cHooSe your POWERful tHouGHts . . .

“There is nothing either good or bad, 
but thinking makes it so.”

~Shakespeare

Dear FunFreePeeples!

Last night I woke up at 12:30 and never really got back to sleep. My mind was taking over my body,  . . . hELp!

ALIEN INVASION!

This is what happens when I actually listen to my thoughts and believe them--especially when they are negative or self-critical, or they have to do with my past or worry about my future . . . 

      they get bigger

                     and BIGGER

                             and BIGGER

until they literally take over my brain and body!

I have to remind myself that I am in charge of my own thoughts and beliefs. My perception of the outside world is nothing more than a projection of my inside world, a projection of my inner world, my fears, doubts, struggles, my own darkness. Here's another amazing quote about our thoughts and feelings:

"You are not your mind, your emotions or the circumstances of your life. You are the peaceful observer of your mind and emotions that allows life circumstances to pass through and around you for your evolution to finally come to a place of total acceptance of all that is. Only the peaceful observer remains after all else fades away. Only the peaceful observer in total acceptance of what is can take action towards effectively changing anything. You are only this peaceful observer--everything else is as fleeting as the blink of an eye, choose happiness and don't buy into it." 

- Jackson Kiddard

We can choose to blame the world for our unhappiness, and our our lack of abundance and inner peace. Happiness is our choice and our responsibility because ultimately we choose our own thoughts, our own beliefs, and our interpretation of our own life events. If we are too busy focusing our time and energy on what is wrong, we may be putting our attention to the wrong stuff.

When we choose to see the many incredible things that take place every day in our world across the world, our amazing relationships  in our lives. And, when we choose to accept all for WHAT IS, we can be at peace.

Which brings me back to (of course! you guessed it!)

ACCEPTANCE & GRATITUDE.

So, to get myself of my brain and thoughts, I am going to meditate and begin a gratitude practice by silently saying thank you to all that is in my day.

Thanks for reading! Hearts!
Dana 

dOn'T jUdGe . . . dOn'T ASSume!

One day a couple of summers ago, my daughter had a doctor's appointment (she's diabetic) about 1/2 hour away from home. We left an hour before her appointment, and since her blood sugar had been running high for the morning, she was really thirsty. I forgot to put a water bottle in the car, so I knew I had to pull over and get Chloe some water...she really couldn't wait the 25 minutes or so before we got to our destination.

I pulled into the parking lot of a little bistro 'cuz there was no street parking, and the only space available was one that read "NO PARKING ALLOWED." Now, when you are a parent, you sometimes have to look at the risks in a situation and decide what is more important; in my case, I would have rather gotten a parking ticket than kept Chloe from getting the water she needed (do you get what I mean?)

Anyway, as we were rushing out of the car to the bistro to get water, two big-haired, blinged-out women wearing high-heels came out of a hair salon (I think I sound a bit judgmental here, don't you? oOps! I guess I do it, too!). 

The taller brunette looked at me in kind of a snotty way, pointed to the sign and shook her finger at me, "You're not supposed to park here. Don't you see the sign?" The momma bear came out in me, and although I don't think I sounded too rude, I for sure was very short and to the point. I looked at her straight in the eye and said, "I understand that, thank you very much. My daughter is diabetic and she needs water." I took my daughter's hand and started to quickly walk away. The brunette looked surprised, and softened a bit and said, "Oh. Do you need some help?" I replied, "No, thank you."

We got a super big drink of water in the little bistro, and then walked back across the street to the NO PARKING (scary!) ZONE.

Guess what? The two women were waiting in their black Ford Escalade until we got back (maybe to make sure we didn't get a ticket? Maybe to see if things were okay? I'll never know . . . ). As we got into the car, the brunette waved to us, smiled, and gave us the thumbs up, and we gave her the double thumbs up back.

*               *                *               *               *               *               *

Hmmnnnnn . . . guess we never know what people are up to when they do stuff WE don't think they should do . . . maybe it's not really our place to judge, huh? Has this ever happened to you? It's kind of humbling, eh? Let me know in the comments! Tell us everything!

LoVinG it aLL!

Dana

rE-LeAse it . . . for REAL-eAsE . . .

BaLLooNs!

DeAr fUn & fReE foLk!

For the past weeks I have been blogging a bit about feelings. A vid from TheChopraWell described some steps to get rid of yucky, toxic feelings. The last 2 steps were releasing the emotions through a ritual, and then celebrating the release. SInce I'm an English teacher, I want to mention that 

• "re" literally means back or again
• "lease" to allow borrow or rent 

6. Release toxic emotions through a ritual: to let go and move on. I personally love doing rituals, and here are a couple of ideas about release rituals:

• blow up a balloon and as you are blowing air into the balloon, picture the yucky emotions going into the balloon . . . then, either POP the balloon, or release the balloon up into hEaVen!
• get a big jar of bUbBLeS and as you blow the buBBLeS, do the same thing: picture the pukey gross leftOvER goo going into the bubbles and dissolving up into the heAvEns
• carry a rock around (like the 20 lb rock I ran 4 miles with) for awhile and then PUT IT DOWN!

7. Celebrate the release of the feelings: This can be a more positive, grateful practice--a way to honor your feelings, forgive yourself and others, and give yourself a big hug. What I would do? Here are some ideas:

• grab your favorite yummy blankie and take a delicious 2-hour nap!
• take an awesomely long hot shower with some fizzy shower tablets that smell like lavender or peppermint! 
• dance to your favorite rockin' song! Here's my favorite song right now--

I don't know about you all, but I really appreciate the process of awakening--you know, being 

WIDE AWAKE

Thanks Katy! (even though it's painful, surprising & hard sometimes . . . ). The other thing, is that it's not always on MY timeline--but I trust that the Universe knows what it's doing. I'm grateful for it all!

LotS & lOts of LuV!

:o) dana

U r NoT fEaR!

Yo fUn & fReE fOlkS!
This has definitely been a month of fAcIng my FeArS! Like, as in doing what's right for me (despite what other people say about it, how they judge me, and the stories (lies) they make up about mY TrUtH!) I am not really sure why it's anyone else's business, but it keeps happening, so I must still need to work on thAt LeSSoN. Thanks, You-niverse! (not . . . jk . . . but I'm a bit sick and tired of it . . .)
I used to:

• try to be perfecKt so nobody would find fault with me
• when people did find fault or criticize me, just deny it, or make an excuse for it, or kiss their butt enough to change their mind about how bad or wrong or stUpiD I was . . . super InAuTheNtiC of me . . . but it was how I survived . . . ;( BTW: I wonder why I allowed these people to hang around me in the first place when it felt like such crap. Can you relate? 
• NOTE TO SELF: gEt these iCky tOXic people oUT! Send them off with loVE and comPAssIOn, but SHOW THEM THE freakin' DOOR!

What I'm learning, is that just 'cuz someone think or says something about me, doesn't mean it's automatically true! That includes the mean crappy crap I tell mEself!

Also, I am learning to not even waste my EnergY defending mE(self) to these people 'cuz it is draining, not true, and the stuff people say and do to me isn't really about me, anyway.

Do you know that the way people treat and what they say @ you isn't ever really about you? It's about tHeM and who tHeY are and what stories they make up about You! Isn't that weird? Which means by default (scary thing to tell you, here, but I'm just being real . . .) the way yOu treat others is neVer about ThEm and wHo you are and WhAt storiEs you make up about them!

My daughter was noodling (thinking) out loud in the car yesterday and she was telling me about some kids who talk "stuff" about her at camp--and she felt kinda bad. And I asked her if the stuff was true.

She said, "Nope." 

Then, I asked her this: "If someone told you your skin is purple, would you believe it?" 

She laughed and  said, "Of course not, 'cuz it's not true." 

And I said, "Same thing. If you know it's not true, then it's not!" Then, she told me that some of the spiritual stuff I talk about is confusing for her--and, of course, I told her it's confusing to me, too! HAHAHAHAHAHA!

To be clear: setting boundaries around how others treat you is totally healthy (see above about showing them the door . . .). AS my biG bRo told me one morning (we both have recently "broken up" with some ickies in our lives and we were sharing our war stories . . . 'sup Christopher? I KNEW you'd be pleased!), you get to be youR LOveLy seLf, BUT YOU ARE NOT A DOORMAT FOR PEOPLE TO WALK ALL OVER!

So, MEet you fears and follow your dreams, ffps--one teeny tiny baby step at a time, and finD pEaCE in what's right fOr you!

LoVe U to the mOOn and bacK!

;) dana

FeAr . . . nOt!

“What is the difference between an obstacle and an opportunity?
Our attitude toward it. 

Every opportunity has a difficulty,
and every difficulty has an opportunity.” 

―J. Sidlow Baxter

  

Dear Fun & Free People-

One day a few years back I wrote about how my bestie helped me shed light on a shadowy & fearful spot in my life: my finances. As my bestie told me, "It ain't gonna get better until you go to the doctor." In other words, living in the place of fear doesn't make the challenge go away. If there's a pink elephant in the room, there's a pink elephant in the room--even if nobody acknowledges it, right?

Let's just say that I have been breathing a bit more easily in the past 24 hours.

I learned some of important things from this experience:

• my fear itself was much scarier than the actual thing I was feeling fearful about: money. Money, after all, is simply an exchange of energy (kind of like food, huh?).
• I have people in my life who can scaffold and support me through my fears, just like my friend who has expertise about finances can teach me a lot of great stuff.
• I have people in my life whom I can scaffold and support through their fears with stuff I have expertise about . . . funny how that works!
• Once I face a fear, I have courage to move forward and face another one.

Even though my mentor as been talking about this fact for years, I never really got it until it was demonstrated to me yesterday through my own experience. I guess that's how we human beings learn, through experience. And if we rob ourselves of moving through the experience of fear out the other side, we never learn that stuff just ain't that scary.

So here's the other surprising lesson: 

FEAR can point us to what we MUST do next.

FEAR is a gift.

FEAR is a pink elephant with angel's wings!

(repeat image in mind)

There are some more fears that I MUST face in the coming weeks, and I've been scared in advance, but I know the Universe is aligning to prepare me for the next set of fears I must face, especially after looking at my financial situation in the FACE.

I say BRING IT ON ( . . . almost . . . still need to breathe a bit, first!) 

How can you face your fears and come out the other side? Let me know in the comments!

Love, 

Dana