Tidbits of Wisdom to inspire your unique life journey – Jeanne Loehnis, Songs For Your Spirit, LLC
Life regularly presents opportunities for learning, growing, expanding! Here you’ll find ideas, stories and inspiration from my life. As you read, be sure to consider the unique and amazing life that is yours. Only then, discern if this tidbit is for you!
Too often, when groups of people collaborate and something doesn’t go as planned, the impulse is to look “out there” and notice what “they did wrong” — to find blame. This happens at work, at home, truly anywhere we humans attempt to co-create. Employees blame leadership and vice versa, siblings are quick to point the finger, spouses also, unfortunately, notice the others’ failings before their own.
Are you willing to try something new?
An important businessman, hurried and stressed, visits a Zen master, seeking guidance. The Zen master sits down, invites the businessman to sit, and pours the visitor a cup of tea. But even after the tea fills the cup, the Zen master continues to pour, allowing the tea to spill, now running over the entire table.
The businessman is taken aback. “Stop! Please stop pouring the tea! The cup is full and obviously can’t hold any more.”
The Zen master replies, “Yes. So it is with you. And you will not be able to receive any guidance unless you make some empty space first.”
As shared by Terry Hershey in The Power of Pause
Is your cup overflowing? How do you respond when life pours more into your personal space than you can embrace? Do you reach out for answers only to discover that you don’t have the bandwidth to receive them? Continue reading “How full is your cup?”
Today’s message is short; it is an invitation to a way of being in our lives. It is meant for you if you ever move through your days:
My invitation to you is this:
Do you, like me, take your body for granted? As you work and play, go through your days, do you ignore the vehicle that allows you to do what you do?
Pause with me. For just a minute, set down anything that you are holding. Begin to breathe with intention, deeply, slow and steady. With each exhale, imagine blowing out your thoughts, blowing out any emotions that may be weighing on your heart. Close your eyes and let go of anything calling to your spirit, connections pulling you outside of yourself.
For one minute, focus on your physical being, your body.
As you continue breathing, scan your body from head to toe. Really listen for any messages it is sending. Where is there tension? Pain? Swelling? Hunger? Thirst? Lethargy? Discomfort?
Drop down deeper. Listen now for your body’s requests of you.
What does it need now?
What changes in your routine habits could help?
Some of your bodies are saying, “I need you to exercise me, feed me differently.” This winter, my body began speaking loudly, daily, with sore, tight hamstrings, hips, and glutes. I stretched and iced and “cared for” my body. Yet, it kept talking. Finally, I became willing to hear, “I need to rest! I need you to press the pause button on racquetball, volleyball, walking, stretching.”
That was HARD!
Possibly, stopping routine physical activity is as hard for some as starting it is for others!
Whether your body needs more, less, or different, I encourage you to listen and honor its requests. You won’t get another! This body is it. Yet, many of us take better care of our cars, homes, RVs – those things which “house” our bodies – than we do of our body which houses our intellect, heart and spirit. Consider these lyrics:
If My Body
I came into this world in a body that’s fine.
In some ways it’s ever and totally mine.
And yet it’s on loan: only mine for a time.
Only I can take care so it lasts through this rhyme…
If I thought of my body as a Mack truck
when she was on empty I’d surely fill up!
I’d use only premium never the cheap stuff!
If my body, my body I thought of as a Mack truck! I thought of as a Mack truck!
If my body I saw her as a shiny little sports car
I would make sure she’d always shine as a bright star!
I’d wash her and wax her and I’d buff out each mar!
If my body, I thought of her a shiny little sports car! A shiny little sports car!
If I thought of my body as a well oiled machine …
I know I’d keep her joints and ligaments so pristine!
I’d take her for her tuneups and those checkups routine!
So she would run as good as new!
If my body, I thought of her a well oiled machine! A well oiled machine!
If my body I thought she was a Winnebago RV
I’d expect her insides to be pure and clean!
I’d keep her free of clutter so I’d get around with ease.
Vacations would be fun and free!
If my body, I thought of her a Winnebago RV! A Winnebago RV!
But my body’s a blessing of human design.
She houses my Spirit the Sacred Divine!
I must tend to her gently, be loving and kind.
So she is a clear channel and lasts a long time.
How will you honor and care for your body – starting today?
And today IS your birthday – if you choose. Just what do I mean? Well, when I think of birthdays, I think of anticipation, excitement, celebration, fresh start, new beginnings, joy and children. When I think of children, I think of carefree, unburdened, naturally bold, uninhibited.
Not your experience of today? What keeps you from waking to the day with the fresh anticipation of a child? Continue reading “Today is YOUR birthday!”