March 2014
Welcome --
"What good
is the warmth
of summer,without the cold
of winter to give it sweetness?"
(John Steinbeck)
Here's an interesting practice to do when you find Your Self in the place of what I call "less than". It is effective across the board with challenging emotions, events, and thoughts.
You know -- the mental ghosts that haunt us in the moments of doubt, loneliness or fear
-- whether what we're feeling is accurate or not.
The work is simple, yet not always easy. The gestures can be very small. You just need to opt for the opposite of what you're feeling. It immediately shifts the energy around the situation and creates that which you feel is
lacking.
For example, feeling lonely? -- reach out. Stuck? -- move. Poor?-- donate. Hungry? -- feed. Angry? -- forgive. Cluttered? -- release. Bring this down to a very basic practice: Lonely - say hello to a passing stranger; Stuck - walk around the block, or even just around your
desk; Poor - give away clothes you don't need; Hungry - offer food to a street person; Angry - dare to apologize and say "I'm sorry", even it it's just in silence, when you're by yourself.
You get the idea -- the more you can make a ritual out
of it, the deeper the impact will be, and the easier it will be for you to switch gears and move away from that place of "less than".
Stop
Breathe
Ask Your Self: "What's the
opposite
of this?"
Then -- support that opposite with
corresponding action
Make your own choices. Again -- they need not be huge. The point is merely to
shift the energy outward, away from you. Dare to allow opposites to "attract" what you're "missing". It softens the rough edges around these moments.
"I think one's feelings waste themselves
in words; they ought all to be distilled
into actions that bring results."
(Florence Nightingale)