Creating Space in Your Busy Life
India always gives me a fresh, new perspective.
After 30 hours of travel, coming from the other side of the world, I arrived to Nashville last week from a short stint in India. This was a brief trip, just three weeks yet still the magic of India is alive in me.
One of the things I love most about India is how crazy it is. Sometimes India is so incredibly uncomfortable that it actually accentuates the stillness I have within. This is the lesson that India has blessed me with over the years. How to find the stillness inside me, even in the midst of chaos.
There is an awareness behind your eyes that great teachers like Ramana Maharishi and Eckhart Tolle describe. The stillness that is watching your life. There is a presence there listening and watching. Your personality changes, your body grows, your hair and nails get longer, but that still silent witness within you was always there even when you were a baby. Find this in the midst of your busy life. The way to do this is to create space in your mind and in your life. If you fill up every spare moment doing, seeing, talking, turning things on, then you may not have experienced what I am talking about.
Yet even if your mind has constant input underneath this chaos watching, always there, still and silent, even as you read this, you can feel a presence there listening. Feel your aliveness, be consciously conscious of who is aware of the one who is reading. Most especially in the busy-ness that prevails all of our lives, let consciousness reside more deeply. Can you feel it? It is palpable if you invite it into the present moment. This is one way to create space in mind.
If you look at life from a physics point of view, we are made up of more empty space then matter. So why don’t we experience space in our minds then? It is because we are not looking in the right direction. The direction is inward, not outward, not in the thoughts or even concepts, but the awareness of those thoughts.
Another way to create space is to do your best not to get caught up in any one else’s story. Your story is enough for you to try to be consciously aware. Learn to be at ease with each moment. Accept everything and resist nothing. The pain comes in the resistance of what is. Pain comes when you try to poke your nose into someone else’s story.
If you read this and can’t understand what I am saying then considering coming to Ivy House and joining in the Course in Miracles discussion group two Thursday nights a month. Meditation also will help you cultivate this awareness. Yoga is a tool and also jogging or doing anything you love. Every moment of every day is an opportunity to become free. To be consciously conscious. !
The Ivy House is here to support you on your spiritual journey. If you are sick and tired of being sick and tired, then it is time you come and see us. Be the change you wish to see.
No human being is meant to wake up in the morning and dread the day. Human beings, each one of us, has the potential to be blissfully happy each and every day. Come and see us at Ivy house. We are here to help you find the bliss that resides within you.
The Privilege of a Lifetime is to BE Who You Are
We are living in an epoch of human history where what we do now, the decisions we make, will be the deciding factor to whether we thrive or parish. You are a part of this. We are are all in this together people! Who are you? Somewhere inside each of us is a calling, a longing to be something, to have a purpose.
The Ivy House is here to support you in finding your purpose and assist you on your spiritual journey. We are here to help you nurture the calling within you. If you have a nagging feeling that there might be something more to life then your to do list. If you are stuck and are sick of yourself or tired of being stuck or just plain ole sick and tired of being sick and tired, then it is time you come and see us.
Be the change you wish to see. These all may sound like cliches to you but they are all truth, unless you are living in frenetic numbness, then it all sounds like cliche.
The way I transformed over the years and found inner peace was through discipline with my meditation practice, like minded community, retreats and workshops. I use to be a retreat and workshop junkie. But I got so much out of it. Each time I would learn just a little bit more and transform to get to the next level, little by little. Everything that we do at the Ivy House, we believe in strongly. Now the basis of all that we do is meditation. So if you are not meditating yet, I encourage you to start now, today as soon as possible, no more putting it off until tomorrow. We have Intro to Meditation
No human being is meant to wake up in the morning and dread the day. Human beings, each one of us, has the potential to be the greatest person you can imagine. But what happens? We get caught up in our to do list. Yet another days goes by when we don’t get to our ‘should’ list. What you need to do is somehow change your ‘shoulds’ into musts. We never, ever get to our shoulds, never. In the next newsletter I will talk more about turning your ‘shoulds’ into musts. In the meantime, try not to should all over yourself.
The Privilege of a Lifetime is to be WHO YOU ARE
Do you have a passion for the possible?
Are You the Hero of Your Own Life Story
The Privilege of a Lifetime is to be WHO YOU ARE
We are living in an epoch of human history where what we do now, the decisions we make, will be the deciding factor to whether we thrive or parish. You are a part of this. We are are all in this together people! Who are you? Somewhere inside each of us is a calling, a longing to be something, to have a purpose.
The Ivy House is here to support you in finding your purpose and assist you on your spiritual journey. We are here to help you nurture the calling within you. If you have a nagging feeling that there might be something more to life then your to do list. If you are stuck and are sick of yourself or tired of being stuck or just plain ole sick and tired of being sick and tired, then it is time you come and see us.
Be the change you wish to see. These all may sound like cliches to you but they are all truth, unless you are living in frenetic numbness, then it all sounds like cliche.
The way I transformed over the years and found inner peace was through discipline with my meditation practice, like minded community, retreats and workshops. I use to be a retreat and workshop junkie. But I got so much out of it. Each time I would learn just a little bit more and transform to get to the next level, little by little. Everything that we do at the Ivy House, we believe in strongly. Now the basis of all that we do is meditation. So if you are not meditating yet, I encourage you to start now, today as soon as possible, no more putting it off until tomorrow. We have Intro to Meditation
No human being is meant to wake up in the morning and dread the day. Human beings, each one of us, has the potential to be the greatest person you can imagine. But what happens? We get caught up in our to do list. Yet another days goes by when we don’t get to our ‘should’ list. What you need to do is somehow change your ‘shoulds’ into musts. We never, ever get to our shoulds, never. In the next newsletter I will talk more about turning your ‘shoulds’ into musts. In the meantime, try not to should all over yourself.
We have some very exciting things coming up at Ivy House this year. Next week for 3 days only at the Ivy House, we have two gifted Healers coming to Nashville to do private sessions and workshops. I encourage you to book a session and sign up for the workshop, they will rock your world. This kind of opportunity does not come around very often so please treat your spirit with this.
New Year Brings New Beginnings
You are who you hang out with!
Or as they say in sports, you are only as strong as your weakest player. If you want to work out, get fit and healthy, you have to hang with people or at least one person or two who love working out. Otherwise you just talk each other out of working out. If you want to meditate, you have to hang out with people who love meditating. If you have all kinds of ‘shoulds,’ in your life, in order to turn them into action, they have to first become a must. Somehow you have to make a list of why your should, should become a must. Brushing your teeth is a must. Eating is a must. What is a must for you?
The definition of insanity is to do the same thing over and over and expect different results. Have you been acting a little insane the past few years? Have you been wanting and needing to change a few things but a few years go by and nothing has changes?
You don’t have to wait to 2014 to commit to change, each and every day offers you a new opportunity to make the changes you need to make to create the perfect life you desire.
The Ivy House was originally conceived as a place to help support people in their spiritual practices. At the Ivy House, we love to meditate and do yoga. We love eating healthy and staying fit. We love feeling good and being happy, content and cultivating awareness. So we are your support in joy and inner peace.
Below is a link to an amazing video that will help give you perspective on how magnificent that you are. It is called the Power of Ten and goes from your body and into deep space and back down through your skins and cells and it shows you are made up of the same stuff in your cells as in deep space, enjoy:
http://m.youtube.com/#/watch?v=0fKBhvDjuy0&desktop_uri=%2Fwatch%3Fv%3D0fKBhvDjuy0.
Learn How to Center Yourself in the Midst of the Holidaze
How Do You Find Peace Within
Even in the midst of turmoil?
It’s kind of like Hurricane Sandy or Hurricane Katryna. Even the most devastating hurricane has stillness at the deepest depths of the ocean. The eye of a cyclone is quiet. You have this awareness within you that is still even amongst your busiest day and craziest thoughts. And believe me, I know personally how crazy it can be over the holidaze!
Take a breath and do your best not to play your usual role. We have these roles we play in our family that we keep playing over and over again. Eckhart Tolle calls it the pain body. Your pain body is like a little creature that comes out whenever you are feeling fear and pain. It is the hurt child within you, the damaged part of you that is not the real you. The holidays are one big gathering of the pain body creatures.
The latest statistics are that you have 85,000 thoughts each and every day. 95% of those are the same thoughts you had yesterday.
However the good news is that you are not your thoughts. If you visualize a triangle, a school bus, a kite in the sky, a stop sign, they come and they go in your mind as you read this. Your thoughts are just like each one of these visuals. You are not the bus or the kite, you are the awareness that is aware of those objects. Be in the awareness, the ever present witness that was the same when you were a child.
I actually remember before I was born. Yup, I promise you I do. I have always been able to draw the incubator that they placed me in, on April 29th, 1963. But before the incubator I remembered how excited I was about where I was going and I even got a sense of where I was going. I knew that I would help people spiritually and that I would always have this memory. I remember how close to God I was and I remember saying goodbye. I awoke looking up to masks all around me and I was then placed in an incubator. I started drawing the incubator for my Mom when I was about five and I recently looked up an incubator image for 1963 and there it was, the one I remember.
The next memory I have was when I was about 2 years old. Very clearly, I was sitting at the kitchen table in my high chair eating raspberry toast with my Dad as he was getting ready for work at 5am. I was thinking, I wonder if my Dad remembers when he was my age. I wonder if HE remembers before he was born. Then I decided then and there at 2 years of age, that I would remember this moment for the rest of my life. I have no idea how my 2 year old brain knew what to do next but I froze for at least one minute. As I was still I was thinking I am going to remember this moment when I am as old as my Dad (who at that time was only about 30 years old), seemed like 80 to me then. And now coming up to 50, I remember this like it was yesterday.
This is the stillness within that I am talking about. If a two year old can do it, so can you!! It is the awareness that is witnessing your life. That is the real you. Not the thoughts, not even the memories, the real you, the real me is the stillness within that is always watching.
Happy Holidays to you from the Ivy House, from India and from my heart to yours, NAMASTE. I honor the place in you, that is the same as the place in me, and when we are both in that place, we are one. Namaste.
Love
Expect a Miracle
I decided many years ago to wake up everyday and expect a miracle to happen. When we worry about things we draw them to us. When people spin out of control in a car, there will be a wall and they will surely hit the wall because that is where their eyes go. Where your attention goes, energy flow. What you focus on, you create. Worrying is praying for something you don’t want. Expect a miracle. Focus on wonder and awe. Every breathe you take is a miracle as there are millions of tiny miracles that had to happen to bring you to this moment.
Five Simple Things to Create Balance TODAY
Five Simple Things You Can Do TODAY
Get a good sleep
Research shows that sleep heals the body. Haven’t you ever had a sore throat and gone to bed for 10 hours and feel as good as new upon waking? Most people are sleep deprived. Get your rest!!
Exercise, even just 30 minutes of brisk walking
Find something you love to do. Whether it is hot yoga, hiking, biking or taking a brisk walk, all it takes is 30 minutes a day to get the physical activity that your body needs. Our bodies do so much for us. They are our best friend. What other friend would still be with you after all the abuse you have put it through? Our bodies were made for movement and not to be sedentary. Move your body!
Eat your veggies
Even excess protein turns to acid in your body as do carbs. Veggies are your best choice. We happen to live in a country where we can get pretty much any vegetable from anywhere in the world at any given time of the year. That is incredible. Take advantage of it!!
Maintain your ideal weight
If you do the above, you will maintain your ideal weight. Watch that five extra pounds that creeps on each year, do the math!
Forgive and let go of emotional pain
This seems to be hard for most people. Why do we hold on to so much emotional pain? If you want to know why your body is the way it is, look at your mind ten years ago and if you want to know what your body will look like in ten years, look at your mind today. That pretty much says it all.
The past is past, leave it there. In the six years that my sweet husband and I have been together we have had very few squabbles, silly things that last just a few minutes. We have not been angry at one another for longer then five minutes, ever. I wish that for everyone, I really do. If I ever bring up something from the past with Satya or if he even hears me on the phone talking with a girlfriend about a problem earlier that day, he says, that is in the past, why do you want to keep talking about it?
Meditation has helped me with letting go. When I meditate, I don’t sweat the small stuff. Do you want to know how you can get yourself to be more disciplined to meditate? Somehow you need to value meditation more then you do now. Most of us are type A doers and to sit quietly for 30 minutes seems insane to the average busy person. Here now is a list of documented benefits of meditation as presented by the TM Organization who have been studying meditation for over 50 years.
Happiness Is An Inside Job
Then why do people keep searching everywhere else but inside?
I have been content for several years now and so it is an abrupt reminder when I hear of the struggle within, that really is the human condition. Deepak Chopra says that “all sickness, is home sickness.” The biggest killer in America is heart disease and Deepak says it is because human beings are homesick, they are heartsick and feel separate from God, or from one another.
Not Realizing Your Dreams
Sometimes not getting your dreams, gives you your DESTINY
I moved to Nashville in 1988 with dreams of being a Country Music Star, now 25 years later, I am living the most magical life!
Sometimes not achieving our dreams, helps us uncover our destiny. This is what happened to me. Let’s face it, our lives never turn out the way we think they will, not at all!
How could we possibly know the twists and turns that happen as we navigate this crazy adventure. I mean, I don’t even know year to year where I will be, let alone plan out the next 20 years! Is that just me, or your life too?
Use Your Mind, Don’t Let Your Mind Use You
Every thought you think, you have a choice as to the meaning?
When you are at the grocery store and they are out of your favorite item, are you disappointed? Not affected? Do you try something different or do you talk to the manager and request your item be re-stocked?
You see, you create a meaning even when you shop. Each and every thought that you think, you create a meaning. Furthermore it is your choice as to the meaning.