.
This past week the weather has been very wet, where I live. Lot’s of rain and wind have made sure that nature is thriving as well as renewing itself in some places where old trees have fallen to make room for new plants and trees; for future generations…
The beauty of this seems to be totally lost on my cats.
One day of rain is okay; after all, one can use that time very comfortably to catch up on some ‘lost sleep’ while the weather was still warm and dry. But after a couple of days and nights of wet weather, boredom sets in. Suddenly the litter-box is more appealing than the idea of getting wet feet. And there is only so much sleep to catch up on…
For us people it seems to be the perfect weather to sit down with a mug of hot chocolate and a book. Time to hang back, to do nothing. Yet in our modern society we are not geared to spend time doing nothing. Pretty soon for us too, boredom sets in. We may feel restless, wanting to do something, yet resisting going outside as that would have a high probability of getting drenched…
And where my cats eventually will find other mischief to get involved in, for us the restless feeling; the not knowing what is next can be quite uncomfortable.
In a sense this does have to do with how we value things we do and enjoy in life.
In our fast paced, high energy lives we tend to value activity a lot more than we value rest. Of course we may sleep in on our day off; yet once ‘up and running’ we feel we need to do exactly that: be up and running. Sometimes in the most literal sense possible as we are jogging our way through town in a bid to stay in shape.
It looks like we have forgotten how important the moments of ‘doing nothing’ are for us. Those moments when we just sit back, relax, and watch the world go by…
These times are important as it is in these moments that we ~ whether we are conscious of it or not ~ reflect and evaluate where we are at in life. If we would like to change directions, or feel better just to keep going in our chosen direction.
From that perspective, the continuing rainy weather is a time of reflection and integration. When we find ourselves feeling bored and uncomfortable because we cannot (or don’t feel to) engage in our normal activities, it might help us to label the reflection and integration as an ‘activity’, make ourselves a mug of hot chocolate, and just sit back for a while…
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Tuesday, May 13, 2014
Tuesday, May 6, 2014
Where we live
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The area we live in has its specific culture, its specific scenery, and it specific energy. And especially when we are born in a certain area or when we have lived in an area for a very long time, we tend to start working with that culture, that scenery and that energy.
Even when we have trouble with the cultural aspects of the area and move away from it as soon as we legally can ~ we may still have a longing for certain aspects of its scenery, its energy as we grow up and grow older; prompting us to revisit it. To re-examine it. To come to terms with it…
The way we work with the scenery can be twofold.
We either thoroughly enjoy the scenery, emerging ourselves in its peaks and valleys as much as we can; or we start finding ways in which we can do our chores in such a manner that these same peaks and valleys hinder us least.
Practically the latter means that we find suitable transportation to easily climb those hills, or move through the fords of the little streams in the valleys.
Yet we are doing the same from an emotional aspect, and even an energy perspective…
In order to avoid an emotional ‘roller-coaster’ that may come with the peaks and valleys in the area ~ feeling really good and on top of the world one moment, while feeling ‘down and out the other ~ we may adopt a continuity of mood, or outlook on life that works for us.
The interesting thing is that this behavior in essence is related to the area we live in, rather than to our state of being.
So when we move away from that area ~ whether we truly move away from it or just are enjoying a vacation ~ we may find ourselves starting to react quite a bit differently to our surroundings. And to the people we meet. Even the things we do, we may find ourselves doing differently…
And while some of that is cultural ~ after all, ‘when in Rome, do as the Romans do’ ~ another part of that is our reaction to the area we are in. How we perceive the energy of that area.
How we look at ‘the lay of the land’…
This means that where we live often a greater impact can have on our sense of self that we may be aware of in our day-to-day lives.
And every once in a while it may be a good thing to look back at trips we have made or other places, other areas we have lived and ‘compare notes’; see how we felt about our lives then, how we got stuff done, how we reacted to situations in that other place…
And when we would do that, we just may surprise ourselves…
.
.
The area we live in has its specific culture, its specific scenery, and it specific energy. And especially when we are born in a certain area or when we have lived in an area for a very long time, we tend to start working with that culture, that scenery and that energy.
Even when we have trouble with the cultural aspects of the area and move away from it as soon as we legally can ~ we may still have a longing for certain aspects of its scenery, its energy as we grow up and grow older; prompting us to revisit it. To re-examine it. To come to terms with it…
The way we work with the scenery can be twofold.
We either thoroughly enjoy the scenery, emerging ourselves in its peaks and valleys as much as we can; or we start finding ways in which we can do our chores in such a manner that these same peaks and valleys hinder us least.
Practically the latter means that we find suitable transportation to easily climb those hills, or move through the fords of the little streams in the valleys.
Yet we are doing the same from an emotional aspect, and even an energy perspective…
In order to avoid an emotional ‘roller-coaster’ that may come with the peaks and valleys in the area ~ feeling really good and on top of the world one moment, while feeling ‘down and out the other ~ we may adopt a continuity of mood, or outlook on life that works for us.
The interesting thing is that this behavior in essence is related to the area we live in, rather than to our state of being.
So when we move away from that area ~ whether we truly move away from it or just are enjoying a vacation ~ we may find ourselves starting to react quite a bit differently to our surroundings. And to the people we meet. Even the things we do, we may find ourselves doing differently…
And while some of that is cultural ~ after all, ‘when in Rome, do as the Romans do’ ~ another part of that is our reaction to the area we are in. How we perceive the energy of that area.
How we look at ‘the lay of the land’…
This means that where we live often a greater impact can have on our sense of self that we may be aware of in our day-to-day lives.
And every once in a while it may be a good thing to look back at trips we have made or other places, other areas we have lived and ‘compare notes’; see how we felt about our lives then, how we got stuff done, how we reacted to situations in that other place…
And when we would do that, we just may surprise ourselves…
.
.
Friday, May 2, 2014
Tomorrow
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Tomorrow always holds a lot of promise; there are always things we are planning to do, new adventures to start, things that we are awaiting with anticipation that will happen tomorrow…
Most of those things we have planned for. We have been wanting to do or experience them for some time, we planned it, we set it up, penciled it into our calendars… And now it is almost there! Tomorrow it will finally happen!
A little bit like the anticipation we may have felt when we were children and our birthday was ‘only three nights away’. And then only two nights; and then it was tomorrow…
As children, we were certain that our birthdays ~ or whatever other adventure we were anticipating ~ really would happen tomorrow; and we were sure that they would bring everything we hoped for and more.
As adults, the promise of tomorrow may have become a little bit more dualistic.
Yes, there are still those things we have planned that will happen tomorrow. And as tomorrow becomes today, these things happen and we (hopefully) enjoy them; enjoy the experience of them. As time moves on, they have happened yesterday and they are something to look back upon. A memory to be cherished.
On the other hand there are also things we promise ourselves we will do tomorrow.
Often things we may not enjoy as much, things we may even be a bit fearful about ~ either because we are not certain we can actually get it done, stick with it, or even dare do it when we are faced with the whole package of it. For instance, things like starting that diet; starting to get into shape; to stop smoking. Or even the decision that whatever happened to us years ago will not any longer influence our lives in a negative way anymore…
These type of things may not ~ as time progresses ~ actually ever come into our lives today. They may always be the promise we make to ourselves that we will start them tomorrow. We will do it tomorrow…
When we do this with something we know we probably should do, but we are really not feeling up to actually doing it ~ we are not living in the moment. At least as far as this aspect of our lives is concerned, we are living in the future ~ always looking at living it, starting it, doing it tomorrow.
What we are really doing, is locking part of our energy up into the future, without ever claiming the results to be our own…
So, let’s promise to ourselves that tomorrow we will just start living ‘now’…
.
.
Tomorrow always holds a lot of promise; there are always things we are planning to do, new adventures to start, things that we are awaiting with anticipation that will happen tomorrow…
Most of those things we have planned for. We have been wanting to do or experience them for some time, we planned it, we set it up, penciled it into our calendars… And now it is almost there! Tomorrow it will finally happen!
A little bit like the anticipation we may have felt when we were children and our birthday was ‘only three nights away’. And then only two nights; and then it was tomorrow…
As children, we were certain that our birthdays ~ or whatever other adventure we were anticipating ~ really would happen tomorrow; and we were sure that they would bring everything we hoped for and more.
As adults, the promise of tomorrow may have become a little bit more dualistic.
Yes, there are still those things we have planned that will happen tomorrow. And as tomorrow becomes today, these things happen and we (hopefully) enjoy them; enjoy the experience of them. As time moves on, they have happened yesterday and they are something to look back upon. A memory to be cherished.
On the other hand there are also things we promise ourselves we will do tomorrow.
Often things we may not enjoy as much, things we may even be a bit fearful about ~ either because we are not certain we can actually get it done, stick with it, or even dare do it when we are faced with the whole package of it. For instance, things like starting that diet; starting to get into shape; to stop smoking. Or even the decision that whatever happened to us years ago will not any longer influence our lives in a negative way anymore…
These type of things may not ~ as time progresses ~ actually ever come into our lives today. They may always be the promise we make to ourselves that we will start them tomorrow. We will do it tomorrow…
When we do this with something we know we probably should do, but we are really not feeling up to actually doing it ~ we are not living in the moment. At least as far as this aspect of our lives is concerned, we are living in the future ~ always looking at living it, starting it, doing it tomorrow.
What we are really doing, is locking part of our energy up into the future, without ever claiming the results to be our own…
So, let’s promise to ourselves that tomorrow we will just start living ‘now’…
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Tuesday, April 29, 2014
The longest road
.
Throughout our lives we will be walking many paths, travel many roads…
Some of those pathways turn out to be diversions when time moves on giving us the chance to look back upon them. And while at the time some were interesting diversions, some of them may have been simple detours, or have had a more distracting quality to them. In effect redirecting the way to our goals; or even leading us to a new and different goal altogether.
Other avenues turn out to be wide and easy to traverse, bringing us to our chosen destination in no time at all.
Most of the roads we travel are somewhere in between. They can be long and winding, providing us with scenic views of whatever is around us, bringing us to interesting places to stay over. They can also be ‘cliffhangers’ in the most literal sense of the word; where one side of the road is a sheer wall going up, and the other side is a ravine of which you cannot see the bottom. Those roads seem like a scary balancing act of which we fail to see why people would want to go there ~ and yet we may encounter a fair bit of traffic on a road like that…
Some roads are shorter than we expected them to be; or narrower ~ more like alleys ~ perhaps making us uncertain where they come out, or what we may find a the end of them…
Yet it seems that the longest road we may explore is the road inside.
That path that permits us to know more about ourselves; to get to know ourselves better and better. To discover what we are all about. Not from the perspective of what we have been told, but more based upon who we truly are at the very core of our being. It is a road that will show us vistas of unbelievable beauty. It will guide us to places we are invited to explore ~ coming to recognize the grace and elegance of them as well as the darker corners and closets that are also there.
And the further we travel that road, the more light there seems to be on it and the easier it becomes to move forward. With everything we come to know and understand about ourselves, our journey becomes more smooth. And after a while we start encountering less detours, less deviations, and fewer and fewer obstacles…
It makes that longest road inside a truly personal path to (spiritual) growth.
.
.
Throughout our lives we will be walking many paths, travel many roads…
Some of those pathways turn out to be diversions when time moves on giving us the chance to look back upon them. And while at the time some were interesting diversions, some of them may have been simple detours, or have had a more distracting quality to them. In effect redirecting the way to our goals; or even leading us to a new and different goal altogether.
Other avenues turn out to be wide and easy to traverse, bringing us to our chosen destination in no time at all.
Most of the roads we travel are somewhere in between. They can be long and winding, providing us with scenic views of whatever is around us, bringing us to interesting places to stay over. They can also be ‘cliffhangers’ in the most literal sense of the word; where one side of the road is a sheer wall going up, and the other side is a ravine of which you cannot see the bottom. Those roads seem like a scary balancing act of which we fail to see why people would want to go there ~ and yet we may encounter a fair bit of traffic on a road like that…
Some roads are shorter than we expected them to be; or narrower ~ more like alleys ~ perhaps making us uncertain where they come out, or what we may find a the end of them…
Yet it seems that the longest road we may explore is the road inside.
That path that permits us to know more about ourselves; to get to know ourselves better and better. To discover what we are all about. Not from the perspective of what we have been told, but more based upon who we truly are at the very core of our being. It is a road that will show us vistas of unbelievable beauty. It will guide us to places we are invited to explore ~ coming to recognize the grace and elegance of them as well as the darker corners and closets that are also there.
And the further we travel that road, the more light there seems to be on it and the easier it becomes to move forward. With everything we come to know and understand about ourselves, our journey becomes more smooth. And after a while we start encountering less detours, less deviations, and fewer and fewer obstacles…
It makes that longest road inside a truly personal path to (spiritual) growth.
.
.
Friday, April 25, 2014
Take care!
.
Words used instead of ‘goodbye’; take care, see you soon…
The words are short for the wish the other person will be safe until the next time you will see each other. Take care of yourself! Be safe!
It is something that for a lot of people is hard to do.
It is way easier to take care of business. Or to take care of others around them like friends and family. To do something for others rather than to do the same ~ or at least similar ~ things for themselves.
In order to care for ourselves, we first need to figure out what our needs and desires truly are on a deeper level than ‘I’m dying for a cup of coffee right now’. What do we need out of life? How much money do we need to get by on? And how many hours are we willing and able to work to gain that amount of money? How much time do we desire to spend with our families? How much ‘me-time’ do we need to give ourselves a chance to rest and to connect with our innermost selves?
Not to speak of our housing and transportation needs etc.
To take care of ourselves we should ponder those things every once in a while as the answers may well change over time.
Also it is a good idea to see where we stand with them in order to assess whether we are still more or less balanced in our activities…
For instance, when we really put in the effort to better our financial situation ~ we may find ourselves working long hours for a while. And there is nothing wrong with doing that. However, when we find ourselves working 13-hour-days for extended periods of time, while forgoing time to spend with family or friends, and this still important ‘me-time’ ~ chances are the balance is lost. And the same is true for any aspect of our lives we feel the need to spend an exorbitant amount of time on for whatever the reason, or we may start to feel over-tired, over-stressed…
Somehow we have found a way to take care of our finances, our families, our homes ~ of business ~ without taking care of ourselves.
With all the talk about our individual needs, wants, and desires in society today (after all ‘you are worth it!’), the real value is perceived to lie in the things we do for others rather than for ourselves.
Solving this dilemma reduces our stress levels and will allow us to take on a sustainable lifestyle.
In the meantime, take care!
.
.
Words used instead of ‘goodbye’; take care, see you soon…
The words are short for the wish the other person will be safe until the next time you will see each other. Take care of yourself! Be safe!
It is something that for a lot of people is hard to do.
It is way easier to take care of business. Or to take care of others around them like friends and family. To do something for others rather than to do the same ~ or at least similar ~ things for themselves.
In order to care for ourselves, we first need to figure out what our needs and desires truly are on a deeper level than ‘I’m dying for a cup of coffee right now’. What do we need out of life? How much money do we need to get by on? And how many hours are we willing and able to work to gain that amount of money? How much time do we desire to spend with our families? How much ‘me-time’ do we need to give ourselves a chance to rest and to connect with our innermost selves?
Not to speak of our housing and transportation needs etc.
To take care of ourselves we should ponder those things every once in a while as the answers may well change over time.
Also it is a good idea to see where we stand with them in order to assess whether we are still more or less balanced in our activities…
For instance, when we really put in the effort to better our financial situation ~ we may find ourselves working long hours for a while. And there is nothing wrong with doing that. However, when we find ourselves working 13-hour-days for extended periods of time, while forgoing time to spend with family or friends, and this still important ‘me-time’ ~ chances are the balance is lost. And the same is true for any aspect of our lives we feel the need to spend an exorbitant amount of time on for whatever the reason, or we may start to feel over-tired, over-stressed…
Somehow we have found a way to take care of our finances, our families, our homes ~ of business ~ without taking care of ourselves.
With all the talk about our individual needs, wants, and desires in society today (after all ‘you are worth it!’), the real value is perceived to lie in the things we do for others rather than for ourselves.
Solving this dilemma reduces our stress levels and will allow us to take on a sustainable lifestyle.
In the meantime, take care!
.
.
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