I AM (bLeSsEd) . . .!

"I waLk tHe paTh. . . iT's mY owN pAtH . . ."

"Both abundance and lack exist simultaneously in our lives, as parallel realities.

It is always our conscious choice 

which secret garden we will tend ... 

when we choose not to focus on what is missing from our lives

but are grateful for the abundance that's present--

love, health, family, friends, work, the joys of nature

and personal pursuits that bring us pleasure -

the wasteland of illusion falls away and we experience Heaven on earth." 

- Sarah Ban Breathnach

hEy aLL--

I have something reaLLy aMazing to share with yOu:

I walked

oVer 2 miles

today . . .

for

the

first

time

in

months.

Why is this amazing? Because I have been injured and in chronic pain for the first time in my life. I am a runner, and I haven't run for a long time. I am feeling . . . well, gelatinous!

BackStory: I am a teacher, so I am (usually) running around all day every day; I am also a bit ADD, so I am always in motion--no matter where I am . . . (but not lately . . .). I have been trying to take care of myself. 

Here's how:

• I have had massage
• I had a cortisone shot
• I went to an energy healer
• I have cried like a baby out of frustration
• I had an MRI, and I found out I have degenerative bone loss at the bottom of my spine . . . $#!t . . . but not really. My body has been screaming at me to take care of myself for a long time . . .

After all,

• I am not crawling up and down the stairs on all fours like a doggy anymore--rUfF RuFf.
• I can acTuAlLY make it to work each day.
• I can sleep for a few hours at a time without waking up from pain.

So, I got to the point where I was actually talking to my pain. Seriously. I have been honoring it and asking what it's been trying to teach me of what message it has been sending. Here's what I heard:

Dana:

Take care of yourself.

Slow down.

Quit running and pay attention.

I waLk tHe paTh. . . iT's mY owN pAtH . . . especially 'cuz I can't rUn right now.

I am so very grateful . . . for wALkIng. . . for wAlking . . . 

LiFe is gO(o)d!

Dana

Rule One: You Will Receive a Body

"You will receive a body . . . "

dEar fUnfrEepeEps!

If you hopped on the blog yesterday, you already know that my intention for the next 10 days is to dig into Cherie Carter-Scott's work, "Ten Rules for Being Human." Here's her list--I'll focus on one rule each day!

Ten Rules for Being Human

by Cherie Carter-Scott

1.	You will receive a body. You may like it or hate it, but it's yours to keep for the entire period.
2.	You will learn lessons. You are enrolled in a full-time informal school called, "life."
3.	There are no mistakes, only lessons. Growth is a process of trial, error, and experimentation. The "failed" experiments are as much a part of the process as the experiments that ultimately "work."
4.	Lessons are repeated until they are learned. A lesson will be presented to you in various forms until you have learned it. When you have learned it, you can go on to the next lesson.
5.	Learning lessons does not end. There's no part of life that doesn't contain its lessons. If you're alive, that means there are still lessons to be learned.
6.	"There" is no better a place than "here." When your "there" has become a "here", you will simply obtain another "there" that will again look better than "here."
7.	Other people are merely mirrors of you. You cannot love or hate something about another person unless it reflects to you something you love or hate about yourself.
8.	What you make of your life is up to you. You have all the tools and resources you need. What you do with them is up to you. The choice is yours.
9.	Your answers lie within you. The answers to life's questions lie within you. All you need to do is look, listen, and trust.
10.	You will forget all this.

We have all been blessed with boDiEs . . . and what I'm wondering is, why is it so tough for some of us accept our bodies exactly where they are (even if we want to make some changes like getting in better shape or taking vitamins)? How can we learn to treat our bodies with the utmost loving care?

When I think about caring for my body, I picture being healthy and loving about a lot of stuff:

• my food and drink choices (including sugar, caffeine, processed food, eating too much or restricting food, and staying hydrated--as in--drinking water!)
• my activity and exercise habits (like not exercising or being compulsive about running, and listening to my body when it's hurting or tired)
• my sleep habits (too much? too little? why do I wake up in the middle of the night? am I staying up too late? am I bummed out and want to sleep too much? am I napping to catch up when I need to?)
• my stress levels (am I doing to much? am I obsessing over stuff I can't control? am I meditating and doing yoga on a regular schedule?)

Now, this list can be a little scary--especially since now that I've written it, it feels like a list of too many SHOULDS. Good information to think about, nonetheless. And with the shoulds, my perfectionism kicks in, and I could easily start beating on myself for not doing all of the good stuff every day and in my routine of health.

So, the main thing for me is probably balance--if you haven't noticed in my blog, I have generally been a person of extremes, and I have tended to assign meaning to events and relationships (including my relationship with myself) as either good or bad, right or wrong . . . pretty much black and white, all-or-nothing. 

Good thing now is that I have some self awareness to OBSERVE ME from a detached perspective so I can NOTICE how I interact with my life!  Yeah & Ouch--in a good way! I think I'm gRoWinG . . .

How do you take care of and listen to your body? 
LovE mE, and yOu!
dana dana fo fana