Category Archives for Self Discovery

Observing oneself and our inner world

Inspiration – Freedom

jumpshot photography of woman in white and yellow dress near body of water

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“Perhaps the biggest tragedy of our lives is that freedom is possible, yet we can pass our years trapped in the same old patterns…We may want to love other people without holding back, to feel authentic, to breathe in the beauty around us, to dance and sing. Yet each day we listen to inner voices that keep our life small.”

~ Tara Brach, Radical Acceptance

As long as we listen to – and believe – our thoughts, we will be stuck in the same old patterns.

This is big.

Freedom is there for all of us.

When we see that our thinking is not the truth… When we understand that our ego mind creates critical thoughts to keep us from harm and to keep us small…. We awaken to our real life journey.

Listen to your heart and break free.

Silent Celebration

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A catbird tries to fly
against the wind only
to be blown backward.
I know that feeling –
setting out with certainty
and arriving somewhere
entirely different. When
I respond with acceptance
to my unexpected
destination, the sun
clangs its cymbals of
light in silent celebration.

~ Danna Faulds

Stop trying to fly against the wind and fully embrace where you are in the highs of lows of life. Celebrate the unexpected… and the sunshine today!

 

Judgment and Love

let go of judgment

“If you judge people, you have no time to love them.”

~ Mother Theresa

No matter how much many of us think we ‘shouldn’t’ judge, we are so conditioned to do so that without increasing our self-awareness, we will not only judge one another but we will continually judge ourselves and even our judgments.

When we judge others in a way of either good and bad, or right and wrong, we are essentially setting ourselves up as moral arbiters, claiming we know what the world is supposed to be like. How ridiculous and presumptive! But the impact is even more damaging.

Judging inflates our egos and makes us feel self righteous, and in doing so, it condemns others. This is the flame that fuels discrimination, conflict and violence in society today.

Mother Theresa’s simple words remind us how judging keeps us separate from others, and closes our hearts.

It’s time to let judgments go and make time for understanding and love.

Namaste

 

Inner Spaciousness

 

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“Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom.”

~ Viktor E. Frankl

The pause between our reaction to an external stimuli and how we choose to respond is essential in our evolution as human beings. Otherwise we react instinctively from our animal brain.

Space allows us to be open to choose our response

Gives the time for deep full breaths with long exhales.

There is more here than clearing the mind

Being present to our inner state

Reduces clutter and brings clarity.

Space allows for expansion

Learning to be observers without judgment.

In this space our life energy flows through our being

Mind, body and spirit connect

Drawn to the light of inner freedom

Namaste

 

Tolle Inspiration on Awakening

astronomy dark dawn dusk

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What does it really mean for human beings at their current evolutionary stage to “become more conscious” or to “awaken”?  If I had to put it in a nutshell, I would define it as “disidentification from thinking.”  When you realize that the voice in your head, your incessant compulsive thinking, is not who you are, then you have begun to awaken. 

A new dimension of consciousness has arisen, which we could call awareness, presence, or wakefulness.  You haven’t fallen below thought; you have risen above it.  Now you can use thought instead of being used by it.  Your sense of self shifts from identification with your mental positions and narratives to the alive presence within you, which is consciousness itself.  

You realize the being behind the human, so to speak.  Something that transcends your conditioned personality begins to emerge.  You realize your essential identity as unconditioned consciousness itself, and you can verify within yourself the truth of Jesus’s words:  “You are the light of the world.”

~ Eckhart Tolle

Be Present to Negative Emotions

Go ahead and embrace the importance of negative emotion. Your emotions and the way you feel is your guidance system and it is telling you everything you need to know.

If you feel negative emotion, then you are either resisting how things are in the present moment, resisting something that was in the past, or resisting something that you think might be in the future.

Take a moment to reflect on this and see if this is true for you.

As human beings lost in our own stories, we immediately point to the outside world to create excuses as to why we can’t be happy and at peace right now.

We tell ourselves ”If that had turned out differently, then I’d be happy.
If he/she hadn’t done that to me, then I’d be happy.
If this goes the way the I want it to go, then I’ll be happy”

The moment you stop resisting life and pointing fingers at the outside world, the more a deep sense of joy and inner freedom will arise within you.

You’re an eternal being. Your consciousness cannot be destroyed. The greatest joy that you can feel is when your being comes into alignment with the very deepest, eternal, aspect of your consciousness.

What’s the one thing that you can do to allow your soul to come into alignment? Resist nothing. Surrender to everything that arises in the present moment without judgment.

Everything that you are searching for will arise from within you at a deeper and more profound level when you stop resisting what is happening.

Namaste

Inspiration – Accepting the Whole of our Experience

amoebas dividing

“The real reason why human life can be so utterly exasperating and frustrating is not because there are facts called death, pain, fear, or hunger.

The madness of the thing is that when such facts are present, we circle, buzz, writhe, and whirl, trying to get the “I” out of the experience. We pretend that we are amoebas, and try to protect ourselves from life by splitting in two.

Sanity, wholeness, and integration lie in the realization that we are not divided, that man and his present experience are one, and that no separate “I” or mind can be found.

To understand music, you must listen to it. But so long as you are thinking, “I am listening to this music,” you are not listening.”

~ Alan Watts

This last line from Alan Watts really hit home. I recall sitting in meditation, and my mind telling me over and over again “I am meditating” rather than embracing the actual experience of what it is to be present.

How many times do we read something, and rather than absorbing its full meaning and the underlying feelings, we simply read words.

When we separate ourselves from the full experience and feeling, we detach ourselves from life itself, and become actors playing out our roles.

Next time, you find yourself detaching (Or splitting yourself into two like and amoeba) pause. Notice what’s  happening while its happening. Then ask “Am I aware of what I am feeling right now?”