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

Choosing Happiness

Happiness, the pursuit of it, the very state of it can be controversial. Some people don't believe that its a valid goal or that its really achievable. Instead I hear protests of accepting a contentedness as the best we can expect, or working to eradicate poverty or achieve world peace touted as a better use of energy.  The point of achieving peace or eradicating poverty is to give people the opportunity to achieve happiness, is it not? And as much as I like being content, its been shown that happy people are more generous and kind and able to give of themselves.

Its a bit like the chicken and the egg.

One of the best ways to make yourself happy is to make other people happy.
One of the best ways to make other people happy is to be happy yourself.
Gretchen Rubin "The Happiness Project"

It takes a bit of effort to be happy. Yes we can have moments of happiness when something good happens, that's easy. If we depend on events, people or outside influences to make us happy there are no guarantees!! Choice is our greatest tool for happiness, that and gratitude. I just read on Facebook this morning...every day may not be good but there is good in every day. This is so true, its there for us to find if we look.
That's the effort, looking for the good and choosing a perspective of loving detachment from everything else. Choosing to stand guard at the door of our minds for thoughts that judge, are harsh, unkind, mean spirited, paint pictures of doom and leave us feeling powerless. We all know them and their effects. Choosing to be happy empowers us to be more effective in our lives and have a positive influence on others. It takes a bit of effort but I think its worth it, do you?

Busy Lives, your choice.

So busy, everyone says it today, life is so busy! And its true; we are subject to so much more data, activities and people than ever before in human history. Its progress; technological advances and population growth. And it has its advantages. I can Skype my family in Ireland, I can create my own website, blog, connect with lost friends on facebook, print my own photos, research any subject I choose to and I can work at home.

Does all this increase my happiness and peace of mind? The answer is a definite NO! And a definite YES! The choice is mine to make. I am 100% responsible for the quality of my experience.

 I realize that nothing is so important that I choose it over my body's needs for exercise, proper nutrition, sleep and real time with real people. So often I choose to complain that I don't get enough sleep but who puts me to bed too late? I end up with neck pain because I didn't get up from the computer at work for four hours at a time!! I'm not enslaved and chained to my desk. There may be deadlines to meet but a two minute break every twenty minutes will make me a healthier employee and save me dollars at the chiropractor later.

So today I choose to have a joyful experience, to know that its the quality of the moments that matter most.
After all, who knows how many moments we have left? Choose well today and make it a wonderful day.
With love,
Joan

Prosperity

How do you know when you are prosperous? What is the measure you use? What I can  identify when I give it thought  is a feeling of freedom, to feel unrestricted and to have choices.
Yet I can already see areas in my life where I have a feeling of freedom and choice. I put the laundry in the washing machine, I turned a dial and walked away, I wrote a blog and returned to clean clothes. There is freedom, thank God I didn't have to wash them by hand.
One thing that astounded me when I came to the US first was the supermarkets. So many choices in cough medicine!
I eat three varied meals a day. I am already flourishing, with freedoms women have rarely enjoyed before in history and still don't in many countries. I can forget how prosperous I already am.

The dictionary definition of prosperity is a successful, flourishing, or thriving condition, especially in financial respects; good fortune.

 

Finances! Well when it comes to that... what number on a bank account will suffice to feel prosperous? Its a loaded question, loaded with shoulds! You should have so much for retirement, you should have savings enough to be able to live without a job for 6 months, you should bla bla bla! Its nice to have those things but some people who have them don't feel prosperous - there's the fear of loss, of stock market fluctuations, still the fear of not having enough can preside like a dark cloud over the mind.

 

Balance in all things and FAITH has to be the middle ground in this thing called prosperity. Good stewardship, trust in the infinite abundance of the source within and around us, and gratitude for what we already are and have. Our security is not in the bank account of the financial institution but in the bank account of Faith, faith and confidence in our creative selves and the universe that provides.What idea or inspiration have you been provided with lately but ignored ? Decide to take confident action today, mix in some love, faith and gratitude, and see how prosperous you feel!

Monday Monday

Monday mornings, back to work, to school, or to the void of not working or the first day of a vacation, Monday morning is a beginning of a mini cycle in our month, year, lifetime. As with any beginning we can make choices, start as you mean to go on! Did you think this morning how you would like your day to unfold or did you start already racing, from shower to breakfast to car?

Do you think it would make a difference if you were to take one 60 second piece if time and close your eyes to bless the new day?  Just one minute, to remember the Truth that spirit is the activity in and through the day and consciously give it full reign. It is powerful to remember our dominion over our thoughts and even better to take that dominion and make a choice to not just react to the world but be a creative force in the world.

Lets set an intention today to allow our Truth to be reflected to us, the Truth of our preciousness in Spirit, the Love we are and the Love we are freely given as children of the universe. It's a blessing to be alive, to breathe, to love, to see, to walk, to hear, to give, to receive, to smile, I could go on. Remember the abundance of the stars and know your blessings out number them, feel it today. Give thanks for it today.
I claim a supercalifragilistic-expialidocious day for you, now go enjoy it!!!!

Overwhealm

“There are two primary choices in life: to accept conditions as they exist, or accept the responsibility for changing them.”
Denis Waitley, American Author



These days life can get overwhelming. Some of our busyness and pressure is external to us as demands of the life we have chosen. And a lot of it is self imposed!





I had one of those days yesterday when everything seemed to be against me. Yet when I slowed down and remembered to be present, take a breath, I realized, if I stopped spinning all these plates the consequences would not be life shattering. Some people may not be happy that I dont show up or complete a task on time but I would be healthier. You know the root cause of the most common diseases in our society is stress.

Yes our modern pace of life is accelerated but we still have the greatest power there is for achieving peace and health and that is CHOICE.

Really - its even more powerful than love because you first have to choose to be loving. In choosing to love myself I had to let go of some things from my day to alieviate the time pressure I was imposing on myself. Not everything got done, there were consequences but I evaluated the quality of my day and I felt it was a day lived better because of the choices I made.

I value the quality of my life and my health. I may not be here next week or next year when I had planned to relax and enjoy life. I have to begin today to live well and in balance.

I used to incorporate one fun thing to do into each day and I had let that slip. It's time to begin again. Today I chose to meet new people at a local park and do a free Chi Kung session. There are probably some similar free activities going on in your area too. If not I find a walk can elevate my thoughts and take me out of my busy head.

What works for you? I'm open to suggestions.


“Our choices in life are made according to our sense of our own worth”
Kaylan Pickford