Picture this

Our pictures are worth more than a thousand words. So when we spend our time affirming this and that, pay attention to the picture that runs right beside it. Is it the picture you want, or the opposite? In the world of manifesting, it's more like a coffee table book than an encyclopedia of concepts. 

A side of dog perhaps?

Fluids

If life feels sticky, if creativity feels dried up, if you got no juice, then be aware of the obvious and hydrate.

Seriously. Increasing fluids has been know to contribute to understanding and funding fluidity in life. We are not talking about drowning here- just feeling the right amount of turgidity. Not rigidity. There is a fluid quality to the former and a stuck quaility to the latter.

So once again, the answer is, "drink more water." See what happens and get back to me with your fluid story.

Slugger

Slug. Interesting word. A punch, an animal, a bullet. When we think of the animal slug, or describe humans as slugs, we think of slow, sloth like, inferior. Ok, seriously? You are challenging me on that? Name one time when comparing yourself to a slug in any way was a positive. 

That's what I thought. 

So it's interesting that on the inanimate side of it, slugs have a penetrating power.  Yin and yang? Slug and slug? 

This little guy was minding its own beeswax the other morning, and if I had the chops of a Nat Geo photographer, you might be able to feel what I felt when I saw it slugging its way across a cement slab wall.

Bring it!

Our ability to digest is a determining factor in how much we can take on, and also how we feel about what it is we have on our proverbial plate. Good digestion gives us confidence, clarity and the ability to say "Bring it!" with enthusiasm. When digestive fire (Agni) is strong, we can extract the nutrients from that which doesn't serve us, and then whatever it is we have on our plate can feed us, grow is. If the fire is weak in relationship to the amount of stuff that sits on it, we may feel stuffed, overwhelmed, frantic, and ironically  undernourished considering how much richness is available to us. 

So if your plate is full, your guts are full, your life is full, and you still feel overworked and underpaid, it could be that the fire you have isn't enough to digest your life. Or food. 

So when we say yes, more please, take a breath and see if our eyes are bigger than our fire. When we find that balance, we digest our "food," we get hungry for more. Then when we say "bring it," we mean it. We are ready for it. 

This "bring it" attitude comes with an inherent sense of confidence, clarity, and fearlessness. So the more we listen and know what we are capable of digesting in any given moment, the more efficient and joyous our process of living becomes. 

So, would you like to see the dessert menu?

Presence

Yesterday, after what was probably an hour or so of a breathing exercise, Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen said "So for the next 20 minutes, explore being present." Or something like that. I was on my back, covered up with layers and a blanket because the room was cold. About as invisible as a person could be, and she was asking us to look at being present. I asked myself - from my vantage point, what does that even mean? And then, do I even WANT to be present? And what kind of presence are we talking about? Can I be present in my inner life without sacrificing my outer life and vice versa? What was this thing called presence?

Did i have to DO something? Or was it about being?

I don't have answers. But I do know that the interesting question was asking myself if I even wanted to be present in that moment. What does "being present" entail? And what made me think it was something that would entail a lot of work?

That question is still present. Even if I'm not. Or maybe I am.
Hmmmm....

Balancing Act

Is balance an act? An event? A myth?

I call balance a moving target. We find balance. For a moment. Then we grow. Our capacity to handle what is on our plate, or what is in our mind, changes. And life keeps moving around us. And voila! We are now out of balance. What is important about learning about this thing called "balance," is that we start to become more aware of what it feels like to be in balance, instead of looking at a bunch of external cues. i.e. - just because I'm not falling over, doesn't necessarily mean I am balanced. I may not be falling over, but how do I feel when I'm not falling over?

When we practice this thing called balance, tune into the feeling. What do you feel like when you are balanced. What qualities are present? Not present? Again, this is something that only you can determine. Not your mother, your boss, your best friend, your spouse. Not from a book, not from a to-do list that has everything or nothing crossed off. Not from the amount of sleep you get or don't get. Not from the amount of free time you have or don't have.

It comes from that internal state of whatever "balance" feels like to you. And that is a moving target. So we keep moving in and out of balance, just as the waves of life ebb and flow.

A balanced state is constantly  moving.
A balanced state is an act, an event. We hit it or we myth.

Are you ready for the show?

Are you ready for the big one? The big time? The real deal? Are you ready for the full blown "enlightenment" experience? Just to check further, are you ready to surrender to grace and leave the mind behind? Are you ready to see it all, know it all, be it all?

Think about it. Think about what we avoid and run from every day. The parts of ourselves we don't want to admit we have. Are we ready to see all if ourselves? Yes, that's me and my evil twin. 

On this path of consciousness, we become awake to more. More good as well as more bad. That's why it's important to understand how dropping judgements can help. If I drop the attachment, expectation, emotional charge from a situation, then if have nothing to fear. That situation or event or state of being can no longer hurt me. There is no more "wrong" or "blame" or "bad." There is also no more "right" (nothing to achieve) or "good" (something I can be proud of and brag about) or "better than" (something I can hold over other peoples heads).

Because when we leave our mind behind, we leave our mind behind. We leave our cognitive thought process to experience something beyond cognitive thought. We leave our judgements behind. Then we see it, know it, become it all. We "remember" all. Awesome.

Then we land back in the body and all hell breaks loose because in that moment of oneness, all hell did break loose. The difference is, that in that moment if oneness, we weren't making value judgements fraught with emotional charge, fear, and self righteousness. But now we know. We know all about the light side and the dark side because we bring that knowingness back into the body that we have been using, the one we have been growing, the one we have been training.

Are we ready for the show? The big time? Enlightenment? Are you ready to see and know all of your Self? Even the humiliating, emabarssing parts? The ugly parts? Can you still love yourself knowing you are those ugly parts too? Can you still love the world, and love god, knowing, experiencing, being, the ugly parts?

Are you ready for the show? 

#bringit #keepracting #romewasntbuiltinaday

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