Daily Om Thursday

Posted on January 15, 2015 by Lydia | 1 Comment

Source en.wikipedia.org

You Are Beautiful: Seeing Ourselves

Many of us do not take the time to notice and acknowledge how beautiful we are as humans. We may be great lovers of beauty, seeing it in the people, places, and things around us, while completely missing it in ourselves. Some of us feel that it is vain to consider our appearance too much, or we may find that when we look at ourselves, all we see are imperfections. Often we come to the mirror with expectations and preconceived notions about beauty that blind us from seeing ourselves clearly. As a result, we miss the beauty that is closest to us, the beauty we are. Sometimes we see our beauty in a shallow way, noticing how well we are conforming to social norms, but failing to see the deeper beauty that shines out from within and that will continue to shine regardless of how we measure up to society’s ideal.

If we can cut through all these obstacles and simply appreciate how beautiful we are, we free up so much energy. We also become less dependent upon the opinions and feedback of others since we become our own greatest admirers. Many of us know that after a great yoga practice or a long, deep meditation, we are more able to see how beautiful we are. This is because we have released some of our baggage, thus unburdening ourselves and summoning forth the spirit that dwells within us. It is the heady combination of the divine spirit and the human body that conveys beauty more accurately than anything else.

To keep ourselves in touch with our own beauty, we can surround ourselves with images that reflect our beauty back to us—photos of a relative or child who has our eyes, images of teachers who embody spirit, or self-portraits that capture our essence in a way that allows us to see ourselves anew. The best way to keep ourselves in touch with our own beauty is to keep looking deeply into our own souls and opening our eyes to the human being we see in the mirror every day. ~ Madyson Taylor, Daily Om

How often do you cringe when you look in the mirror? Worse yet, how many of you avoid the mirror all together? All this, because when you see yourself, all that you see is the little imperfections. You fail to look closer to see the beauty that is you — inside and outside.

You are the beauty that surrounds you. Everything and everyone is connected and you are as beautiful as that breathless sunset, the star-filled night or that perfect flower. True beauty is not at the superficial outer level — it is the whole package. How many of you know someone who is beautiful outside, but who lacks those qualities of inner beauty, for example, empathy, lovingkindness and compassion? The truth is that even though we may agree that they are beautiful, they are no more perfect than the rest of us. Even more, their outer beauty is diminished by the ugliness of their inner being. Yet, our society kneels at the altar of outer beauty. It is a fact that beautiful people make more money for the same job than one who is less attractive and they garner more favors. All of this and they are no happier than the rest of us. Besides, beauty fades, but sincerity, love, concern for others, compassion and kindness, like the finest wine, improves with age.

Let no one and nothing diminish the visage of your uniquely beautiful self. Go ahead, look into the mirror and consider the beauty of what you consider your imperfections. What love, wisdom, compassion and lovingkindness do they hold? How many hearts has your smile touched? There is a reason that those lines which accentuate that smile are called ‘laugh lines.’ As you embrace them, and all that you see, you embrace the very best of yourself. So, look closely. See yourself with the love, kindness and compassion that you reserve for others. Oh, if you could see yourself as I see you, you’d know the meaning of true beauty.

Quote Tuesday

Posted on January 13, 2015 by Lydia | 2 Comments



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“Don’t think. Thinking is the enemy of creativity. It’s self-conscious, and anything self-conscious is lousy. You can’t try to do things. You simply must do things.” ~ Ray Bradbury

Creative Writing Saturday

Posted on January 10, 2015 by Lydia | Leave a comment



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Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening

Whose woods these are I think I know.
His house is in the village, though;
He will not see me stopping here
To watch his woods fill up with snow.

My little horse must think it queer
To stop without a farmhouse near
Between the woods and frozen lake
The darkest evening of the year.

He gives his harness bells a shake
To ask if there is some mistake.
The only other sound’s the sweep
Of easy wind and downy flake.

The woods are lovely, dark, and deep,
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep. ~ Robert Frost

Daily Om Thursday

Posted on January 8, 2015 by Lydia | 4 Comments

Balance (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Balance

Like pieces of a puzzle, the many different aspects of your being come together to form the person that you are. You work and play, rest and expend energy, commune with your body and soul, exalt in joy, and feel sorrow. Balance is the state that you achieve when all of the aspects of your life and self are in harmony. Your life force flows in a state of equilibrium because nothing feels out of sync. While balance is necessary to have a satisfying, energetic, and joyful life, only you can determine what balance means to you.

Achieving balance requires that you assess what is important to you. The many demands of modern life can push us to make choices that can put us off balance and have a detrimental effect on our habits, relationships, health, and career. In creating a balanced lifestyle, you must ascertain how much time and energy you are willing to devote to the different areas of your life. To do so, imagine that your life is a house made up of many rooms. Draw this house, give each part of your life its own room, and size each room according to the amount of importance you assign to that aspect of your life. You can include family, solitude, activities that benefit others, healthy eating, indulgences, exercise and working on self. You may discover that certain elements of your life take up an inordinate amount of time, energy, or effort and leave you with few resources to nurture the other aspects of your life. You may want to spend less time on these activities and more on the ones that! fulfill you.

A balanced lifestyle is simply a state of being in which one has time and energy for obligations and pleasures, as well as time to live well and in a gratifying way. With its many nuances, balance can be a difficult concept to integrate into your life. Living a balanced existence, however, can help you attain a greater sense of happiness, health, and fulfillment. ~ Madyson Taylor, Daily Om

In a perfect world, our lives would militate towards balance, so that we have ample time for all the joys of life. However, achieving balance requires us to make decisions based on how we envision a balanced life. As the Daily Om article notes, there are many aspects of our lives. Each serve to satisfy our physical, emotional, spiritual or mental needs.

As an initial matter, let’s agree that the aspects of a balanced quality of life amounts to 100% of our time. In order to create such a life, we must assign to each aspect, the percentage of time that we wish to devote to it. It goes without saying that a happy, satisfying life consists of a combination of aspects that are important and pleasing to us. The notion of what makes up a “balanced” quality of life is not uniform and varies from one person to another. I may select an aspect that is important to me, that wholly lacks meaning to you.

Two aspects of a balanced life that are extremely important are “work” and “play.” For most of us, the largest percent of our day is in work mode, be it a stay-at-home Mom or Dad, in public or private sector jobs, or those who simply keep themselves busy going from one task to another. By over emphasizing work, we neglect other areas of our lives, especially play.

Google defines “play” as to “engage in activity for enjoyment and recreation rather than a serious or practical purpose.” A researcher in a NPR (National Public Radio) story titled “Play Doesn’t End With Childhood: Why Adults Need Recess Too,” defined it as “something done for its own sake…. It’s voluntary, it’s pleasurable, it offers a sense of engagement, it takes you out of time. And the act itself is more important than the outcome.”

When we were children, no one needed to remind us to play. The phrase “can I go out and play?” was a common refrain. It seemed innate to our child persona. The word “play.” in and of itself brings a smile to my face, as I think of all the time that we spent simply having fun, and being the very opposite of serious. As children, our world revolved around play, and we attacked it with gusto. The possibilities for play were endless and it never occurred to us that when we “grew up,” play would take a back seat to work, and in some cases, totally forgotten. In addition to its health benefits, play promotes, among other things, curiosity, creativity, connection and keeping the mind sharp. (In case you are interested, can read here about the nonprofit National Institute for Play.)

Anyway, my point is to urge you not to discount “play” as a vital part of an ideal and balanced quality of life. In our work life, where we typically must display a serious persona, and is driven by outcome, outcome, outcome, play serves as a much-needed outlet to let go and show our goofy, fun and relaxing side. Why? Just because ….

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