Tidbits of Wisdom to inspire your unique life journey – Jeanne Loehnis, Songs For Your Spirit, LLC
You are so courageous!
No I’m not! If you only knew how scared I was!
Your impact was profound.
Oh no. I just did what I always do.
You lead powerfully and with heart.
I’m not a leader!
Have you ever experienced those kinds of responses to acknowledgments you’ve offered? Have you ever been the one denying another’s experience of you? Think about it. Continue reading “Acknowledgments…”
Insist on yourself; never imitate. Your own gift you can present every moment with the cumulative force of a whole life’s cultivation; but of the adopted talent of another, you have only an extemporaneous, half possession.
Ralph Waldo Emerson, Essay II Self-Reliance
I discovered a handwritten version of this quotation in an old journal last week. Once again, it struck me as profound and extremely helpful as I navigate life. Over the years, I have looked outside myself, compared my choices with yours, thought that I should be doing this because you are doing this. I’ve compared my impact with yours, forgetting that you are you and I am me. I’ve forgotten that the reason you are so capable at that has a lot to do with the life experiences you’ve encountered on the road to now.
When I am in the comparing place, I come up short. Continue reading “Self-Reliance”
A decade ago I learned a lesson that is worth passing on: it’s hard – until it’s not. And sometimes baby steps are the most effective path through “hard”.
What do you avoid because you think it will be hard?
What don’t you start because you believe it will take too long?
What do you want to be able to do but never start learning?
For me, it was a piece of software. I wanted to transcribe my original music using Finale music notation software but the task of becoming proficient with the tool was daunting. There was no class to take. There was just me, my computer and this software that was definitely written in a foreign language!
What did I do?
Perhaps you and I don’t share this life challenge, but just in case we do …
Do you ever feel overwhelmed by what needs to be done?
Does your mind race and try to take you in multiple directions at once?
Do you find you never quite get to what you really desire?
If so, maybe a fresh method for discerning would be helpful.
Good or bad? Helpful or limiting? Does it depend on the habit?
Certainly there are bad habits, things we do which have negative impact. Overeating, on a regular basis, for example, most often produces a body with excess weight, a body that is sluggish and unhealthy. Smoking, while it may calm agitation, is expensive, unpleasant to bystanders and believed to cause lung cancer.
What about good habits? Brushing and flossing our teeth after we eat would seem to be “all good”. But what about things like efficiency – always doing tasks in the most expedient manner, or being organized – everything in its place?
I’d like to propose that good habits, and not even just when taken to the extreme, can be limiting. Continue reading “Habits …”
