Your Future

AA wrote: Awesome! Love that book!

Your Future

Future cannot be predicted. It can only be created.

  From the Bhagavad Gita

What do you want your future to look like? Do you want there to be more love, more time for creativity, less stress or worries?

We can steer our future into a desired direction through the way we think and act today. What we sow, we reap… If we want there to be more kindness in the world, we can decide to actively spread more of it. (For ideas and inspiration check out https://www.randomactsofkindness.org !)  If we want to have less stress we can practice slowing down.

Of course, things happen that are out of our control. We fall ill, a loved one passes away, we lose our jobs… but if we decide to live our days in happiness and practice relaxing and smiling during any circumstances (taking the Dalai Lama as a role model), we create a better future, for ourself and others. You are what you put into the world - and the world changes with you.

Four Times a Day

Four Times a Day

Four times a day, slow down your steps and your gestures.  Return to your centre and pay attention to your breath. Enjoy that special moment. 

                                                 Anonymous

I have chosen my Four Times: 

1. Before I take the first bite of my breakfast.

2. When I am standing on my doorstep, ready to leave the house.

3. At noon. Wherever I am, whatever I do.

4. Before brushing my teeth at night.

Which will be yours…?

Cradle for Our Souls

Cradle for Our Souls

There is no greater gift you can give to another human being than your response: to his tears, to his words, to his touch; to her hopes, to her dreams, to her prayers. 

Response is joining; response is heartfelt participation. Response, of whatever kind – with your words, with your tears, with your heart, with your arms – is a way of standing inside the pain and the joy and the hope and the fear and the imagined isolation of another person’s experience.

“I’m so sorry to hear that”; “That sounds awful”; “How wonderful, I’m so happy for you”; “You must be scared”; “I bet you’re excited”; “I can’t imagine how that must feel.”

Respond. Respond with your heart. Respond as much as you can. Respond no matter how inadequate you feel. Response is the cradle in which, very gently, we rock one another’s vulnerable souls. 

                                 Daphne Rose Kingma: A Garland of Love

Nothing to subtract, nothing to add :-)

Timeless Medicine

AA wrote: Wunderbar! Wie immer wunderbar und inspirierend! Danke, Sabina.

Timeless Medicine

Across the centuries we have this timeless medicine: Live directly, wait, and care for your soul as if it were the whole world.

Mark Nepo: The Book of Awakening.

How often do we actually live directly?  Caught in the stream of events during our busy days, we rush on with our well-filled To-Do lists, worried to get it all done. Rare are the moments when we take the time to stop…

… and wait. The essence of stopping is to take a proper break. The pause must be long enough for us to start feeling a bit uncomfortable (because we’re doing nothing ;-) First then we can carry on…

… with all our being, body and soul. Unfortunately we tend to ignore the latter half. It is crucial to take care of your soul as if it were the whole world. Nothing is more important. Neither the sales figures, nor the clock ticking, nor your To-Do list. Your inner self needs you - don’t let it down. 

Finding Peace in Difficult Circumstances

AA said: Liebe Sabina, eine nützlichere Anleitung hättest Du mir heute kaum schicken können. -- Ich werde das üben!

BB said: Wonderful tools, thank you my dear sis , have a great week!!!

CC said: Merci pour ce rappel toujours utile et qui tombe vraiment au bon moment😉

Finding Peace in Difficult Circumstances

It is not difficult to find peace in peaceful circumstances. It needs extraordinary character to retain peace in a disturbed environment.

The Bhagavad Gita

Meditating among a group of monks in a remote monastery is a different thing than practice sitting meditation on your own in a flat by a highway. Being peaceful among kind and calm people is easy, but staying in peace when you’re confronted with negative or aggressive persons demands not only character, but quite some training.

The moment our fears or dislikes are triggered we should be prepared. We can train in remaining calm if we’re triggered. If you practice as below the risk is smaller that you over-react when your peace is disturbed.

• Stop any thinking or reaction.
• Focus entirely on a small part of your body, e.g. the back of your index finger, for ten seconds
• Take a conscious breath and feel how the air slowly fills your body. Let it flow out slowly in full awareness
• Look around consciously and reintegrate in your surroundings.
• Note how you feel, but don’t react to what/who triggered you.

The more often you practice this the easier it will be to fall back on it in times of need. It is perfect if you can train it regularly, perhaps every time you open your front door. Smile to your door, stop, and focus…