life

What Does it Take to Enjoy Life More?

Inner Work — Is It Really Worth Doing?

People fear the inner work. Understandably. It can feel like a nightmare in there…

Emotions. Painful ones. The ones we’ve avoided for decades and more.

All lurking inside us, waiting to tear us apart…

How often I hear people say… ‘I don’t want to start exploring that stuff. I’d start crying and I know I’d never stop.’

I felt that way myself, for years.

How many of us choose death by slow addiction, rather than facing that inner world? We’re frightened of painful emotions. They overwhelm us. They seem to threaten our very survival.

Maybe we reach a point where we can no longer avoid this inner work. We reach out for help. There are so many approaches and who knows which approach is the best fit for us? It’s bewildering. We’re lost in a world we don’t recognise...

What if you were the one who knows? The only one who knows…

What if you were the expert on you?

I don’t mean we don’t ask for advice or information. Of course there are others who know WAY more about the world of emotion and trauma than we do.

But what if we had infallible inner guidance inside?

What Kind of Knowing Keeps Us Upright?

Where do we find a knowing that gives us sure footing as the waves of change roll in all around us?

“Breathing in, I calm body and mind. Breathing out, I smile. Dwelling in the present moment I know this is the only moment.” ― Thich Nhat Hanh

What if all strength and steadiness came from the simple knowing of now?

“There is a universal, intelligent life force that exists within everyone and everything. It resides within each one of us as a deep wisdom, an inner knowing. We can access this wonderful source of knowledge and wisdom through our intuition, an inner sense that tells us what feels right and true for us at any given moment.” — Shakti Gawain

Ask not, ‘Is it true?’ but ‘Does it feel good?’

Have You Arrived? Are You Home?

In the here, in the now…

“Have you had a good day?”

A friend texted that question to me a few evenings ago.

I hesitated before replying.

Do I talk about the tears? The aching? The longing for some tangible message or meeting with Michael as I sit in a quiet cemetery wishing for Home?

No.

Instead, I wash through my day, sending love to all those moments of loss. All in my imagining… Dissolving my tears in an ocean of joy, I sit, while life breathes on through me.

I can’t feel it yet, that ocean of joy, but that’s ok.

Simply intending it is enough.

Now, in the stillness of this moment, I find Home. Right here, inside me.

Want to Know How to Get at Life's Goodies?

Ask a squirrel — they’ve got it sussed

Experiencing the extremes of life after loss is bringing me all kinds of goodies, often in ways unexpected. In moments where grief overwhelms me, these fragments of goodness find me. They soothe me back into alignment.

A lesson I’ve learned recently from three squirrel kits brings steadiness to my yearning for joy.

Here’s how…

Squirrels are expert in going for the goodies… and getting them!

Picture the scene. A metal bird feeder — a tall pole, with a shallow basket 2/3 of the way up. A plastic, cylindrical seed dispenser, designed for small birds only, hangs from an arm at the top of the pole. The base of the dispenser is a good foot from the basket, roughly at the same height…

I’m sure you can imagine what comes next.

A Mantra Can Save You From a Mind Run Amok

Avoiding the perils of a puppy-dog mind

A mind run amok — mine, a week ago last Sunday

Curled up on the couch I was. Crying again.

Lord, when will it all end?

The day had started well enough. A day without structure. A day just for me.

No events booked. No people to see. No pressure, no fuss, no muss…

I crave days like that, as life becomes busier. I love time to myself. To be free.

But, sure as mustard, my day took a nose-dive. It ditched me right into the sea. The ocean of misery swallowed me whole.

Again.

Seriously. Enough already. What’s with all this sobbing?

Maybe you’re grieving, as I am, the loss of your soulmate, your reason-to-be.

Perhaps you are struggling to find light to live by in times that seem unbearably sad.

Or you could just be noticing you’ve not smiled so much lately, your forehead creased into slight frowning...

Whatever ‘amok’ your mind may be running, I hope the following helps — my journaled reflections as I took on the perils of my puppy-dog mind.