Awakening Self Blog
I’ll Take Wholeness and Oneness Instead
I just saw a post on Facebook that said, “To keep winning, I have to keep improving.” It really bothered me to read that. I felt sad, like someone was drowning and trying to keep their head above water.
I just have 4 issues with this statement:
- Keep
- Winning
- Have To
- Improving
(yeah, just about the whole thing!)
Impermanence
First of all, everything is impermanent. Life is all about changes. We cannot keep things static, and the attachment to keeping things the same, or keeping up a particular level of “success” sets up disappointment. We need to be able to flow with the cycles of life, and to appreciate what is rather than be attached to expectation.
Do You Want Relief or Release?
Let’s face it – we all go through difficult times. Everyone experiences some pain, whether physical, mental, spiritual, or emotional, at some point in their life. During those challenging times, our tendency is to grasp for relief. Just like when we get a headache or...
I Don’t Need a Bucket List – Do You?
Everyone has been talking about bucket lists for years, but I find they just create more anxiety. Here’s what I do instead.
It’s all over social media. Just checked one off my bucket list, as they post an amazing selfie from the Himalayas or while scuba diving with sharks. People have jumped on the bandwagon of this trend to create a list of all the things they have ever wanted to do before they “kick the bucket.”
I like lists, too. I have my to-do list, my goal list, my list of classes that I would like to take someday, etc. But the idea of a bucket list bothers me.
It’s a lot of pressure to put on yourself; to have these 10, 50, 200 things that you want to do before you die. When I was in my 20’s, that was a cool idea. I hadn’t done that much and hadn’t seen that many places. So it made sense to me back then (although the term hadn’t come into use at that time).
Having that bucket list feels anxiety-provoking. What happens if you get older, and things still aren’t checked off? A competition begins with others who are ticking off their items – will you feel that you’re behind? What if your fear about trying some of those things holds you back? What if you spend so much time planning for fulfilling X amount of bucket list items per year that you aren’t really appreciating what you have? The idea of a bucket list should be fun and exciting, not stressful and overwhelming.
A Deeper Level of Self-Care
It’s the beginning of the year, and I have been looking at the fact that, in my mad scramble to get my book finished, I have not been so good at self-care the last couple of months. Meditation has been sporadic, yoga practice minimal, trips to the gym only 1-2 times per week, rather than my ideal 3-4. Only been on one hike. Getting to bed too late.
I’ve been pretty disappointed in myself, but also embraced and accepted that part of my deadlines to meet involved putting a lot of condensed time into editing and preparing for the book launch.
Still, it’s been gnawing at me, and I knew that it was an excuse. My soul longs to be back on track. Ever since I was sick over Thanksgiving, it’s been hard to get back up on the horse, build up my conditioning again, and return to the habits that keep me feeling healthy, whole, and energized. I need to get self-care back into my regimen.
Then, I read Angela Lauria’s blog (she’s The Author Incubator – the program that pulled this book out of me!) She’s dropping self-care. What? I knew there was more to the story, so I read on.
Seeing Kindness, Being Kindness
/uploads/2018/12/caring-children-kindness-awakeningself-spirituality-300×200.jpg” alt=”” width=”300″ height=”200″ />It’s the holiday season once again (feels like I just packed up last year’s Christmas tree, and now we are getting the ornaments out again!). While the season calls for celebration, merriment, and goodwill towards all, we’ve been seeing a lot of suffering and conflict in our world.
We might easily feel less than optimistic about the nation and our relations with others, whether other countries or those we pass on the street. But I have been seeing beautiful reflections of kindness and love all around me, and find that the willingness and ability to see human benevolence bolsters not only my world view, but my perception of myself.
One Mistake Spiritual People Make That Increases Anxiety
excerpt from my forthcoming book on overcoming anxiety!
We’ve all done it. With the best of intentions, we set out on the spiritual path, ready to have our awakening, and determined to find the calm, centered, peaceful place within that is beyond our anxiety.
Often, we do find that place – for a while. But it’s the natural cycle of things to come and go. When we find that calm, courageous place we delightfully discovered beginning to slip away, we might make some spiritual mistakes.
They can be errors in our approach, perspective, or how we’re applying our beliefs. These spiritual mis-takes – for they’re just a slip-up, a miss of the target we’re aiming for – aren’t a big deal. We all get a little off track sometimes.
The problem is that we tend to make them a big deal. They can become deal-breakers, sending us down the spiral not only of more anxiety, but self-recrimination and anxiety about our anxiety.