Friday’s Purposeful Question

“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

It is said that the quality of your life is determined by the quality of your questions. So, what questions are you asking?

“Are you living a conscious life or are you living a life by default?

“You can tell whether a woman is clever by her answers. You can tell whether she is wise by her questions.” ~ attributed to Naguib Mahfouz

Conscious Thoughts Lead to Conscious Living

"It is our less conscious thoughts and our less conscious actions which mainly mold our lives and the lives of those who spring from us." ~ Samuel Butler

Most of our lives are lived on autopilot – by default. We wake up in the morning and do exactly what we did the day before. Or, we think the same limiting thoughts over and over and over again. We don’t think about the consequences of our thoughts or our actions. We don’t realize that it is our thoughts and actions that lead to the results that show up in our lives.

Yet, our less conscious thoughts lead to less conscious actions which lead to the life story we are living.

Just for today, think about what you think about. Make an effort to consciously think about your thoughts and your actions. Then, you will live a conscious and deliberate life.

What Gives You Pause?

There are moments in your life that give you pause. And they are meant to. Life is lived as we choose to live it; yet some forget to choose to live… until something shifts.

Ric Elias, CEO of a marketing services company, had a front-row seat on Flight 1549, the plane that crash-landed in the Hudson River in New York in January 2009. What went through his mind as the doomed plane went down? At TED, he tells his story publicly for the first time.

You only live once, but if you work it right, once is enough!

The Unlearning of Fear

"Love is what we are born with. Fear is what we have learned here. The spiritual journey is the unlearning of fear and the acceptance of love back into our hearts." ~ Marianne Williamson

In our Western society, it seems that most of the choices made, whether consciously or unconsciously are out of some sense of fear. What if all of our choices were made out of love? What would that look like for ourselves and for our world?

We tend to live in this nebulous world of fear, doubt, shame, guilt and the like. I say nebulous because in the end, nothing is gained from those emotions – only more of the same. There is no settling, no peace.

We must unlearn fear and the easiest way to unlearn is to re-member and accept love. As stated, love is what we are born with. Love is who we really are. Unfortunately, we have given into this trance of day to day life. Again, this is choice; a conscious choice or an unconscious choice, it is still a choice.

I say choose love. Let us accept love back into our hearts.

Just start with this one moment.

Love yourself.

An Easter Prayer

I want to be ever a child

I want to feel an eternal friendship

for the raindrops, the flowers,

the insects, the snowflakes.

I want to be keenly interested in everything,

with mind and muscle ever alert,

forgetting my troubles in the next moment.

The stars and the sea, the ponds and the trees,

the birds and the animals, are my comrades.

Though my muscles may stiffen, though my skin may

wrinkle, may I never find myself yawning

at life.

~ Toyohiko Kagawa

(Songs from the Slums, trans. by Lois Erickson)

Friday’s Purposeful Question

“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

It is said that the quality of your life is determined by the quality of your questions. So, what questions are you asking?

"God gave you a gift of 84,400 seconds today. 

Have you used one to say, 'thank you'?" 

~ William Arthur Ward

Have a purposefully passionate weekend!

Seeing With Spiritual Vision

“Borrow the Beloved's eyes. Look through them and you'll see the Beloved's face everywhere. No tiredness, no jaded boredom...things you have hated will become helpers.” ~ Rumi

When you can look at everything with spiritual eyes, you see the world in a whole new light. You won’t see things as happening to you, but as happening for you. You will begin to see those petty annoyances as helpers, as Rumi calls them. Author and speaker Marianne Williamson calls them petty tyrants. In any case, they are there in your path for your highest good – not to merely annoy you. However, you must choose to see them as such. 

So, just for today, borrow the Beloved’s eyes and see everything with spiritual vision!

Inspired Decisions Lead to Inner Peace

Sometimes you make decisions in a split second. Other times, you need more time to find an answer. How can you know your choices are for your highest good? First, STOP, TAKE A BREATH, and ASK Spirit, "What is mine to do?" When Spirit answers, simply listen.

The answer may come as an insight or a gut feeling – like the urge to contact an old friend or pass up a job that just doesn't feel right. Sometimes, guidance comes as a word or phrase in prayer or meditation. Or it may come through the words of a child or a book, a friend or even a stranger.

By listening and paying attention to Your Inner Divine guidance, you gain clarity about your decisions. You know what is right because it feels right. With confidence, you can go boldly forward.

Making inspired decisions leads to greater well being and inner peace. It costs you more to randomly create your life than to stop and consciously decide what your life will look like. You exert more time and energy repairing your life than you would if you took the time to prepare your life.

Just for today, STOP, TAKE A BREATH, and Listen to your Inner Divine Guidance and make inspired decisions.

Wisdom from Napoleon Hill

A most beneficial use of time is silent meditation, while searching for guidance from within.

We all experience rare moments when a blinding revelation comes to us, when we suddenly see things differently than ever before. Usually, however, we learn the truth about ourselves gradually, over long periods of time, from quiet introspection. We are all spiritual, but some of us have learned to tap more effectively into the great strength that resides in the spiritual portion of ourselves. The spirit is not boisterous and noisy. Getting in touch with your spiritual self demands tranquility and solitude. Make sure you dedicate a portion of every day to thought and study, to think and reflect upon your life. Choose a time and place that best allow you to relax your mind and devote your thoughts to reflection.

I am an avid meditator; can begin or end my day without it. I know the benefits of taking that sacred pause to fall still and silent.

Getting in touch with your spiritual self demands tranquility and solitude. Make sure you dedicate a portion of every day to thought and study, to think and reflect upon your life.

Just for today, begin the practice of falling still, being silent and getting in touch with your spiritual self.

Make A Difference - Live Purposefully

"I think the purpose of life is to be useful, to be responsible, to be honorable, to be compassionate. It is, after all, to matter: to count, to stand for something, to have made some difference that you lived at all." ~ Leo Rosten

What else is there to say?

Well, you must be useful, be responsible, be honorable, and be compassionate. It is all a choice you make. 

You can also make the choice not to be any of those traits. And if you make that choice, then you are not living you life purposefully and won’t have made any difference that you lived at all.

Friday’s Purposeful Question

“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

It is said that the quality of your life is determined by the quality of your questions. So, what questions are you asking?

“Where in my life do I make assumptions and don’t ask questions?”

“You can tell whether a woman is clever by her answers. You can tell whether she is wise by her questions.” ~ attributed to Naguib Mahfouz

Have a purposeful weekend!

Don't Make Assumptions

I was just reflecting on Don Miguel Ruiz’s third agreement: Don't Make Assumptions.

Don Miguel says: Find the courage to ask questions and to express what you really want. Communicate with others as clearly as you can to avoid misunderstandings, sadness, and drama. With just this one agreement, you can completely transform your life.

I have had the occasion to have my intentions grossly misunderstood. As I was in tremendous pain, the other thought I was in a bad mood.

Always ask a question. Never assume. It will save a lot of heartache and heart break.

True Inner Peace

"Each one has to find his peace from within. And peace to be real must be unaffected by outside circumstances." ~ Mahatma Gandhi

As I reflected on this quote by Gandhi, I thought about how most people are really affected by outside circumstances; and if they are affected by their circumstances, then how can they experience real inner peace?

We must stop allowing the outside to affect our insides. True peace comes from within, not from outside of you. If you have to look for peace outside of yourself, then it isn’t true peace. And how long will that kind of peace last?

Just for today, look within for your real peace and that peace will radiate to your outside world.

Got Love?

I saw a billboard that said, “Perfect love casts out fear!” Now, I know that to be Scriptural, so I liked seeing it on a billboard. The mind cannot have two simultaneous thoughts. 

So, when you are thinking loving thoughts, you cannot have thoughts of fear. Fear is not a thing; it is the absence of a thing and that thing is love.

Just for today, think and do love – and you will have no chance to fear.

Judge Yourself Not!

"Failure is not an event, but rather a judgment about an event. Failure is not something that happens to us or a label we attach to things. It is a way we think about outcomes." ~ John Ortberg

What if you fail to judge instead of judging yourself a failure?

What would your life look like with that story?

Who said you were a failure in the first place? You?

Try again.

"Every artist was first an amateur." ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

Choose Your Focus

“We focus on the negatives, losing ourselves in the problem. We point to our unhappy circumstances to rationalize our negative feelings. This is the easy way out. It takes, after all, very little effort to feel victimized.” ~ Elizabeth Kübler-Ross

Nothing and I do mean nothing in this world has any inherent meaning until you assign it one. You look at your circumstances and judge them as negative or positive, good or bad. From that judgment, you experience the feelings associated with it. Then, as Dr. Kübler-Ross says, you rationalize your negative feelings. You create rational lies to explain why you are feeling sad or angry. This is the easy way out. It is a lot easier to become the victim, playing the blame game, than it is to take responsibility for your life.

First thing is to stop judging your circumstances. Those external events that happen in your life just are. You have the power to choose to see them as negative events or as positive events. But when you make the choice, your feelings will follow that choice. So, you can ask yourself, “Ho do I choose to feel about this situation?” I truly don’t believe anyone wants to feel bad, yet we do things to make ourselves feel bad. That too, is a choice. 

Choose to look up and smile when faced with doubt and uncertainty. It will change your outlook, your thoughts and your world.

Stop Being Stressed, Start Being Blessed!

So often I hear women say, “I am so stressed!” well, my admonition is to stop being stressed and start being blessed!

Any situation that seems stressful simply means that you have left the present moment, slipped into the past or into the future where you don’t have access to your normal coping strategies. There is no strategy to cope in the past because it is gone; there is no strategy to cope in the future because it has not yet arrived. The only time in which you are truly able to cope is right now in the present moment because this is the only moment you have.

In the present moment, you can tap into your attitude of gratitude. STOP, TAKE A BREATH, and ASK: “What do I have to be grateful for in my life right now?”

Feel into that and deeply appreciate the feeling. That you are here right now, above ground, is something to be truly grateful for. The mere fact that you are able to stop, breathe and ask must also be seen as a blessing. There are so many blessings in your life, but you must choose to stop being so stressed to recognize that you are so blessed!

Using the 64 Days as Spiritual Practice

I am so grateful for the Season of Peace and Nonviolence. It gave me, and I hope you as well, 64 days to create new spiritual practices and rituals. Each day we were instructed to contemplate and even journal on the reflection of the day. As I was creating each blog post, each reflection gave me lots of pause as I thought about my life and how I show up in the world.

As few other questions that came out of those 64 days were:

“Am I showing up in the world as peaceful and nonviolent?”

“Where in my life do I exhibit violence – in my speech; in what shows and movies I choose to watch; in how I interact with my friends and family?”

Violence isn’t just about being physical; violence runs the gamut of physical, emotional and spiritual. I believe the most violence we do is to ourselves on a daily basis. How many times do you call yourself stupid or retard for some infraction? How many times do you choose to overlook your own health and well being to be with the crowd?

I say that we must take those 64 reflections and make them daily spiritual practices. When we can make nonviolence and peace the ultimate goal for our lives, then everything else falls into place.

Just for today, choose peace instead of this.

Season of Nonviolence – Day 64: The Coming Year

Welcome to Day 64 of the Season of Nonviolence – 64 Days of peaceful wisdom honoring the lives and nonviolent principles of Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Jr., and Cesar Chavez.

Nonviolence begins with learning how to be less violent and more compassionate towards ourselves. We learn by building the courage to speak and act with respect, honor and reverence for our own being.

Day 64: The Coming Year

"Be the change you want to see in the world." ~ Mahatma Gandhi

Peace begins at the personal level. As we learn to live in peace with ourselves, our families, friends, co-workers and neighbors, that peace can spread beyond ourselves and out into the world. This is the only way world peace can be achieved; no grand declaration can make it so. Peace is the duty of each of us to create. We begin by accepting what is, consciously choosing what changes we want to experience, and moving toward them one step at a time.

Make the practices of awareness, contemplation and journaling part of your daily life. Be mindful of the value of your own peace. Contemplate ways to increase the peacefulness in your home, workplace and relationships. Use your journal to write about ways you can improve or change situations that do not appear to serve your greatest good. Practice compassion, forgiveness, understanding and love in all you do. Learn to be peace in your world.

From A Season of Nonviolence

Season of Nonviolence – Day 63: Release

Welcome to Day 63 of the Season of Nonviolence – 64 Days of peaceful wisdom honoring the lives and nonviolent principles of Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Jr., and Cesar Chavez.

Nonviolence begins with learning how to be less violent and more compassionate towards ourselves. We learn by building the courage to speak and act with respect, honor and reverence for our own being.

Day 63: Release

“It takes a lot of courage to release the familiar and seemingly secure, to embrace the new. But there is no real security in what is no longer meaningful. There is more security in the adventurous and exciting, for in movement there is life, and in change there is power.” ~ Alan Cohen

Clinging to what no longer serves us holds us back. We move forward when we let go of the baggage, release past hurts and false beliefs, and the need to control situations. New ways of showing up in the world allow us to reclaim the power to direct our own lives.

What are you holding onto? Do old wounds hold you back and limit your ability to live a more joyful life? Contemplate or journal about these questions today. What do you need to let go?

From A Season of Nonviolence

Carnival of Healing #236: Purposeful Healing – Mind, Body and Spirit

The Carnival of Healing is a monthly selection of articles on healing, holistic health, wellness, spirituality and self-empowerment from contributing blogs.

Every month, the Carnival of Healing is hosted by a different website and this month, Becoming a Woman of Purpose is hostess!

I want to thank everyone who submitted their blogs and posts to the carnival. It was a tough selection as I received about fifty submissions.

In this issue, let’s take a look at some ways to consciously and purposefully heal our minds, bodies and spirits. Although we are already four months into the year, it is never too late to create new habits for healthier living. My fellow bloggers can help you to create new habits to build healthier minds, bodies and spirits.

Stop over, say hello and tell them you liked what they shared.

Holistic health practitioner, body worker and movement therapist Anne Asher authors Posturally: Creative Body Therapy for a Pain Free Life and says there is a disconnect between body therapy and conventional physical therapy. Check out what Anne has to say about Body Therapies Like Yoga and Pilates as Back Pain Treatment.

Family and Marriage therapist William Hambleton Bishop, MA authors Thoughts from a Therapist shares an insightful view of healing trauma in a soothing narrative in The Talking Cure for Trauma.

MacKenna Stevens, author of Masters In Social Work, which is dedicated to assisting students interested in obtaining their masters degree in Social Work. In this post, MacKenna gives a profound take on What Does Spiritual Growth Involve?

Storyteller Laura Grace Weldon says we may have forgotten to tell ourselves stories. This is an ancient way to cure, to strengthen, and to prepare ourselves for what lies ahead. She illustrates this beautifully in The Power of Story: Augusta Speaks. A children's book isn't usually seen as transformative spiritual literature. But when a child's inner life is in turmoil the right book may save her. This comes to light in How The Secret Garden Saved Me.

Rona Burstein of Masters in Environmental Health says saving the planet needn’t be out of our control or too expensive to make a significant impact. Here are 20 Simple Ways Anyone Can Help the Environment. A simple yet informative post.

I love the title of Katrina Kaczmarek’s blog, Love Can Sit Anywhere. How beautiful! In this post, she shares the power of faith through Healing Hands.

In Update Complete, Sean Burrows says every day presents new opportunities to grow and add positivity to the universe. What happened yesterday, or what may happen tomorrow is completely irrelevant to what you can do TODAY. So true! Check out 25 Ways to Empower Yourself On This Day.

Then there is The Importance of Critical Thinking and Asking Critical Questions posted at Sean’s Personal Growth, Development, and Healthy Living. He says, "The important abilities for human beings to think critically, and to ask critical questions, have been diminishing drastically over time."

In There Is No Forest, author Shannon Bovey shares a painful yet lovely moment in her life through the power of death in How Dealing With Death Can Help You Live.

Charles Chua C K presents Effective Ways to Spiritual Health posted at All About Living with Life. I love that he included meditation and being in the present as ways to spiritual health. Rock on!

Sharyce Arciaga of The Spiritual Arc presents 10 Tips On How To Lose Weight And Boost Spirituality. Very insightful look at the body-mind-spirit connection.

Michelle Tram presents a fascinating look at The Psychology of Wasting posted at Wasted Food. Michelle says, "To better understand why people have been so wiling to squander food, it is important to explore the psychology of waste. This article goes over the basis of our habits of wasteful lifestyles."

Well, that’s it for this month’s Carnival of Healing. I hope you’ve enjoyed reading the nuggets of wisdom purposefully shared by all the featured bloggers. Remember to give your support by visiting the sites and leave an insightful comment.

You can still check it out last month’s Carnival, Life Lessons Worth Remembering, hosted by Wee Peng Ho at The Conscious Life.

And next month, give your support to Anne Asher of Posturally! who will host Carnival #237.

Season of Nonviolence – Day 62: Commitment

Welcome to Day 62 of the Season of Nonviolence – 64 Days of peaceful wisdom honoring the lives and nonviolent principles of Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Jr., and Cesar Chavez.

Nonviolence begins with learning how to be less violent and more compassionate towards ourselves. We learn by building the courage to speak and act with respect, honor and reverence for our own being.

Day 62: Commitment

“The difference between involvement and commitment is like ham and eggs. The chicken is involved; the pig is committed.” ~ Martina Navratilova

The direction of our lives changes with every commitment we make. Whether marriage, parenthood, jobs, or spiritual practice, our lives are actively involved and altered by them. If we do not commit to becoming the peace we want to see in our world, we do not participate in creating it.

What are you committed to? Do you resist changes that a commitment would demand of you? Are you committed to creating peace in your own life? What change are you willing to make? Journal about or contemplate what commitment you can make to enhance your experience of peace today.

From A Season of Nonviolence