Hey Y'all-- Sometimes we need to TrUsT in something biGGer than what we know... (and trust, is hard...cuz alot of times, we only believe in what we can see, touch, smell, taste, etc...)
I used to have a hard time with tRuSt. But here's kind of a cool and raNdoM (surprise, coming from me) story:
Once I asked to the Universe to show me a pink can of TaB (which is old-school soda); I didn't think it was made anymore, and I hadn't seen a can for like, 25 years. Four days later, my teacher-friend Mr. R walked through the computer lab (where I had my English classes).
He smiled and announced, "I am going to the get myself a TaB." And I was so psyched!
I asked, "Do you have a can for me?"
And he told me that he only had one left, and that I could have it. Arrival or TaB!
I have been doing a lot of thinking and reading lately about being present, and today I had kind of an AHA-moment (also known as an EPIHANY in the world of English literature . . . just ask my students about it . . . they are so sick of me bringing this up! . . . but they're really smart!)
Today I was feeling really happy! Yay! And I felt so so so so so so good. And, because I was so happy, I was friendly, and smiling, and chatty (and I assumed I am smart and capable, and everybody likes me, and oh!-- I am cute! JK! not).
And my AHA moment was when I realized TIME-BENDING.
I was so present, that my past and future dropped off. SO AWESOME!
For those of us who have spent much of our time in REGRET (pain around our past) and WORRY (pain around the future), TIME SEEMS FOREVER DAUNTING.
we relive past pain
we lose sleep
we are up in our heads
we feel fuzzy
we are out of touch
we make up stories in our heads and believe them
we are not paying attention
we are scared and nervous
we are sad
we keep re-wounding ourselves
we continually beat on ourselves
I noticed today that when I give the players around me my full attention, LIFE comes ALIVE; I am not breathing, but life breathes me.
And I am able to be in the moment, present with that which simply
IS,
holy in front of Me.
I AM (fully) HERE.
In my life, I have spent a lot of time and energy wishing:
I was with someone else
I was smarter, cuter BLAH BLAH BLAH
my body was different
I had more _____
my past was different
ANYTHING was different
EVERY FREAKIN' thing was different
When my vibration is negative, I call in experiences, people, and events that mirror this vibration.
It's a HELL of a lot of "NO!"
When I celebrate and feel gratitude for all that is before me (even the total CRAP-aliscious CRAP), I bring in goodness and light. I celebrate the NOW.
It's a HEAVENLY"YES! ( & thank you ) . . ."
This, my superfriend, is an amazing shift.
Where is your vibration? How can you command a HEAVENLY "YES"--even to the hard stuff?
Lately, I have been stretching myself a lot. Specifically, I am opening myself to the possibility of a career move.
Scary.
Surrender, Dorothy!
But (secretly), I am exhilarated. Although I have tried to avoid change my whole life ('cuz I want to feel safe, damn it!), I think change is super exciting.
While I used to cling to safety in relationships, and in my life circumstances - - I have been reminded lately that I am my best in change.
And the Universe rewards me when I am open to it. As a matter of fact, I approach change with curiosity, respect, and wonder.
What will life offer me that
I would have never imagined for myself?
It's a great place to be . . .
And I always get feedback about my open stance toward life!
Here's the message from the Universe that I received this morning from tut.com:
Release me, Dana, release me to do your will, to move heaven and earth, to orchestrate the players and summon the circumstances that will change your life completely, by doing your all out best with today.
I have to admit that last week was a bit, well, trying . . . , one of my kids got into a tiff with their bestie (and, of course, I wanted to get in there and fluff it and make it better . . . ), and basically, everyone (including me) was MeLtIng dOwN. So, I went to one of my mentors, Marie Forleo, for some tips about what to do. Here's what she says:
How to Stay Positively Positive
( . . .or at least get there eventually!)
MarieForleo TV
In the middle of it, I was actually having mini panic attacks--like, when your heart pounds and your mind is racing and you really can't sleep 'cuz your way up in your head? I had to remind myself to . . . just . . . well, bReaThe . . .
I also told myself through it all to trust that everything is happening as it should, and there's a bigger plan involved than I can see . . . and it's true (more about that later!)
Anyway, I am so grateful for it all. And, I know there is a plan and we all keep on learning.
Have you ever started something, and you really didn't exactly know what they heck you were doing or where you were going? But you knew it was the right thing to do, anyway?
(FOR EXAMPLE: THIS BLOG? YIKES!!!!!
DOUBLE YIKES? WHAT AM I DOING, ANYWAY?)
It's not so easy to continue on a path when you're not sure where you are headed.
It takes
courage,
and it takes
faith
(which is the subject of this blog).
Sometimes we have nO iDeA what we are doing, but in our hearts it's the right thing and we can feel it! Has this ever happened to you?...It's kind of like listening to your gut, which I didn't do when I first named this blog (sEe YesTerdAy's PoSt...)
We just need to tell our inner mean voice:
"stop bugging me!!!!!!!!!"
about why I
can't or shouldn't
______________ (fill in the blank).
AND,
stop listening to kids and other stuff (like the media!) that could discourage us.
Yep!#%? I know that's tough stuff when your a kid or a teenager, and guess what? It's also tough for grown ups!
Living from the
IN:SIDE OUT and not the OUT:SIDE IN
takes courage and faith.
I was watching a video from the OWN network (yeah, that's Oprah!) where she interviewed Ram Dass who is a very well-known spiritual leader. She asked him about the difference between faith and belief. He basically said that belief is up in your head (remember my first blog about listening to our thoughts? ...WATCH OUT! they might not be true!); he also said that
faith,
on the other hand,
comes from your heart.
Hmmmnnnnnn.
What do you want to listen to: your head? your heart?
Maybe they can actually have a conversation! Imagine that!
I don't know about you, but I have spent a lot of my life up in my head thinking...and not always trusting my heart (aka feelings). My head sometimes talks me out of listening to my heart, and I am sick of it! I am learning how to tell my head to
ZIP IT!
As Carl Jung once wrote:
“Your vision will become clear only when you look into your heart …
Who looks outside, dreams.
Who looks inside, awakens.”
PICTURE THIS...it's a super sweaty day... and you are dying of heat!
Would you rather stand on the end of the dock for hours thinking about the whether you should jump in? Or, would you rather just jump in and get your butt into the cool water?
When I read the passage above about birds, I was reminded that we all try to fly in our own ways with the best of what we've got--but all birds are different, and they each learn to fly--in their own unique amazing and sometimes awkward birdlike manners!
I'm beginning to understand that whenever I try to fly, I am also doing my best--even though it might be pretty darn clunky and uncoordinated at times.
Flying can be anything--trying a new behavior, practicing acceptance, communicating effectively, setting boundaries, creating intentions, or letting go and just trusting in the Universe.
I'm learning how to be kind and gentle to myself, and take baby steps as I leave my nest . . . and know there are others to guide and support me as I take flight. I am also reminded to offer the same courtesy to others as they try out their wings.
We each have our own journeys and unique destinations--I think I'll focus mostly on my own . . .
I've been writing a lot about purpose in the past few days, and I have been inspir(it)ed to think about and get in touch with why I am here on this pLaNet. What I do know, is that right now, I am EXACTLY where I am supposed to be, and I am being prepared with all my experiences and relationships for THE NEXT RIGHT PLACE TO BE! And, what that means is I can trust that ALL is (well, uh . . .) WELL, and all is ON (my) PURPOSE.
Knowing that, I guess there's nothing really to do. I just need to remain open, conscious, and aware of the signs around me.
(WHEW! kind of takes the heat off
'cuz I was thinking there was something I was supposed to figure out!)
knOw WhaT?
That also means that I can trust that other people (even those who bug me or who do and say stuff that I don't agree with!) are also ON (their own) PURPOSE. KiNd of liKe--I'll (be)mind(ful of) my own PURPOSE, and allow others to (be)mind(ful of) their own PURPOSE. And that's totally awesome, 'cuz I am all I can control. gO(o)D reminder . . . hAve an AMaZING day! dAnA
Have you ever started something, and you really didn't exactly know what they heck you were doing or where you were going? But you knew it was the right thing to do, anyway?
It's not so easy to continue on a path when you're not sure where you are headed.
It takes
courage,
and it takes
faith
(which is the subject of this blog).
Sometimes we have nO iDeA what we are doing, but in our hearts it's the right thing and we can feel it! Has this ever happened to you?...It's kind of like listening to your gut, which I don't always do . . . at least I do it more than I used to!
Sometimes, we just need to tell ourselves:
"stop bugging me!!!!!!!!!"
about why I
can't or shouldn't
____________
(fill in the blank).
AND,
stop listening to kids and other stuff (like the media!) that could discourage us.
Yep!#%? I know that's tough stuff when your a kid or a teenager, and guess what? It's also tough for grown ups!
Living from the
IN:SIDE OUT and not the OUT:SIDE IN
takes courage and faith.
Ram Dass (a super cool spiritual leader) once said that beliefis up in your head (be careful about listening to your thoughts? ...WATCH OUT! they might not be true!); he also said that
faith,
on the other hand,
comes from your heart.
Hmmmnnnnnn.
What do you want to listen to: your head? your heart?
Imagine they could have an ice cream together and actually have a real conversation!
I don't know about you, but I have spent a lot of my life up in my head thinking...and not always trusting my heart (aka feelings). My head sometimes talks me out of listening to my heart, and I am sick of it! I am learning how to tell my head to
ZIP IT!
As Carl Jung once wrote:
“Your vision will become clear
only when you look into your heart …
Who looksoutside, dreams.
Who looksinside, awakens.”
PICTURE THIS
...it's a super sweaty day... and you are dying of heat! Would you rather stand on the end of the dock for hours thinking about the whether you should jump in? Or, would you rather just jump in and get your booty into the
So, the little poster above I find amazing! It basically encourages me to move on and learn from my past, not live in my past, wishing circumstances, events, or relationships would have been different. We do our best with the information we have at any given time (and so do others, yo . . . everyone!)
My mentor has said that everything happens FOR us (focus: creator! learning, I can move forward with amazing gusto & POWer) and not TO us (focus: victim! OMG, I have no power!). That means even the crappy stuff is a gift, if we can look at it like that--through the eyes of learning and evolving!
I know I focus on gRaTiTuDe a Lot in my bLog-TasTic (as my British BfF, Rachel, would say!) bLoG, but it really and truly (swear on a stack of holy journals!) has made a monsTeRous (roar . . .) difference in my LiFe.
Here's the Go(o)d NeWs (or at least a few made up reasons . . . nOt . . .): It means . . .
I can trust that even if something feels like it totally sucks, there's an important lesson or higher purpose involved---one that my puny human girl-woman can't possibly understand or wrap my pea-brain around
there's probably something even more amazing that I couldn't even visualize in my life! Super cOOL caKeS!
I can quit trying to control everything, and just do my best and be myself and listen to my inner gp(self)
I'm not in charge
I can quit judging myself and forgive myself for my bad choices
I can say I'm sorry with integrity, and know I truly was doing my best at the time
I can quit judging others and forgive others for bad choices or hurtful stuff, knowing they were truly doing their best
Isn't it weird to think of being grateful for the yucky stuff? But, let me tell, you, the most difficult situations, events, and people in my life have been my greatest teachers!
NO LIE, GUY! (and girl, I just wanted to rhyme . . .)
When you look back at your life, can you make sense of some of your hardships and how they serve as blessings to you now?
Here's an example: I was, well, rather bullied and picked on by who I thought were popular kids in middle school, and by neighbor kids. They called me chubby, teased me, and said they didn't like me, and that nobody liked me (this was a cAveD in and wObBLy part of my liFe, you may guess . . .)
BUT . . . here's the amazing nEwS: I am a middle school teacher, and I totally get what it feels like to be THAT caved-in KID who gets treated like and feels like total POO(p). And I tOTaLLy give those kids extra love and TLC.
GET iT? What a capital G-gift! To be the receiver of the yucky stuff and to get my 8th grade kids who may feel the same way? I'm so gR8-fULL. . . truly! I get why now. . . the Universe was preparing me to be a compassionate teacher and friend to my be(LOVE)d students!
What have you looked back on and been able to see the secret gifts in uR experience? Leave me a message in the comments!
How do you get your place of inner peace? After all, we each have it within us if only we get quiet enough so we can hear its gentle whisper.
Last week when I was reading from an Eckhart Tolle interview on Oprah.com, Tolle described some common barriers we humans experience that prevent us from being at peace:
We mistake peace for unconsciousness.
We mistake peace for happiness.
We keep looking ahead (or looking back).
We strain away from the present moment.
We don't fully trust . . . yet.
I have written about the first four in the past few days. The first, we mistake peace for unconsciousness, reminds me of my behaviors and patterns that have kept peace at bay throughout my life; the second, we mistake peace for happiness, reminds me that peace is always available regardless of my emotional state; as a matter of fact, it is when I have had great emotional challenges or crises when I have gone deep within myself to find the most comforting kind of peace: the peace that passeth all understanding. The third and fourth bullets help me remember that peace can only be found in the present moment.
As for the last bullet--we don't fully trust . . . yet--I interpret that to mean a couple different things. One, we don't trust that the Universe has our best interests in mind to help us learn the lessons that are for our highest good; another way of saying it is that we don't trust the pain or the challenges as part of the larger landscape of our plan--we only trust when things feel comfortable or happy. The result of this is that we try to control outcomes, people, circumstances, timing, emotions, money, etc. This control is what messes with our minds the mos and can lead us into a super tailspin.
Truth be told, we cannot control anything but ourselves. When we finally can begin to trust, we can let go and let God--one of the tenets of the 12-step program. This total surrender is one key to living a peaceful life, and the Serenity Prayer can offer us a tool for letting go.
When we can begin to discern what things we can control and what is beyond our control, we can focus back on ourselves, our own growth, and our own inner peace. We no longer need to look to outside of ourselves for peace, but need only look within, back to our birthright: peace.
and thus escape all pain that what you chose before
has brought to you." -- A Course In Miracles
Dear funfreePeople ;0) ---
If you've been hopping on the blog, 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.
So the second rule is about learning lessons--and each of us has our own special set of lessons the You-niverse has uniquely prepared for us--so we can't be so quick to believe that just because someone else's lessons aren't the same as ours--that their lives are easier, or better, than ours--or that THEY GOT THE GOOD STUFF AND WE GOT THE CRAP-oLa (you know what I mean). We never know what's going on with others on their IN:SIDES, so it's (forthcoming CRAZY ALERT) UBER DANGEROUS to compare their OUT:SIDE with our IN:SIDE. After all, don't you try to hide your crap-ola and act like "everything is just fine."--actually, it's human nature for many of us (translation: I have everything in control. I don't need anybody. Everything is pErFckT! I am a rock, a pillar, even!). Some of us who don't try to hide our imPerFcKtion may move to more dramatic measures--'cuz we lOooOoOOove dRaMa! btw: this is also human nature. (translation: SaVe mE! I am poWerLess! Life is happening to Me! It's all about everyone else!) but I digress . . . (noT!). We can be grateful for our lessons . . . they are like the most amazing & beautiful tailored clothing designed with just us in mind (insert your fave thing to wear---mine is amazingly blingy jeans with black lace-up boots and a flowing baby doll shirt layered with a cardigan...). We all call in our lessons . . . and (sorry!) we keep repeating them until we finally GET IT (you know, like learn and change the way we respond to the pattern). This also means that we may not need to rescue others when they are in the midst of learning one of their beautiful You-niversally designed lessons (I know this totally sucks, 'cuz we don't like to see people in pain). However, what I know, is that sometimes by rescuing or helping others, we are actually hurting them, and delaying the You-niversal lesson . . . and, they'll just be repeating it again . . . and again . . . and again . . .and again . . . and again . . .and again . . . and again . . .and again . . . and again . . .and again . . . and again . . .and again . . . and again . . . (okay enough already!) This can be VERY dangerous for those of us who thrive on the rescue mission and put others before ourselves (obviously one of my You-niversally designed lessons . . . still working on it!) At the end of the day, I want to say, "Thanks for the amazing lessons, World." As my amazing mentor,Mastin Kipp, says, "Everything happens for us, not to us." We just need to be wide awake. Conscious. How are you becoming conscious? Leave a comment and share your experience. We LoVe yOU! ;0) dana
More about my newly arrived tOtEm: the bUtTTerFly! And thanks to you for arriving at my bLoG today! The butterfly reminds us about biRtH and reBiRtH and also gently whispers to us:
The only constant in
life is
cHaNGe!
I don't know about you, but when I was a teenager, I sometime felt downright awkward, sluggish, and well, kind of wormISH, in a way (sometimes I still feel like this, btw!). If you think about caterpillars, they are kind of the same . . . gross and not-so-good looking, perhaps?
Can you believe that yucky wormy caterpillars transform themselves into beautiful and amazing butterflies?
DO you think caterpillars realize their existence
in the dirt with the other worms and bugs is actually
preparing them for their
most miraculous life
above the ground in free flight?
Can you imagine the view--
the difference in perspective?!
(gOoSeBuMp alert!)
What if yoUr existence now--with all the fab stuff and the yucky crap, too, is doing the same:
preparing you for yoUr
most miraculous life
above the ground in free flight?
Here's a reveal of a
butterfly's
first emergence
(nice outfit!)
If you've ever watched a caterpillar spin a cocoon and emerge as a butterfly you may have noticed a couple of things:
Ho Hi ffPeePs! Anyway, back to my story about trying to get signs from the Universe!)--I was running along a beautiful lake up north, and I wanted the Universe to show me a 4-leaf clover. I looked and looked; I even stopped running to look through the beds of clover for my sign. I actually got a little OCD (there's medication for that!) on it, and spent too much time LoOOooOOooooOOooooking for my 4-leaf cLOVEr!
Actually, I was getting frustrated, and then a funny feeling came over me:
I knew the 4-leaf clover was there, and I knewI just couldn't see it! I trusted it was there, and I tried to feel thankful for it!
Lesson learned: I am be grateful for the things I have, even when I can't see them. And, just because I can't see something, DOESN'T MEAN IT'S NOT THERE OR IT DOESN'T EXIST. And! and...and...(top secret information): if I am grateful for something in advance, it happens sooner and I see it faster! Pretty DanG cOoL, yO! :0) lots of hearts! dana
