25. January 2010 by admin.

An interesting article about going back to basics and re-discovering your passion.Keys To Reality by Ken Achenbach.

It’s kind of funny how you can go from walking around with nothing but lint in you pocket and being totally stoked, to walking around with a pocket full of keys and being totally bummed.It starts out simply and seductively. I’ll just get this car so I can snowboard more. Wrong. Anything that let’s you snowboard more is a scam. It won’t let you snowboard more because you ride every day and a car can’t add days to the week.“I’ll just get this little night job so I can buy gas,” you hear yourself saying. There’s another key. Then your job starts making you miss sleep, so you can’t snowboard as hard or as long as you used to. And you need stuff to wear to work. You need a place to change and store your stuff. Now you have an address, that’s another key. Soon you have to get a day job because you’re not making enough money at night. The keys start adding up.Now that you have a job, girls know you’re not a total loss and you end up with a girlfriend. She wants you to hang with her once in a while instead of going boarding all the time. First, she gives you the key to her heart, and then the key to her apartment. That’s two more. You can’t give her the key to your heart because snowboarding put a combination lock on it and only your snowboard knows the number.Now you have a bunch of keys in your pocket. They’re high-maintenance items. You have to take care of them. They’re weighing you down. Snowboarding is slowly slipping away, and you don’t even notice.One day, cruising to your full-time office job that you had to get a few years back to make payments on all your keys, you drive past a guy on the corner with his thumb out and a snowboard under his arm. While speeding by you start thinking about the guy you just passed. He looked like you used to—snowboard and nothing else. As you pull into the parking lot at work, you can’t get the hitchhiker out of your head. Your mind keeps wandering back. Pulling all the keys out of you pocket and jingling them, you think about what you really want from life.Running back to your car, you reverse out of the parking lot and squeal a Rockford in the middle of the four-lane highway. You’ve got to get away from your keys. You begin throwing them out the window as you blow down the highway. First to go is the key to the door at work. Then you backhand your girlfriend’s apartment key out the passenger window. Flick, there goes the key to the storage unit, then the key to her car. Flick, flick, flick. You feel better each time a key flies out the window and goes bouncing down the pavement at 100 mph. You don’t even slow down for the tollbooth, paying instead with the tossed key to your office and the executive washroom.You only have two keys left. You unlock your house, run in, grab your snowboard, and dash out of the house. You leave the key to your house sitting in the lock to the front door. Whoever finds the house open can take it, and all your stuff. You don’t need it anymore. You jump back into the car and start burning rubber through all four gears back to the highway where you saw the hitcher.He’s still there. You slam on the brakes. When he opens the car door, you look into his eyes. It’s you. It’s the life you left behind when you sold out.

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27. December 2009 by admin.

Holidays can be a time of joy and cheer or a time of overwhelm and disappointment.  I made some time this holiday season to reflect on what the holiday season really means to me.  I realized that I want to do what makes me happy, rather then following blindly what I have done in the previous years. Personally, I like to spend time outdoors, read a good book, be with close friends, sing, spend time in silence and quietude to get in touch with my true self.  If you feel overwhelmed, unmotivated or angry, chances are you are not doing what makes you happy. You either do things because you “have to” or because you run on automatic pilot. What about what you “want to”? What about creating a ritual/celebration that works for you this year? What about looking at each day as a clean slate, a white canvas? You are the artist, the painter - you decide what goes on the page and what colors to use.  Whether it is a new year or a new day, you have the freedom to create your own work of art. If you don’t like something you worked on, you can modify it or toss it away.

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12. November 2009 by admin.

Unconditional Self-Acceptance by Cheri Huber

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9. November 2009 by admin.

We all feel some apprehension before dealing with a challenging situation or a difficult person. When the moment arrives, we get involved into whatever we are doing and once the event is gone we feel relaxed, relieved and more confident. We proved ourselves once again that we can go out of our comfort zone,  handle a difficult situation and be successful.How can we minimize the apprehension before a new challenge? One belief that fuels this is our expectation of being and doing perfect, of pleasing everyone all the time. This puts great pressure on us. How about setting more realistic expectations based on knowing and respecting our limits, our boundaries? How about giving ourselves permission to disappoint people once in while? Have you tried saying no to something or someone when you felt there is too much on your plate? Can you tell when something you are working on is good enough? Can you stick to your values in life, your integrity, no matter how much pressure you have from the people around you? Can you express your truth and what you really feel in a polite but firm manner? The more we respect ourselves by creating an environment in which we can thrive, the more relaxed and confident we become.Sometimes when we set boundaries, other people might get upset. We may feel guilty or afraid. They may feel out of control and angry that they are not getting what they want when they want. In time, they will either appreciate your relationship and respect your values and boundaries, or they will slowly go out of your life.Can you think of an area in your life where you feel the most frustration, unease, out of balance? How can you set some healthy boundaries around it?

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28. October 2009 by admin.

Fall is the perfect time for indoor home improvements.  The dark forces us inside early on, the weather turns chilly and windy and rainy.  Getting busy with putting down hardwood floors seemed like a good idea… a couple of month ago! I started to plan this at the end of August. I took out the carpets in September and I thought in a couple of weeks I will have brand new shiny floors. Well, the deeper I got into the project, I realized there is more to it then meets the eye, more details that became apparent along the way. Things like washing the floors, leveling the floors, buying hardwood that matches the existing one (not available at brand name stores anymore), decisions, cutting the planks to snug around the existing moldings. I started to feel overwhelmed, discouraged and impatient. The project became a chore. I thought to myself: How can this be fun? What is the positive side of what is going on? Well, if I release the resistance I have towards the situation and accept that it will take longer to get done, maybe I can relax and enjoy it more.  Also, spending time together with my husband, working as a team, learning from him, getting things accomplished, praising each other and acknowledging the progress we make every day will be true gifts for me. Letting go of the resistance to change allows us to notice and enjoy what we appreciate in each moment.

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6. October 2009 by admin.

Are you being too significant about something in your life? Is it all you think about? Do you tie your happiness to accomplishing that goal? Do you focus so much on one goal, one area of your life that you ignore the other aspects? Maybe you are looking for a new job, make more money, looking for a relationship, trying to have a baby or changing one aspect of yourself. We can get so caught up in our thoughts and feelings, we forget about other things that bring us happiness.How can you lighten up? How can you create a game around the situation? How can you enjoy going after your goal without letting it consume all your energy?

Posted in joyful living, Self care, Handle uncertainty | 1 Comment »

23. September 2009 by admin.

Transitions happen in nature all the time. We are now preparing for the fall. The temperatures, the scenery, our daily routines and activities change.  Some people feel a surge of energy when fall approaches - temperatures are more comfortable, school starts, new projects, etc. For others fall is just the messenger of winter - a time to be more withdrawn and meditative. Whatever the case, the equinox (when the day is equal to the night) is a reminder for keeping grounded and balanced through transitions. Consider a couple of questions as you prepare for the next season: What are you harvesting this fall? What do you need to let go of to be in balance in your life? What do you need more of to be in balance?

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18. September 2009 by admin.

Did you ever worry in anticipation of an event, only to realize later on that you had nothing to worry about, that everything went smooth? It happened to me.  I was quite aprehensive about my out of town in-laws coming to visit for a few days.  It is a rare event and I found out only a day in advance. My first thoughts were: “Will I be up to snuff? Will I meet their expectations? Will I entertain the right way? What if I feel tired? Where are the extra pillows?”.  I noticed the more I thought like that, the more tight my muscles became and my breath more shallow. I took a deep breath and I stopped. I decided to get a different perspective. How about just be myself and cut myself some slack. How about I do my best and be ok with things not being perfect. I started to relax and kept my intention throughout the visit to focus on enjoying and relaxing together, rather then keeping up appearances and being anxious about being perfect. It turned out we all had a good time.

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7. January 2008 by admin.

I spent a few days together with some friends, watching their 2 and 3 year olds. All the kids want to do is to have fun! Whether is food, toys or conversation, they will try to play. If it’s no fun, they become resistant and cranky.As we grow old, we start to become responsible and serious, concerned about what others think of us. We try to get status, money, job, house - and become unsatisfied. Why? Because we don’t have fun anymore, we don’t enjoy life anymore. Instead, we worry about it and try to control it. Even when we have fun, it has to be planned and organized to the teeth, it has to follow strict rules.Real fun is spontaneous, unorganized enjoyment. For example, skiing on an inclined driveway after a big dump of snow, playing Pictionary but, instead of drawing, act out the words. Let yourself go, take off your mask and enjoy life like a child. Be creative in your play and don’t worry about behaving “appropriate” for your age.

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