Spa me
There’s something juicy about trying to figure out when to schedule my massage next week in Asheville. And then there are the details. With a mountain view? With stones? A 50-minute or an 80-minute?
Oh, the chore of it all.
The pain-body
Tonight’s class on A New Earth with author Eckhart Tolle and Oprah was soul food once again. This week we were introduced to what Tolle calls the pain-body, defined as the “energy field of old but still very-much-alive emotion that lives in almost every human being.”
A searing passage:
Any emotionally painful experience can be used as food by the pain-body. That’s why it thrives on negative thinking as well as drama in relationships. The pain-body is an addiction to unhappiness.
We left class with the thought tonight that a good first step is to be aware of our pain-body and that of our loved ones when it emerges.
Step one.
Music to my ears
The men in my family have provided a nice soundtrack for my life this week.
Dad converted four cassette tapes he had made me a while back into CDs. I’ve indulged in some swinging Sinatra the last few days.
My brother loaded up my MP3 player with goodies, most of which I haven’t even gotten to yet. All I know is my workouts are better already. Each day there’s another surprise.
The gifts that keep on giving.
A dose of Marianne
I have been happily toiling at writing a Game Plan column for FOXBusiness.com this evening and as part of my research I went on Marianne Williamson’s website. It was a joyful reminder of her famous quote once used in a speech by Nelson Mandela and it bears repeating here:
Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It’s not just in some of us; it’s in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.
–from A Return to Love, by Marianne Williamson
Snake-bitten
Read this story about Wal-Mart today:
Reminded me of the fact that the endangered northern pine snake is holding up the building of a Wal-Mart near my parents’ retirement community in Manchester Township. The proposed center would be five times the size of a football field.
Hope the slimy creature lives a long life.
Be still
Spent the afternoon at a meditation workshop and enjoyed it immensely. Sometimes I need my stillness imposed.
A tree grows in Hoboken
So because of the holiday I was a little late in reading this week’s Hoboken Reporter. There’s an ongoing fight being played out in the Letters to the Editor every week — should they have planted a bunch of trees in one of our parks here? I was amused to see this written in a letter from a 12-year-old girl who goes to nearby Mustard Seed School:
Due to the lack of play space we are not able to release enough energy to keep us focused for the rest of the school day. This causes stress for adults who are responsible for taking care of us, which is quite difficult when we are overflowing with energy.
OK. Either this was written by one of those parents who does science projects, too, or this child knows way too much about stress and energy.
They’re just trees, folks.
A calling
A heady day of life coaching. Sometimes it’s so natural it’s surreal. Four clients today, all amazing in their own right. Each one keeping me on my toes.
I lay my head on the pillow tonight knowing I do what I was born to do.
The big switch
My long-standing dental appointment for a check-up and cleaning is tomorrow. Was scheduled six months ago and was to be at 4 p.m. Yesterday, the publicist for a celebrity I’ve been wanting to interview asks if I can do it at the exact time of the dental appointment. I say no, I’m busy at that time but can do any other. The celebrity is trying to do this on her lunch, which on West Coast time is 1 p.m., my dead zone.
Yikes. I don’t want to move the dental appointment because I already confirmed and it’s irresponsible to cancel at the last minute. But I’m excited about the possibility of the interview.
Lo and behold, this morning the dental office calls and asks sheepishly if by any chance I can switch to 11:15 a.m. tomorrow. I smiled so wide she could probably hear it through the phone. I subsequently emailed the publicist and, presto, our interview is in the book for tomorrow.
I tell this to one of my clients today and she says, “Your universe is working.”
Yes, indeed.
Silence is golden
I’m fascinated by my choice of verses in Wayne Dyer’s book today. I like to scan the table of contents and pick the Tao Te Ching verse that speaks to me at that moment. Today it was verse 56, or as Dyer calls it, “Living by Silent Knowing”:
http://www.taoteching.org/chapters/56.htm
Dyer sums up the verse this way: Those who care the least about approval seem to receive it the most.
This jumps out at me at a time when I am contemplating my professional growth. The verse is tied to the stillness, more like silence, that I have recently found to be valuable at regular intervals in my life.
I like it.
