~ Awareness ~

ahh.. Stillness

◦◦ Kundalini ◦◦

8 Mindful Practices for Parents

Practice in plain sight. Place your meditation cushion in a conspicuous place in your home, such as on your bedroom floor. As you pass by, let it invite you to practice meditation daily. Even five minutes in the morning or night can turn your life around.

Live by routine. Take the needless guesswork out of meals and bedtimes. Let everyone relax into the predictable flow of a healthy and secure life.

Turn off the engines. Discipline TV and computer usage and reduce artificial distraction, escapism, and stimulation. This begins with you.

Elevate the small. And overlook the large. Want to change the world? Forget the philosophical lessons. Instruct your child in how to brush his or her teeth, and then do it, together, twice a day.

Give more attention. And less of everything else. Devote one hour a day to giving undistracted attention to your children. Not in activities driven by your agenda, but according to their terms. Undivided attention is the most concrete expression of love you can give.

Take a break. Before you break in two. Designate a chair in your home as a “quiet chair,” where you can retreat to decelerate conflicts. Or walk around the block and see how quickly your own two feet can stamp out the fire on your head.

Be the first to apologize. Practice the miracle of atonement and instantly restore household harmony. By your doing it, your children will learn how.

Be the last to know. Refrain from making judgments and foregone conclusions about your children. Watch their lives unfold, and be surprised. The show is marvelous, and yours is the best seat in the house.

by Karen Maezen Miller via mindful.org

Move Into The Next Chapter Of Life

 This is a great article about setting positive intentions instead of harsh resolutions.
Read the full post by Miann Scanlan on the Free People Blog, here.

"Each new calendar year grants us a symbolic clean slate: a chance to start fresh, assess what wasn’t serving us in the year prior, and reset intentions for the year ahead. With all this energy buzzing around us this time of year, it’s easy to get caught up in the idealizations that the sense of newness holds.

 We receive so many incoming messages from the media stating that the start of each year is the only chance out of our Earth’s entire orbit around the sun that you receive to shape a new and better you. It’s that dangerous now-or-never attitude that can cause us to place unnecessary pressures on ourselves.

 This attitude, one that I previously succumbed to and adopted, actually made me nervous and apprehensive about the new year. The overwhelming fear of failure would hold me back from even setting resolutions at all.

 As always, be gentle, loving and kind to yourself. We already know the power of positive affirmations. So harness this energy to set positive intentions as opposed to harsh resolutions. Let this time of year be a time where you welcome in new energies, rather than trying to totally annihilate old habits.

 I created my intentions around how I wanted to feel, rather than how I wanted to look or what I wanted to have. Do you want to feel inspired? Perhaps you want to feel a sense of community, or self love."

 Try writing a new type of list for yourself this year.

N'inquiétez Pas

✪ ✪ ✪

"What I am really saying is that you don’t need to do anything, because if you see yourself in the correct way, you are all as much extraordinary phenomenon of nature as trees, clouds, the patterns in running water, the flickering of fire, the arrangement of the stars, and the form of a galaxy. You are all just like that, and there is nothing wrong with you at all."

~ Alain Wilson Watts

Keeping a Gratitude Jar

article by Miann Scanlan via Free People Blog


 "There is nothing that has changed my life more profoundly than gratitude. It was my savior amidst great suffering that I experienced a few years ago, when my spirit was engulfed by deep grief. It was during this time that I found yoga and was introduced to the practice of being grateful for literally everything on life’s journey, including the bad times and the struggles.

 This simple notion of being grateful for my suffering was the catalyst that launched me on my spiritual journey, and now I want to share that feeling with almost everyone I meet!

 I firmly believe that gratitude is the elixir of life – the facilitator for all abundance and the key to unlocking bountiful happiness.

 Cultivating thankfulness not only makes your days shine brighter, but with time it also promotes feelings of compassion and generosity which create further joy in our lives. Gratitude can soften a hardened heart, and also builds the capacity for forgiveness – which creates the clarity of mind that is ideal for spiritual development.

 A Gratitude Jar is kind of like a piggy bank, except coins are substituted with good vibes and blessings, and the reward is of far greater value than any sum of money could ever provide.

What you’ll need:
A mason jar

Your favourite pen & a note pad

Scissors

Embellishments of your choice: I like using elements of the earth like sand, dried flowers, curious rocks, and twigs

Directions:
Add some of your embellishments into the jar. I poured some sand into the bottom as I am grateful to live by the sea. You can adorn the jar with anything that makes you feel positive and at peace: Full moon charged crystals, incense sticks, glitter… you name it!


 Each morning write down something you are grateful for, ceremoniously folding up the paper and lovingly adding it to the jar.

 Once your jar is full of gratitude, take it to a place where you can sit quietly, as one by one you take out and read over your blessings. I like to take my jar down to the beach and build a ceremonial nature mandala around it as I sit for a while and meditate.

 Et viola! You have just experienced a taste of true abundance."

Mindful Interrupter

Find the moon tonight if you can.

Gaze at it for a few minutes. 

Sounds dorky, but really, it's not. 

The moon is very cool.

What are Interrupters? | Subscribe to them.

~ Live Simply ~

article by Bridgette via Free People Blog

"Simplicity. Even the word seems to bring an immediate sense of calm over me. It seems that as life progresses, we’re all striving for more, more, more; to be better, faster, bigger; to do more, more, more until we’ve driven ourselves insane. It gets to be so overwhelming – and sometimes I find that while my mind is moving at such a rapid pace, I’m not even physically doing much. Sometimes our minds work so hard thinking about what we should be doing and need to be doing and are going to be doing, that we don’t give ourselves a chance to do — and more importantly, do well. And oftentimes we are doing, but we’re doing so much that we don’t get to enjoy what we’re doing. We don’t give ourselves a chance to stop, breathe, and just be. I think that the way to solve this is by simplifying.

By focusing on what’s most important, and ridding ourselves of what’s least important, I believe that we will discover a life that’s much more simple; much more enjoyable. This method of simplifying can be applied to every aspect of life: home décor, social outings, beauty routine, everyday tasks… even your closet.

Once you’ve identified the need to simplify, it may seem like an overwhelming task, but it doesn’t have to be. Try not to look at a simple life as a precise thing that needs to be achieved. There’s no end goal. There’s no end at all. Instead, look at simplifying as a way of life, and realize that you can live it by doing a little bit each day. This way, your life is consistently getting simpler, and each day you’ll feel calmer, happier, and more grounded than the last.

So how is it done? However you want. There’s no set strategy for simplifying your life, but I’ll give you two ideas I’ve come up with.

An item a day.

Whether this item is tangible or intangible doesn’t make a difference, but the idea here is to remove one unnecessary item from your life every day. Maybe you’re sitting at a coffee shop and a stranger compliments your ring. Take a quick moment to think about that ring. Where did you get it? How long have you had it? What does it mean to you? Would you be okay with giving it up? If you find that this ring doesn’t hold a huge spot in your heart, maybe it’s time to let it have a new home. Give her the ring. Not only did you just simplify your life a bit, you formed a bond with a complete stranger, and you probably just made her day.

But not every item needs to be given up in this way. Maybe one day you walk into your kitchen and notice a wooden spoon that you just never use. Put it in a box to be donated. You don’t have to donate it right then and there, but by deciding to let it go, you’ve just simplified your life a bit.

This item can also be an idea or task. Maybe you’ve been taking painting classes twice a week. You love them, but sometimes it’s a stress to attend a class because you feel that you don’t get to spend enough time with your loved ones because of it. Simplify. Decide to go once a week instead – or even once a month — and decide to find more enjoyment in each class than the one that preceded it.

Two for one.

Another way to simplify is to get rid of two items for every one that you acquire. Again, these items can be tangible or intangible – although this may work best with those that are tangible.

It’s easy. The next time you’re out for a day of flea-marketing and come home with two vintage dresses, a pair of boots, a hand-woven blanket and an incredible mirror, find 10 things to put in your donation box. These 10 things do not have to be related to the items in any way – maybe you have 9 picture frames and a backpack that you never use. As long as you’re using a 2:1 ratio of removed:acquired, you’re simplifying your life, and you can feel even more excited about your new acquisitions.

My hope is that by the end of reading this post, you feel a little more relaxed, and excited to start simplifying your life. I’ll be taking steps to do this every day, and I hope you’ll do so along with me. If we each make an effort to simplify, we’ll be working our way to a more simplified world, one that we’ll all enjoy together."

50 Shades of Green

"Go outside or look outside. How many different shades of green can you see? Count. 2, 5, a dozen, more? Appreciate all that is alive."  via Mindful Interrupters

Don't Let the Bastards Get You Down

Practical Tips to Being More Mindful

10 practical tips to start being more mindful right now:

1. Take a couple of minutes to notice your breathing. Sense the flow of the breath, the rise and fall of your belly.

2. Notice what you are doing as you are doing it and tune into your senses.
When you are eating, notice the colour, texture and taste of the food.

3. When you are walking, tune into how your weight shifts and the sensations in the bottom of your feet. Focus less on where you are headed.

4. Don’t feel that you need to fill up all your time with doing.
Take some time to simply be.

5. When your mind wanders to thinking, gently bring it back to your breath.

6. Recognize that thoughts are simply thoughts;
you don’t need to believe them or react to them.

7. Practise listening without making judgments.

8. Notice where you tend to zone out (e.g., driving, emailing or texting, web surfing, feeding the dog, doing dishes, brushing teeth, etc.). Practise bringing more awareness to that activity.

9. Spend time in nature.

10. Notice how the mind likes to constantly judge. Don’t take it seriously.
It’s not who you are.

What exactly is mindfulness?

A very good article here, on HeretoHelp.bc.ca

by Marian A. Smith

Serenity Prayer

Debbie Ford's Consciousness Cleanse Day 11

The Power of Acceptance 

Pushback

How to Get What You Want: The Four P's

excerpts of an article by Martha Beck, read all here

"Because I am capable of making only small moves toward personal improvement, I find it helpful to break down the process of clarifying desire into steps. I call them the four Ps: Pushback, Possibilities, Preferences, and Pinpointing.

Step 1: Pushback

While visiting China, I heard a story of a wise man there who taught his acolytes by holding a little songbird on his finger. When the bird tried to leave, he'd drop his hand so it couldn't get enough lift to fly away. Lesson: The ability to soar often depends on pushing back against something you don't want.

...

The more specific you are about what upsets you, and why, the clearer you can make your desires."

Zen ~ lightness, joy, freedom

The Importance of Sadness

from Mindful.org
by Susan Piver, read original article here
Open Heart Project ~ here

What if I told you that the way to change the world was not to be bold, resolute, brilliant, or even compassionate? What if I told you that the way to change the world was to be sad?

It sounds so improbable. When we think of those who have taught us the most about meaningful change, we think of people who are very, very brave, say, Martin Luther King, Mahatma Gandhi, the Dalai Lama. Unwavering. Deep. Devoted to others and willing to die for what they believe, quite literally.

How do you get to be such a person?

Well, I have no idea, but I would put money on the idea that the ground, path, and fruition of their lives is sadness.

When you look out at this world, what you see will make you very, very sad. This is good. You are seeing clearly. Genuine sadness gives rise, spontaneously, naturally, completely, to the wish—no, the longing—to be of benefit to others. When your wish to help is rooted in love (i.e. sadness), it is effective. There is no question.

But because it is so uncomfortable, we immediately want to turn sadness into what we imagine will hurt less: anger, hopelessness, helplessness. When the wish to help is rooted in anger, it will only create more confusion. And of course, when we feel hopeless or helpless, we take refuge in non-action, which also creates confusion.

Meditation teaches you to relax with the discomfort of sadness and stay with it, not turn it into something else. At this point, you can lay claim to your brand of helpful activity (whether it takes the form of activism, leadership, charitable work, making art, prayer, and/or simple, basic kindness to all).

Despair is what happens when you fight sadness. Compassion is what happens when you don’t. It will not feel “good,” it will feel alive and this aliveness is the path to bliss.* So the key, and this is a big one, is to learn to stabilize your heart in the open state. The practice of meditation is this stabilization. It is so much more than a self-improvement technique, as I’ve said 100 zillion times. It is a path to peace. It is a path to love, not the sappy-silly kind, but the real deal.

You have a soft spot. Contrary to popular belief, it is not where you are weak, it is the gateway to indestructible power and that is what The Open Heart Project is all about. Please take on your meditation practice for the benefit of all. My purpose in life is to help you do this, so don’t hesitate to ask questions, report your experiences, express doubt, and offer encouragement to others.

If you open your heart, you can change the world.

Thanking you in advance, on behalf of all beings.

*I once heard from a student of Tibetan meditation master Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche that when asked what bliss felt like, said, “To you, it would probably feel like pain.” So there’s a little clue, something to think about for this and all our other lifetimes. But I digress.

7 Uplifting Thoughts for Your Day

article by Jemma at Free People Blog

 "There are often times I read beautiful words that hit me hard in the heart. It’s like you just need things to be spelled out to you sometimes; like a little guidance of something to help you along. It can be hard to stay true to yourself. You can get caught up in pleasing other people’s worlds.
 I’ve come to realize that the most important thing is YOU, but always remain respectful to the people around you. On a daily basis I try and remember these seven simple sentences.

1. Enjoy what is now, don’t worry about the future and think of the past, just concentrate on now and making the most of the time that is now and you will find you won’t get bogged down.

2. Do what you love and do it often.

3. Speak from your heart, people will engage you more.

4. Challenge yourself. Don’t get caught up in the comfort zone, always push yourself and you will come out feeling great.

5. If you don’t like something, change it. Life is too short to do something you dislike.

6. Stop comparing yourself to others, BE YOU!

7. Share what you’re passionate about, talk out loud about things that inspire you and inspire the people around you, too."

Source: Writing & Creative Inspiration | Free People Blog