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Self-Judgment

Today I sang one of my favorite songs from Stowe Dailey Shockey, May My Heart Break Open, and heard a new message for me in its refrain:

This is my prayer.
This is my plea.
Could you blind me to all separation I might see.
Bring down the walls. Let judgment fall away.
May my heart break open today.

While I had always interpreted these lyrics as an invitation to release my judgment of others, today I heard a call to bring down the wall of judgment “in me – towards me”.

How do you block yourself from YOU with self-judgment?
In what ways is your heart unable to love YOU?

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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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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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What will you plant?

Don’t judge each day by the harvest you reap, but by the seeds you plant. Robert Louis Stevenson

The alarm rang and you have arrived at your first cup of coffee facing the opportunity of being on this planet another day. You look at the calendar and the to-do list and see the required “what’s happening” moments that lie ahead.

Perhaps you often think in terms of “What do I want to complete or accomplish?” which seems to resemble the harvest you reap. If you chose to focus on seeds instead:

Where will you deposit kindness?
What words of compassion will you speak?
What soil will receive seeds of love?

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Giving Thanks…

Today is Thanksgiving Day in the United States. And gratitude, the practice of awareness around the blessings within and around us, is very powerful. This day, whether you are alone or with family, working or watching football, healthy or ill, eating turkey with all the trimmings – or not – pause. Take a moment to ask:

  • How is my life blessed in the area of relationships?
  • What do I have to be grateful for in my family?
  • What talents and skills do I possess for which I am truly grateful?
  • What can my healthy body do that another’s cannot?
  • What possessions, from the roof over my head to the car in the garage to the decorations in my home, gift me with joy and ease?
  • What ideas have others written about that am I grateful for because they support me in living fully, purposefully, joyously?

What’s on your gratitude list? How rich are you?