Good morning Musers!

I am working on somehting that is requiring more attention and intention, but felt the need to share a few things. This is a compelation of thoughts spanning a few years and various stages of my journey. They’re not in any particular order, they are all pretty evergreen. I hope you find value and find them useful.

More is never enough; enough is never achieved

….so, you’re looking for greatness, but you get stuck/lost in complacence. Are you ever gonna make it? Then the chase begins. You reach the goal, have the achievement, but the high is not what you anticipated. This was supposed to calm that voice, give you that feeling of satisfaction and fulfillment. It doesn’t. Now what do you do?  

Detach

Detach from the attachment you feel to certain emotions. Often times the anger we feel towards someone, or certain situations, comes from the expectation of having those emotions. When you think about a person, or subject, and how they always get a rise out of you, or cause you to feel or react a certain way, you expect to feel that every time you have an encounter with that person, or are faced with that situation. You have trained yourself to have that emotional, physical, or mental reaction, and that’s what’s going to happen. If you start to let go of expecting to have these feelings, and allow each interaction to stand alone, without pulling in the past, you’ll start having different results. In this I speak from experience. I’ve been implementing this practice and it’s had a very positive result in my life.

Update: 3-30-22

How I put this into practice

• Take deep breaths when you feel yourself starting to react.
• Pause before you respond. We think we have to reply immediately. Give yourself time to process what you’ve heard, or what is actually happening.
• Ask yourself why you are getting upset. You may not be able to answer the question in the moment, but asking it may allow you to view what’s happening in a different perspective.
• Have empathy. For the person who may be causing upset to arise, and for yourself.
• Know that you always have a choice of what you want to experience. Set an intention when you are going to be in a position that has made you anxious or upset in the past. It’s not a guarantee that you won’t be activated, but it gives you a place to return to if that does occur.
• Give yourself grace. It is called a practice for a reason. The more you do it, the more it becomes a natural tool you reach for in your daily life.

Distraction

Don’t let self-work become a distraction. Sometimes it’s good to just notice when something arises, you may not need to immediately figure out the why. Because sometimes that becomes an excuse to not do/be/move forward. You may tell yourself, “Oh, this thing is disturbing me”, and then use that as a reason to stop everything else, and say you have to finish fixing this, so now you can’t/don’t have, to do anything else. Just notice it, and keep noticing it whenever it pops up. Just the noticing is helping to move you away from a disserving thought or behavior.

Change, 2017:

This was one of the first cracks, when I started to more closely examine what I was ingesting, and purposefully decide to what I would give my attention. It has not been an overnight change, and it wasn’t one and done. It takes intention and devotion.

‘My life is becoming too filled with the wrong type of noise. I am allowing too many distractions that have no significance and serve only to cause feelings of restlessness and discontent. Time to evaluate things in my life and make adjustments to focus on what is real and meaningful. I control what my life is and what it looks like, which means taking control of what I allow into my world. There is too much negativity put forth into the world, just for the sake of being negative and to cause others to feel less. We do not know how to have intelligent discourse with one another without being derogative and disrespectful of someone else’s opinion. I want to work on being my best self, for me and the people with whom I come in contact with, so I can help to elevate and hopefully enlighten.’

Life

Today I Sit

I Be

I Let Life

No I Want; I Need; I’d Rather; But Waits; Or What Ifs

I Just Let Life

And It Gives Me Exactly What I Need What I Want, Right Now

And I Don’t Question Why Or Try To Change Its Mind

I Accept I Allow I Bow

With Gratitude And Appreciation

I Let Life

Anxiety

 Anxiety, pain, and unease are not things we should run from, or immediately try to change into something different. We can see them as life sending a message that maybe there is something to which you need to pay attention. You can let it be motivation to look at your circumstances and see what you need to work on. We are so scared of hurt, and think life is only about what makes us “happy”, or “feel good”; you have to be willing to experience all parts of life. They are all meant for your growth and evolution.

Self

We do so much to protect this small self, this little me. We don’t want it to be hurt, or feel sad or disappointed; or to do anything that will cause it to be ashamed or feel embarrassed.  So, all of our actions are dictated by trying to protect that image and idea of this small self. And now I have to let go of thinking that I need to protect that small self, it doesn’t need my protection.

We didn’t come here to just be that small self. I came to be expansive and to be involved, and to have the full human experience. I have to let go; we have to let go of trying to protect that small self. How much of what we do is controlled by trying to protect it? Trying to prevent it from being hurt, but it’s going to get hurt. It’s going to feel sad; it’s going to be disappointed, and that’s okay; that’s why you came. You came for the full experience.

So, yes that small self is important, but that larger Self, that larger Self is why you’re here. We have to start being that larger Self, and not let that small self control what we do. It is the vehicle by which something more wants to be expressed and created and experienced. In letting that larger Self be expressed you will still find satisfaction, and fulfillment, and pleasure; how could you not? You will be living into your why of being.