Bring on the stillness
Buddhist meditation class felt like a milestone tonight. Something has clicked. Maybe my ability to focus on an intention and stay with it. Maybe the breathing. Maybe the fact that I’m relaxed. It wasn’t always that way.
No, no. There was a time when my racing mind was about all I could take. Silence? Not golden.
That was then. This is now.
It’s all in the journey.
Gloriously mundane
It’s been a weekend of exploring Soho, working on projects, reading, exercising, eating well, occasional snippets of TV. All with a backdrop of gorgeous weather.
Very luxurious.
Kind of like John Lennon said, “Life is what happens while you are making other plans.”
Love that.
Root causes
So today I had a root canal. I’m not going to say it was pleasant, especially given the two hours in the chair, but my fear subsided after four needles rendered me without feeling on one side of my face. I walked out of the dentist’s office a bit dazed, met a friend for some ‘gentle’ conversation, and then decided rather than give in to the urge to lie down, I’d head to Buddhist meditation class.
It made perfect sense since I believe I manifested this and that my body is trying to tell me something ‘bigger.’ I had already scoured my Louise Hay book (You Can Heal Your Life) for some answers and here’s what it said:
Problem: Teeth
Probable Cause: Represent decisions. Long-standing indecisiveness. Inability to break down ideas for analysis and decisions.
New Thought Pattern: I make my decisions based on the principles of truth, and I rest securely knowing that only right action is taking place in my life.
Also, see root canal.
Problem: Root Canal
Probable Cause: Can’t bite into anything anymore. Root beliefs being destroyed.
New Thought Pattern: I create firm foundations for myself and for my life. I choose my beliefs to support me joyously.
With so much happening in my life that upends how I used to think and what I used to believe, somehow this all feels logical and even sensible. Every day I am in situations that show me how much my belief system has shifted or been rocked to its core.
I treasure my body, how it moves, how it works, what it tells me. Today it is putting me through some discomfort, yet I am grateful that we are learning to read each other so well.
And, well, maybe for the container of rice pudding that is calling my name from the kitchen.
The gift of time
Hmmmm. Two cancelled appointments tomorrow. Must mean I’m supposed to do something meaningful with the extra time.
Fabulous.
Feeding my inner artist
Went to see the Louise Bourgeois exhibit at the Guggenheim with an artist friend today. It blew me away. I particularly loved a sculpture called Spiral Woman, which is suspended from the ceiling. Here’s the description:
In a hybridized form that recalls the imagery of Bourgeois’s Femme Maison works, a small bronze figure is trapped within a clutching spiral and suspended above a dark slate disc positioned on the floor below. As the woman dangles in midair, there is a sense of suspended animation. Is she struggling to free herself? Or is the embrace of the spiral saving her from tumbling into the void below? Although all of Bourgeois’s work can be seen as a continual excavation of the self, she has singled out this work in particular as a self-portrait, explaining, “She hangs up in the air. She turns around and she doesn’t know her left from her right. Who do you think it represents? It represents Louise. This is the way I feel . . .”
Brilliant stuff.
My huge backyard
I whipped through The New York Times this morning with a tall cup of coffee while sitting on a bench at the Hoboken waterfront. It was delightful. Just enough breeze so the paper wasn’t flying, lots of activity all around, and the river active with boats.
Despite the nutty politics and the controversies over development here, I have never thought of Hoboken as anything less than a treasure in the near decade I’ve lived here. And it gets better every day. The funny thing is, I picked it more for proximity to Manhattan and family in Jersey than for the quality of the lifestyle. The urban thing was brand new to me and I wasn’t sure what to look for.
Thanks to the Law of Attraction, now I know.
Sitting in a postcard
Decided to skip Buddhist meditation class tonight. Needed a break from it.
But the waterfront at Pier A Park was calling me and my music, so I spent an hour just zoning out to rock ‘n roll. Nothing like watching the Manhattan skyline go from light to dusk to dark. So beautiful and inspiring.
Positive approach
Just started reading Authentic Happiness by Martin E. P. Seligman, Ph.D. He had me at this:
For every one hundred journal articles [in the field of psychology] on sadness, there is only one on happiness.
Flower power
I bought a vibrant red begonia and put it on the window sill in front of my desk.
Made my day of soulful creative writing all the prettier.
What would [Jesus, Oprah, The Universe] Do?
When I read earlier this week about a Christian movement against Oprah because she “dares” to call herself a Christian when she believes there is more than one way to God, I was disheartened. But when I watched a YouTube video about it, my emotions went to a completely different place. As one friend emailed me when he watched it, “There are no words.”
And so I had my say (yes, in words) in today’s Game Plan column on FOXBusiness.com called Your Spiritual Subscription is Subject to Change. The piece is about my life coaching clients, Oprah Winfrey, Eckhart Tolle, Marianne Williamson and the millions of people who have open spirituality, who enjoy exploring spirit, who like to live in a Universal Flow.
Life is good.
