Tag Archives for Find your middle ground

Haiku – clearing our garden

~

Find your Middle Ground

Tend to your inner garden

Clearing takes some time

~

Every day I seem to wait for it to a little cooler and drier so I can spend time clearing away the weeds that seem to have sprouted overnight in my garden.

The forecast calls for cooler temperatures and lower humidity over the next few days. I will celebrate by setting aside plenty of time to clear in a purposeful mindful way.

Tending to our outer garden and inner one are very similar. Are you putting off time to find the right moment for meditating, reading inspiring words or attending a yoga class?Are you being sidetracked with the weeds of drama and social media?
The busyness of life and the weather can get in the way.

Remember we have control over one of them.

Tend to your inner garden and set aside time to Find Your Middle Ground.

The Path of Real Love

affection afterglow backlit blur

Photo by luizclas on Pexels.com

Our life experience and level of consciousness creates different planes of existence. This can be seen in how we perceive love and how it shows in our lives.

Conditional love relies on others to make us feel happy. This conditioning comes from our childhood, when we were small, helpless and dependent on others to take care of us. We loved them for making us feel safe and loved. When we love conditionally we expect others to fulfill our needs and support us in what we want.

When we seek approval from an other by trying to please them, this is conditional love. We may think “If I do this for you, then you will love me more. I will be rewarded with attention. If I buy you the best ring, the world will see how much I love you” This kind of conditional love remains for many of us as we go through life.

We need other people to make us feel special, important and loved. We expect our wives, husbands or children to make us happy by behaving the way our ego desires.
And so begins married life with expectations and demands from each other, based on individual desires and needs.

This kind of love keeps us separate and apart. It makes us feel better as long as we feel we are receiving it. However, as soon as we feel neglected or ignored, or when the love is withdrawn, we feel bereft and unloved, or worse, unlovable.

Conditional love prevents us from growing spiritually. It has nothing to do with real or unconditional love.

Unconditional love comes from a deeper sense of awareness and being. It is essential for us to grow as spiritual beings and awaken to our fullest potential.

When you truly love someone, you love the Light within them.

With true love you are happy for others and want them to express themselves in the world…. not follow a certain path that you believe is right.
You love yourself, warts and all, and have let go of inner criticism. You appreciate and have love for humankind…. without condition.

The sense of separateness and isolation diminishes, as you see the Love in others. The ego’s desires lose their power over your choices and decisions in life.  The fullness of Love grows and you feel connection to your inner Self, as well as others.

The process of enlightenment is the path to appreciate the Light within yourself and recognizing it in those you love,  then allowing it to expand and express itself to others and into the world.

Find the Light and Love within yourself in your Middle Ground.

Namaste

Yoga Coming Home

“Yoga is not a work-out, it is a work-in. It guides me into the present, opens my heart and brings me home.” 

While I was away in Scotland with friends, family and wedding celebrations, it felt like home.

The rocks and earth, air and breeze, salt and sea, trees and flowers, lochs and rivers…. all fill me with deep joy and contentment. I didn’t do my regular yoga practice, but spent time being present to what was unfolding around me and within me.

Enjoy these moments with me.

The old bridge and falls at Invermoriston

Downward facing rock

Balancing cairns at Portavadie

Balancing reverse warrior 

Smell the roses 

Hug a tree

Scottish Tree Pose

Be the tree 

Haiku – ebb and flow

relaxation water wave circle

Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

Pause in this moment
Touch the ebb and flow of life
Find your Middle Ground

Find your Middle Ground is about stepping away from stressful days and anxious minds, and taking time to pause.

When we are mindful of the present moment and simply allow it to be, we open a door to our natural state of being – accepting, loving, peaceful, kind and content. Most of us are so distracted and moving so fast that we get caught up in the world of “doing” or worrying about what we should be doing next.
Too much doing and thinking disconnects us from our sense of “being”and who we really are.

I write about finding this place of connection, contentment and peace in the highs and lows of life. I call it our Middle Ground.

Namaste

Tao Inspiration – The Path to Serenity

grayscale photography of man holding phone

Photo by rawpixel.com on Pexels.com

Fill your bowl to the brim and it will spill.
Keep sharpening your knife and it will blunt.
Chase after money and security and your heart will never unclench.
Care about people’s approval and you will be their prisoner.

Do your work, then step back.
The only path to serenity.

~ Mitchell, Stephen. Tao Te Ching (Perennial Classics) . Harper Perennial. Kindle Edition.

“Do your work, then step back”. So simple, yet not easy to do when we are caught up in demanding jobs and the chaotic busyness of our techno driven lives.

We all need time to pause, reflect and replenish.Only then will we find true balance and the serenity in life.

Namaste

Haiku – power down

black and white sitting waiting young

Photo by Serkan Göktay on Pexels.com

Power down. Switch off.
Slow down to the speed of Life.
Find your Middle Ground.

 

Find your Middle Ground is about stepping away from the busyness of our lives and our screens. More than ever we need to take time to pause and come to our senses.

When we are mindful of the present moment and simply allow it to be, we open a door to our natural state of being – accepting, loving, peaceful, kind and content. Most of us are so distracted and moving so fast that we get caught up in the world of “doing” or worrying about what we should be doing next.
Too much doing and thinking disconnects us from our sense of “being”and who we really are.

 

 

Nature’s Way of Beeing

We discovered last weekend that the second of our three bee colonies had died out. When the queen bee either leaves the hive or dies, the colony will collapse, unless there is a new queen ready to be hatched. Alas, with winter approaching there is no new bee making, and so the colony runs its natural course and dies.

I feel quite sad about it, and also realize it is nature’s way. The average worker bee only lives 35 days, while the queen can live for years. During the winter, their metabolism slows down as the workers surround the queen to keep her warm. That’s what’s happening in the other two hives right now.

In Spring we will take a queen cell from an other hive, and start a new colony.

What a valuable lesson to be present in the highs and lows of life. It brought to mind an earlier post:

Being a bee keeper is a mindfulness practice. 

Be patient.

Respect this space.

Be open to the unknown.

Respect those around me.

(Even when they are busy busy busy and I have no clue what they are doing)

There is an intelligence here that I cannot fathom.

Be curious.

I may not understand but I trust in nature.

Go slowly.

Breathe easily into each moment as it unfolds.

Notice what comes up.

Give it space.

Let it bee.

 

We can bring mindfulness into all sorts of routine behaviors and actions in our daily lives.  There’s no need to sit meditating or roll out a yoga mat to find your Middle Ground.

Take a moment to consider the mindful moments of your day.  When you feel connected with yourself and the world around you. When you are truly present to all that is happening around you and within you.

It’s natures way of beeing.