Archive for: Something to Ponder

As the holiday season is upon us, take a moment to reflect upon your approach to gift giving. Is holiday shopping a matter of choosing something/someone off your “to do” list or do you take it as an opportunity to think about those who are important to you in your life, what they mean to you and how they have impacted your world? What types of gifts do you like to receive – those that are practical & useful, the gift of time with others, gifts that really reflect the relationship between you and the gift giver? The holiday season is a time to slow down and really reconnect with those in our lives.

There are so many ways technology can be used to connect us with family, friends, and other communities — in one sense we have never been more interconnected. These forums can be a great way to keep up with others whom we may not otherwise, but are we also using these platforms to replace face-to-face interactions? It is interesting to consider how the quality of relationships is impacted given that the majority of communication is nonverbal… what happens to the quality of communication when we take the nonverbal component out of the equation? Of course there is a continuum of technology use and pros and cons of each level.

The important question to ask yourself is how your personal use of social media and technology is impacting you. Do you feel support when others reply to a message or do you miss the sounds of people’s voices cheering you on? Does receiving a text for your birthday make you feel as good as a phone call and chance to catch up? Email vs card? “LOL” vs hearing someone laugh? The list goes on.

Take a minute to evaluate the quality of your social relationships, including your support from others and your level of engagement with others. If you are not happy with them, can changing your social media use help?

This time of year, you may feel you are dragging, having trouble getting things done, are a bit more irritable, are craving sweets and are wanting to sleep more. You may experience a drop in mood corresponding with the grayer days, ranging from melancholy to sadness. You may see autumn as an ending; summertime is over and the dreaded winter approaching. You can focus on the negatives… the end of summer and vacations, shorter days, and worsening weather and see this as a more intense work time before the holidays roll around, OR you can choose to appreciate the stimulating sensory season bursting around you!

• Touch: the chilly nights and morning mist
• Taste: apple cider and pumpkin pie
• Smell: smoke from bonfires
• Sight: leaves exploding into color
• Hearing: rustling leaves and the crunch of frost

So, what are you going to do… hibernate or enjoy autumn’s amazing sensory palette?!

As we start on another trip around the sun, I invite you to think about how you can be a creator this year. There are two types of creator’s- one type of creating is working with objects to make things (woodworking, crafting, cooking, art, or even creating events and parties). The other type of creators create themselves. I encourage you to create yourself this year. This does not mean starting from scratch and acting in ways that are not authentic. Using whatever existing skills you have, whatever you have learned from your own life experience, use it to express yourself. Get out of your own way and drop the idea of becoming like someone else because you are already a unique piece of art. You just have to know it and realize it.

Imagine if all the thoughts that go through your mind were made into a movie. What kind of movie would it be? A comedy? A horror film? A plotless story with boring dialogue? Would you be willing to let others watch the movie of your mind? If you don’t like the movie that is going on inside your head and would not want anyone else to watch it, then why are you still replaying the same story? We have the ability to be the producer, director, and writer of our lives and to create a Life Movie that we enjoy and get pleasure out of watching.

A common image that depicts the conscience is the devil and the angel sitting on a person’s shoulder, whispering into the ear of the person of what they should do. One of the first lessons children are taught is good vs. bad. Whatever imagery we grow up with to depict moral vs. immoral, sinful vs. virtuous, or acceptable vs. unacceptable, we all have to remember that these judgments of the mind are just products of our environment. If we get too stuck in these binary choices, we miss out on experiencing the truth and beauty that lies within our own hearts. How many times have you done something just because you “should” as taught by your parents or some institution? What would have happened if you listened to your own heart and intuition? When we respond out of our own awareness, whatever we do will be good. When we break free of conditioned beliefs, we can start to see life as it really is.

In our society, men in general have been taught not to cry, to put on a brave face when they get hurt, and to not show they are in pain. Women can fall into this tendency as well. All of us, at some point in our lives, have likely been in a situation where we felt like we had to close off our feelings and emotions to avoid getting hurt. If something is especially painful, we might even hide the pain from ourselves. We put up a barrier around our hearts, like a layer of ice, in order to freeze the painful emotions inside, yet we know that a tiny crack in the ice could send the emotions flowing through us again. Tears have the power to melt the ice. It is ok to cry, and there is no reason to feel ashamed of your tears. Crying helps us let go of pain, they allow us to be gentle with ourselves, and they help us to heal.

Mornings are like the early childhood of your day. How you start your morning is influential in how the rest of your day goes. Do you start your day feeling hectic and rushed? Or do you give yourself time to wake up peacefully and engage in routines that set you up to feel centered, calm, and ready to productive? I encourage you to reflect on your mornings and to think about how you wake up influences the rest of your day.

Along my driveway there are several cracks in the concrete and in those cracks, blades of grass have popped up. It’s pretty amazing that grass has managed to grow in a tiny area that is surrounded by a material meant to suffocate the natural ground underneath. If you’ve never seen concrete or asphalt being laid for a road or sidewalk, typically they dig up the sod until it’s just soil and then lay gravel or other material before pouring on the concrete. It seems like any ability for a plant to survive underneath seems really slim. Yet, if a seed were to reach the soil underneath through a crack, it is able to grow. That is one courageous plant! Staying in our safe zone is like being a seed. The seed has all the potential to grow into a beautiful plant but it has to take the risk of breaking out of its protected casing and expose itself to the elements. If the seed stays safe and protected, the potential remains in the casing, nothing changes, and the seed could still perish without it ever reaching its full potential. We need to be like seeds; knowing that our full potential can only exist if we are courageous enough to get out of our comfort zone.