Standing Straight in Life

AA wrote: Tack för tankenötterna!Jag brukar fundera på hur jag kan vara en bra människa och vad som är möjligt att göra för att den här ogreppbara världen ska bli lite bättre. Att ge människor ett respektfullt bemötande och försöka "se" folk tänker jag är en del i det. Men som med många av dina nötter, hade jag inte tänkt på det ur det här perspektivet! inspirerande.

Standing Straight in Life

The posture "inspires" the individual. When you stand straight in life, your expression changes. Everything within you is transformed.*

                                                                                  Sogyal Rinpoche

Sometimes I’m slouching. I might be tired or there might be a lack of attention,  a kind of "I don't really care". At that moment I’m giving in to laziness, to not being the best of me. However, although it may seem that slouching is more relaxed, it actually makes your muscles work harder. It also makes it harder to breathe deeply and fully, which further reduces energy levels. A good posture relaxes tension in your neck, shoulders, and back.

Luckily I often catch myself and immediately straighten up. Not being the best of me? No way; I am here to always be the best of me! At any given moment, in any situation, whether somebody else is around or not. That’s what my whole existence is about: always being the best of me.

Check our posture often: pull back your head and pull your shoulders down and back. This will realign your spine and get your posture toward the right angle. Keep your feet apart at hip distance and balance your your weight easily on both feet. Relax your knees and let your ars hang loosely at your side. 

It’s important to stand straight in life. With that posture, you show yourself and the world that you care: about yourself, and about others. You show that you know what you want, where you are going, and why. Standing straight in life shows that you have confidence and energy, that you meet the challenges of life with an open mind, and that you are not afraid. 

You stand straight, and you look people straight in the eye. You consciously listen to them, and speak your own truth.  It all goes together. 

*La posture "inspire" l'individu. Lorsque vous vous tenez droit dans la vie, votre expression change. Tout se transforme en vous.

A Magical Person

AA wrote:  Tack för dina mysiga och tänkvärda små mejl på måndagarna. Ser fram emot dem som en liten oas att läsa mellan ” allt det andra”.

A Magical Person 

From time to time into each of our lives there steps a magical person. Out of nowhere, seemingly for no reason, a human being appears whose romance with life is so beautiful and rare, so whimsical and holy that, without any effort at all, he enchants us with his extraordinary gift for living. *

                                                                 Daphne Rose Kingma: A Garland of Love

Think about a Magical Person in your life. It may be your partner, your child, an aunt or a friend, a colleague or someone you just ran into somewhere. A person who has a real “romance with life” and conveys that to others. 

Think about the effect this person has on you – how she (or he) makes you feel light and happy, almost enchanted. How she always inspires you and gives you hope. Think about her message: life is beautiful and magical, and it is possible to fulfil your dreams!

Send a heartfelt Thank You to the Magical Persons in your life, for how they, just by their way of being, teach you to love life .  

Let’s try to bring out the Magical Person within ourselves!

* De temps en temps entre dans chacune de nos vies une personne magique. Venu de nulle part, sans raison apparente, un être humain apparaît qui entretient avec la vie une romance si merveilleuse et si rare, si bizarre et si sacré que, sans faire aucun effort, il nous enchante avec son extraordinaire cadeau pour la vie. 

Refuse to Increase Hate

AA: Cher Sabina tu a tellement raison! 

Refuse to Increase Hate

Don’t hate, just mediate.

Jonathan Gillespie

We do not want more hate or fear in this world. Right now we are all chocked by the events in Paris.  Even if we are not personally touched by them, it’s like a big stone has placed itself on our chests - the heavy load of sorrow, fear and worry. So many people were attacked, wounded and killed… It could have been us, or our beloved ones. If these things happen in Paris, they can happen anywhere. 

Who are the “terrorists”?  What fuels them to kill and destroy, both others and themselves? It must be because they suffer, because they do not see life as the precious gift that it is. It must be because they lack love and understanding. Maybe nobody ever loved or understood them...

What can I do in my little circle to increase love and understanding in the world? I try to mediate any conflicts, however small. I try to live love and understanding in everything I think, say and do. 

And personally, I meditate for those who suffer, and open my heart for them.

PS: These terror attacks get huge cover in media, and rightly so. But I wish that other atrocities around the world could be covered with the same intensity to allow them to really sink into our consciousness and take action - that more than 200.000 people have been killed during the civil war in Syria or a that a countless number of refugees have lost their lives in the Mediterranean sea, just to name two ...

A Leap of Faith Never Fails

AA wrote: My dear friend, you can't imagine how perfect this was for me today! I was literally just preparing the announcement of my new photography website when I read your words. My introverted soul found it so difficult to make the leap. Thank you for your gentle nudge, I just posted my link on Facebook and added it to my IG profile. The universe works in incredible ways!

BB wrote: deine Texte sind meine wöchentliche Inspiration und ich liebe sie! Du hast die wunderbare Gabe, Bedürfnisse, Werte und Sehnsüchte einfach und klar auszudrücken und sprichst damit immer direkt zu meinem Herzen. Vielen Dank für dein wöchentliches Geschenk!

A Leap of Faith Never Fails

And the day came when the risk it took to remain tightly closed in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to bloom.

                                                     Anaïs Nin

Can you relate to that feeling? You stay in your small, limited world, not daring to take the risk to jump into the cold water. The cold water may be a new job, the move to another city, or trying to explore a talent you feel you might have. It feels safer to stay put, not risking what you have or “making a fool out of yourself”. 

Three years ago, when I was about to change my life, I very clearly felt that remaining where I was would be more painful that risking a change of which I had no idea where it would lead me. A leap of faith always gets you forward, towards your true me. You take a risk, and even if you may not gain what you had expected, you certainly gain insights about yourself, and that is no small thing. 

I assure you: it’s an exhilarating feeling to take the risk to jump out into the unknown and to bloom. It’s exhilarating  to let go of the controlling ego and open up to all kinds of surprises.  It’s how life is meant to be: risky business.

Whoever thinks about daring to leap into the cold water - do it! A leap of faith never fails. 

Choose Who You Want To Be

AA wrote: Your theme couldn't be better for me today! You hit the point.

This is exactly what I'm fighting for. I don't want to be a Victim surrending to what "was done to me" to but be a Creator of my own life.

All these years I had a vision of myself - I'm not the person struggling through the hardships only. That is temporary. It is only the fight I have to win to arrive there where I want to be. Today I'm there.

BB wrote: Merci pour cette réflexion partagée et tellement juste !

Choose Who You Want To Be

I am not what happened to me, I am what I choose to become.

C. G. Jung

So many difficult and complicated things happen in a person’s life; so many reasons to give up and resign to a “lesser life”, not living to our full potential. Perhaps they are small things, like an insensitive gym teacher saying you were the clumsiest pupil ever – and you resign to not ever trying to do any kind of sports activities (thereby punishing yourself). Perhaps they are big and terrible things, like being mistreated or abused at school or at home, and these events cripple and numb you for many years.

But at a certain point we have to take the full responsibility over our own lives. And that’s where the magic begins: we can choose who we want to be and through diligent work on ourselves and full concentration on our lives, we can become that person. 

You want to be a happier person? Count your blessings: decide to find reasons to be happy every single day - and you’ll see, soon you become a happier person!