Last Days of the Old

I just heard the news of the passing of an old family friend who had reached the spectacular age of 102. She let go of her body after already letting go of so much, including friends and loved ones. We all must let go of so many things along lifes road.
In these last days, of what is soon to become the old year, it is a great time to reflect on what you would consciously like to leave behind you. 

Its also a great time to set intentions. Wayne Dyer wrote a beautiful book called The Power of Intention. He says the intention we set must not be self serving or material, it is more about a state of consciousness. 

“ Its not about attracting what you want, but attracting what you are. You have to just be. You have to let go. You have to allow. You have to be free and make this your consciousness. Basically, what you would see is a frequency (of energy) that manifests itself through the process of giving, of allowing, of offering and of serving. It asks nothing back.”

I think this is a worthy intention; to be true to oneself, with honesty, and kindness, in reverence and consideration for all life and in service to humanity. Being in the flow of life as our unique selves, with the gifts we have to share and the blessings we give asking nothing in return but the simple joy of showing up, fully present to life. That is my intention this year, to release any efforts at forcing, or feelings of struggle, to let go of efforts to control or manipulate outcomes, to make no judgment of good or bad but to adopt a Buddhist mantra;

"Everything that happens to me is the best possible thing that can happen to me."

I know this wont always be easy when things dont go pleasantly but I do believe I can grow from every experience that comes my way and I allow this to happen. I attract what I am by letting go.
What are you intending or allowing in the New Year?

Merry Stressful Christmas!

I take a deep breath as I begin to write today as I am tired and overwhelmed by Christmas rush and busy-ness.
How are you doing?
Are you looking forward to a break? Are you the host that feels the pressure to make it all perfect? Are you feeling money pressures? The loss of someone you love? Distance from family or too close to family & wanting to escape the craziness?!
Most likely you are not feeling peaceful and prepared and with everything in order but I may be wrong!!!
And you know what?
Its all OK.
I recently heard a TED Talk about making stress your friend. The speaker, a psychologist, who for decades had been advising people to take time out, to breathe, to relinquish some responsibilities in order to bring their life back into balance, to take up yoga, meditation etc. etc. had read new data on stress which said its not so bad for you afterall!!
Its the BELIEF that its bad for you that has a detrimental effect!!! A bit like money being the root of all evil....in fact its the LOVE of money that is the root of all evil.
So time to change our beliefs again!!
Affirm, I thrive on stress, it motivates me, it helps me achieve a great deal, it allows me to connect with others and ask for help. I am a dynamo, I am dynamic, full of energy and courage, all is well in my crazy world. I love the energy of Christmas. I dive in and take part in the festivities with gusto! Life is good!
Dont knock it till you've tried it!!!
Thats what Im going to do. Im off to a party tonight after 5 hours sleep and a full day of work. I choose to see the stress response of my body as helpful, as giving me courage, I can trust my body, knowing that stress keeps my heart be strong and my body helps me rise to any challenge.
Have a wonderful Christmas week everybody!

To read the transcript of the TED talk go here
http://www.ted.com/talks/kelly_mcgonigal_how_to_make_stress_your_friend/transcript?language=en

Holiday Eating

It's that time of year when everything we love is on offer in the realm of food and many items in that arena that don't love us! I adore dark chocolate and I have to admit rarely a day goes by that I don't eat some, for the antioxidant qualities you know!
I will admit also that its easy for me to put on a few pounds and find myself so unhappy about the way my jeans create that lovely muffin top look! Eek!
Well I have been working on bringing food into a new perspective and recently read Marianne Williamson's book "A Course in Weight Loss." It has helped me see not just food but my body in a new way.
Our bodies deserve our respect. In fact if we really think about it, our bodies deserve our reverence. Our bodies are miraculous machines that allow us the gift of living, doing the things we do daily, and supporting our experience of life. Walking in the nature, seeing our loved ones faces, hearing the birdsong, touching velvet or the hand of a lover, speaking words of love, thinking grand ideas, remembering wonderful moments, smelling the turkey baking in the oven, what joys our precious bodies give us.
Yet we don't often fully appreciate it. Instead we berate it, criticize it, and sometimes abuse it. And it is simply responding to how we have treated it and held it in our minds.
Its time to love the body you are in.
I invite you to listen to Marianne talk about this subject and this holiday season be kind to your body, it deserves your love. As much or more than any other body!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9wo7VGuPbNo

Time out

If we are always busy how can we truly savor life's greatest gifts? 

As you move through all that needs to get done this holiday season I urge you to make the time for some stillness. In the quiet is where we really get to be with our truest feelings and we get a chance to reflect on all that we have achieved in our busy times, our family gatherings, all that our senses have so quickly absorbed. We can access if there was something left unsaid, or undone, we can access if how we spent our time was truly valuable or if we need to make adjustments. Remember too than in the stillness daydreams bring in valuable visions and new ideas.

Its my intention this year to create this kind of time intentionally because I wont be travelling home. In my mind I will make many journeys. I will visit with people I have known who are no longer with me, some of my past Christmases have been my best gifts and I intend to truly savor them in gratitude. I also intend to be grateful for whatever days are left to me, for there is not one of us who knows the day nor the hour that we will take our leave. I reap as I sow, I intend to sow a lot of love. In stillness I imagine how that will be.
Make time to savor and to intend, its your life, is it good? If not, look harder for the good in it. There is always, always something to be grateful for. What actions can you actively take to make it better? You are the creator of your own experience, there is no one else to look to to make a change.

I wish you time, peace and balance, and stretches of stillness at all times of the year but especially now so you can access what your heart wishes to experience this Christmastime and for all time. 
Namaste.

In the midst of movement and chaos, keep stillness inside of you.

Deepak Chopra

I Love a Rainy Day

Its all relative. I live in Los Angeles and we don't see rain for 10 months of the year. When it rains the world is transformed. A puddle is news worthy and traffic is crazy and people just don't know how to cope.
Now, in Ireland where they don't see the sun for 10 months of the year we see the same thing in reverse. The sun comes out and everyone goes a little crazy, very quickly the heat becomes too much and people don't know how to cope.  I often joke with my family about having an exchange of days so we can bring balance to the experience of life in our diverse worlds.

Unfortunately I cant pack up a day of sunshine and hand it to the US mail for delivery in Ireland so we all continue to endure and make the most of our circumstances.

I think its a bit like that in our lives as we negotiate the circumstances we encounter at our age and stage in life, in our career or in our relationships. We are each given a complete different set of cards to play this game of life, and depending on our choices of what we have left down or picked up we must now deal with the hand we have got! So we endure and we make the most of its joys and its sorrows and even if we could we would not swop our set of issues for someone else's.

So we deal with what is and hopefully we can let go of judging if its good or bad, for all seeming good has a down side and all seeming bad has an up side, or positive to be gained if we look hard enough. All good AND bad come to pass, which is nice to remember when we are going through a bad patch. We don't like to remember that when things are good but more and more as I grow more mature I tend to "cast a cold eye" as Yeats epitaph says and just be with what is, fully living each moment, not wishing anything away but knowing things will change in their own time.

Today I am reveling in the rain. Looking out at the umbrellas running this way and that and the drops falling hard in the puddles, grateful California is getting what it desperately needs and hoping it lasts. Loving what is today is easy! Im warm and dry and the rain is falling across the dry plains and the farmlands that need it. And when the sun returns too hot for Christmastime I will do my best to just be with what is, casting a detached eye, observing and allowing this wonderful and mysterious life to unfold as it will.

"Cast a cold eye on life and on death, horseman pass by." William Butler Yeats