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Latest Daily Words
Making Time for Yourself
“Don’t count every hour in the day; make every hour in the day count.” Unknown
Are you on your own priority list? Making time for the things that are important to you means you are creating the life you choose to live. When all your time is devoted to your work or to the television, someone else is in charge of the way you spend your days.
Put time into your day for those things that matter in the life you want to live. Schedule a date with your partner. Plan your exercise and mediation times into your calendar. Set aside a day just for creativity or for working on your dream. Don’t just wait for it to happen. Make an appointment with yourself! You will be happier, healthier, and wealthier because YOU made time for YOU!
Reflection: When are you making time for you? How could you schedule time for things that are important to you?
Affirmation: I easily make time for myself because I know I am worth it!
Keeping Time
“Time is free, but it’s priceless. You can’t own it, but you can use it. You can’t keep it, but you can spend it. Once you’ve lost it, you can never get it back.” — Harvey MacKay
Taking time, killing time, wasting time, never having enough time… How often do you describe your experience of time in one of these ways? In using these words, you perpetuate that feeling and actually create exactly that experience for yourself!
How would you rather be spending your time? Enjoying it, savoring it, filling it? What kind of time would you like to have – creative time, play time, nap time? Are you paying attention to your subjective time, meal time, and bed time? It takes all kinds of time to make a day. And, it’s all happening in the eternal Here and Now!
Reflection: How do you describe your experience of time? What kinds of time are you creating? What kind do you want to create?
Affirmation: I have all the time I need. I enjoy my time. My time is always well-spent.
All You Need is Laughter
“All you need in the world is love and laughter. That’s all anybody needs. To have love in one hand and laughter in the other.” — August Wilson
Laughter is the best medicine – for the body, mind, and spirit. Norman Cousins, diagnosed with a terminal illness, decided to watch nothing but laugh-out-loud funny movies. This was his medicine and it cured him. Laughter releases healing chemicals and relaxes different parts of your physical, emotional, and mental being.
Invite all sorts of laughter into your life. Giggle, chortle, guffaw, belly laugh, and laugh so hard tears are streaming down your face! Even sharing a simple smile lightens the load.
Reflection: How much laughter is there in your life? What kinds of things can you invite into your life to enjoy more laughter?
Affirmation: I laugh out loud easily and often. I walk around with a smile on my lips.
Relaxing into Being
“A perfect summer day is when the sun is shining, the breeze is blowing, the birds are singing, and the lawn mower is broken.” — James Dent
Remember those long, lazy days of Summer when you didn’t have anything to do? You were faced with endless hours of games, boredom that made your creative, and a slow and easy pace. It is important to find times like these as adults. They renew, rejuvenate, and enliven your whole life.
Being is the other side of doing. Being means you are simply enjoying and savoring the present moment, without the need to accomplish anything. This doesn’t necessarily mean you are inactive. It just means your activity has no purpose or goal. Find a few ways you can simply be – with yourself, with a few friends or family, with Nature, with Spirit – and enjoy a few hazy, lazy days of summer!
Reflection: What is your favorite way to simply be? How can you have more time to be?
Affirmation: I experience the joy of being. I simply am present and allow myself to enjoy whatever is.
Currents of Adventure
“The spiritual journey is individual, highly personal. It can’t be organized or regulated. It isn’t true that everyone should follow one path. Listen to your own truth.” — Ram Dass
Talking to captains or sailors while watching boats gently bob up and down moored safely inside the protective bay, I find they all have stories of their adventures at sea to freely share. Just outside the cove are the currents of adventure waiting for them to re-enter. But for no, it’s time for rest, security, and restocking.
Being able to find a safe harbor to reorient and ready yourself is extremely valuable. To be in a heightened state of awareness is powerful and exciting, but to never come down can be depleting. Life will always be waiting for you to re-enter its currents of adventure. You must replenish and strengthen yourself with nourishment of the soul by stepping out of the currents of your activities. Catch your breath, let your guard down, and reorient your course by checking your inner map to make sure you are still moving in your life’s direction. Refuel, do the repairs, adjust, clean up, renew, then set sail. Life’s adventures are waiting!
Reflection: When it was your time in life to rest, how did you not rest, and what price did you pay? Where is your next cove, so you know your next rest is on the horizon?
Affirmation: I surrender to my rest!
Expanding Time
“We must learn to keep ourselves awake by an infinite expectation of the dawn.” — Henry David Thoreau
When doing yoga, there is a magical moment between postures where you breathe and center yourself for the next Asana. In this brief space, time expands and there is a replenishing, calming, and energizing for the next posture that’s to come. It’s in this gap between actions, that you get to choose how you approach the next activity. Whether energized or exhausted, it’s up to you.
In the day-to-day busyness, if you pay attention, you’ll notice there is a moment where one activity ends before the next one begins. No matter how busy your life is, there is still a space between each action. Bring your attention and breathe into this space. Choose to calm your mind before it races off to your next obligation. You’ll find time expands, your body relaxes, and your approach to whatever is at hand won’t be clouded with the carryover from what was.
Reflection: Practice breathing and centering between activities.
Affirmation: I remember there is a moment to breathe between my activities.
Let Your Imagination Soar!
“The power of imagination makes us infinite.” — John Muir
One of the most amazing things about being a human being is that you can imagine something that you’ve never seen or experienced before. JFK imagined us going to the moon. Edison imagined that there must be a better way to make light than with fire. Neither of these things had been done before, so it was through the power of imagination that the field of our human experience was expanded by these, and so many other, inventions and ideas.
What is so amazing is that you can imagine anything, everything, way beyond what you are currently experiencing. This expands your life into the realm of possibility, which is endless. You live in an infinite Universe, so there must be endless possibilities!
Reflection: Where does your life need to be expanded by imagining something different than the way it currently is?
Affirmation: I live in a limitless Universe. I effortlessly imagine all sorts of possibilities. My whole life expands!
Making Mistakes Is Ok
“Every artist was first an amateur.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson
Being creative does not only include artistic endeavors. You bring creativity to all aspects of your life every time you use your imagination to create a new way of seeing, being, or doing something. Every time you try something new or think outside the box, you are being creative.
The biggest trick to being creative is to not worry about mistakes or perfection. Too often you hold yourself back because you don’t yet know how to do the new thing, perfectly. Or you’re not sure if you really know how to think outside the box. Just start somewhere! As you practice, you can get better at it.
Reflection: Is your perfectionism or unwillingness to feel awkward or make mistakes running your life? Where could you use more creativity in your life?
Affirmation: I am a creative being! I think outside of the box. I allow myself to try new things.
It’s Not About the Form
“If you would create something, you must be something.” — Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Creating your life comes from who you are and the gift you have to give to the world. Don’t worry so much about what form it will take – will it be this job, or should you write that book? Focus, rather, on who you are and what your gift is.
Now, begin to look for all the ways you are already giving your gift. These are the seeds of your creative adventure. Build on the things that come so naturally to you. Be the gift and your creativity will flow effortlessly from your center. The form your creativity takes will be a natural out-growth of your inner light.
Reflection: Are you fixated on the form through which you think your creativity should express? Where are you already being creative?
Affirmation: I allow my creativity to flow from my inner most being. I let the form it will take emerge naturally, from who I am.
Embracing Change
“When one door of happiness closes, another opens; but often we look so long at the closed door that we do not see the one which has opened for us.” — Helen Keller
The only permanent thing in this world is Change. Spirit may be absolute and unchanging, but the physical world in which you live is constantly changing. Change is as inevitable as the seasons. Rather than clinging to what is or trying to avoid what’s coming, learn to welcome change.
Seek to embrace the chaos and uncertainly that come with releasing the familiar and moving into something new. This creates opportunity and possibility rather than resistance and despair. When change is inevitable, flow with it; this way you will see the new opportunity in front of you, rather than being stuck gazing longingly at the one that is now going away. Allow yourself to be changed and moved. This keeps you sane and healthy, ready to open the next new door.
Reflection: Where am I resisting change in my life? What am I not willing to let go of?
Affirmation: As this door closes, a new one is opening. I turn my attention to what was and am completely available to what is and what is coming!
Patience! Give it to me now!
“Be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves. Do not now seek the answers, which cannot be given you because you would not be able to live them. And the point is to live everything. Live the questions.” — Rainer Maria Rilke
“Patience is a virtue Posses it if you can; Seldom in a woman And never in a man!” — Proverbs
This anonymous poem speaks volumes about how our culture experiences patience. In this instant gratification world, you may discover that you want things to change as instantly as you can press a button and get an entirely new webpage to buy from. Unfortunately, while there is no time in God, it is often actually necessary for something to grow in this space-time-continuum.
Patience with the unfolding process is a part of being Present. Your change and healing may not be instantaneous, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t happening. Delay is not denial, just the molecules of the Universe rearranging themselves for your good. Look for small signs along the way. EXPECT things to shift and serendipitous events to take place. One day, you’ll awaken to see that the change has already arrived!
Reflection: Are you patient with the process?
Affirmation: I am patient with myself and with others. I am patient with the process of growth, and I relax into the unfolding of Life.
Opening the Flow
“The whole course of things goes to teach us faith. We need only obey. There is guidance for each of us, and by lowly listening we shall hear the right word…. Place yourself in the middle of the stream of power and wisdom which flows into you as life, place yourself in the full center of that flood, then you are without effort impelled to truth, to right, and a perfect contentment.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson
There is more than enough creativity, joy, abundance, and life to go around. Trust in the Infinite Supply and Abundance of the Universe! You can not run out of ideas or creative solutions, because you live in an Infinite Reality. Remember, there is always something more. This expands your pipeline and opens the channels.
Fear and worry come from a belief in scarcity and lack, as if all the new or good ideas have already been thought, and all the creative options have already been tried. This “scarcity mentality” contracts and restricts the flow. Know you stand in the midst of the stream of life, even if you can’t see it or feel it. Your powerful, positive mental attitude of TRUST will make the difference!
Reflection: Where is your creativity constricted? How can you place yourself in the middle of the abundant flow of life?
Affirmation: I trust in the abundantly creative flow of Life, moving through me right now.
It’s Better Together
“It’s not the load that breaks you down; it’s the way you carry it.” — Lena Horne
Rugged individualism, spiritual pride, or a need to do it yourself, may be causing your load to be heavier than it needs to be. Don’t be afraid to ask for help. There is nothing unspiritual about being caught in your human experience and needing help to get things straight. Remember how good it feels when you can help someone else? Open up and let someone do that for you!
That’s why Spirit created friends and community… so you can celebrate with each other when things are great and lift each other up when things are not. Don’t wait until you are happy to be around others or to get involved in mutual support. Find a prayer partner, get a sangha group. Reach out! Do it today and discover how much easier it becomes to carry your load along the way!
Reflection: Where could you ask for help or let someone else support you? What are you willing to do to reach out?
Affirmation: I am strong enough to ask for help! I invite others to support me with the same ease with which I support others.
“Why?” Is Not A Useful Question
“We need not ask why these things are so. There can be no reason given as to why the Truth is true. We do not create laws and principles, but discover and make use of them.” — Ernest Holmes
“Why me?” or “Why do I keep ending up with this place/job/relationship/thought?” are not useful questions. You are here out of habit. The Law is simply creating for you a mirror of what you believe, expect, or accept to be the way life is. Asking “why” is like trying to brush the hair of your reflection in the mirror!
The question is never “why”. The more useful question is, “Now what?” “Now what” invites you to think about what you want instead. This is creating a new future, rather than simply repeating the past. Then, you must keep re-choosing that new thought/act/word/being, over and over, until it becomes your new habit.
Reflection: Where are you stuck on the question, “Why?” How would it change if you asked, “Now what?”, instead?
Affirmation: I no longer look to the “Why?” of the past. Instead, I focus on the “What?” of my future.
Beyond Fate
“The Karmic Law is not kismet. It is not fate but cause and effect. It is a taskmaster to the unwise; a servant to the wise.” — Ernest Holmes
The Law of Cause and Effect is a stern taskmaster but a willing servant. The causes you have set in motion have been playing out in your life. God isn’t punishing you. There are simply consequences to the inner, subconscious stories about life you have come to believe. Over and over, the Law is showing you what is stored there, without variation or relief.
The good news is you can set a new cause in motion! You can create new ideas and generate new beliefs, which the Law will just as willingly and truthfully out-picture in your life. By truly changing your mind/heart/beliefs about something, you can co-create a new reality. Use the Law; don’t be used by It!
Reflection: Is there any area of your life where you rail against fate or the way things are? What belief is operating that the Law is using to create?
Affirmation: The Law is my willing servant. I consciously co-create my life by setting a new cause in motion.