"GOOD Relationships" "It only takes one person to have a good relationship..." I heard that piece of information from Byron Katie a while back, but it has taken me a quite a while to really get its meaning. What does that mean? How can that be? My friend was there to listen and make this a good relationship... even if I wasn't having it. So often we blame our partner for how the relationship is [...]
Create Your Year the Way You Would Like It's a New Year. For many this signifies new beginnings, an opportunity to start fresh, to resolve to take on a new habit, let go of one that doesn't serve you or just the hope and promise that this year will be better than the last. Yet how many of you actually follow through on your new year's resolutions? How closely does your New Year become what you wish it [...]
Flexing your Positivity Muscle Yes, positivity is like a muscle, it gets stronger the more we use it. Same with negativity. Which muscles have you been flexing lately? Here's a daily exercise routine to help you build strength in positivity: You notice you're awake What are the first thoughts you are thinking? How do those thoughts make you feel? If it's something other than along the lines of grateful, joyful, happy and excited to be alive, there's some [...]
Begin with the End in Mind Begin. With the end. In mind. I can't tell you how true this is becoming for me, particularly and acutely in how I relate to and engage with other people. Often acting or engaging in ways that have not contributed to creating the kind of connection or engagement I desire, I have begun to really think before I act... So often we choose the opposite. We choose actions that are very unlikely [...]
The Power We Have in Relationships I am realizing just how little power I have over other people, particularly if I want to stay in an empowered place myself. Any time I make another person at fault or responsible for my experience, I have given my power away. When I do that, their behavior determines my experience and consequently requires them to change if I wish to have a different experience. If you think about it, I imagine [...]
What IS actually Possible? Would you like to find out? Have you ever noticed how many conditions and limitations you put on your life? Have you ever noticed how many conclusions you have every day about what is or isn't possible, about that you can and can't do? Me hiking in the Andes in Argentina. I thought I'd NEVER make it to the top, but I DID! I have! And guess what else I noticed? When [...]
Approval Seeking ... I want to know if you can disappoint another to be true to yourself, If you can bear the accusation of betrayal and not betray your own soul... From The Invitation by Oriah Mountain Dreamer How much in your life are you seeking approval from outside yourself for who you are and what you do?... How does that feel? How much do you give yourself inner approval? How much do you do things for yourself, [...]
Receiving Judgment How many of us stop yourselves because we are afraid to be judged, afraid what others will think? When you are being more than others are willing to receive or to allow themselves to be, they will go into judgment of you. So, do you want to function from and be controlled by others limitations or are you willing to choose and have a reality that works for you, regardless of what others think? The more [...]
The Virtue of Intolerance Tolerance is something that people usually tout as a virtue, as a quality worth developing. In many ways tolerance can be a virtue. I'm also discovering how it can be a hindrance to forward movement, an obstacle to being in full alignment with our beings and having what we want from life. I've done a lot of tolerating in my life- tolerating which has kept me from clearly knowing and owning what I want, [...]
Trusting the Intelligence of your design "You do not have to be good. You do not have to walk on your knees For a hundred miles through the desert, repenting. You only have to let the soft animal of your body love what it loves... I've been thinking about this a bit... about this soft animal... Have you ever noticed how often we make ourselves wrong? Fight ourselves, think that we should be different? Judge ourselves for feeling [...]
Learn to trust your YES and your NO Do you remember what it was like to be five years old? To trust yourself and to clearly know what you did and didn’t want?… To go for what you wanted without hesitation?… To freely share your love and your joy and your aliveness with the world? So what happened to that? What happened to your confidence in knowing what you do or don't want and what's true for you? [...]
Try this exercise: Notice a sentence in which you use the word feel. Now say the same sentence again, without using the word feel. When you take out the word feel, are you actually expressing a feeling or are you expressing an opinion or interpretation?... Example: "I feel excited." Take out feel and it translates to "I'm excited." "I feel welcomed." Take out feel and you have "I'm welcomed". Which actually expresses a feeling, an emotion?... If you [...]
What does Nonviolence mean to you? We opened our first class of Communication From the Inside Out with this question. As we delved into the exploration of Violence and Nonviolence we discovered that violence and the roots of violence is far more complex and complicated than we ever would have imagined. Recognizing violence in all of it's forms Most people think of violence as physical harm, brutality and the like, in which most of us don't actively participate, [...]
Moving past Judgements Have you noticed that a lot of what takes you out of being present are judgements and conclusions? Have you noticed that a lot of the feeling crappy that we experience actually has to do with judgements? What If You Stopped Judging You? What would your life be like if you could let yourself just be? What would it be like if you spent one whole day not judging you? Have you ever spent time [...]
BECOME DEEPLY PRESENT WITH LIFE So much of our suffering has to do with some story we tell ourselves either about the past or future, conclusions we draw about life and how things are or aren't happening, what has happened that we didn't like or that we miss about what happened, what will happen and how much better or worse than this moment it will be. In the midst of great uncertainty in my life to the point [...]