Empowerment

There is an amazing feeling when you feel empowered. Everything seems to fit into place. you feel charged, in control, EXCITED. How do we get to that state and keep that state? Practice and fearlessness, practicing fearlessness. Small Sun Seeds, these good intentions we set for ourselves, help to get us on the path towards empowerment. Start from wherever you are.


There is a place within us that we can quiet from the regular thoughts of the world and just be. It is important to cultivate that space within us for that is where sun seeds we plant will grow. Start with creating positive words to yourself,

• I love what I see in myself
• I am in charge of my life
• I am my own person
• I expand my capabilities
• I give myself all that I need
• I am powerful
• I am worthy of love and respect

There are a gazillion more we can write down. Use these and write your own. These mantras help us to feel powerful! By just saying them I feel better. If we can think it, imagine it if we don't have it right now, say it in the present tense and believe it, it will be so but you have to believe.


We need to believe we are worthy of the wonderful. If we do this we spread love and light. We will believe that everyone is worthy of the wonderful. Take care of your body, mind and spirit. Take time for meditation and focus on the good. Empower yourself. Empower yourself. Empower yourself. Do it by starting with believing your good thoughts and tell the negative to take a hike.




It is time for all of us to develop our own philosophy of life and to create our own personal laws- statements we can live by, beliefs that nourish and support us.
                                                                                          - Louise L. Hay

The Burning Question

DanielleLaPorte.com

I have been loving this series from Danielle LaPorte that encourages us to ask questions of ourselves. Real. Hard. Work. Asking questions of ourselves forces us to take a look at where we think we are in life and puts a magnifying glass on what we have been focusing on. When we take a look we may be stoked! OR we may be saying, "I need to start focusing on something that REALLY matters....to ME."

THIS WEEK'S BURNING QUESTION:

WHAT WOULD YOU LIKE TO STOP DOING?


I would like to stop:

 "teeter tottering between confidence and negative thinking. How about a constant confidence streak. Sounds good." "looking at what other people are doing and thinking I should be doing that at this age." "Undercutting my experience." "Not looking at my life experience as experience." "Assuming I know what other people are thinking."

I am a Scorpio, I try to rush people's speech along because I sometimes think I already know the point they are going to make. Sometimes I do. Sometimes I don't. Either way it's an assumption.

So add to the list, "Assuming I know what people are going to say."

"Being nervous about my future."

Let's talk about that one. Unless the world has shown you that is is CONSTANTLY a negative, awful, hateful, painful place, what reason would you have to think it is constantly going to be like that in the future? Is it like that right now? For me it may only be like that because I am presently making myself believe that by no other reason or source than my silly human mind.

In reality I am in a safe space, it is warm, my man has just lovingly made me an iced coffee and is making breakfast as I am typing this. I am above and beyond my basic human needs being met. Still I worry. Not ALL the time but that thought slips in there most days for a little bit like a frenemy. Mostly it is about having enough when I am old, having enough for society to think I have made it. What does that even mean? I don't even know these people.

That is my biggest one (for now) and I would like to point out that it took a little bit to get there. It took a writer's rant, a stream of consciousness and ideas.

Don't edit. 


               Get it out. 


                              Dig. 


                                  Be present and cultivate.


"Speak with integrity. Say only what you mean. Avoid using the word to speak against yourself or to gossip about others. Use the power of your word in the direction of truth and love."
                                                                                               -Don Miguel Ruiz- The Four Agreements

Find the Difference

Detecting beliefs that keep you back may be hard to differentiate between your wild ideas that are good for your life. This quote from Tom Robbins from Still Life with Woodpecker just made me think. "There are essential and inessential insanities. Inessential insanities are a brittle amalgamation of ambition, aggression, and pre-adolescent anxiety -- garbage that should have been dumped long ago. Essential insanities are those impulses one instinctively senses are virtuous and correct, even though peers may regard them as coo-coo." Essentially, let go of your past way of operating and move onward and upward even if it is not something your peers/ family would choose to do. Listen to your heart, not your past. Be present and cultivate.

Those Sneaky Bad Beliefs

Ahhh..... rolling along in a good mood with lovely happy thoughts and then BLAMO! There they are, these negative thoughts that just pop into my head about my past.  It wasn't that I even did anything horrible. It wasn't that the actual event that took place was even that bad but reliving the memory of it seems to be worse than the actual event.
If this happens let yourself think the thought. Ask yourself if you believe it, really believe it. Ask yourself if it matters anymore. Ask yourself if what you remember is really what happened. Are you assuming other people's thoughts about you? Did these thoughts and opinions about you exist only in the past if at all?
Go through the emotions you are presently feeling with compassion for what you are feeling and no self judgment and then let it go. Breathe and be present. Come back to your happy thoughts.



To get rid of an internal attitude you must clearly see the mistaken belief it is based upon.
                                                                                                     -His Holiness the Dalai Lama
                                                           

3,2,1...Self Destruct.

There have been times where I had what is called monkey mind. Thoughts go something like this... What am I doing? Should I stay here, my future is a black hole. Nothing is going to work out, oh I like those boots. I want to go surfing. Should I stay with him? What am I doing here? Am I ever going to figure out what I want? I suck at that. I will never be good at that. I don't know what I want to do. I have to be something amazing in this life. I think I am hungry. Why won't my mind stop reeling. (All of this in my internal dialogue). Also accompanied by a feeling of panic that the world is not a friendly place and I will never be good enough. Nice, hello anxiety and self loathing.
Sounds crazy? It is. Unfortunately, this type of thought pattern is all too common. We are not always like this but trust assured the most calm, centered and focused person you know has probably had a thought pattern like this at one point in their lives no matter how brief.
This is sooooo self destructive. It is also extremely time consuming and narcissistic. We are the only ones who can tell ourselves what to believe. We are also the only people who really matter when wondering what someone is thinking about us. What do we think of ourselves? How do we turn this around?
Even if you don't believe them at first, start saying wonderful things to yourself. Think the opposite of your previous thoughts. It feels a lot better. These positive thoughts are SMALL SUN SEEDS!
Be compassionate and kind to yourself. Happiness doesn't happen all at once and there is no sense beating yourself up for negative thoughts you made up about yourself and trust this, you did make them up. There are a lot of immensely intelligent wonderful beings out there running around with negative thoughts pulsing through their minds when they probably have something much better to be thinking about. If you identify with this then make it a point today to think something nice about yourself. Plant a small sun seed. Be present. Start cultivating.

• I am thoughtful
• I am smart 
• I am a calm love filled being

Chanting, devotional singing, and mantras also still the mind. However you choose to tame the monkey mind, do so with firm kindness. The next time the chattering arises, notice it and then allow it to go away. With practice, your monkey mind will become quiet and so will you. 

                                                                                                          Quoted from the Daily OM

Also Helpful- Byron Katie's The Work

What is a Small Sun Seed?

Small Sun Seeds are the intentions you have inside to be your true amazing self. These seeds, which you already have, contain everything you will need to achieve your goals. They just need to be tended and cultivated to grow and grow and grow!!
Inside of our mind, body and soul we have everything we could need to create happiness and prosperity in our lives. These seeds are there sitting patient and quiet just waiting to be discovered. There not going anywhere until you say so. Some of these seeds have already been discovered and have now grown into the things you love and treasure in your life. They are love. They are truth. They are happiness. What made them grow? YOUR attention to these seeds. You did it. You made them grow.
What if you do not have so many growing sun seeds? It is time to take a closer look at that and and figure out where you abandoned those bright shiny little pearls of light for other things in your life that aren't so amazing.
This will be a platform for your small sun seed garden. It is not the garden that is small, it is the seed. It is a pearly, shiny, bright spec waiting to grow. It wants so desperately to sprout into the world. It is your mission to help it. It will be bigger than you. That's the whole point.
The great realization is that the more small sun seeds that make it out into the world, the more people that accomplish their great big dreams being the best, most amazing self they can be, the more love, light and happiness is here... and it's contagious. Trust in your goodness. Start cultivating.

The Sun shines whether it is day or night; so should our concern for others.
-Sakyong Mipham