“Living with integrity means: Not settling for less than what you know you deserve in your relationships. Asking for what you want and need from others. Speaking your truth, even though it might create conflict or tension. Behaving in ways that are in harmony with your personal values. Making choices based on what you believe, and not what others believe.” ~ Barbara De Angelis=========================================================
Write down your principles. And remember they are yours, and you needn't explain or defend them to anyone. Refer to your Guiding Principles the next time you face an ethical dilemma or difficult decision.This is not a goal-setting exercise. Rather it is meant to help you articulate to yourself a set of over-arching principles to guide your behavior and to support your decisions. You may choose a different name from "principles"...perhaps, "personal truths", "laws/rules of life", "personal/spiritual commandments", "code of conduct"...
“He has a right to criticize, who has a heart to help.” ~ Abraham Lincoln=========================================================
We cannot control any other person's behavior. Really.
Even when it seems like someone else is acting irrationally or being inconsiderate, they are behaving from their reality and based on the feelings they are experiencing. As much as we may want and try to convince them "rationally" to understand our reality, they only have their own reality.
This is not to say we shouldn't share our realities and perspectives of how people's behavior impacts us. However, it is impossible to alter another person's reality.Our feelings are incapable of lying. And everyone else's feelings are incapable of lying. Feelings are truthful...like it or not.So as frustrating as this can be, it is our yoga practice of compassion that enables us not to get caught up in a reactive tornado in response to another person's seemingly irrational behavior (remember, they are experiencing feelings that are real to them).
If the other person is hurting or angry, they may not be able to hear your reality until their emotions are less heightened. So if this is the case, consider just listening for the moment and talking at a later point.
When some people are angry/scared/anxious they will not be able to process anything you say until they are in a less exited state.
So give them a chance to cycle through their emotions, even if you don't understand their reality. This sort of compassion can be effective, not only to show you are supportive, but also to help ensure that YOUR perspective is heard (even if it's not at the exact time that you want it to be heard).
In short:
“Every faculty and virtue I possess can be used as an instrument with which to worry myself.” ~ Mark Rutherford=========================================================
because a number of special people in my life have been afflicted with PTSD. I realize this is not light reading, however I am interested in learning about different treatments and I have a desire to effectively support people who have experienced PTSD.“The key to success is often the ability to adapt” ~ Unknown=========================================================
You are important and needed by many; AND the world will go on without your input for a few minutes. -Me=========================================================
Let's take a moment to reboot ourselvesAre you ready? OK. Disconnect.
“An ounce of practice is worth more than tons of preaching.” ~ Mahatma Gandhi=========================================================
"The ideal energetic state is one where we have only one cord in our space–our grounding cord with Mother Earth." ~ Jill Leigh, Energy Healing Institute Founder=========================================================
How do we stop letting other peoples' issues drag us down?As we go about our daily activities and interact with people on any level, including passing them on the street, we have an energy exchange.
Insomnia is a gross feeder. It will nourish itself on any kind of thinking, including thinking about not thinking. ~Clifton Fadiman=========================================================
This insomnia cure is (seemingly) very simple and definitely very low-tech. However, it can be tough to execute. And yet we ALL have the skill set to apply this tool.Here's the whole tool: Count 20 deep breaths. Keep your full awareness on your breath. Every time your mind begins to wander (and it will)....start counting again.
Your self image is your pattern. Every thought has an activity visualized. Every activity belongs to a pattern. You identify with your pattern or thought. Your patterns lead your life.=========================================================
- J. G. Gallimore quotes
So what does this have to do with letting go of our unproductive thought patterns (samskaras)?
It's simple. It's powerful. It is a way to let go of (not repress) the ruminations that clutter our thinking.Think of a story or a recurring thought pattern that you repeat to yourself over and over again - but that is not productive (e.g. "I'm fat", "I'm not good enough to be a writer", "I can never quite my job and become a musician", "It's my fault my children have issues", "I'm the only one that can fix this problem", "I get migraines", "I'm unflexible"....) It can be profound, it can be a minor nuisance.
I love this ritual because it is so TANGIBLE. Most meditation is all in our heads - but I find this a particularly useful tool for the big, ugly stuff that I can't seem to purge with my mind alone.Our worst fear is not that we are inadequate, our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. -Nelson Mandela=========================================================
“It's a slippery slope, Carrie. Without boundaries you never know what might happen.” -Sex and the City, Miranda=========================================================
People have a hard time letting go of their suffering. Out of a fear of the unknown, they prefer suffering that is familiar.=========================================================
-- Thich Nhat Hanh
But the messages are nearly all the same, whether professed by 5000 year old Vedic texts to last month’s New York Times best seller list.I like the books' messages, however similar and repetition is good.
We can let go.
It is possible, but it is a practice and a process.Sometimes it happens instantly with a single traumatic event, more often it is a long process of beginning to let go, over and over again.
, she describes “We were running out of money. I began to get tense. I felt as if a huge weight were literally sitting on my head. I began to panic. I had to find a way out………The whole thing was hauntingly familiar. Why I caught it this time more dramatically than ever before, I don’t know……..Right there in the middle of a very habitual state of mind, I was what I was doing…….I let the thoughts that “only I could rescue us” come and I let them go. I decided to see what would happen without my input – even if it meant that everything would fall apart. Sometimes you just have to let everything fall apart.”
The book was a clever, quick read gives us a step by step process for letting go of things, people, thoughts, behaviors that drain our personal and work lives.How can we start letting go?Today, notice one thing that you are clinging to. Perhaps a story you repeat in you mind about how someone close wronged you. Perhaps a self-loathing and unproductive mantra you recite to yourself, "i'm so broke".
“There is no end of craving. Hence contentment alone is the best way to happiness. Therefore, acquire contentment.”=========================================================
-Swami Sivananda
Are you experiencing financial uncertainty or desperation, battling a health situation, or any other personal stresses?
Finding Santosha (contentment) may seem difficult right now.
But here is what I love about the santosha....
Santosha is not translated as elation, bliss, or happiness. It is translated as "contentment". I find it more reasonable, but perhaps not as recognizable to experience santosha.
This is what contentment means, to me:
"What about the innocent civilians killed by US troops?
This is a travesty, promoting yoga and war together. I think you’ve completely missed the point of yoga. If your T-shirts said Yogis for Peace, I would buy one.
Maureen [last name removed]"
Ultimately we know deeply that the other side of every fear is a freedom.
-Marilyn Ferguson
by Pema Chodron.
You can explore the universe looking for somebody who is more deserving of your love and affection than you are yourself, and you will not find that person anywhere.=========================================================
-Buddhist saying
