Happy Holidays

The holiday season always brings with it some stress and lately I have begun to understand that situations that stress or frustrate us are simply asking us to find the real truth at the heart of life.
Let me explain what I mean. Ups and downs are part and parcel of life, big ones like loosing a job and small ones like screaming kids at the mall; they are pretty much unavoidable so what do we do when we can't change something?
Viktor Frankl says “When we can no longer change a situation, we are challenged to change ourselves.” And the Buddha said the more we resist things as they are the more we suffer.

I dont think its possible to go through life without encountering something that triggers our upset or annoyance or challenges our sanity in one way or another. Its part of being human.

The real truth at the heart of life, as I mentioned earlier, is that we all deserve and are love and understanding. Something that makes us suffer is asking us to find our compassion, to remember that on a soul level we can grow through this experience and find love for ourselves and those around us. Circumstances change, things come to pass not to stay. The only lasting thing is our consciousness.
No matter if you are heading out to shop for Christmas or caring for someone with cancer, in whatever situation you find yourself pushed to your limits, remember it is in your power to practice compassion.

Soften your heart and speak gently to yourself. There is already enough stress in the world. No less than we would wish for ourselves, let us also wish the best for others. Try to find the best possible reason for a person's rudeness or seeming insensitive behavior. There is always room for more love in the world and you can be a channel for it this Holiday Season.

It is a wonderful opportunity to practice goodwill to all men.

And remember if you feel your goodwill toward men running low maybe its time to take yourself back to your sanctuary and make yourself a cup of hot chocolate as you congratulate yourself on your patience and your ability to change yourself instead of fighting the inevitable.  How powerful you are!

Set a goal to be the best!

"I want to be the best cook in London!" - Louisa Leyton, The Duchess of Duke Street




I love to watch BBC period dramas and I have been working my way through quite a few by instantly downloading them through Netflix. Over the Labor Day weekend I watched the first few episodes of The Duchess of Duke Street. Its a tale of a young servant girl with high ambitions that she, through a winding path, achieves.


What got me thinking was the strength of her declaration "I want to be the best cook in London!" It seemed so courageous to say it out loud. Then she follows up by making choices and doing everything in her power to move toward that goal, accepting nothing less. Later I was asking myself the question, what have I ever declared I want to be the very best at? I have many strings to my bow as our times dictate being versatile broadens your chances of staying employed. Can I be the very best if my energies are so dissipated. Probably not.


What if I did make such a declaration out loud and followed through? I can feel my fear of not being able to meet my goal come up, a fear of failure to do what I said I wanted. The truth is if we don't set goals or fail to make a plan then we are planning to fail. Also our goals need to be broken down to immediately reachable as we work toward the grander objective otherwise we may become disheartened if we don't see some results. I am inspired to set a goal of being the best at what I do. The next thing is to really explore what that takes and take those steps. I'm starting today, I hope you do too.