Freedom is nothing but a chance to be better. – Albert Camus
July 4th is the day Americans celebrate Independence Day! Here’s to everyone’s freedom! Are you freer today than you were a year ago, 10 years ago? Are you happier today than you were last year this time?
If not, what’s holding you back?
Daily Affirmation: Today I AM free.
Recommendation: Living the Science of Mind by Ernest Holmes
Peace cannot be kept by force. It can only be achieved by understanding. – Albert Einstein
The quote seems pretty obvious, but how much do we use or try to use force in our own lives? Here are some ways, can you think of other ways?
Common sense, it is said, is quite uncommon. So is the use of understanding. If we understand ourselves, what gets to us, what lights our fire and what we need to be happy, then the road to peace and equanimity is clear. We then understand what we as puny humans can do, and what we must simply allow to happen. Internal peace follows. Understanding others, is next. Peace around the world can then follow.
Daily Affirmation: Today I AM humbled and I seek understanding.
Recommendation: Zen And the Art of Happiness by Chris Prentiss
Most people are so busy knocking themselves out trying to do everything they think they should do, they never get around to what they want to do. – Kathleen Winsor
Let’s reflect on what’s most important to us. We can do that via Stillness or via an ‘Active’ Journaling technique. A combination of both is more effective!
Next spend 30 to 60 minutes daily working on one or more goals that result from the above exercise. Break the goals down into manageable tasks. Complete 3 HITs daily. HITs = your High Impact Tasks. These are tasks from your task list which give you the biggest bang for your time and effort. Complete 3 HITs daily towards your goals and see how much you achieve and how good you feel!
Daily Affirmation: Today I AM focused on that which is more important.
Recommendation: Getting Things Done by David Allen
When we come to the last moment of this lifetime, and we look back across it, the only thing that’s going to matter is “What was the quality of our love?” – Richard Bach
Love is more in the being first than in the doing. That’s true of life itself. We can be in love and we can be love, when we have no resentments searing our soul, when we flow with the river of time admiring things and persons of beauty, goodness and truth. Having forgiven one and all, including ourselves, we make love’s residence, inside us, possible, we make our own healing possible.
Once filled with love, let’s place our attention on the other. How can the person in front of us, right now, be served, be loved and be cared for? That is the purpose of life itself, the discovery of love within us, the way it designs us and the relationships that result.
Daily Affirmation: Today I AM love, on love will I focus.
Recommendation: The Bridge Across Forever: A True Love Story by Richard Bach
Move from within. Don’t move the way fear wants you to move. – Rumi
Most of our daily living is on the surface. Living at the surface means reacting to life, we worry about silly stuff and we worry about important stuff. We worry about our looks, how we appear to others, about our weight, our financial well-being, about our jobs, about our relationships, about our kids and much else. When operating from the surface we get knocked by the winds and get swayed by the currents of life. We live in fear, mostly.
There’s a deeper way of living. This way is one of connection, to our inner self, to love, to knowing, to fulfillment and to contentment. The way to this kind of living is via self-knowledge, reflection, journaling, meditation and decision-making. This blog is devoted to exploring, exposing and living this way.
Daily Affirmation: Today I AM centered, I move from within.
Recommendation: Meditations from Conversations With God by Neale Donald Walsch
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If every day is an awakening, you will never grow old. You will just keep growing. – Gail Sheehy
How about an awakening a day (AWAD)? Now, that really depends on what we want to get out of each day. If we go through a day with the same mindset, each time, then we sink into a routine-ized morose of a day which can often be boring and certainly not scintillating!
Instead what we need is a new pair of eyes! Eyes that see each day as it truly is, totally unique and never repeatable. Kind of like us. Each moment is brand new, it’s the canvas we can draw on. The challenge is to not forget this beauty and opportunity that is ours to grab, each moment, of each day!
Daily Affirmation: Today I see, without assumptions that cloud my vision.
Recommendation: The awakening of Intelligence by Jiddu Krishnamurti
Let be and be still, and know that I am God. – Psalm 46:10
This is a famous Psalm and very often quoted. The standard translation is ‘Be still and know that I am God’. I love the translation above because it encapsulates meditation and even life itself!
When sitting for meditation just let be.
When you just let be stillness occurs. You can now find yourself in a very calm and alert state. This can take a while, but it does happen with practice. You’ll be amazed and ecstatic when it does! Stay here for a while. This is stillness, a form of meditation.
In this alert and calm state, joy emerges. You will experience peace as you never otherwise know it. In this eternal present moment, all creativity is possible, but greater still, God is present. Experience it and know.
Daily Affirmation: Today I will let life be, I will inhabit the NOW moment!
Recommendation: God Is Closer Than You Think by John Ortberg
