Inspirational Quote

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Wherever You Are, Be There Totally

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"Are you so busy getting to the future that the present is reduced to a means of getting there? Stress is caused by being 'here' but wanting to be 'there,' or being in the present but wanting to be in the future. It's a split that tears you apart inside. To create and live with such an inner split is insane. The fact that everyone else is doing it doesn’t make it any less insane. If you have to, you can move fast, work fast, or even run, without projecting yourself into the future and without resenting the present. As you move, work, run – do it totally. Enjoy the flow of energy, the high energy of that moment. Now you are no longer stressed, no longer splitting yourself in two. Just moving, running, working – and enjoying it. Or you can drop the whole thing and sit on a park bench. But when you do, watch your mind. It may say 'You should be working. You are wasting time.' Observe the mind, smile at it." :-)

-Eckhart Tolle, The Power of Now, pg 84

Wise Words

photo by Stephanie Rausser

"If we are basically positive in attitude...we will attract and create people, situations, and events which conform to our positive expectations."

-Shakti Gawain

The Unexpected

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"Nearly all the best things that came to me in life have been unexpected, unplanned by me."

-Carl Sandburg

Wise Words

"Life's disappointments may be preparation for something even more significant in our lives. And, this belief has the best chance of coming true when you make a demonstrated commitment to learn and grow from your present day circumstances...Is there something going on in your life right now that may be preparing you for what's next? Think about it. What if your current challenge is a call to action - the kind of action that will prepare you for the next phase of your life? What are you being invited to learn? What qualities of character are trying to be strengthened or developed? Where do you need to take more responsibility in your life?"

-Selection from Cheryl Richardson's Week 39 Newsletter

Thoughts

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"Thoughts are the cause of all suffering. If you stay in a job that deadens you, it’s a thought that keeps you there. If you find yourself stuck, it’s because of a story. Any thought that keeps you from being happy is a lie! If you want to feel freedom, question your thoughts. Change your thoughts, and you can transform your life."

-Sherold Barr, The Top 10 Things I Wish I Knew Before I Was 30

Smile

photo by Stephanie Rausser

“Enjoy the little things, for one day you may look back and realize they were the big things.”

-Robert Brault

Adjust the Sails

photographs by Luis Monteiro

“I can't change the direction of the wind, but I can adjust my sails to always reach my destination.”

-Jimmy Dean

Inspirational Wisdom

via Mermaid Hair

"People like to compare themselves with a single aspect of another person, which always makes me laugh. Because if you're really going to compare yourself to anyone else, you need to consider her whole life. Your friend might have more money, a better career, nicer clothes, but she also might be struggling with her marriage or her health. What would happen if instead of wasting your energy comparing yourself, you asked, Who am I? What are my unique gifts and abilities? And how am I using them? Competing is outer-focused; creating is inner-focused. Competing is being a sheep; creating is being a shepherd. Remember that you are a human being, not a human doing or a human having. So the real question isn't, What are you here to do or have? It is, Who are you here to be? Focusing on that journey is going to be much more fulfilling than wasting energy trying to keep up with what everyone else is up to. "

-Sophie Keller

Midweek Wisdom

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"It takes courage to let go of things when you are holding on to them for security. It takes bravery to let go of the vague fears, the what-ifs, the 'better safe than sorry' mentality. But that way of thinking can hold you back from new adventures. The whole point of being brave is to experience life more fully, to follow your bliss."

-Judi Culbertson

Midweek Wisdom

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Midweek Wisdom: Recognizing the Overlooked

The power for creating a better future is contained in the present moment: You create a good future by creating a good present. How do you do that? By recognizing the goodness that is already inherent in the present moment, even in the midst of challenges. Discontent, blaming, complaining, self-pity cannot serve as a foundation for a good future, no matter how much effort you make.

Where to find that goodness when recession hits, when you lose your job, your home, when things seem to fall apart around you? In all the things that we tend to overlook: feeling the gentle breeze on your skin, the sunlight filtering through the clouds, the sound of the rain, the wagging tail of a dog, the shiny apple you are about to bite into. You notice the in-and-out flow of your breath, the feeling of aliveness inside your body. And then there is the beautiful stillness behind it all, which is deep within you. It is through gratitude for the present moment that the spiritual dimension of life opens up.

-Eckhart Tolle

Excerpt from his article on the Beauty of Today as featured in O Magazine

Midweek Wisdom: {Setbacks}

Midweek Wisdom

Midweek Wisdom

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"The things in your home should be beautiful and useful. What you have in your home should be honored and respected."

-Peter Walsh

Midweek Wisdom

"Paint the walls of your mind with many beautiful pictures."

-William Lyon Phelps

Bottom & Top Left : photo by Melanie Acevedo; Top Right: photo via Anthro

Midweek Wisdom

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"People get into a heavy-duty sin and guilt trip, feeling that if things are wrong, that means that they did something bad and they are being punished. That's not the idea at all. The idea of karma is that you continually get the teachings that you need to open your heart. To the degree that you didn't understand in the past how to stop protecting your soft spot, how to stop armoring your heart, you're given the gift of teachings in the form of life, to give you everything you need to open further. "

-Pema Chodron

Midweek Wisdom

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Midweek Wisdom

image by Anna Wolf

"When we were children, we used to think that when we were grown-up we would no longer be vulnerable. But to grow up is to accept vulnerability...To be alive is to be vulnerable."

-Madeleine L'Engle

Real Love Doesn't Make You Suffer

~

Glimpses of love and joy or brief moments of inner peace are possible whenever a gap occurs in the stream of thought. For most people, such gaps happen rarely and only accidentally, in moments when the mind is rendered "speechless", sometimes triggered by great beauty, extreme physical exertion or even great danger. Suddenly, there is inner stillness. And within that stillness there is a subtle but intense joy, there is love, there is peace.

Usually such moments are short-lived as the mind quickly resumes its noise-making activity that we call thinking. Love, joy and peace cannot flourish until you have freed yourself from mind dominance. But they are not what I would call emotions. They lie beyond the emotions, on a much deeper level. So you need to become fully conscious of your emotions and be able to feel them before you can feel that which lies beyond them. Emotion literally means "disturbance." The word comes from the Latin emovere, meaning "to disturb."

Love, joy, and peace are deep states of Being, or rather three aspects of the state of inner connectedness with Being. As such they have no opposite. This is because they arise from beyond the mind. Emotions on the other hand, being part of the dualistic mind, are subject to the law of opposites. This simply means that you cannot have good without bad. So in the unenlightened, mind-identified condition, what is sometimes wrongly called joy is usually the short-lived pleasure side of the continuously alternating pain/pleasure cycle. Pleasure is always derived from something outside you, whereas joy arises from within. The very thing that gives you pleasure today will give you pain tomorrow, or it will leave you, so its absence will give you pain. And what is often referred to as love may be pleasurable and exciting for a while, but it is an addictive clinging, an extremely need condition that can turn into its opposite at the flick of a switch. Many "love" relationships, after the initial euphoria has passed, actually oscillate between "love" and hate, attraction and attack.

Real love doesn't make you suffer. How could it? It doesn't suddenly turn into hate, nor does real joy turn into pain. Even before you are enlightened --before you have freed yourself from the mind -- you may get glimpses of true joy, true love, or of a deep inner peace, still but vibrantly alive. These are aspects of your true nature, which is usually obscured by the mind. Even within a "normal" addictive relationship, there can be moments when the presence of something more genuine, something incorruptible, can be felt. But they will only be glimpses, soon to be covered up again through mind interference. It may seem that you had something very precious and lost it, or your mind may convince you that it was all an illusion anyway. The truth is that it wasn't an illusion, and you cannot lose it. It is part of your natural state, which can be obscured but can never be destroyed by the mind. Even when the sky is heavily overcast, the sun hasn't disappeared. It is still there on the other side of the clouds.

~

-Eckhart Tolle, The Power of Now

images via concrete and honey