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What is powerful enough to break through your resistance?

Today, I’m looking at my resistance around seeking help with a physical issue that is making good sleep nearly impossible. What keeps me from pursuing every avenue available to help me overcome this very challenging situation?

Here’s what I am noticing. The reasons I don’t want to ask for help boil down to fear: fear of changes I may have to make and of the time it will take. I’ve heard there are only two emotions: fear and love. If we’re not in “love”, we’re in “fear”. So I asked:

What would a dose of love and compassion do for me?

and wrote myself a letter from a compassionate and loving voice. What happened? Resistance cracked. Those “reasons” flowed out onto the page balanced with:

Love yourself into wholeness.
Physical challenges are part of the human experience.
Acceptance goes a long way!

I leave you with these questions:

What are you resisting?
What are you afraid of?
What do you hear when you listen from love?
What power lies in self-compassion?

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What if you believed …?

I sit with my morning coffee, a full morning ahead of me. One voice within suggests I get busy, get ready, “fit it all in”, hurry because time is short.

Then I hear another voice:

What if I believed there was enough time?
What would I do, how would I be, if I knew there was enough?

Without thinking, my body takes in a deep breath. I really notice the warmth and flavor of the coffee. I remain seated, unmoving, unhurried, trusting that whatever needs to happen, will. Whatever must be done, will get done. I trust that whatever I need in order to be fully present and engaged with the moments ahead of me, I will receive.

What if you believed there was enough time?

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Message from the perennial garden

Today, I will be planting my first perennial garden with a friend.

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As I paused to consider the miracle of tender plants with beautiful flowers re-emerging each year from seeming nothingness, I realized that the underground root systems must be quite vast and strong. In order for the plants to return, there must be an amazing network of life below the surface without which no garden would appear.

What a powerful metaphor for life! On the outside, in the physical world, we show up as beautiful blooms as well as death and decay. Our outer existence cycles through joy and pain, ecstasy and suffering, love and hate.

What is it that keeps us coming back from the darkness?
How is it that we “rise again”?

Take a look at folks you know who seem to move through life’s challenges with grace, trust, patience, perhaps even ease.

What is their strength?

If you dig deep enough, you are likely to find a strong, solid, expansive root system below the surface! These individuals likely possess a rich foundation, beliefs and practices, to which they turn over and over again when life presents challenges.

What makes up your hidden foundation?
What daily practices nourish and strengthen it?
What will keep the storms of life from destroying it?

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Leading from Heart

I’ve been pondering and practicing “leading from heart” lately, letting my heart speak before my head. The hardest thing is remembering to do it! My head can kick into the gears of fear and judgment and hurry and worry faster than lightning strikes! Yet, when I breathe into my heart space and let it expand into the leadership position in my life, miracles happen.

This morning, I discovered this very powerful image at PhotoBucket.com.

http://i1188.photobucket.com/albums/z412/MARIAMAGNOLIA1/MARIA%20MAGNOLIA%20ALBUM%203/tumblr_m92dluLAqo1qfd5fwo1_400.gif

I encourage you to let yourself be with it until it is lovingly burned into your awareness and you can’t help but see stoplights in a new way!

What does “leading from heart” mean to you?

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The Circle of Giving … and Receiving!

I was visited this weekend – again – by the challenge of receiving acknowledgments. Oh, I am aware that when someone pays me a compliment, I am to say “Thank you”. There is no need to minimize what I did, return the compliment, and certainly no value in refusing the message, the compliment, the gift that I am being given.

That said, I found myself once again in that place of refusal, a bit embarrassed that “you” had seen my talents and were paying me a compliment. After a long, deep and teary exploration with a dear friend, I have discovered a deeper meaning for myself about the “circle of giving”. Twelve years ago, I wrote these lyrics:

Circle of Giving (video)

Today, I share my expanding understanding of the giving cycle. Beyond the fact that the act of giving gifts the receiver and the giver, the act of receiving also gifts the giver and the receiver. Consider these steps in the cycle:

  1. I give
  2. You receive
  3. You incorporate the gift
  4. You acknowledge how the gift impacted  you
  5. I receive your acknowledgment and am nourished – this giving/receiving cycle is complete
  6. I give again, aware of how my giving impacts others
  7. You give from an expanded, changed you

Another way of putting it is this:

I You
Give
Receive and Incorporate
Give Acknowledgment
Receive and am Nourished
Give From Restored and Whole Give From Expanded and Changed

The big piece for me is this: Your gift of acknowledgment nourishes my giving heart, lets me know that I am valued and valuable. Your gift to me is no less than, is just as vital, as my gift to you. 

My intention moving forward is to pause before responding – pause long enough to open my heart to receive your powerful gift of gratitude and let me be changed by you.

What acknowledgment is yours to receive today?