- Life is a window of opportunity and appreciating each day, whatever it may bring, is the key to fulfilment.
- Life is about choices. Everything is possible. The only person stopping you from making things happen is you. Be open to opportunities around you and be proactive to make your dreams come true.
- Do the things that make you happy with the people who make you happy and do them as often as possible.
Defining your TrueSelf
When we are born, we are wise, loving, beautiful, amazing and for the most part whole. We are our TrueSelves, but as soon as we start on this ride called life, we start stepping out of that self.
In Truth We Find Peace
Live your truth and you will be free. Because in truth you know exactly who you are, the lines of your personality, the depths and valleys of your soul, what it is that you lack and where you overflow. In truth, you don’t apologize for who you are. You live divinely in your own skin, without the heaviness of another persona lying on your back. In truth, you know what you want, in all of its complexities and nuances, difficulties and joy. You are not bound by others’ expectations of who you must be, of what is common or normal…
Make a Big Impact with Integrity
Integrity, as defined by the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, has three distinct qualities: 1) firm adherence to a code of especially moral or artistic values: INCORRUPTIBILITY 2) an unimpaired condition: SOUNDNESS 3) the quality of state of being complete or undivided : COMPLETENESS Although integrity can be defined in many ways, I believe saying what you mean and meaning what you say lies at its core. So, why is it critical to embody this little word called integrity? I will share my story. I am the daughter of immigrants with little more than honesty, determination and commitment as the demonstration of integrity…
The Beauty of Waking Up
I have already spent half of my years in life. Through this journey, I have been happy and sad. I am sad because I learnt the truths about life a little too late. I wish I had known what I know now a little earlier but on the other hand I also know that humans are full of regrets, what we don’t have always seem to be our greatest desire. Marie Corelli succinctly puts it this way, that “No one is contented in this world, I believe. There is always something left to desire, and the last thing longed for…
The Lessons Life Teaches Us
The more I move on in life, the more I realise that not only I am not in control, but that trying to be in control gets in the way of the gifts we are being offered. You might object that getting seriously ill or losing a loved one are far from being gifts. And anyhow, isn’t this fatalistic, resigned to being a puppet at the mercy of the winds? Shouldn't we do our best to avoid the calamities of life and go in search of happiness? I agree of course, and would never advocate suffering for the sake of…
How To Be Held By The Earth
Spring has arrived, and I invite you to take some time in this magical season to truly connect with the Earth. You are the Earth. Your bones are made out of particles that were once a part of mountains. Your cells are surrounded and penetrated by the ocean. The breath that moves through you once moved through mighty cedar trees and baby pandas. And all the plants and herbs that you partake of come from a love affair with the sun! To connect with the Earth is to remember that you are a part of the mysterious and awesomely creative…
A Radical Approach to Healing Your Pain
A friend of mine is having a lot of back pain and she hasn’t been out of her house in days. She is hyperalert around her pain and is afraid to do anything. The pain has so affected her life that she told me if it doesn’t get better soon, she feels like “checking out.” I invited her to consider the possibility of opening to the healing of being with her pain rather than always resisting it. I explained that so often we amplify our physical pain through our resistance to it, not realizing that we create more pain by trying…
How to Open Possibility Through Creativity
When I was 25 I entertained on a cruise ship. People would embark stressed, but gradually begin to relax, laugh, be quiet, be rowdy, and revive romance. Wow! Two weeks later, as they disembarked, I’d hear them say “Well, that was fun, but we have to get back to the real world.” - as if being happy, engaged, and heartfelt was reserved for an “unreal” world! To really understand this, I needed to know more so, at 45, I went to university. What an amazing experience. Three Masters degrees later, my new knowledge began to blend with my life experience…
As Is, I’m Here
During a weekend recently three big challenges came up for me and and I used one of my favorite mantras over and over again, “As Is, I’m Here.” Saying “As Is” reminds you of the willingness to allow yourself to be exactly as you are in this moment. It invites you to let go of struggling with whatever is (your usual mode), so you can move into the place of healing that comes from allowing yourself to be exactly as you are. “I’m Here” reminds you to be keenly attentive to what is, in a way that invites your heart to be open to…
Milestones… or Memories?
I've observed a theme throughout life, as I reached adolescence and beyond. This "theme" or pattern probably begins in our 20s, and I've observed it happen time and again to people in their 30s, 40s and 50s. Though I have yet to personally hear of this experience from someone in their 60s or older, I am most positive it must occur to them, as well. I am pretty confident it has the potential to make its way into every stage of our life. So what is this pattern, exactly? It is... milestones. As we approach any new chapter - in particular, birthdays -…
Welcome Yourself Exactly As You Are
Welcoming means accepting yourself exactly as you are and also accepting life exactly as it unfolds. It is the ability to allow all of it, including all the parts of yourself and your life that you don’t like, and letting it all flow without getting hooked into the stories created by your mind. Welcoming is not trying to make your life any different than it is. Easier said than done, right? I know it's not always easy to welcome and accept life, especially your challenges, because you have been conditioned to continuously judge yourself and others. This is the inner voice…
How You can Find Healing that Lasts
How would your life change if you trusted that your challenges are a part of your journey home – back to yourself and back to Life – instead of feeling that your challenges are here because you have done something wrong or you are being punished or God fell asleep on the job? What would happen if your illness, your difficult relationship, your demanding boss, your compulsions, and maybe even your troublesome dog were showing up in your life to help you heal? The healing you long for comes when you discover how to play the warmer, warmer/colder, colder game. Remember that…
Stop Trying to Escape Your Life
The other day my friend told me her family goes on “adventures” not “vacations.” “Vacations,” she said, “makes it sound like we are vacating our life.” The concept struck me powerfully. How often are we vacating our lives? How often do we want to escape, to get away from our every day? It is all too common to believe we have to get through three hundred days of boredom, frustration, stress, and angst in order to have a few days where we vacate the normal and actually live! What if we didn’t need to vacate our lives? What if instead…
Allow Kindness to Heal Your Struggling Self
With the return of my son’s cancer, I have had lots of opportunities to be with fear and despair. Sharing this journey with my son has taken me to a deeper level of presence than I have ever known. My body has been a very dear friend throughout this fierce process, especially my belly and my breath. Whenever I am caught in the fear-based mind, sometimes all I can do is soften my belly and allow a deeper breath. The belly is one of the best biofeedback mechanisms we have. If it is tight, we are up in our…
How To Use The Mantra, “Just This Much”
If you watch your mind, you will see that it goes into the past or future all day long. It especially loves to go into the future and when it really gets activated, it moves from a whole different place. It will convince you that that you can’t do it right, or you can’t do it at all, or something bad is going to happen, and the thoughts go on and on. These thoughts are just not true because we don’t know what is going to happen. All we have is this present moment, but you can begin to see…
How to Honor Your Survival System
We all created a finely-crafted survival system to bury or numb our pain when we were young. We had to, as it was absolutely necessary for survival. Life was too scary, and we didn’t have the skills to meet ourselves in our hearts. Our survival system can include compulsions, such as drug and alcohol abuse, shopping, work, sex, the Internet, busyness, self-judgment, and chronic worry. I think about all of those years that I shut down the pain with food, drugs and alcohol. In one year alone, I gained 97 pounds. I would have died of the pain if I…
An Open Heart Heals
The willingness to meet whatever is showing up in our lives takes courage. Did you know that the root for the word courage means “of the heart”? It takes an open heart and deep compassion to see all of the conditioned stories in our heads that keep us separate from life. It takes courage to see them, love them and, under that gaze of compassion, allow them to evaporate like the summer fog when it is touched by the morning sun. I have been experiencing a lot of pain in my back and leg for quite some time now. …
How To Let Your Brilliant Being Shine
I recently came across one of my favorite poems, My Brilliant Image, by the fourteenth century Persian Poet, Hafiz: One day the sun admitted, I am just a shadow. I wish I could show you The Infinite Incandescence That has cast my brilliant image! I wish I could show you, When you are lonely or in darkness, The astonishing Light Of your own Being! Hafiz is telling us that the astonishing light, the brilliance of our own being, is already with us. We are filled with great light that permeates everything. Brian Swimme, Evolutionary Philosopher and Co-Collaborator of the documentary…