The Present Moment

"People look upon the present moment as either marred by something that has happened and shouldn't have or as deficient because of something that has not happened but should have." ~Eckhart Tolle

THINK ABOUT IT! ROLL IT AROUND IN YOUR HEAD FOR A WHILE!

Ong Sohung

In Sanskrit, ong sohung means "I am peace...peace is in me." Great mantra! Mantras are a fantastic way to keep your focus, quiet your mind, overcome that ego voice that tries to get you to believe "your story" is who you really are. Just repeat the mantra, over and over, either in Sanskrit or the English translation. Give it a try!

Simplify!

In yoga class tonight, the instructor, Naomi, reminded us in this busy holiday time to think upon how we might simplify our lives. I'd like to just apply it to our everyday lives. Can we run one less errand? Make one less dish for Thanksgiving? Do one less workout? Buy one less "thing"? Is there a direct correlation between how much "stuff" we have in our lives and the amount of stress we carry with us?

Let's all take some time to think about (and write about!) what's really important in our lives. Can you move just a little slower? Do one less thing every day? Take time to meditate every day? Find that contentment from just being with ourselves instead of running to and fro?

"It is the sweet, simple things of life which are the real ones after all" ~Laura Ingalls Wilder

What others think about me is none of my business!

How much time and energy do you give to worrying about what others think about you? How often do you speak half-truths because of fear of judgment by another? Or speak words just to please and gain appreciation and (what you perceive to be) love?

This once again comes down to our own thoughts about our self-worth. The person you need to please, respect, love, and appreciate first is yourself. Then you won't find yourself doing or saying things to please others. You ultimately won't give a shit about their thoughts, especially the negative ones! They become meaningless to your beautiful journey through a life well lived (and lived honestly).

"You see, you're giving others too much power as you even acknowledge how they make you feel. What you've got to decide is how I'M going to feel." ~Abraham

Complaining

Are you aware that when you complain about something, you're focusing your attention on that, so more of that comes into your life? When we're angry or blaming, same thing! We're refusing to allow the good stuff into our life when we are so focused on what's wrong, what's missing, what's not fair.

If we can change our thoughts and thus our vibrational energy, the Universe will always yield...it must yield. It's called the Law of Attraction (www.abraham-hicks.com). If you don't believe me, go Google it and find out for yourself.

This ancient quote still holds true today: "Change your thoughts...change your life."

True Happiness

Can we find true happiness within or is it only available externally? Have we so conditioned our minds to seek happiness outside ourselves or conditionally? Okay, I'm happy if all is well and going my way and people are acting the way I expect them to act? And when times get tough, we're faced with challenges and challenging people, life just sucks and we make those around us suffer with us?

When will be wake up from the illusion? When will we realize that we already are everything we ever desired; we already possess the tools to create blissfully perfect happiness? RIGHT NOW! DON'T WAIT! You already are it all...you already have it all!

"We think what we choose and we are what we think!" ~Wayne Dyer

On Being Present

Can you be present, in the moment, without judgment, critique, a story line? In the NOW without projecting, regretting, wishing, wanting?

Try sitting down quietly with your thoughts and just letting them pass by, like clouds across a clear blue sky. Just notice them. Don't judge them or fight them. Just notice them. Take 5 minutes to start. The process gets easier and easier. You'll feel freer and freer (from the bondage of your mind, the self-imposed prison walls).

When we are in the present moment, nothing else exists. How can it? This, my friends, is who you really are: peace, contentment, awareness, oneness with all that is.

I am not my body

I am also not my thoughts about my body, my life, my looks, my flaws, my beauty, my relationships, my...just fill in the blank. Right now, I am the noticer of my body, life, looks, flaws, beauty, relationships, and I look upon these things with compassion and loving kindness. These thoughts may play over and over in my head, but are they the real me? Are they what defines me? Am I just so darn attached to my story that I don't know who I am without it?

I said in a previous post, these thoughts may reside in our heads, but we don't have to believe them. We can close the old storybook, burn it, and begin anew. No more stories (i.e., baggage!). We are magnificent, we are divine, we are perfect!

Help me see beauty in and all around me!

Will I Resist or Will I Yield?

When a loss or profound change occurs in our lives, we are faced with two choices: to resist or to yield. We can become angry, bitter, resentful or we can become wise, compassionate, and open-hearted. To yield really just means to accept, embrace, therefore opening up to the beautiful life that's in store for us in the future and embrace the lessons before us. When we resist, we are closed, shut down to life and its many lessons.

There's a certain peace that comes with yielding, surrendering. The Universe blesses us without us asking. People come into our lives that never would have had we been closed-hearted.

I keep RECEIVING amazing people, messages, and love, even at this incredibly challenging time in my life. I believe it's due to my ability to finally stop resisting and just yield, knowing that all will be well.

Things...

"Many people don't realize until they are on their deathbed and everything external falls away that NO THING ever had anything to do with who they are." ~ Eckhart Tolle

The Mirror

Wow, I have so much to report! It's been 2 days. On Saturday night I went to an event in Colorado Springs where my new friend, and quite the amazing woman, Diane Israel, talked and showed her short film "Beauty Mark" to 60 women!! Her film is about her battle with anorexia and exercise bullemia. Her message, in a really small nutshell, is about what she calls embodyment. Being happy with yourself and your body. Stop comparing, stop telling yourself you're fat, ugly, dumb, not good enough, on and on and on. We are the ones imposing our own limits. Get out of your own way! I sobbed through a good many portions of this film.

That morning I had gone to another of my favorite yoga instructor, Richi Jai's, class. We sat on the mat, closed our eyes, faced our palms up on our knees (this is the "receiving" mode; palms down to go deeper within), and he said "It's all about acceptance, which is pretty hard to do with a large mirror in front of you, but the image in the mirror is distorted. It's not the real you."

Within the past year I have done a complete 360. I have dropped the sport of triathlon from my life and absolutely have not looked back. I have done the soul-searching journey about why I was competing and if it really, truly, and honestly brought me joy. I hope to become a role model for others struggling with self-concept, identity, self-worth, healing. I look in the mirror and see a healthier, wiser, softer Juli

Eckhart Tolle says there's one short line on your tombstone between the year you were born and the year you die...how will you fill it?

Beautiful Colorado Morning

Thank you, God, for this beautiful day!!

We Cannot Control the Actions of Others

Come on, admit it...we all try to do it! And has it ever brought us peace or the results we were seeking? Has worrying and stressing about another's actions or possible actions ever served us well? Really ponder this one for a while. Do you know what control over the actions of others is called? POWER. Where does power reside? In the ego!

When we're controlling others, we’re not being loving or honest. And guess what? Controlling with "kindness" is still controlling! Living in this state just perpetuates more of these experiences! You know, we are all blessed with the grand journey called life. Don't we have enough of our own shit to work on in becoming loving, genuine, honest, open-hearted, nonjudgmental beings instead of wasting time trying to control others?

Live a blessed life!!! Om Shanti Shanti

"I cannot always control what goes on outside. But I can always control what goes on inside."~ Wayne Dyer

The divine light within me acknowledges and honors the divine light within you

"I salute the light within your eyes where the whole universe dwells. For when you are at that center within you and I am at that place within me, we shall be one."
~ Chief Crazy Horse, Oglala Sioux, 1877

HAPPINESS

"A happy life is just a string of happy moments. But most people don't allow the happy moment, because they're so busy trying to get a happy life."~Abraham

It doesn't get any easier than this, does it? You know what the secret to life is? It's so simple: LIVE IT! Stop pursuing, projecting into the future, worrying, planning, obsessing, blah, blah, blah.

Experience those happy moments one at a time, stay in the now, stay present...BE HAPPY!

Gratitude

It's amazing the shift that occurs when you sit down and count your blessings! Even amidst pain and confusion, there is always some-thing, one thing we can be grateful for. I would be willing to bet we could all count our blessings on our fingers and our toes at any given moment in time! It's all about where we choose to focus our attention.

I sat and thought today that I'm grateful for my daughter Lily; for my nice, warm coat and scarf on a chilly day; for my health and (still amazing to me) fitness; for my eyesight with which to see the beautiful Colorado sky and mountains; for my AMAZING family and friends; for my belief in the goodness in all people; for money in my pocket for a cup of hazelnut coffee!

See how simple it is? Bet I made you smile!

"I murmured that I had no shoes, until I met a man who had no feet." ~Persian Proverb

Not knowing

I'm practicing becoming at ease with the state of not knowing and just allowing the future to unfold as it is supposed to. Ekhart Tolle says with that arises a deeper knowing that is nonconceptual. So I'm making room, each day, for not knowing.

"Each day comes bearing its own gifts. Untie the ribbons!" ~Ruth Ann Schabaker