Words

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Yes.

via: wit and delight

Words

I am going to stop complaining.

How often do you decide to instantly change something you don't like about yourself? Deciding to suddenly stop doing something can often create expectations that are hard to meet. This isn’t always the case, sometimes you decide to change something in your life and you never turn back.  Most things, however, take time.

So instead of declaring you want to change something about yourself, try taking a few deep breathes in the morning, maybe while you take a shower, and decide on an intention for that day. Not forever, not the next day – just for that day. Today, I won’t whine. Today, I will love everyone that annoys me. Today, I won’t yell at every Washington driver on the road. Today, I will brush my teeth for 2 whole minutes and floss. Today, I won’t watch 2 hours of The Bachelorette. Today, I will be the sweetest boyfriend/girlfriend in the known universe. Today, I won't eat five doughnuts or hope no one sees me in the Taco Bell drive through. Today, I will be present with my children. Today, I won’t smoke a cigarette. (I am only guilty of some of these.)

Just focus on today, because you know you have no control over yesterday or tomorrow.

And PS - If you do slip up and light up on a day you promised yourself you wouldn’t – don’t put yourself down. You are human; you are allowed to make mistakes. Instead of reprimanding yourself, be kind, tell yourself that you love you and you will stick to your commitment the next time. 

-a

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Remember.

Have a great weekend friends. Enjoy the sunshine. 

via: wit and delight

Notice

As I get my computer world back in order, I leave you with a quote for today.

I beg you to have patience with everything unresolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves as if they were locked rooms or books written in a very foreign language. Don't search for the answers, which could not be given to you now, because you would not be able to live them. And the point is, to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps then, someday, far in the future, you will gradually, without ever noticing, live your way into the answer.

-Rainier Maria Rilke

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All Things

 

Now is a time of great change in my world. When I have a moment I will write about it, but right now I just need to live it. Do everything with great love today my friends. Most importantly, when you feel filled up with frustration, disappointment, irritation, and stress - pause, and love whatever the source of that pain is instead. Happy Thursday.

Words

Do you ever just sit? Sit without a book, something to nibble on, a journal, or a laptop in front of you? Just you and the world around you. I don't realize how little I do this until I find myself sitting without something to do and wanting to get up to get a book, or get up and get back to all the things "I have to do." It can be uncomfortable just being with myself without any distractions, but it can also be really rewarding.

Contentment has been on my mind a lot. I am an active person, and lately I am either on my yoga mat, working as a barista, doing various design-y things, or helping my friend paint his house. So of course fate would have me injure my neck and feel like doing those things, let alone anything else my heart desires, involves a lot of pain.

It's not fun being hurt, but I am only discontent when I am not content with being hurt or a little bummed that I can't go to acroyoga or practice chords on the new guitar in my life. Discontentment is the illusion that there can be something else in the moment. There can't be, the moment is complete the way it comes to us.

Sitting with yourself can bring up a lot of feelings of discontentment; but I think it's really beautiful to explore the root of those feelings and let it be okay if you feel sad, depressed, anxious, lost, or impatient. When we build contentment in the uncomfortable parts of our lives we become rooted in the calm depths within.

When it rains, let it.


amanda

photo via: wit and delight

Words.

Desire has been on my mind a lot lately; watching some desires fade away and some grow stronger within me. It's interesting to feel the ebb and flow. Sometimes it's incredibly uncomfortable and sometimes it's peaceful and freeing. My identification with the things I desire, in many ways, seems to be evaporating.

I often find myself trying to prove my worth - prove that I am "good enough", the best, impressive... However, the desire to become something, or be someone, is loosing it's worth. This isn't always easy or comfortable. My fantasies about the future are constantly playing in my head; but it's when I get wrapped up in those fantasies, that fear creeps in. I start to feel anxious about what lies ahead and unable to give myself freely and joyfully to the moment. When I remain aware and watch the stories playing out in my head instead of becoming involved in them, I am at peace.

Rumi writes:
A strange passion is moving in my head.
My heart has become a bird
Which searches in the sky.
Every part of me goes in different directions.
Is it really so
That the one I love is everywhere?

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