Lightarted Living: Mindfulness: Steal Moments of Attentive Silence in...

Lightarted Living: Mindfulness: Steal Moments of Attentive Silence in...: OPENNESS  'What the world needs most is openness: Open hearts, open doors, open eyes, open minds, open ears, open souls.'...

Lightarted Living: Life Kicking Your Butt? Get Back into the Groove a...

Lightarted Living: Life Kicking Your Butt? Get Back into the Groove a...: When Life Kicks Your Butt, Retreat to your place of Calm Last year, was one of those butt-kicking times for my husband and I when...

Life Kicking Your Butt? Get Back into the Groove and Thrive Anyway

When Life Kicks Your Butt, Retreat to your place of Calm

Last year, was one of those butt-kicking times for my husband and I when he was diagnosed with the big 'C'. Thankfully, a year and a half after he completed treatment he's cancer-free.  With 95% of re-occurrences arising within the first year--his prognosis is excellent long term, and we're able to breathe a sigh of relief. But it wasn't always so. 

 Like others hit with a diagnosis of cancer we were shaken and fearful for the future. I practiced calming and centering myself as I sat alongside him during treatment by concentrating my attention on creating images of hope and comfort, and then sharing them with others.

At the time I fully intended to share the dragonfly in this post as an uplift for others experiencing life's challenges . But as I meandered through the blog I was surprised to discover I failed to post the dragonfly with its calming and forward-looking message.  Perhaps I just wasn't done absorbing the message myself. Perhaps I was still 'the dog hiding under the porch licking it's wounds' and not ready to come out.

So as I sat with this image today, I thought about how much the simple message carried here was what got us through the radiation and chemotherapy--helping us to focus on one day and one moment at a time--while helping us set a positive expectation for the future. And I also realized how relevant it still was for helping us to continue to thrive today despite the jolts of fear that still rise up. 

I'm in the Process of Positive Changes

All is Well

Calmness Surrounds Me

Don't Let Fear and Dread Bully You  

"Breathe In~ 'This Moment'

Breathe Out~ 'This Breath'"

Mark Nepo, The Book of Awakening

After experiencing, then moving beyond, one of life's butt-kicking challenges we may breath that sigh of relief, but those underlying fears still linger long after the issue resolves--always ready to roar back to life. That's what holds us back from getting back into the groove of life and fully thriving.

You don't need to invite fear into your life. It charges into view uninvited in nanoseconds--catching you off guard and filling you with dread at the most inopportune moments.

Life is full of harrowing butt-kicking challenges. But you can't let fear and dread bully you into withdrawing from life. If you accept that tough times are a natural part of life you can choose a strategy for calming and centering yourself in the moment to help you move past the fear and dread faster. 

Unlike fear and dread racing in uninvited, we must consciously and deliberately invite calmness and a sense of peace into our lives after fear and dread march in to bully our senses.

Learn to Focus Your Breathing when Fear and Dread Make an Appearance

We aren't in control of our lives when we're anxious and fear-lead. When we're calm and centered we're able to take charge of our lives, live more peacefully, and make better decisions. 

The proper response to the fear, anxiety and dread bullies is always to find your way back to being calm and centered. Feeling out-of-control and helpless keeps you trapped in a fear cycle.

Some people feel silly consciously practicing breathing. It feels a little 'Woo-Woo. If this is you--and you want to get back in the groove and thrive after the three bullies arrive--you'll need to let go of feeling silly to methodically and calmly execute centered breathing. Think of centered breathing as a way to inspire yourself in your moment of fear--breathing life back into your dis-spirited self. 

'Inspire' literally means in-spirit---or filled with a spirited, animated or exalted influence. It also means to inhale or 'to breathe life into'. 

When you take a moment to practice Centered Breathing--with conscious and deliberately slow inhale and exhale--it focuses your attention on the moment--not future or past--and calls your 'calm nervous system' (parasympathetic) into play.    

You don't need to go some place quiet (although that can help) to center yourself with slow, focused breathing. You can take a moment at your desk or out on a walk. You can do a short set of slow, focused breaths driving to or from work. You can practice while drying dishes, taking a shower, or pulling weeds. You can prepare yourself before a presentation or meeting, or on your way to treatment or surgery.  

Mark Nepo, who wrote The Book of Awakening after he dealt with his own bout of cancer, shared his very simple breathing technique, 'This Moment; This Breath'. You consciously and deliberately inhale and exhale while focusing your thoughts with "This moment" on inhale and 'This breath' on exhale. 

"Breathe In~ 'This Moment'

Breathe Out~ 'This Breath'"

Mark Nepo, The Book of Awakening

"What you hope, you will eventually believe. 

What you believe you will eventually know. 

What you know, you will eventually create. 

What you create, you will eventually experience. 

What you experience, you will eventually express. 

What you express, you will eventually become. 

This is the formula for all of life."

Neale Donald Walsch

Choose to Thrive 

No matter where you are in your life journey--at the beginning or towards the end, choose to make today a pleasure and to see yourself in the process of positive changes no matter your circumstances.

Take the Reins Riding Your Life's Dragon

Thrive

Sign Up for Free E-mail updates

                          

For more than 35 years, Susan Meyerott has been helping people lighten up and step over invisible barriers to change one step at a time. She speaks to your heart, puts you at ease, and makes letting go and moving forward with life easier than ever before.

                                                                                                    

Do you know someone who could benefit from uplifting messages? Please share Lightarted Living with them. If you or someone you love is interested in learning more about closing the gap between where you are now and where you want to be, join the FREE Lightarted Living mailing list.

Lightarted Living: How to Go Confidently in the Direction of Your Dre...

Lightarted Living: How to Go Confidently in the Direction of Your Dre...: Discover Your Clear Moments of Choice  'Honestly, the older I get, the more my 'stuckness' sticks to me. In the past, I ma...

How to Go Confidently in the Direction of Your Dreams

Discover Your Clear Moments of Choice

 'Honestly, the older I get, the more my 'stuckness' sticks to me. In the past, I marched on oblivious to direction or obstacles. Lately, I'm permanently poised mid-step. I need a kick in the behind!' TMR

What's happening in your life right now?  Has something happened that has your attention or are you reacting to something that has recently happened? Perhaps like my friend, TMR, a few years back, you find yourself stuck--'permanently poised mid-step'.

When life piles up, its easy to find yourself stuck--forever bouncing between challenging experiences and reacting to them. If you fail to sit quietly and take a moment in response to  confidence-lowering experiences you'll miss your clear moment of choice allowing you to go confidently in the direction of your dreams.

Where is this so-called moment of choice? It's in the in-between. If you sit quietly, you'll discover a space of time exists between when something happens in your life and when you respond or react.

Something Happens---💓SPACE OF TIME💓--Your Response

It is within that space you have choices. This is where your window of opportunity lies, and that moment in time when you're able to chose your attitude and actions going forward.

 To discover your moments of choice and confidence:

💓Calmly Practice the Pause💓

When Life is Tough, Slow Down 

When something seemingly bad happens, or life just isn't going your way, it can send you into a tailspin of emotions that freezes you in  fear and self-doubt, causing you to skip over that crucial moment in time where your ability to choose exists.

When life gets tough, the question you need to ask yourself is 'how soon can I move out of the fear that has me poised mid-step back into having faith in my abilities to go confidently in the direction of my dreams?'

 It's only natural to respond to threatening situations with fear and self-consciousness. We all do. 

The way to go confidently in the direction of your dreams despite experiencing hardships is for you to calmly and consciously 'practice the pause' in times of challenge. Only then will you open to that moment where you confidently retake the reins and decide on your next steps.

Sit in it!

Sometimes the world knocks you a blow. To function at your best, you need time to just sit in it after you've taken a hit to lick wounds, feel anger or sadness, and to acknowledge the injustice of it all.  You need time to clear the cobwebs of fear from your mind so you can move on to creating a more productive and empowering perspective. 

To go confidently in the direction of your dreams despite obstacles, practice stilling your mind. 

'To a mind that is still, the whole universe surrenders.' Lao Tzu

All Things Seemingly Good or Bad Work in Your Favor

There's no way around it: If you hold on to bad feelings after something happens, you are the only one who is affected by those bad thoughts and feelings. Why allow those people or negative experiences to continue to control your life and emotional well-being after they've disappeared from your life?

Put yourself in the driver seat instead. Sit in your emotions without taking action until you can still your mind. Then calmly allow your mind to move toward the mantra 'all things seemingly good or bad work in my favor'. The more you recite this to yourself and others, the sooner that space of time where you have choices will open up to your full view.

Go Confidently in the Direction of Your Dreams

Go confidently in the direction of your dreams, knowing all things seemingly good or bad work in your favor. Ignite the circuits of your highest potential. Live the life you imagined.

Sign Up for Free E-mail updates

                          

For more than 35 years, Susan Meyerott has been helping people lighten up and step over invisible barriers to change one step at a time. She speaks to your heart, puts you at ease, and makes letting go and moving forward with life easier than ever before.

                                                                                                    

Do you know someone who could benefit from uplifting messages? Please share Lightarted Living with them. If you or someone you love is interested in learning more about closing the gap between where you are now and where you want to be, join the FREE Lightarted Living mailing list.

Lightarted Living: Happy Day!

Lightarted Living: Happy Day!: “There is only one way to happiness and that is  to cease worrying about things  which are beyond the power of our will.” E...



Words of wisdom from Churchill and others on worry and happiness.