“I’d learned enough from life’s experiences to understand that destiny’s interventions can sometimes be read as invitations for us to address and even surmount our biggest fears.  It doesn’t take a great genius to recognize that when you are pushed by circumstance to do the one thing you have always most specifically loathed and feared, this can be, at the very least, an interesting growth opportunity.”

Like she says…”it doesn’t take a genius to recognize”, but I wanted to share this with you because while it doesn’t take a genius, it’s always something good to be reminded of.

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I sent many cards and Self Symmetry jewelry to cancer patients in 2009, but this year I want to step it up a bit!  I’m leading a team in the 1st annual Cards 4 Cancer Day, which is April 10, 2010.  What I’ll be doing is gathering cards from now until then.  Then on April 10th, I will be delivering all the cards to Texas Oncololgy – Medical City Dallas.

So, I need your help!  I’m looking for team members.  All you have to do as a team member is gather cards.  These cards don’t have to be anything fancy.  They can be homemade or store bought.  They can be scribbles from a 2 year old, a fun drawing from a 5th grader, or an uplifting message from your coworker.  It doesn’t matter.  I don’t know who will get what card, so it doesn’t have to be addressed to anyone in particular.  The only requirement is that the message be positive!  It would also be great if “Spirit Jump” was somewhere on the card so the recipient will know what organization it came from.  If they find the card helpful and it lifted their spirit then they can log onto Spirit Jump’s website and register to receive more cards and gifts.

If you’re a team member all you have to do is help me gather cards.  You can gather 5 or 500, I don’t care!  You can ask your child’s school or classroom, your coworkers, church, family, friends….basically anyone you can think of.  Would be fun to have a card making party too!  Or, if you don’t necessarily want to be a team member but want to buy or make a card you can do that as well.  Just send me the card and I’ll get it to a person battling cancer.

I don’t have a number for a goal in mind, but let’s just say this…I want to gather a ton of cards.  This is so easy, so thoughtful, and it can mean so much to someone.  Just think how cool it would be to go to a radiation treatment and have a card or two waiting for you.  The thought of knowing that people care about you and are praying for you right before you have a procedure or right after you get some news about your disease.   It really can make the difference in someone’s day.

Let’s show those battling cancer how much we love and care for them.

If you’d like to be a team member, let me know!  Leave a comment, email me, let me know on FB, tweet me…just let me know!  If you just want to send a card that would be awesome too.  Again, just let me know.  I’ll get you my address.

I’m looking forward to gathering cards and doing some good.  Thank you SO much!

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Just a rambling thought (on this frreeeezzzzing cold day)!

So I’m thinking about conflict, mostly religious and political, and why our world is so caught up in it.  What if we were all to let our mind open a bit more and expand.  Some of us get so stuck in our ways, thinking that those who disagree are foolish.  Really all arguments are about who’s right and who’s wrong.  That ego of ours can be a bitch!

I think that the more our mind opens, the more we realize that it’s okay to have different opinions.  It’s okay to want different things.  It’s okay to have different beliefs.  Having choices, being different, and having the freedom to do what we want is what makes life so awesome.

It’s not about who’s right and who’s wrong.  Can’t we just be okay with having our own opinions?  Ideas are born from an open mind, from the thinking that we can expand on what we have.  We can have bigger and better if that’s what we want, but it takes an open mind to dream of something different.

If we all conformed and had the exact same beliefs then we would really be limited.  We would have no new inventions.  No one would be thinking outside the box.  We would basically be like robots.

So next time you disagree with someone or go to a different church or have an adamant view of the president and think that everyone else is crazy for not thinking the same as you — just remember…it’s okay.  In fact, it’s good!

So it starts with you.  It starts with me.  As Gandhi says “Be the change you want to see in the world”.

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I totally respect those that come into the new year with resolutions, and I’m blown away by those that actually follow through…although come to think of it, I can’t recall ever meeting anyone who has.

As I’ve grown over the years I’ve learned the value of the present moment and how every moment is a brand new one and it’s okay to start over at any moment, so January 1 doesn’t really mean much to me other than it’s another moment!

So with that in mind, here’s my very simplistic intention for this moment, the next, the next and the next moment:  TO FEEL GOOD AND TO HAVE THOUGHTS THAT FEEL GOOD!  I truly believe that if in every moment I can feel good, then all will be well.  I will have anything and everything that I want and I will be living my dream life.  Period.  It’s that simple.

Now, I’m sure you’re wondering how I will feel good when something bad is happening and how feeling good will bring me anything and everything I want.  Let me explain — if something bad is happening it’s really just my perception of whether it’s good or bad, so if I can perceive it to be good, or at least see a bright side, then I’ll feel better.  Does that make sense??  AND, as you know I’m a HUGE believer in the Law of Attraction so the better I feel, the more things I’ll attract into my experience to feel good about, and I won’t be having “bad” things come into my life!

So there you have it.  My intention now, on Jan. 1, or any other day, any other moment is to feel good.  Wanna join me?

Happy New Year, Everyone!

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Running is such a mental game.  For me, it’s goes something like this:

When I take my first several strides I wonder how the hell I’m even going to make it a half of a mile.  My body is trying to find a rhythm.  My breath is too.  And my mind?  haha “Let’s do this another day.  You’ve really got a lot to do.  You don’t need to run this race.  Please stop.  Please.”.  BUT I DON’T.  I keep moving.  I bring my awareness to my breath.  Ahhh, there it is.  I’m starting to hear a rhythm.  2 inhales through the nose, 1 exhale through the mouth.  (I don’t know if this is how I’m “suppose” to breath while I’m running, but this is what I do).  I keep moving.  Then I find the rhythm in my body, and I get a good pace going (I run a 10 minute mile).  Everything is going good, but then my mind wanders in…or maybe I should say my mind wonders what the hell I’m doing!  You mean I’ve only gone a mile?  What?  Ok, back to the breath.  I’ll enjoy my scenery.  But wait, my knee is starting to hurt.  I ignore it the best I can.  I tell myself to keep running, just don’t think about it.  Don’t think about anything, or wait, maybe I should think about something to get my mind off the running.  Okay, so what I am going to buy everyone on my Christmas list?  Okay, enough of that because my toe is numb.  Yep, I can’t feel my big toe.  That’s okay, just keep running.  You can do this.  Breathe.  2 miles.  That wasn’t so bad.  I can keep going.  I’m fine.  Just breath.  Enjoy the now.  Take this moment in completely (this is where I go into my yoga training), but damn this knee and toe (this is where I go out of my yoga training).  Should I stop?  Yes, I think I should.  No, nope.  I’m fine.  I can do this.

And then, out of nowhere I realize that I’m absolutely okay.  My body is amazing.  It’s almost like my legs and arms are just moving on their own.  You get to point (for me it’s about mile 3 or so) where it’s like you don’t even realize they’re moving.  They’ve been moving in that same motion for so long now, that it just happens.  You don’t have to make your legs move, they just are.  And I can feel that my heart rate is high, but I can hold a conversation.  My breath is great if I just keep my “2-1″ rhythm going.

AND THEN, it’s all mental!  Once your body and breath have acclimated the mind is the only thing left you have to deal with!  Now this is probably where wearing ear buds and listening to music would come in and be a great help, but I, 99% of the time, don’t listen to music while I run.  I know!  Crazy, right?  I just figure I’ll be thinking my crazy thoughts while the music is playing, so why not try to not think at all.  A moving meditation.  So this is what I do.  I meditate why running (at least I try…most of the time I run while pushing my 2 kids, so if they’re not talking to me, need a snack, want my iPhone, and not fighting with each other, I’m meditating!).

I go in and out of boredom a bit too, but I know that’s just my mind playing tricks on me.  I make it 6.2 miles, and I’m feeling good.  But ya know, I don’t think I have a desire to run anymore than that.  I’m good.

I’m in awe of the marathon runners.  Not only the physical strength, but the mental strength it takes to run 26.2 miles just blows my mind!

(Now if I can just get up from this chair with my sore thighs!)

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Just do your best to keep yourself in balance. One of the first things that causes Energy misalignment, is asking or demanding too much of yourself in terms of time and effort. In other words, you just cannot burn the candle at both ends, so that you are physically tired, and then expect yourself to have a cheerful attitude. So, the rule of thumb has to be: “I’m going to be very, very, very happy, and then do everything I have time to do after that.”

This is from Abraham (Ester & Jerry Hicks) at an LOA workshop in 2005.

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Life Will Always Be Working Out For Me. . .

I like understanding that things are always evolving, and while there are many things that could be better where I am, it is not really a problem because “where I am” is constantly changing to something better. I like knowing that as I look for the best things around me where I am, those things become more prevalent in my experience.  It is fun to know that things are always working out for me, and as I watch for the evidence of that . . . I see more evidence of that every day.

Life Will Always Be Working Out For Me!

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In listening to my children cough and wheeze it makes me think how much we take our breath for granted.  We breathe automatically.  It just happens.  And when we take a deep breath, the heart rate increases.  When we exhale, the heart rate drops.  It just happens.  We don’t have to think about it.  There’s no effort involved.  It’s such an amazing God made machine.

So why do we take it for granted?  Because it just happens?  Because we don’t have to think about it?

Our breath is the most valuable thing we have.  Let’s give it the attention it deserves.  Inhale.  Exhale.  In that one conscious breath, don’t you feel better?  In that one conscious breath, our mind is focused and not running rampid.  In that one conscious breath, we are completely in the moment.  We’re not stressed, not worried, not negative…OMG, we actually feel good!

So what if we paid more attention to the breath?  What if we took 5 conscious breaths in a row?  Or even 1 conscious breath every hour?  It doesn’t take much.  All we have to do is pay attention to something that is already happening.  All we have to do is connect to something that is so amazing and effortless, and in doing so maybe we learn that our lives can be this way too…amazing and effortless.

Inhale – Exhale

The more we pay attention to the breath, the more natural it becomes.  It won’t be something that we have to remind ourselves to do.  We’ll just be doing the dishes and connect to the breath.  We’ll be at our desk working and feel the inhale and exhale.  It’s a beautiful thing.  We’ll be stressing over something and then remember that our breath will help get us through it.

Thank you breath!  I promise to pay more attention to you…you literally mean the world to me!

If you want some help remembering to breath, CLICK HERE!

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Nope...not me!

I’m sure we’ve all had thoughts like this:  “Yea, you better get out of that pose, you’re going to hurt yourself”.  “How much longer are we going to hold this, I’m about to die!”.  Or, “I can’t do this any longer.  Why is this crazy ass teacher making us hold so long?  She’s not doing this pose, so she has no idea what we’re going through.  I can’t do this”.

I’ve noticed that when thoughts like this go through my head it just makes the pose so much worse.  Taking a deep breath and just allowing the sensations to be there, without judgment, opens me up to a more peaceful world.  It takes me deeper within myself and I begin to feel a sense of calmness.  When I get to this calm state, then I find this intelligence and it guides me.  That’s what tells me if I really need to come out of the pose because I may injure myself, not my mind.  My mind will make up all kinds of things!

So I’ve learned this and continually practice it on my mat, but what’s really cool is that I can take what I’ve learned on my mat and use the same principals in my normal everyday life.  When life throws me an unexpected curve ball, how am I going to react?  What am I thinking?  Am I dwelling in how awful things are (or could get)?  Do I want to bail out or hide and ignore the situation?

When that curve ball first appears my immediate reaction might be to cuss, pout, be bitter, mad, or sad, but soon (if not immediately) I remember my yoga practice.  I remember that I have more power in my peace, than in my rage.  I remember that no matter what is going on around me, my strong, positive mind will make it all better.  I remember that if I can just connect to my inner intelligence, I’ll know what to do.  I shift my perspective and look for the bright side in the situation, or if I don’t see a bright side at that particular moment, I realize that regardless everything will be okay.   Just like on my mat, my hip isn’t going to fall off…Everything will be okay.

**Hell no, that’s not me in the photo!**

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