YOUR LIFE A-Z:HEALING

WHOLENESS IS BEAUTIFUL 

HEALING

The definition of HEALING is to make whole or restore to original health.  However, the goal of HEALING needs to surpass original health and bring a vibrant sense of well being to the whole being, body, soul, and spirit.  It is important to seek HEALING for optimal health in the three above areas.   Think about the times in your life when you have been in need of HEALING.   What were you looking for?  What did you feel you needed to be whole again?  HEALING comes in many different forms, from HEALING gardens to HEALING touch with a mixture of emotional, physical, and spiritual HEALING in between.  What HEALING do you seek now?  Does your soul ache for something more? Does your spirit thirst for a touch from the divine?  Are you facing physical illness that has you forlorn and frightened?  HEALING does not always mean fixed.  Sometimes HEALING is the process of acceptance of what is verse trying to change something to suit your temporary need.  If you accepted the situation you are currently faced with and realized you cannot change it or make it different, the very acceptance of that fact will relax you into a calm peace.  Yes, sadness might be there with you and even regret.  But those emotions will lift as you move toward acceptance.  Choosing to focus on how awful a situation is verses how real a situation is a key ingredient to reaching your own HEALING.  HEALING happens when the struggle against ceases.

YOUR LIFE A-Z: TOLERANCE

GENTLENESS IS TOLERANCE

TOLERANCE

TOLERANCE is an attitude of acceptance.  TOLERANCE is also an exercise in being resilient.  Your body must learn to build TOLERANCE especially to foreign materials such as transplants or allergens.  TOLERANCE by its very nature is an un-comfortableness that requires that we adjust our attitude, behavior or body in some way to accommodate differences.   When we were children we saw the world through the eyes of the adults around us and adapted many of those adults believes and attitudes toward the world.  But as we grew up perhaps we realized that how the adults in our lives reacted to women, people or color or certain ways of doing things did not really fit for us.  We may have also learned that when we disagreed with an adults perception of how things are, we were belittled.  We experienced that having a different opinion was not TOLERATED.  Thus, learning at a young age what we would TOLERATE and not TOLERATE became a life lesson.  Perhaps we believed it was unbearable to experience a parent’s disgust at us thus we learned to adapt to his or her believe system to remain safe.  Or, perhaps we figured out at a young age sharing our believe system was not safe until we moved out of the house, but once that happened we practiced TOLERANCE toward others that believed or looked differently than we do.  TOLERANCE is something that we must exercise and acquire as a daily practice in order for us to live safely and peacefully.  Really, what good is it to flip off the person who cuts you off in traffic?   Practice TOLERANCE.

YOUR LIFE A-Z: PRIDE

Take Pride in Yourself!

PRIDE

Wikipedia says PRIDE is an inner directed emotion, from a positive connotation is a satisfied sense of attachment to ones Own choices or actions.  PRIDE is also a sense of belonging to a group or family where one's positive feelings of connection run deep within each other.  An example of that would be the GBLTQ community celebrations of Gay PRIDE.  Pride is a bubbling up of positive emotion   that naturally expresses itself through a wide smile and relaxed facial expression.  In yesterday's word, Own, I spoke about the PRIDE of ownership, taking responsibility for the decisions and choices you are making.  Today, I am asking you to dig deeper and allow a sense of belonging to yourself make you feel PRIDE deep within. It is true that when we feel PRIDE we Invest more self-care into whatever it is we feel PRIDE about.  A new car gets washed and waxed more often than an old beater car.  Take better self-care of your self today.  File your nails, get a new haircut, or take a bubble bath. Do something today to make yourself feel PRIDE in who you are.  Take a hot lunch to a homeless person or write a check to your favorite organization to Invest something of your success into the lives of others.  Allow yourself to take PRIDE in who you are, not just what you do.  Self-care and care of other are two sides of the whole, Invest in both to achieve PRIDE in yourself.   

YOUR LIFE A-Z QUIT

A SLOTH IS A GREAT ANIMAL TO HELP YOU QUIT

Just for today, one day out of your life, QUIT talking negatively about yourself and others.  In order for you to do this, you must become aware of how negative you are.  Awareness, as I have spoken about is the first step to change.  Without awareness you do not really live life, you just exist. In order to live more fully it is important to QUIT doing things that harm yourself.  It is often helpful to imagine that negativity is a big icky ball of green slime.  Each time you are negative in your thoughts, words, or actions, that green slime attaches itself to your physical body.  So by the end of each day you are covered with smelly, icky green slime that weighs you down. The way to QUIT slimming yourself is to QUIT that old habitual negative talk.  A good technique to help yourself QUIT, is to wear a rubber band on your wrist and snap it each time you catch yourself being negative. The snapping sound keeps the slime away.  If you are too self-conscious for that, then choose a different bracelet or watch than you normally wear.  Each time you catch yourself being negative twist your bracelet or watch around your wrist once as an awareness building tool to help you QUIT.  You can use this QUITTING tool to help you QUIT whatever it is you want to QUIT, but it is essential to QUIT talking negatively in order to be happier on a daily basis.

YOUR LIFE A-Z: CONQUEST

IN THE MIDST OF A STORM BE CAREFREE

CONQUEST

Yes, conquests are important in life.  We need to learn to conquer the things that bother us, worry us, or bring us down.  Sometimes the best way to do that is through acceptance.  Peaceful acceptance sometimes stops the worry when we realize there is nothing we can do to change or control a situation.  That acceptance is probably the most difficult thing you have had to do in your life.  Accepting a child’s choices that are not in his/her best interest is a conquest more painful than probably than any other.  Learning that you cannot control your adult child’s drug or alcohol use is a painful conquering and not one that parents easily accept.  You know there is an acceptance when you feel a sense of inner peace inside of yourself that you have not experienced.  Then you have fully practiced the definition of conquests: the control, defeat, or overthrow of that which is invading you.  The conquest to acceptance requires energy, it does not happen by passivity.  It is defined, direct, and destined to create a place of peace in your heart and life where you can not imagine it being.  Also, conquests requires repetition.  Repetition of the same behaviors, attitudes, and actions that continue to make room for a peaceful place inside, in the midst of emotional pain.  Acceptance is the ammunition required to conquer all that matters to us so that we can live abundantly peaceful lives regardless of the chaos and pain around us.

Your Life A-Z BRILLANT

Shades of Light Display Beauty Everywhere

Brilliant

Stop!!! I know you.  Don't skip this day.   You are Brilliant.   What does that mean?  And how are you going to practice it today?  Brilliant is a combination of high light and strong saturation of light.   You are the only person that can be you.  No one else is the universe has the same finger print, thoughts, ideas, prayers, or smile as you do.  You are the person that interferes with how bright your light shines.  It can be sharp and clear if you would get out of your own shadow.   So, today the twenty-minute coach says, play with your light.  Walk through your house and turn on the lights and say, "I am brilliant."  "I am the light, and when I smile at someone, they smile back."   Get a flashlight and go into a dark closet.  Notice what treasures are stuffed away, hiding behind a stack of sweaters or in the corner, forgotten.  Bring out something you have forgotten about and enjoy it today.  As you enjoy it, enjoy yourself.  List five ways you have been sharp and clear helping someone else.  Be thankful that you are uniquely you and no one else but you can be you with your many parts.  Celebrate your brilliance.  Tonight treat yourself to something special and put a candle on it and light it.  Sing a happy song celebrating your brilliance.