Enough

One way I like to bring myself back to center is to read a page or two in a book that I love and then take something from the reading into a mindfulness moment.  Maybe just a few minutes or longer if that feels good.  The image above is from one of my all time favorite books, Peace is Every Step by Thich Nhat Hanh.  A friend gave me this book 22 years ago and I have read and re-read it several times.  It nourishes my soul and always provides for some great re-minders.

What Your Experience Is Telling You

"Everything you behold without is a judgment of what you beheld within." -A Course In Miracles

So what have you "beheld within"?  (Note the past tense?) You can deduce this by what you are experiencing now.  Allow your experience to be your guide not your "reality."

Are you experiencing harmony or dissension in your relationships?  Answer that and you can discern whether or not you have beheld harmony or dissension within.  Often we are attacking ourselves with very little or no awareness.

Are you experiencing abundant health, abundant wealth, abundant joy?  If not, you are not beholding it within.

Do you experience giving and receiving unconditional love and non-judgement?  Answer that and you can discern whether or not you have beheld unconditional love and non-judgement towards yourself.

Answering these questions is not a way to beat yourself up.  All disharmony without is a call to harmony within. Covering your pain with a coating of "harmony" will not work, rather asking your pain for guidance towards what is out of alignment and bringing it back to Truth will work. Ask with a curious heart.  Inquire as a means to find the place that is blocking you and with the intention of beholding true perspective within.

Are you experiencing light, peace and joy.  If so, you are beholding these things.  Focus there.
 

Turn It Around

Next time you are in a difficult spot try turning it around.  When you think something like, "This situation is out of control.  I need to control it."  Ask yourself, "Really, when I try to control a situation does it help?"  Actually it is the controlling that is causing the pain.  What if you just let the situation be, without trying to control it?

When you think something like, "I am afraid. I need to do something."  Ask yourself, "When I act from fear, how does that go?"  What if instead of doing something you chose not to do something for a moment?

Notice when you are propelled to change the outcome, manipulate the outcome.  Catching ourselves in those moments and choosing instead to be present first and active from the place of presence changes difficult situations into peaceful situations.

If your life has been full of difficult situation, you become present and you begin to experience peace, it may feel awkward.  This is a good sign.  Things have shifted towards what you really wanted when you thought you had to control it.  Peace is present.  You are present.  This is different than a life full of difficulty.  No wonder if feels awkward. Instead of turning away from the awkward feeling (which is the peace you now feel), what if you lean into it?

Breathing Re-minder

Gratefully some part of us continually remembers to breathe.  Yes, sometimes we catch our selves holding our breath and remembering to allow the natural flow is helpful.  You don't need to try and control the breath at all.  No need to make it deeper or different in any way.  Just be present with it. It may be helpful to consciously say to yourself, "I am breathing in.  I am breathing out."  You might use this mantra just as a means of noticing and remembering our natural rhythm as opposed to controlling.  Allow it to bring you present. It amazes me how the simple act of consciously connecting to our breath brings us present. Brings us to understanding. Brings us to peace. Can bring us to relief.

"Being aware of your breath forces you into the present moment - the key to all inner transformation." -Eckhart Tolle

Blame

"Unconsciously, we also feel guilt, regret, and shame because, by blaming another, we betray ourselves.  We betray and disempower ourselves by inadvertently declaring we are enslaved by circumstances beyond our control." - Michael Brown, The Presence Process.

Wow.

So how do we empower ourselves?

By taking responsibility - Response Ability.  We respond instead of react.  We do this by observing our feelings and responding to them by feeling them in a loving, patient and totally unconditional way.  This takes time.  I find that patience is a key to this process. 

With each unconditional response we feel, we return to empowered peace.

Calm, Peace.

My mentor gave me an affirmation that says, "Nothing can disturb the calm, peace of my soul."  I have worked with this affirmation often over the years, and as I say it my questioning self responds, "Oh ya, this situation seems to be definitely disturbing the calm, peace of my soul at the very least, the calm, peace of my life."

During a recent meditation I had a realization about this affirmation. My questioning self was confusing the reality of my experiences with the Reality of my soul.  After years of repeating this affirmation it came to me while I was sitting in the peace at the eye of the storm that while my external situations appear nothing like peace or calm, sitting in my meditation, in fact right there in my soul was the ever present calm and peace that I had been affirming.  "To affirm anything is to assert positively that it is so, even in the face of all contrary evidence" -H. Emilie Cady.   Once again I am re-minded I do not repeat affirmations to make them so, I repeat affirmations to re-mind myself they ARE so.

The calm, peace of my soul is always there, and to experience it in my life (which is what my questioning self is so concerned about anyway) all I have to do is remember it. Align to it.  Connect to it.  

I sat in awe that at any moment of any day I can connect to the calm, peace that is ever present within me.  This fascinated me as I connected with it in the middle of what felt like an impossible crisis in my life.   Years of affirming this statement and another layer of understanding, connection, awareness and alignment is made clear to me. Truly I am grateful.

Peace

Peace is the natural state of affairs when that which prevents it is removed. - David R. Hawkins, M.D., Power vs. Force

Let Go - Get What You Want

"I no longer presume to know how life should come or go: letting go in this way brings a sense of freedom." -Dan Millman, Wisdom of the Peaceful Warrior

If you've ever made plans for your life and had Life turn on a dime in the opposite direction of your plans, you can relate to this quote. When I read it I thought, how true.

As a coach I hear everyday how much we as people value freedom. This quote re-veals the secret to that freedom. Every day as I go about making my plans and letting go of the outcome, and watching as things unfold - sometimes as I planned and sometimes not at all as I planned (and sometimes it seems like it is never as I planned) - I notice that letting go of outcomes not only gives me freedom, but peace.

Those two go hand in hand for me. Think about it. Peace with out freedom? Freedom without peace? For me I want both. Whether things go as I planned or not I have re-alize that what I truly want is freedom and peace. What do you know? When I let go and go with the flow I get what I wanted no matter what I "get!"

The Hurry Habit

Slow down to go fast....

Hurry easily becomes a habit in our fast and furious society. Slowing down can be a challenge partly because in slowing down we must exercise our "no muscle." We must learn to say no to the things that get us going so quickly that we lose our peace and serenity.

It is fear that propels us to hurry. Fear that we won't get it finished, that we won't get enough or be enough. Fear of.....

Let go of your fear and become poised in knowing your greatness.

"Remember that poise and power are inseperably associated." - Wallace D. Wattles