCABLE WITH YOUR WORD…Integrity and truth are keys to walking through all of life’s doorways….to be honest with yourself and others allows for a clear openness and trust to radiate from the core of your being in relationship to all sentient beings.

LET GO OF ALL ASSUMPTIONS…projecting what we think someone is thinking about us or anything is a waste of energy and dams up the river of each moment; we can never truly know what motivates someone in their intricate universe.  If you want to assume anything; assume everyone’s presentation of self is just the perfect gift for the whole.

LET GO OF TAKING ANYTHING PERSONALLY…the only thing that is personal is if you have a reaction to an experience or person.  Take it in as your own and claim the out-picture as a reflection of yourself that is getting your attention.  Look deeper into the reaction to discover where there is a match within.  For example, if you are feeling abandoned and betrayed by someone, see where you are abandoning and betraying yourself.  Always turn it around, use it as an opportunity to clear out more  SELF judgment, denial, hurt, meanness, and so on…then all is a gift.  Yes, not always a nice touchy feely moment but a gift nonetheless.

DO YOUR BEST IN EACH MOMENT…show up 100% trusting that it will look and feel different in each moment, perhaps each breath and take advantage of the divine multiplicity of versions available to us to simply BE in.  Our “best” is limitless;  it is simply showing up, present, awake, in choice…..OR NOT.  The “or not” may be our best in some moments too:)

And……so it goes….life, one breath at a time.  Enjoy!

Good Morning:)

What if you woke up this morning, every morning and allowed the river of the moment, the hour, the day simply to flow while you trust and be in its movement or stillness breath by breath?  What if you opened to whatever crosses your path of awareness and followed its lead?  The job, looking for a job, the grocery list, getting kids off to school, a conflict with a loved one, depression, ecstasy, fatigue, vitality and so on simply part of the river you show up in.  The drive to “do”, “awaken”, fix, avoid, find enlightenment, get it right, be enough shifting the moment you wake up to simply waking up and greeting the infinite possibilities of a new day.  Perhaps it is not what we do so much as how we show up in what is presented to us as we travel down the river (and even when we fight to swim upstream) of life step by step, breath by breath.

The River

On my walk today with a dear sister I felt inspired by the flow of water in the irrigation ditch we were following.  As we often do, these “walks” are a time to  unravel a knot in our body or being  allowing for insights and clarity.  We walk.  We talk.  We allow the river of movement and conversation to flow freely taking us to our destination. The journey unfolds the next piece of our unique life’s puzzle as we  mirror for one another whatever is intuitively needed in the moment’s arising.  Today our companion, the water flowing by our side, was the teacher and guide.  Her simple message:  Trust the flow, all is already coming to us, through us and beyond us; all in this moment, this breath.  Abundance, support, love, creativity, opportunities and so on are there in the river of life;  we are always in the embryonic waters that can continually birth us anew.  Simply step into the river and BE the water.

Having the water’s flow supported by the banks on either side contains the fluid motion in a way that allows its purpose to be directed and energized. Much like life, our boundaries hold a protective, supportive framework for movement through life with ease trusting the journey will continue to take us to the destination we need to be in along the way.   With presence, openness, trust and spirit the river of our intent is catalyzed forward.  Our hearts sing, our spirits soar, our minds clear when we follow the river’s model; trust in her example.  Nothing to resist.  Rushing waters, rocky, shallow, deep, whirlpools, log jams, whatever!  Flow with grace.  All is well.

Our Birthright

Our birthright is a rite of passage.  Embodiment is the opportunity to remember HOME.  Many of us spend years, a lifetime, longing for home, feeling as if we don’t belong in the family we were born into, the circumstances of our environment, the body house and even the planet.  We see ourselves as foreigners struggling to understand the culture and language of life surrounding us, lost, out of place, expending our energy “trying” to fit in, “trying” to get it right, go by the “rules” and adapt to a picture painted for us by others or the projections of our own minds.  Perhaps the simpliest solution to such a dilemma is to use it all to keep reminding us where home really is…our own hearts and the “house” we reside in is our own body.   We can perhaps recognize that our life’s journey is to truly understand the concept of home; that the only home we need feel a part of is within us.  For those that must experience the loss of their “outer” house and material possessions due to the economy there is the challenge to understand the gift in it all.  When we begin to step back and observe from a metaphoric perspective the implications become clearer.  We can open to the possibility that the growth offered is one that will allow us to move in a world where home is always with us; OUR SECURITY LIES WITHIN.  There we can trust we are protected; flexibility and fluidity soar to new heights as we adapt to life in the moment.  We can gain a deeper understanding of the concepts of detachment and acceptance  as well as compassion,  finding joy in the perverbial “WHAT IS”.  Yes, it can be excruciating, stressful, heart wrenching for sure AND often that is where the most profound shifts happen.  When it seems as if the rug has been pulled out from under us, letting go of the old and familiar opens the door to new creations we never would have imagined… or imagined but would never have been catalyzed to implement.  Loss of the outer house is the gain of a deeper security;  home is no longer a structure, a roof over our heads but rather within us no matter how dire the circumstances.  The foundation, framework, strength, and protection is everpresent as we walk through the chaos and storms of the world around us.  In each moment we then can peel away the old constructs and belief systems that limit the recognition that we are truly spiritual beings having a human experience.  From that vantage point we can then lighten up, get the joke and begin to enjoy all that is presented to us along the way to remember we are always home and that this embodiment is simply a house we moved into at birth to have a grand adventure! Breathe in such a possibility.  Breathe out the fear and resistance.

The Magical Mystery Tour

THE GREAT MYSTERY.  THE VOID. SPACIOUSNESS.  OPENNESS.  GOD.  CREATOR.  LIFE.

ALIVENESS!  ALL THAT IS….

We are IN the ocean of all this, whatever name we put on it…………hopping from lily pad to lily pad, experiencing….experiencing what is with each movement, each breath….opening, receiving, expiring, exchanging.  Our bodies are the up close experience of the mystery and the journey through illusion.  Science, our mental constructs and explorations continually call us home to this magical mystery tour that is infinite.  Ahhh, infinity….our mind can not let us know that word BUT or AND our hearts can FEEL the experience of it….or at least give us a glimpse, a reference point to remind us when we are stuck in the box;  we can remember that even in the box we are also in the vastness of the infinite;  space and more importantly, FREEDOM is always there even if we only allow ourselves to visit it from the smallness of the lily pad feeling separate floating on IT….still, there is that “opportunity”…that possibility, that awareness, that perhaps we are it all; that the barriers and delineations are a mind’s fabrication. 

Broken Glass

Glass, seemingly fragil, when broken has sharp edges that can cut to the quick , cause pain and draw blood.  Such a mirror can fit all of us at times in our lives and most especially in our teen years when any wounds of early childhood begin to take their toll.  We often have a tendency to judge the younger generation when they act out their pain with anger and self destructive behavior and want to blame and shame them into submission.  When that happens their dysfunctional patterns magnify and entangle them even more as they trip and fall towards adulthood.  What if love were the answer?  Teaching them to love and respect themselves in a world, whether inner or outer, has modelled disrespect, hatred, judgment, anger and so on.  That’s not to say that the plentitude of beauty and love has not been there for them also but rather that for whatever reasons that influence has not been the dominant one.  They are that piece of broken glass in an ocean of emotional waters. 

The Gift of Depression

When the weight of the world presses down on us we often find ourselves contracted, curling up in the fetal position, sluggish, disinterested in life going on around us.  Sometimes depression strikes us deeply when a crisis arises; other times it is an underlying current that is ever present draining our vitality and feeling like every stroke is fighting against an upstream resistance in the rapid waters of day to day living.  And then there are those very “dark night of the soul” events that take us to the edge of death physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually.  Recognizing of course that these are very devastating, often incapacitating times, depression can also be an opportunity, even a gift to catapult us into a new beginning; a “rebirth” so to speak.  Inherent in the condition,  we stop, pull in, cease functioning in the usual manner;  we are trapped in emotional pendulum swings, reactive to despondent. Chaos speeds up around us; relationships end; our lives and bodies fall apart.  All joy and enthusiasm is gone.  We retreat from “doing” and must hang out in the “being”, exhausting ourselves even more as all energy goes to treading water to keep us afloat.  So, you ask, where is the gift in this experience?  How can it serve me rather than me being a slave to it? 

Nature’s Teachers: #4 FIRE

Awakening to the sun’s rays shining through my window this morning I am reminded of that life giving fire in the sky that mirrors the internal sun within the solar plexus of our own bodies.  Our inner sun, located in the third chakra at the base of the diaphragm allows us to relate to the world as we begin each day sensing the moment and in presence choosing how we want to show up for each encounter and experience.  The element of fire illuminates, warms, and purifies.  We can tune into the qualities of fire to light the way and to give us clarity when we are muddled in confusion.  When we feel the need for nurturing a warm hearth beckons and soothes.  Its counter balance is the raging fire that purifies and burns off all that we are ready to release when the time is right for clearing.  Our inner sun allows us to radiate our light out to the world simply by tuning in and using intention and breath to deliver its brilliance.  With each inhale we oxygenate and fan the ever present flames while each exhale burns off the dross whereever our intention directs it to and continually radiates our light out to the moment before us;  we can give the gift of our light with each breath trusting as long as we are breathing that fire is lit and alive.  Like the sun above our heads, our inner sun keeps shining even on a cloudy day!

 Click on the Breathing Practices Tab for a more in depth guidance through the Fire Breath.

Nature’s Teachers: #3 WATER

I just came in from watering the gardens and my heart is full of gratitude for this sister element that gives so freely to all sentient beings.  Without her where would we be?  Nowhere, non existent in the physical realm for sure.  Think about it!  What would you miss the most if all systems failed?  Electricity? Heat? Shelter? Food? Water?  In the end, water is the one support that can keep us going the longest and is essential for survival.  Remember that every time you take a bath or shower, quench your thirst, cool your body down or warm it up, nurture yourself with a cup of tea or wake up with your morning espresso, swim in the river, snorkel in the ocean, splash in the waves, bask in all of nature and so on and so on.  Rest your awareness in your heart and give thanks for water’s abundant gifts.

Let us not forget her teachings as well.  One need only watch a river to understand the best way to travel life’s journey.  The more fluid we are, the more willing we are to allow the journey to unfold; the more trust we give to surrendering to what is right in the moment, the easier we can meet and navigate the rapids of life.