YOUR LIFE A-Z:QUILT

USE YOUR RESOURCES TO CREATE THE COLOR IN YOUR LIFE

QUILT

Yes, QUILT.   Do you have a favorite QUILT in your closet?  What makes that QUILT your favorite?  Was it the person that made if for you?  Or, if you purchased the QUILT, is it the theme or the colors that attracted you. Some people are talented and enjoy the art of QUILT making and others of us admire his/her art but feel as if we just cannot make something that is so intricate and time consuming.  That may very well be the case but today I want to introduce an art form of QUILT making that each of us can do.  Get an 8 ½ by 11-inch piece of paper and one side; write a list of 19 things for which you are thankful.  Once, you have reached 19, quit.   Look at the words you have written and allow your feelings of gratitude remember a situation that is connected to each word on the list.  Next, you have a choice of two options.  If you have a bunch of magazines at your disposal, some glue and scissors then search the magazine for pictures of each of your words on your list.  Once you collect 19 pictures (not the written words-only pictures) then carefully glue them on to the front of the paper creating your own QUILT of gratitude.  If option #1, sounds tedious and too much trouble, no problem, then choose 19 different colors from a crayon box and color and create a shape and color it in until every inch of your paper is covered.  Viola, you have created a QUILT of gratitude and practiced mindfulness at the same time. 

YOUR LIFE A-Z XYSTER

THESE CACTUS APPEAR SOFT BUT CLEARLY RUB THE WRONG WAY

XYSTER

Yes, "X" words are few in the English language.  XYSTER is a surgical instrument used for scraping bones and making them smooth.  It reminds me of large file I once  used when I thought creating something from a block of soap stone was a good idea.  So, a bone that needs to be scraped and made smooth brings up that old adage, "I have a bone to pick with you."  Which means something is rubbing you the wrong way and annoying you. What is bothering you and rubbing you the wrong way?  What is under your skin causing you to be annoyed?  Today is a day to smooth out the rough places inside. Pick up the phone and call someone that you have been waiting to call you.  Send a card to someone that has hurt your feelings.  Reach out to that family member that has annoyed the hell out of you.  Smooth things out inside of yourself.  Make sure that your surgical instrument is clean and sanitised.  Don't reach out until you are ready. If you have expectations as to how the other person needs to respond to your olive branch of peace, thenyour XYSTER is not clean for surgery.  You need to prepare yourself to reach out for you not because you expect anything in return.  It is our expectations that cause us our suffering.  Bone scraping is painful and requires healing time as well as very precise actions to get the bone smooth enough not to bother or annoy you with future encounters.  

YOUR LIFE A-Z WISDOM

ALLOW YOURSELF TO BE BLESSED

WISDOM

WISDOM requires integrating a value system of reflection, experience, good judgement, and discernment.  It does not come without experience.  WISDOM is a characteristic of living a life with soft eyes and gentle footsteps.  WISDOM allows the wise one to take his/her time in making decisions, speaking his/her truth, and a following a clear path of compassion with fellow people encountered on the path.  To practice WISDOM is to be aware of your thoughts and how your thoughts affect your quality of daily life.  Each day counts.  Each day you make a difference in your life and the life of others by your thoughts, words, and actions.  Awareness of how you impact others and your own quality of life is essential to establishing quality and virtue in living.  If you want to live a better life, seek daily WISDOM.  Ask for compassion and WISDOM. Ask for guidance as to how to make the best choices for yourself and those you come in contact with.  Practice WISDOM with your spending.  You work hard for your money. Choose where to spend it and how to spend it, but don't become cheap.  Buy quality.  Enjoy living.  Enjoy the day to day grind.  WISDOM is enjoying the moment.  Place a slice of lemon in your water and notice your smile and quality of living increase.  WISDOM is in tandem with enjoyment and quality.  If you don't experience enjoyment and quality of life, you are not practicing WISDOM.  Make today a day of enjoyment and quality even if it is as simple as buying fresh flowers for your table.

YOUR LIFE A-Z VALUE

ENJOY THE ARRANGEMENT OF BEAUTY

VALUE

What is it that you value and how do you know that you value it?  Value is also a word that one needs to "qualify"; how much value do I place on that which I value.   Because we are at the start of the New Year, let's not talk about monetary value, but heart value.  If we really value someone, why is it that we really don't listen to what s/he says or needs?  Why do we continue our same old behavior that they tell us hurts them.  Is it because we really don't care if we hurt them or is it because we just believe they are trying to change us and we refuse to change for the good of the couple-hood or family.  See, value is not as simple as it sounds.  In fact, value is quite complicated.  So during this time of taking the Twenty Minute Coach as a serious route of change for this coming year, spend some reflective time with the word value.  The dictionary says to value something is to decide on its worth, importance, and its usefulness.  I do not believe we can value others until we value ourselves.  But, paradoxically, unless we value others they are not going to stick around unless they believe they deserve someone who does not hear them.  What would be so wrong with making some change for those around you?  What is it that you really value?

YOUR LIFE A-Z USE

USE COLOR, TOUCH, TASTE, TEXTURE, 

USE

Yes, USE it!  This is a great time to get rid of clutter.  The Twenty Minute Coach has talked about de-clutter before. Start with your kitchen drawers.  I imagine there are many gadgets that looked like a great tool that is still sitting there unused, like a lime squeezer or egg timer.  Pass them on to the local thrift store. Next go through your cabinets and get rid of all that you are not USING.  Do you dare tackle your garage next?  Get those bikes out and USE them.  USE up the food in your pantry and freezer this month to save money in your food budget this month.  USE things that you have put to the back of the closet.  If you are not USING certain things in your home, toss it.  Make space for USEABLE items.  Practice paying attention to all of the things that you USE and ask yourself if the item serves you well.  Replace your tooth brush. USE your body! USE your voice, speak up and ask for what you need.  USE your fingers to touch.  USE your nose to smell the roses.  USE your eyes to really see what is around you.  USE your ears to hear your partner.  USE your brain to think for yourself and to think outside of the box.  Use your mouth and tongue to explore the subtleties of taste.  USE your dreams to get more of what you want out of your life. USE all of what is available to you every day.

YOUR LIFE A-Z TOUCH

TOUCH BY PAYING ATTENTION TO COLOR

TOUCH

TOUCH is a perfect word to follow the word silence. TOUCH is an important part of mindfulness. I invite you to pay attention to the art of TOUCH today.  Look around your environment at choose three items to pick up and TOUCH.  Place the three items by your chair and spend your five minutes in silence.  Afterward pick up the first object and run your fingers around the outline.  Notice the texture, temperature, and feel of the object.  Notice your thoughts and feelings as you take time to get to know this object just by TOUCH.  Then close your eyes and do this again.  Do this again and see if you "see" something that you didn't see with your eyes open.  Repeat this with each item.  This simple exercise will help you be more aware of the sensation of TOUCH.  Reach across your table tonight and TOUCH your partner or your kids.  Pay attention to TOUCHING your pet.  Notice things that you TOUCH, things that are in your daily life.  What is it that you like about your coffee cup, your tooth brush, or even your face?  Get some lotion and pay close your attention to how you feel nurturing your body with gentle TOUCH all over.  Treat yourself to a massage.  What would life be like if you did not have the sensation of TOUCH?  Who in your life needs a gentle touch to the top of their hand? Do that the next time you are around them. Celebrate the power of TOUCH today.

YOUR LIFE A-Z SILENCE

SERENE AND SILENT

SILENCE is one of the most important mindful techniques and tools that you can integrate into your daily life.  Set a timer and sit for 5 minutes.  Do nothing but sit.  What was that like?  Did your mind abuse you with negative thoughts about wasting time and not getting things done?  Did you notice sounds that you would have missed because you were not mindful of them, like birds chirping or the soft whirl of the heating unit?  It is also useful to practice SILENCE when you have nothing kind or nice to say.  Being SILENT in the middle of chaos can calm everyone down.  It is easier to explore any situation that is happening if you give it a moment of reflective SILENCE.  If you are someone who needs background noise such as music or TV playing in the background,then choose to turn that static noise off for ½ hour a day and notice what happens.  If you do that for thirty days, I believe you will notice a positive difference in your being.  SILENCE is not only golden, it is also electric.  It allows you the time to tune into important internal information and pay attention to feelings, emotions, and thoughts by giving wisdom a chance to settle in around you. Like a wonderful gentle blanket letting you know without words what you need to focus on next.  If you have an important question that you are trying to obtain an answer to, just ask it and practice SILENCE until you know the answer.  You will know when you know.  

YOUR LIFE A-Z :HAPPY

HAPPY

What is happy to you?  What are you really saying when you say I just want to be happy?  As I have said,  “Happiness is not an illusion, but neither is it a destination.”  I see it as a space within you.  The dictionary defines contentment as a place of happiness and satisfaction.  Being HAPPY is a space or place wherethere is a reservoir of positive energy, decorated with fond memories, and an invitation to sit and enjoy the present moment, using all of your senses of smell, taste, touch, hear, and feel.  Experiencing the moment is a space within you as the moment passed already, so it is a pause button of HAPPY.  HAPPY space is a choice.  We can choose to focus on bad memories, ugly situations, and things in the past that were not fair.  Or we can choose to be anxious and worry about every possible thing that can go wrong in the future or we can place the present moment on “pause,” and allow ourselves to switch channels in our head and enjoy the creation of HAPPY.  If we did this as often as we check our Facebook every day imagine how lush, lovely, and exhilarating our HAPPY space could become.  We would enjoy going there to experience the joy of being alive, as well as the moment of sweet contentment in the facts.  These are the facts: If you are reading this you are alive, be grateful.  If you are grateful you will count your blessings and if you count your blessings you will enter your HAPPY space.  Yep…that is fact.  

YOUR LIFE A-Z: OPTIONS

THE WATER HAS MANY OPTIONS AND CHANGES BASED ON THE SEASON

OPTIONS

Mindfulness of attention and nurturance of soul allow us to see our options. Attention and nurturance, two keys, broaden our perspective and increase our depth of vision.  If we imagine sitting in the forest and looking straight ahead we may not see much except massive tree trunk weaving awkwardly in no distinct path.  But if we stand up and take a few steps back and focus upwardly, our whole perspective of the forest changes.  If we bend down and carefully examine the foliage, we see minute details of a beetle eating its breakfast and discover life anew.  The forest is a living and breathing macrocosm and many distinct microcosm's within its robust and loving arms.

The word that you reside in, is expansive.  The world does not begin and stop at your driveway.  There are many options available if you look around and examine the possibilities from many angles.  Imagine what you can see if you close your eyes.  The options of creativity abound within the quietness of your internal space.  You can see colors, designs, pictures, memories, fantasies, and experience diving into the ocean on a warm day or feeling the falling rain on your skin.

Options exist within you and outside of you.  Today, dare to be different.  A stock option offers choices and gives versatility to the buyer.  You are the "buyer" of your life, you can take risks and choose options to explore and experiment with something before you make a commitment to buy the whole picture.  Look up, step back, explore and imagine.  Options open doors to possibilities; possibilities create movement; and movement produces change.  

YOUR LIFE A-Z: MINDFULNESS

MINDFULNESS

Mindful and mindfulness seems like the appropriate “M” word to follow Justice, Kindness, and Liberty.  In today’s era, mindfulness has found its way into the daily practice of psychology and is no longer a Buddhists practice.  Being mindful is the practice of being aware in the NOW.  Notice your body.  How are you sitting? Where is the tension in your body?  What are your thoughts? How are you breathing? Take a minute to close your eyes and go inside of your body, breath in and out slowly.  Let your breath come fully in through your nostrils and follow it down into your lungs, noticing the rise of your belly and then slowly exhale as if you are blowing out a candle.  

Let yourself do this several times and then re-check how your body feels.  Allow yourself to focus on the changes.  Pleasant relaxation is really possible and possible for you. Yes, the practice of Mindfulness is clearly a practice.  If you don’t stop, notice, breathe, and focus, you will not learn the basic healthy benefits of Mindfulness.  

Our lives are full of distractions, to do lists, worries, responsibilities and disappointments, learning to practice this simple but powerful awareness technique can refresh you cells, mood, and day.  It is like rebooting your computer.  It refreshes the programs and gets everything moving again.  You can Google, mindfulness and discover many tools to help you learn this valuable practice.  I do not need to re-invent the wheel.  The wheel is out there go spin it.  Today is your day to gift yourself with the power of awareness.