This Is By Far The Best Thing You Can Do For Yourself

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This Is By Far The Best Thing You Can Do For Yourself

February 24, 2013 Read 27 comments and add your own

I had a friend walking a beautiful spiritual journey. One day she told me that she was working on giving up preferences. This fascinated me and I think of this exercise often, especially when something has upset me. She wasn’t doing it in a hopeless way, she wasn’t giving up on pleasure. Quite the contrary. She was allowing herself not to be displeasured by not liking something “that way.” Or wishing for something to “go differently.” And in this letting go of preferences, she was more free to embrace all the lovely things in her life. And she did.

We spend our lives searching for the quick fix to all our problems, while the answer is right under our nose. Teasing us again and again with its obviousness once we remember, till our foreheads are red from smacking it. Continue Reading →

5 Ways to Heal, 4 Ways to Heal, 1 Way to Heal

December 3, 2012 Read 29 comments and add your own

Live in the moment

How many ways are there to heal? I guess it depends on who you ask. If you asked me, I would say,

“7, no, 5, no, probably 4, actually a million… but really, they are all one way.”

So there are a million different healing modalities, I hear about a new one at least every day. Each claim to be the answer. Some seem cockamamie, some intrigue me. But don’t people realize that they are variations of the same theme? There are (to me) obvious similarities in ones that work. They each include the concepts below. Try any of them you feel called to, but see if you can recognize these within. Continue Reading →

Poems By Rumi

October 18, 2012 Read 27 comments and add your own

Jalāl ad-Dīn Muhammad Rūmī 1207-1273

There is something about poems by Rumi that captures us, makes us understand what we may not have before. The phrases cut right through our minds, slicing it open and going directly into our hearts. We may not even realize the words, but they touch us on a deeper levels where we understand everything and nothing all at once. They stand the test of time, since they know without a shadow of a doubt, time is an illusion.

These were the first poems by Rumi that I heard.

Poems By Rumi Continue Reading →

How to Create Rituals

September 13, 2012 Read 19 comments and add your own

These are rocks I used to symbolize a community surrounding a loved one going through a hard time.

We don’t usually think too hard about how to create rituals, since most of the ones that we engage in everyday came from our culture.

I loved the comments and ideas shared after Monday’s post Five Benefits of Ritual. Everyone seemed to understand that we engage in ritual constantly even though there are many names for it. They can also be called habits and routines. We call it writing, praying, exercising, cooking, eating, talking, breathing, kissing, reading, holding hands, watching a TV show, planning, celebrating, laughing, playing, etc, etc.

How to create rituals?

1. Decide to do something consciously. That “something” could be anything–whatever is important to us. Making a commitment, giving ourselves some time to breathe, letting go of hurt, embarking on a new project, or stepping into a new identity. Continue Reading →

Five Benefits of Rituals

September 10, 2012 Read 22 comments and add your own

“Rituals” may be a confusing term for some people. When I was growing up Catholic, this term was off putting to me. It conjured images of black magic.

Little did I realize I was involved in rituals everyday: I recited the Pledge of Allegiance every morning at school, said a pray before meals, light candles as an altar server at church, and attended weddings and baptisms. All with positive, life-giving intentions. Rituals create a space for us to focus on what is most important to us, make commitments, embrace beliefs, forgive, celebrate accomplishment, honor community, and show appreciation. Whether we know it or not, we do them all the time. And the benefits are immeasurable. Continue Reading →

Happy Buddha Vesak Day!

May 3, 2012 Read 17 comments and add your own

May 5th is Buddhism’s holiest day this year. Buddha Vesak Day celebrates the birth, the enlightenment, and the passing of Buddha on the full moon.

Let’s take a deep breath with all of that Continue Reading →

Tratak Meditation

April 30, 2012 Read 20 comments and add your own

Tratak is an ancient meditation that can help you decrease stress, anxiety, anger, and frustration. It brings clarity of mind, stopping random, hurtful thought processes.

We are all walking around with so much stress and anxiety. There are tons of thoughts running through our mind, pressure to be a certain way, get a certain amount of things done, and measure up to what is cool. It is so hard for us to settle ourselves down enough to enjoy life, let alone be able to sleep, laugh, or play. Meditation seems daunting. That doesn’t work for me, many of us think without really trying. Continue Reading →

Allow Yourself to Feel

April 5, 2012 Read 35 comments and add your own

When you allow yourself to feel, you allow yourself to heal…

Continue Reading →

Transcend Fear: Get A Spiritual Restraining Order

March 5, 2012 Read 20 comments and add your own

This is the 10th of 10 Things to Do in 2012!

How do I transcend fear?

Watch me talk about managing anxiety on HealthyPlace TV! (It is a 15 minute video.)

Connect

Fear often has us feeling very alone. If we have experienced trauma in our life, this sense of vulnerability multiplies to a panic. Some of us isolate ourselves, which only makes the situation worse. Others feel an intense need to be around someone who loves them and cares. Continue Reading →

Understanding Impermanence: Even loss is temporary!

January 23, 2012 Read 17 comments and add your own

The Weeping Buddha Photo from http://reflectionofabuddhistmonk.com/

“Friends are never truly lost. Sometimes they ebb and flow into and from our lives, however never lost.” Evelyn Prieto

Understanding Impermanence is the fourth of 10 Things to Do in 2010.

I wanted to share with you all a recent tender moment in counseling. My client a young, beautiful woman was telling me a story of how she learned that “nothing was permanent” after losing a losing a friend. She said her life was never the same, never wanting to get close to anything lest she lose it. This stuck me as very sad indeed as connecting and getting close makes life worth living. Continue Reading →

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