Haiku – change perspective

When the chips are down

be grateful for the journey

Nothing has gone wrong

Change your perspective

Breathe in acceptance and love

Find your Middle Ground

When something goes wrong in our lives, we often spend a lot of time going over what happened. Our ego-mind goes into analytical mode, trying to figure it out, so it can fix it, or come up with a story that is acceptable. I found myself in this state earlier this week.

After two sleepless nights of going over an unexpected and disturbing event, and trying to come up with the answer that would make me feel better …. I woke up with the answer. In the calm of the dawn, there was no answer other than to breath in love and acceptance. To allow the heart to open and the mind to let go of trying to fix the unfixable.

When we move from our heads to hearts, transformation happens. Embracing loving kindness and simply allowing the things to be that we can’t control, shifts the energy and brings about balance.

I came across these words from The Deep Heart by John J. Prendergast

“It is enough that we listen and follow moment to moment. It is enough that we are open, are available, and take the next obvious step and see what happens. It is enough when the ordinary mind bows down to the wisdom of the heart and trusts the movement of a wiser current. When we surrender to it, a natural authority in the core of our being guides our life quite beautifully”

It is enough to trust our hearts and come from a place of love. When we do we are living from our Middle Ground.

Follow this link to find out more about finding your middle ground.

Haiku – holidays

Find Your Middle Ground

Come home for the holidays

to heart centered you

Haiku – rhythmic call

~

Pause and search your heart

Listen to love’s rhythmic call

Find Your Middle Ground

~

Find your Middle Ground is about stepping away from stressful days and the highs and lows of life, and taking time to look inwards.

When we pause here, we are able to let go of judgments and how we think things “should” be.

We allow ourselves to open up to what is in this moment, and in doing so, connect with our authentic being and the guiding love within us.

There will always be ups and downs in life. We can find contentment when we take time to listen to what our heart is telling us.

What does your heart want you to know today?

Namaste

Feeling Adrift

Adrift by Remina Greenfield. Source: http://reminagreenfield.com/adrift.html

There will be times when we find ourselves adrift. It is part of the ebb and flow of life, and an invitation to anchor ourselves once more.

Eventually I came to realize that there is nothing ‘wrong’, just something inside us that requires our attention.

Our thinking mind usually tells us we have to figure out what’s wrong and take action to fix it. It isn’t surprising that we think this way. Over the years, there are expectations for us to achieve, lead others or reach a goal, and so we have become conditioned to see life in this way.

It is the loss of connection to our inner being that brings about a lack of centeredness and feelings of being adrift. When our heart, mind and spirit are out of alignment, we must tune inwards, rather than start analyzing options. Our inner being is trying to communicate to us, not through the head, but through our heart.

The mind says, “I need to do something to feel more in control”.

The heart says “Remember me. Where have you been. I miss you.”

To find our way back to center requires us to pause and notice the quiet voice within us. To find our middle ground.Take a moment to close your eyes and sit with this question: “What is my heart telling me?”

And listen for guidance.
Then phrase words for yourself as a guiding mantra. They may be something like: “Let my breath be my anchor.” “Let compassion be my anchor.” “Let the opening of my heart be my anchor.” “Let trusting be my anchor.” “Let choosing what I love be my anchor.”

Feeling adrift is an invitation to come home to yourself and to your heart.

When you center here, the way is clear.

Namaste

Inspiration – Mind Merges with Heart

Image from eyeem.com

As mind merges inside the heart, true understanding awakens.

You are the invisible inside the visible, the unmoving inside all movements.

Like space moving in space glowing inside a thin skin called a human being.*

~ Mooji

I had to smile as I read these words from Mooji …. I’m feeling a bit thin skinned today

When I’m feeling thin skinned, and easily irritated, I feel separate with my thoughts. Its time to open my heart and connect to the understanding that lies there.

This is a lovely reminder to being awareness to where our minds are. Are you attuned to your heart?

Please join me in taking a Middle Ground Pause, and breathe into the loving space glowing inside.

Namaste

*Mooji. White Fire: Spiritual insights and teachings of advaita zen master Mooji (Kindle Locations 3181-3182). Mooji Media Publications. Kindle Edition.

* Inspiration – being free

“Take courage. Being free is neither difficult nor distant.
I know it has often been conceived, perceived and presented to be rare, remote and difficult, but all that is delusion—a great seeming.
I don’t know why awakening happens in one heart so completely and in another there is some delay or postponement. I am not deeply concerned about this.
But I know that the voice that calls you is true, and where you are being called to is real and true. Heaven is inside your own heart.”*

I find Mooji’s words so straight forward and assuring.

So lets lighten up and trust the calling. 💛

* Mooji (2015-12-03). White Fire: Spiritual insights and teachings of advaita zen master Mooji (Kindle Locations 117-120). Mooji Media Publications. Kindle Edition.

* Haiku – your message

CAPE ELIZABETH, Maine — David Allen of Stone Point Studios

Find Your Middle Ground

Let your life be your message

Written from the heart

If you are new to this site, welcome!

Find out more about finding your middle ground by clicking here.

What’s the Difference Between Strength and Courage?

Courage comes from the French word “coeur” meaning heart. Being courageous means facing our fears and coming from our heart rather than our head. Its a place where we face our vulnerabilities and overcome them through compassion and love. As a child in Scotland I was told I had to be strong.

This isn’t just a family legacy, but a whole cultural one! We Scots are independent and strong. But we also have big hearts, often hidden behind the strong exterior. The Scottish Luckenbooth symbolizes our heart and our national pride…. But I’m getting sidetracked here!

Here is an inspirational poem about the difference between Strength and Courage to help you choose for yourself. If anyone knows the author, please let me know. Val x

The Difference Between Strength and Courage

It takes strength to be firm,
It takes courage to be gentle.

It takes strength to stand guard,
It takes courage to let down your guard.

It takes strength to conquer,
It takes courage to surrender.

It takes strength to be certain,
It takes courage to have doubt

It takes strength to fit in,
It takes courage to stand out.

It takes strength to feel a friend’s pain,
It takes courage to feel your own pain.

It takes strength to hide your own pains,
It takes courage to show them.

It takes strength to endure abuse,
It takes courage to stop it.

It takes strength to stand alone,
It takes courage to lean on another

It takes strength to love,
It takes courage to be loved.

It takes strength to survive,
It takes courage to live.

~ David L. Griffith

Whenever you feel you have neither, may the heart of the universe hug you today with its warmth, and love.

And may the wind carry a voice that tells you there is a friend sitting in another corner of the world wishing you well!

* Reflections on the Heart

When our hearts are guarded to protect ourselves from an other person or a situation that is challenging, we cannot connect with ourselves.

This is a simple realization that has taken me decades to see. 🙂

Whenever we are alert to what might happen, ready to judge and defend … we lose touch with our heart and soul.

We are no longer present to our selves and others.

We move into the coping and strategic game of survival.

In doing so we move into our head more and more and lose touch with our heart.

When we block against an other we block against our own self connection.

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Being aware of this can only happen when we take the time to pause and find our middle ground. It is the place of mindfulness that we find connection with our inner being once more.

When we open our hearts to an other and see their humanity and flaws with loving eyes, we access our own life energy and essence.

When we open our heart to our own imperfections, we access our own life energy and essence.

If you are kind to others or yourself, the result is a wonderful outpouring of healing and love, which flows out from us and touches everything.

Imagine when we can do both … being loving towards others and ourselves…..

Let your heart open and embrace the inner Presence and love that arises. This is what will transform us and change the world.

Namaste

* Inspiration – With Mindfulness

With Mindfulness …

“Every single one of us is an agent of wisdom and transformation, of insight and healing, of creativity and imagination in this inter-embedded network we call humanity.

We have all the moments we need to take responsibility for how we choose to be in relationship to what is and to what might be, if we follow our hearts and our intrinsic wisdom.

This opportunity invites us all to engage wholeheartedly, each in our own way, in an ongoing adventuring on the domain of the possible and the not yet realized.”

Jon Kabat-Zinn

I am really inspired by these words today. Coming from our Middle Ground we can transform ourselves and the world.

We never really know how we impact others, but I believe in the expanding ripple of love and healing that comes from within each of us when we are present with an open heart.

How do these words inspire you?

* Accept the Seasons of Your Heart

Here is some more powerful and inspiring wisdom from the heart of Kahlil Gibran in “The Prophet”. This moved me deeply and draws me back again and again. Val x

“Your pain is the breaking of the shell that encloses your understanding.

Just as the stone of the fruit must break, so that its heart may stand in the sun, so must you know pain.

And if you keep your heart in wonder at the daily miracles of your life, your pain would not seem less wondrous than your joy.

If you accept the seasons of your heart, as you have always accepted the four seasons, you would watch with serenity the winters of your grief.

Much of your pain is self-chosen. It is the bitter potion by which the physician within you heals your sick self.

Therefore, trust the physician, and drink his remedy in silence and tranquility.

For his hand, though heavy and hard, is guided by the tender hand of the Unseen.”

Every time I read this it brings me into the present moment… no matter where I am in the highs and lows of life.

May we all embrace the seasons of our heart and the love that is always there.

Namaste

Find Your Middle Ground

Life is a series of highs and lows. Be grateful in the highs. Be graceful in the lows. Find contentment in your Middle Ground

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Haiku – change perspective

Haiku – holidays