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Tag: mindfulness
What is the source code?
Sometimes deep questions come suddenly to me. This is one that came a year ago to me, and I will be revisiting.
“What is the source code of my inner resistance to greatness?”
I wanted to find an image to go with this.. and contained in it is:
“Remove the rule as there is currently no need for it.”
So. I invite you, as I will be doing shortly. Sit with this.. and write it out… “What is the source code of your inner resistance to greatness?” Then remove the rule, as there is currently no need for it.
Let me know if anything shifts for you.
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photo from an internet search a year ago, source unknown. I will gladly credit if someone knows.
Creativity Embodied
“Even if you don’t call yourself an artist, you have the potential to be a
dynamic creator who is always hatching new plans, coming up with fresh
ideas, and shifting your approach to everything you do as you adjust to
life’s ceaseless invitation to change.
It’s to this part of you — the restless, inventive spirit — that I address the
following: Unleash yourself! Don’t be satisfied with the world the way it is;
don’t sit back passively and blankly complain about the dead weight of
the mediocre status quo.
Instead, call on your curiosity and charisma and expressiveness and lust
for life as you tinker with and rebuild everything you see so that it’s in
greater harmony with the laws of love and more hospitable to your soul’s
code. ” ~ Rob Brezny
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What do you envision when you think of creativity? An artist/writer/musician/performer of some kind? The act of making? Do you feel uncreative if you you don’t have output? Or if it isn’t “perfect”? If it doesn’t get recognition?
To me, scientists, mechanics, gardeners, teachers… anyone really, are just as creative as what is often thought of as such.
What if instead you shift your perspective to envision creativity as a state of being, rather than a state of doing? To being a continual process of making meaning in one’s life, rather than completion of a painting/novel/song/performance piece? To make for the joy of making, how it warps time and space and you get lost in it.
Being willing to seeing things differently.. to reordering routine.. having the courage to try something new… all of these can open up dimensions of reality and possibility that have remained hidden behind old perceptions.
For example, the next time you go for a walk, focus fully on the experience. The sounds around you, and of your feet, step by step. The textures, visual and felt. The smell of the air- the feel of it against your skin. How if the walk is strenuous enough, everything falls away other than the act of walking and your breath.
Do you feel other things arise? A solution? A song? A poem? A dance? Someone you’d like to visit?
All of this is creating and being creative.
We are, from birth to death, through all our experience, the embodiment of creativity.
Thank you for reading.
I love you.
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photo I took while hiking. And wondering if coyotes would play fetch with a tangerine.
Balance
I’ve never been much one for New Year’s resolutions. I’m more likely to set a theme for the year, and revisit it quarterly, when I do my personal rituals. Sometimes what you think is your theme for the entire year only serves you for a short while. There’s not need to stick it out for a whole year if it’s served its purpose.
Last year’s theme, if I formally set one, was certainly transformation. It started out in a pretty dark place, until by year’s end, I’m feeling so much more buoyant, light-filled and optimistic. Thanks for the lessons, 2019… so glad you are done!
I woke up this morning absolutely certain ACTION was the theme for 2020. I’ve already set in motion so many things based on my inner work of the past year, such as activating this blog and an accompanying Crafting the Spirit™ online community. Becoming debt-free in six months with a lot of hard work, when my plan forecast it taking a year and a half. Getting a ticket to a conference of like-minded people to expand my network… and so much more. And then I read this beautiful poem by Maya Luna, about it being OK to not have resolutions… to be the center of stillness instead:
“It’s okay not to have New Years resolutions
It’s okay not to have big goals for your life
It’s okay not to have plans you want to
Manifest
It’s okay not to chase your dreams
That path is not for everyone
Some walk the path of
Unbecoming
They are traveling the road
Backwards
Seeking the core
What is basic and essential
What has been there all along
Though we may be headed the same direction
Our spirals are mirror opposites
Some walk the path of the visionary
Creating abundance and
Dancing inside a multiplicity of forms
And
Some walk the path
of the serpent owl
Becoming more and more naked
Shedding layers of fantasy into the ash
Night sky
Sitting in the dark
And seeing the way the wind moves
They do not walk a line or
poise their arrow to the target
They sit at the bottom of the ocean
And wait
Letting the waves devour them
They are following the pulse
of listening
To silence
Like a tiger in the brush
Waiting for existence to strike lightening
Into the fire of the heart
For this kind
Nothing less will do
Some are opening the palms of their hands
And unraveling
To become
Less and less
Until they are
No-Thing
To become the still point
In the center of
All
You know who you are
Keep going”
Not long after reading it, I was getting ready to go to the laundromat and realized.
I had no pants to wear to to the laundromat, and was going to have to go out to my car to rummage through the bags in my trunk waiting to go to Goodwill “forever”, and hope there was a pair of pants.
While looking (yay pants!), I started to laugh. Having the bags of clothes in my trunk for months was the total opposite of action. Good ol’ procrastination!
I then decided, that instead of action, my theme for 2020 is BALANCE. That there are times for action, being decisive and doing the deep work, doing all the mundane administrative things to move yourself forward, and there are times where the biggest act of self love is to simply be. I think that’s why I like hiking and being out in Nature so much. All the chatter in my head settles down, and I enjoy being in the moment, with each breath. Not thinking of the next breath, or my posture, or what’s for dinner. Simply being. Where I am. At that moment.
If you were to create a theme for yourself this year, what would it be? What will be your still point? How will you cultivate balance?
Building on exercises from this past year:
What is the minimum viable action you are willing to take to bring your theme to life?
If you were to create a mantra around your theme, what would it be?
Are there some “what ifs” around your them you’d like to explore?
What would an adventure based on your theme look/sound/feel/smell/taste like?
How will mindfulness come into play?
Is there a daily practice you can begin to ignite your theme?
If you run into obstacles, how would you spend your 15 minutes of block busting to see if the theme is still a good fit?
Wow! We have explored a lot in a few months!
I would love to hear anything you’d like to share in the comments below!
Out of the Darkness, Into the Light
Greetings, all, and Happy Solstice! Some of us are celebrating Winter- a time to go within and nurture seeds to emerge in Spring. Some of us are celebrating Summer- long days, being outdoors, readying for the harvests of Fall.
There are festivals of light in many cultures around the world. Wednesday the 25th is the last New Moon of the year. Take a moment, light a candle,or a fire in a fireplace or under the stars, sit for awhile, and take in the light. With each breath, take in comfort, take in love. Imagine your most beautiful Self.
I did this the other night, and looked down the hallway into darkness. I imagined my future Self, and all that is asking to come forward. I walked down the hall and stood in the place of this part of me, and looked down the hall to where I’d been sitting, and acknowledged all the work, the successes, all I had seen as failure, which was really growth and learning. I gave myself words of encouragement and forgiveness.
For the first time saying and really meaning it, I said out loud, to my Self, “I love you, Adele.” I
t was a beautiful, tender, and most vulnerable moment.
And I walked back down the hall to the present, and played some music on my singing bowls, with my path seemingly more clear.
I invite you to try this exercise, or one of your own making.
Thank you for being a part of my journey. I love you.
