Breathe

 Breathe, just breathe. 

Be aware of your breath. 

Breathe in and Breathe out.    

Notice your breath as it flows gently in and out of your body without effort. 

When there are stressors, or worries, return your focus to your breath.

Breathe in and breath out. 

Breathe in love, breathe out love

Breathe in gratitude, breathe out gratitude.

That’s what it means to just breathe; to concentrate solely on the experience of nourishing our bodies with air and in doing so foster a deep sense of internal safety.

“The breath of life. 

Each time you breathe in, you take oxygen to your lungs, your bloodstream, and your cells. Have you ever noticed, we are changed with each breath. 

“Feelings come and go like clouds in the sky. Conscious breathing is my anchor.” ~Thich Nhat Hanh

This reminds us that no matter how chaotic  things may seem, we’re okay. We’ll get through it. We are still here, still strong.

Breathing exercises are now such an important part of my daily routine. I couldn’t think of starting a day and ending my day without doing my breathing exercises. Breathing techniques has become my biggest tool and best friend. Breathing has become a foundation for living with conscious presence and awareness.

Every breath is a chance to begin again.

Playfulness

 “We don’t stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing.” ~George Bernard Shaw

How do you make life more playful?

Playfulness becomes difficult when we get bogged in worries. Worrying nurses the joy out of everything. I know, because I’ve been there many times before.

We don’t stop playing because we no longer enjoy it. We stop playing because we think we should be doing other things, and that creates fear, anxiety, and, eventually, numbness towards life. There will always be something that needs to be done.

It’s natural to connect, explore, and discover. Every day brings discoveries, wonder, and excitement. Every day is new.

I’ve never stopped being “playful”. When I stop noticing the playfulness of the world around me, I know I’m in a bad mood or too stressed, and I often make myself stop and re-engage in the world in a playful way, even if just to watch a funny movie.

When we lose ourselves in play, whether creating a make-believe world, throwing a ball between friends, or watching silly YouTube videos, we allow ourselves to get out of the linear, problem-solution, adult mindset.

We can learn a huge lesson from little persons. I certainly have.

Luckily, my career path ended up being immersed in the whirlwind of teaching children.

I decided to rediscover my silly, consequence-free side, to unlock my optimism.

I observed children make every task bright, fun, and interesting . . . and chaotic. Their infectious excitement and belief in good things pervaded my every working day. Their unconscious behavior and easy emotions filled my every weekday thought.

I owe those little smiley faces a heck of a lot! Being surrounded by children has helped me realize, “You don’t need to be childish to be childlike.” You can find happiness in everyday routine.

Re-discover your sunshine…Live, love, and laugh like you never lost the magic.

1. Give your happiness a boost by delighting in your own unique sense of humor.

2. Trust good things will happen, and put your hand up for every opportunity that comes your way.

3. Follow your gut instead of overthinking. 

4. Encourage feelings of excitement to bubble up more often by giving them glorious, physical free rein.

5. Give yourself the gorgeous gift of looking forward to birthdays by focusing on sharing, receiving, and celebrating all you’ve contributed in the past twelve months.

6. Take a break from meaningful activities to relax by being deliciously frivolous.

7. Sing out loud when a tune pops into your head to bring on feelings of pure joy.

8. Have upbeat conversations with yourself out loud to silence your inner critic.

In the land of play, we make connections we wouldn’t normally make. We see things in new ways. Play can boost our creativity, heighten our mood, make us laugh, and can engage us in the world in ways that regular “adult” life often doesn’t.

To Love

 Imagine opening up your heart and allowing love in.

Imagine feeling more confident in who you are. Confident enough to be open, honest, and kind in a relationship. To be willing to listen, understand, accept, support, and forgive.

But the very idea of opening up and letting love in can bring on the wrong kind of palpitations.

Saying yes to love that’s like standing naked, bare naked, every inch of you on show. Completely vulnerable.

“The greatest asset you could own, is an open heart.” ~Nikki Rowe

Love doesn’t grow and flourish because you dress up or make yourself up. All it needs is for you to show up, to be fully present. To let love in, you need to believe you’re worthy of love, that you truly are enough for another’s heart to fall for. Love is a powerful force, but you can’t share it if your heart is closed. 

Love doesn’t have a complicated vocabulary. All it wants to hear is “That’s okay. I love you for who you are.” 

Each relationship is unique, just as each person is unique, so how your relationship unfolds will be unique too. You can’t plan for it to go a particular way. You have to engage with the process of it and with each other, and then make decisions as you go. There is no one-line you can say, no one-action you can take, that will lead to a particular result.

All you can do is live your life more fully, learn to accept and love yourself more fully, and you will love and be loved more fully.

“Our interactions with one another reflect a dance between love and fear.” ~Ram Dass

But I learned, you just need to let your defenses down long enough to let someone else in. Accept that in a relationship you’re one of two wonderful, separate, yet intertwined individuals. You can be the amazing you that you are, and they can be their wonderful self too.

Whenever there are two people involved, there are going to be miss takes and miss understandings. That’s a given.

“Honesty is more than not lying. It is truth telling, truth speaking, truth living, and truth loving.” ~James E. Faust

Love needs to be heard to flourish. But it took me years to figure out that it was as much my responsibility to listen as to talk. Because love is a conversation, not a monologue.

I had to learn that I didn’t need to be perfect. And I never could be. And doing my best was plenty. I had to accept that about the other person too. 

Although I know my own work of self-love and acceptance will continue, I see now the rewards of opening my heart. To let love in we must practice not shutting it out. In the end, it’s all we really want, and we can have it, if we open up to it.