Me, myself and time

To have a full awareness of time - of the importance of time - is to walk hand in hand with life, not against it, behind it, catching it up, running after it or before it... but hand in hand, in rhythm and in rhyme. Each moment is precious. The more I see this, the more I see the beauty in every act and in each scene of life. The more I see such beauty, the more life's potential unfolds as a gift in front of me.

Have a great moment - every moment!

All I Need Is Love

Last week a friend said: everyone just needs a little love, and that this will automatically bring them closer to you. This stuck in my mind. "All you need is love" by the Beetles kept playing in my head. I thought to myself, “Ok then, I can give a little love. No one is asking for too much!” So throughout the week when coming into interaction with others I kept reminding myself: that all they need is just a little love. Let me be that much more loving...

The result - I felt that I was the one being loved by all. I noticed: I complained a lot less; that I was happily doing things that I would normally find a chore; I felt more energised and that I was utilising my energy a lot more effectively.

I have now learnt that the art of receiving is giving. I am still in the mood for love – valentines’ are in the air!

Destiny

Each one of us is unique and full of potential -- the only thing that stops us is fear. When I open my heart to life's possibilities, I step in synch with my highest destiny. That feels wonderful!

DESTINY

Today I know I'm going to be stretcheeeeeeed!
So this is what I'm going to remember:

Where attention goes, energy flows...
Where energy flows, life grows!


Thank goodness I'm incharge of my destiny.....

Have a great week.

Otis

The Flower Garden of Life

Try this…

1. Write as many virtues on a piece of paper that you can think of, or buy a book of virtues!
2. Select a group of people you often spend time with: colleagues, friends, family etc.
3. Then just before you go to bed list at least 5 to 6 virtues for each Person on your list (Be generous!)
4. Enjoy each list of virtues as if each is a flower creating it’s own fragrance, meditate on them until they give you a certain feeling.....it feels good.

I was amazed at the results. The day after I did this I really felt that my attitude had shifted and the old thoughts - that were negative and not helping me - were no longer filled with life.

Going into work the next day, the lift doors opened and I imagined walking into a garden.

Enjoy the fragrance!

Power of thought

The thought manifests as the word;
The word manifests as the deed;
The deed develops into habits;
And habits harden into character.
So watch the thought and its way with care;
And let it spring from love;
Born out of concern for all beings.

For all to enjoy – have a gr8 day

-Fuzz-

I am.

Qazom-spiritual student checking into Blog world. I have been enjoying everyone's pearls from the week - this is a really cool way of sharing. Was really interested to join in this blog and it has brought to me a greater sense of reflection on the very small events that happen each day, thanks for that. Something I am working with, as BOL mentioned, is building a distance from the role I am playing, building an awareness of being rather than doing.

A Gem from the week!

I am working with a practise of looking back at each day - and also during the day when I can- to see what worked and why it worked. The thoughts that came were really very simple here. This situation is an example. We had a very big event at work--- high profile for the department etc, everyone's stress levels edging upwards!... After my class in the morning I made a determined decision: I'm not going to go in that direction, no matter what happens... The thought in my mind was: I need to be aware of how I am being / what am I sharing at all times. A little later in the day when I could take some time for proper reflection and look back at the day to see how it had gone I considered, what was it that helped me and the situation remain stable when we discovered that the course materials hadn't shown up. The other person -the presenter- was very upset with me (note - I'm the organiser of the event!) At that time the feelings that flowed from me to the presenter were - calmness, love, understanding and an echo of the thought I am not going there with you. I just said: we'll find them, they'll show up, I'll look into it. Then by contrast as soon as I became aware of the role I was playing, of what 'I' had to do, i.e. find the box of materials, the emotions changed in me and as if by magic the qualities vanished. Then when I asked myself the question: how am I going to be? -the qualities like companions appeared back in my mind.....

The materials did turn up 45 mins later.

Today I received an apology from 'the presenter', the person who was upset with me 'the event organiser'.

Moral of the story for me: play the part - be my best - I am not the part I play.

Stress Released or Stress Unleashed?

Image source © CartoonStock.com

images source © Cartoonstock.com

I came across these funny pictures on the web relating to stress release. I caught myself laughing silly because I completely related to these pictures. I bet if we were being observed by Martians we would appear to them to be a really weird bunch! It seems that when we find ourselves in stressful situations they are no longer so funny, …as rather than observing the “picture” we have entered the “picture”.

We have all experienced stress at one level or another. I may not have actually punched somebody on the nose or thrown any objects out of a window, but I have definitely thought of doing both of these at some points back down the line when the pressure has been rising. I used to think ‘so-and-so is the cause of my stress’ and I used to vent my emotions on the people whom I love. I now know that the external things are just triggers, and that when I begin to feel stressed the first thing I need to do is to check myself. So today, when I find myself in stressful situations I first try to make time for a few moments of silence – in the toilet (!), picking up the telephone receiver, or pretending to look busy if I am at work… this allows me to create the ‘space’ I need to de-clutter my mind before I begin to handle the situation. These few moments of silence allow me to find the solution to the problem and enable me to respond to the situation rather than just react to it.

I cannot say I am free from stress but I have at least taken a step forward, to do something about it...

Why am I sharing this? Just a reminder to myself…

Trust yourself

I had this email from a friend and I just wanted to share it with you.

"... when I have faith in myself I no longer fear. I no longer fear if others change their opinions or feelings. I no longer fear changes in circumstances. Change is life's religion. Once I let go of the tendency to become attached to 'what I know' and trust myself instead I can explore new horizons, try new things, because now I believe in my intrinsic goodness. I trust in my true self. I have faith in myself because I am a positive being and this consciousness allows my positivity to emerge."

BOL

Bad week?

Last week wasn't the greatest in my life, everything I did somehow went wrong. I was feeling very upset and I was complaining about absolutely everything. It then struck me that complaining wasn't changing anything, in fact it was making me feel worse. However, I realised that even if I could not change the situation I could change my attitude towards it and I found that doing this changed the way I was feeling. I decided that now was probably a good time to practice patience and tolerance and with these thoughts I found that everything became a better colour. So now I think that nothing is really bad or good, it just depends on how one thinks it is.

Frida

It's OK

It's okay is a cosmic truth!

A.

CREATIVE BLOOM

Yesterday evening my flatmate and I were chatting about what would make an interesting blog! I wanted to do a series of commentaries (which I'd still like to do)...It's funny what happens, when you begin to think about something and then how suddenly an insight will appear! It was quite a beautiful experience...We continued to share ideas about interesting blogs and the conversation became highly animated. Then for a moment I caught myself in full expression, laughing, completely myself and simply enjoying the friendship of the moment. I then realised something very simple, if we had a TV at home, especially as the evening itself had a flair of relaxation about it anyway, we would probably have just been sitting there watching. Yes, still enjoying. Yes, being entertained...but what was unique in that moment was that the entertainment and enjoyment came from within us. It was a moment of creation and there was a beautiful buzz in the atmosphere and one felt completely alive - in full creative bloom.

Otis

Contagious Smile

At work last week I learnt something new that wasn't about either cells or their DNA! There is a guy who has been working here voluntarily for 6 months, and he told me that his dream was to become a trainee in this department. My boss is very strict with him as she is with everyone working for her. She is very competent and committed to work and she pushes us all to learn and do as much as possible. This guy is the youngest and least experienced of all of us and we all see that she is harder on him than us. Recently a trainee position became available within the department... and he got it! I knew just by looking at him that he had been offered the position. The worried look had disappeared from his face and had been replaced by a shinning smile of contentment and gratitude. He told me that he was very grateful for everything our boss had done for him. I could not help myself, I had to write her and tell her: it is contagious to look at our new trainee’s smile; experiencing one's dream coming true is a present from life itself. Helping...... that must be even better!. ... I am learning about more than just science here! Tks!
Fuzz

Beauty

Yogi Bear -- really nice! I also have an experience I would like to share... Today I had a beautiful morning meditation and meditation class. I was inspired by the idea to be 'spiritually conscious' as opposed to 'action conscious'. To me this meant that I should see beyond that which is immediately apparent (beyond the 'actions' and the 'roles') and find the true beauty in each one (see the 'actors' behind the 'roles' they play).

So, I got on the bus to work with these thoughts and my attention was caught by a 'fat' lady who tripped and almost fell flat on the floor... immediately the thought came to me "she is not a fat lady, she is a world!" This was such an inspiring thought: that each one of us is a world, full of beauty, rivers, mountains, flowers, dark valleys... We should never judge. We should never just see the superficial because then we miss the beauty.

I then realised that I was smiling broadly for no apparent reason. I knew though: I had just seen pure beauty!

-BOL-

Every little thing counts

This morning at 7am when I parked my car in Covent Garden there was a homeless guy, let’s call him Steve, sleeping on the pavement next to the parking meter. I did not give Steve any further thought.

As 8.30am drew near I walked back to my car to pay for parking (free parking ends at 8:30am in central London!) When I approached the car Steve was wide awake and sitting up straight. He greeted me in a strong and blaring voice with “Good morning!” I responded with a barely audible “Hi” and a smile, and continued to sort out paying for parking until 9.01am.

Running late, as usual (!) I arrived back at the car at 9.05am. There were two traffic wardens near my car. If you drive in central London at all you will be aware that there are quite a number of traffic wardens around! I very luckily escaped the ordeal of being handed a parking fine thanks to Steve! When I arrived at my car Steve was arguing with the traffic wardens on my behalf and telling them that they shouldn’t be issuing me with a parking fine as he saw me putting money in the parking meter earlier on. The traffic wardens were so caught up in justifying their position to Steve that I was given the window to drive hurriedly off before they got around to issuing me with a parking ticket. As I drove off I thought to myself, why would someone like Steve extend his help to someone like me? He has such a generous heart.

What trigger such a generous heart? Is it because I returned his greeting and acknowledged his presence?I realised that life presents many little gifts and many little opportunities to share these little gifts. However, am I too caught up in my little “world” to expand my heart to catch those gifts and share them?