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Storyizing

Do you storyize?

What?

Storyize! Storyizing is the art of embellishing the facts with your stories and assumptions. When storyizing takes over me, my mind is spinning wildly with what could happen, what I want to be true, what I most fear.

If you, like me, you have become quite adept at storyizing, take a moment to stop. Practice simple observation followed by curiosity:

That’s interesting. I just witnessed “that”. Just “that”. Just what appeared to be a mean glance from a friend:

Friend, are you okay? I saw a strange look on your face.

Just what appeared to be defiant behavior from my child.

Child, you know that isn’t a good thing to do. Help me understand. What were you thinking? Why did you do that?

Rather than embellishing our stories, we can expand the facts.

What might be possible if you stop storyizing?

 

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Again …

What? Again. And again.

What goal have you set for yourself? Perhaps for the summer it is to get outside more and enjoy the weather. Maybe you have begun a new exercise program. Perhaps it’s daily meditation. Maybe, like me, you are practicing the belief that you are enough, you are lovable just the way you are!

Whatever it may be, today is a day to practice again, to do “it” again, to remind yourself again. The journey toward your goal is one day at a time, one step at a time, yet another repetition!

Can you do “it” again?
Will you?

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Land of the Free

Here in the United States, a celebration of our nation’s freedom is around the corner. I’ve paused often lately to remember and appreciate how free I really am. It is a gift to have been born into the “home of the free” and for me, into the white middle-class, a gift I don’t want to take for granted.

Yet, there is another type of freedom – or bondage – that human beings inflict on themselves. How free are you to live in integrity, to feel your feelings, to expand into your fullest and finest self-expression? How free do you believe you are? How free do you allow yourself to be? And, how, by your attitude, words and actions, do you free or imprison others? Do you allow your loved ones, your friends and colleagues, to be themselves? Do you treat others with respect and free them in your mind to be who they are? For a few additional questions around freedom and imprisonment, check out:

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Imprisoned

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The Night Sky

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Have you ever paused to be with the sky at sunset? When I pause for just a minute, what I notice most is how quickly it changes. Blink and I miss something! The same thing is true with a baby, yes? Turn around, let a week pass by, and that infant has visibly changed!

Hear this: the same is true for you and everyone you know. Each of us is as ever-changing as the night sky and the baby. The difference is, we don’t hold this truth in our awareness or feel its power. Take a moment. Breathe. Who you were yesterday, last week, last year, is so very different from you in this moment: your thoughts, the cells in your body, your emotions. Maybe the folks around you at work and home are the same folks as last year – maybe not. But you are different. They are different. So I ask:

Do you expect “same”?
Do you allow yourself to grow and change?
Do you allow others to grow and change?

If you believed that you and others are as ever-changing as the night sky:

What would be possible?
What would you see when you looked in the mirror?
How might your relationships expand?

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Sacred Time

I sat outside with my first cup of coffee today and listened to the birds, observed the clouds changing as the sun rose. I felt my heart beating in my chest. The space held peace, gentleness, slowing, timelessness. There was no urge to move, to get busy, to do.

This was sacred time.

And I notice how often we miss the stillness, the sacredness of Life itself, in our pursuit of doing. We run through life, moving faster and faster, doing as much as we can. I wonder:

What are we running from?
What are we running to?
What energy is driving us: fear? desire? love?
What energy do we wish to expend on the journey?