Don't Take Anything Personally - Handling Petty Tyrants

Today's Practice:
Don't take anything personally - Not even your own ego

Is there a petty tyrant in your life who seemingly blocks your experience of peace? Maybe a relative, a coworker, someone in your life whose words or behavior 'makes' you feel angry, hurt, afraid, invalidated, unloved or attacked? Take some time out today to sit with "your" emotional perception. This person is now your teacher. Maybe in the past they were your sister, your boss, etc., but today allow this shift - Today this person has become your teacher. -- See it as a game of consciousness. Try to gain even a little more detached awareness about your perception of these continued events. Maybe they have been in your life for many years, so you have tender wiring that also needs your care and attention. Give it. Have a plan as to how you will relate and handle the next encounter with this individual. Really see it and make it real. Wire in that you are prepared and ready to implement this change. Maybe you will choose to set a boundary. If you can't set one physically, how else can you set one? Really see it, feel how it feels to claim this inner strength. Now see an encounter with this person transpiring in the near future. Feel your inner peace and humble empowerment remain stable as you are moving through the encounter with calm and ease and grace. With awareness. When you are done, ask your inner self to trust that you will care for and protect them, just as you did in the visualization. Teach them that this person is really the one who has no peace. Practice your detached compassion. If even for five minutes today. And continue to build on that until you are completely free. It's time

I am a Changing Woman Goddess

 

This Changing Woman - Are you a Changing Woman Goddess?

 

Every now and again I come across something so beautiful and timely I feel compelled to share it. This is one of them. Dedicated to my soul and my soul sisters who are alongside myself gracefully becoming the elder older Goddess Sisters we are each destined to be-come. Namaste. We have earned our larger wings. And the rite to step into our true Power. Share your Wisdom, Spread your Love.

 

This Changing Woman - 

Painting by  Ruth Zacharay

Narrative by Goddess Leonie Dawson

 I’m always surprised at how long healing takes.

Here I am, a couple of months since admitting mama-burnout.

And I’m still not healed.

Things are getting better, yes.

But fully healed? Not at all.

I’m still aching. Still finding out how to balance my life. Still understanding what is happening with my body, my hormones, my life, my mind.

This week, I saw this picture of Changing Woman.

In her, I see myself. I see how my own face has shifted from full round maiden face into a thinner, stronger mama’s face. It’s taking some getting used to.

I thought it was just me. Just me who did this wild, hard initiation into mamahood.

But seeing that photo gave me a healing, a reassurance, a medicine.

That this was the natural order of things. Of life, of womanhood, of growth, of change.

I am becoming all goddesses.

I’ve been a maiden. And baby, I lived the shit out of my maiden life! I rocked it so hard!

I was brave and fearless and utterly optimistic and wide faced.

I saw the world as untouched.

And as mama, having gone through that initiation of birth, of caring and tending so intensely to a tiny baby soul, I’m not who I once was.

I have been carved away at. I am etched. I am both hollower and stronger.

I never thought it would be this hard.

So hard to find my life again. Myself again. My centre, my core, my balance.

But here I am.

The thing is?

I don’t want anyone to take this journey away from me.

I don’t want anyone to make it easier for me.

I don’t want to go back to being a maiden again.

I want to stand in my own power, as a woman, and claim this.

I want to carve out what I need to carve out in my life.

I need to give myself time and space everyday to be filled up again.

I will not bow down to what I Think A Mother/Goddess/Woman Looks Like.

I will only bow and pray at the altar of Who This Woman Is And What She Desires To Create.

I will not cave to sadness, to hopelessness, to loss.

I will be brave.

I will ask for what I need.

I will find a way to give it to myself.

I will be whole again.

I will find myself again. And I will be richer, braver and wiser for it. For this. For this change and this initiation.

I will be okay.

I will be okay.

I will be okay.

I will not cave to anything but what is whole and helpful and true.

I am writing this in a tiny turquoise room at a cafe.

For the first time since mamahood began, I have claimed myself this time.

I have left my sleeping babe next to my love.

I have pulled on a new long, floating dress – one that skims past my ankles. It is green and gold and earthy and soft.

I have gathered my laptop, my water and some gold coins.

I have walked across the muddy field behind our house to get to the street.

I searched for a cafe.

And here I sit.

I will not be anxious.

I will not worry whether babe has awoken.

I trust she will be okay.

That no matter what, she and her daddy will find their way around each other, falling into step in their daddy-daughter dance.

I will trust that this time is good for me. For her. For him. For all of us.

I will trust this need of mine to fill my own cup. To breathe. To sit. To let spill. To be who I am outside of being a mama.

I know when I return to that little cottage of ours, I will be better for it. Happier. More whole.

I will keep finding the courage and strength and wisdom to keep making this time for myself.

I will keep finding my way back to my self, my soul, my centre.

I will keep loving myself. Adoring myself. Adorning myself with what is true, what feels right, and what is good.

I will be whole.

I am whole.

I sit, close my eyes. A small smile dances across my lips. My shoulders suddenly release and drop an inch. I did not know I had been holding them up so tight.

But here they are. Relaxed. At ease.

I am finding my way home again.

I am finding my way home.

Changing Woman art by Ruth Zachary
written/shared by LeonieDawson.com
www.leoniedawson.com

please visit her site at link

The Zen Garden - Don't Depend on Results

The Zen Garden

A famous dignitary was coming to visit a Zen monestary and intense preparations were being made for the visit. The Master instructed the monks to carefully rake up all the leaves that had fallen over their beautiful rock garden. The monks gave particular attention to this task as this garden was a source of great acclaim. The task was completed perfectly about half an hour before the visit.

The Zen Master then went to a deck that was directly above the garden to inspect the outcome of the monks' work. He saw that every leaf had been raked, all the weeds removed, and the rocks hosed down so that they were gleaming in the sun. Some of the monks down below saw him inspecting the garden. They had completed the work just in time.

After the Master was satisfied with their work, he left for a moment and then returned with a huge bag of old leaves. To the monks' horror and without a moment's notice, he immediately tossed them down all over the garden again.

"Now this is a perfect Zen garden," said the Master. "Don't forget that."

The master was teaching that work itself suffices, to forget about results. Whatever life brings is perfect. One cannot improve upon that.

Don't Depend on Results

Psychologically speaking, the Zen Master withdrew the satisfaction the monks could have attained for their efforts. Some might call this nihilism, saying that effort doesn't matter. Their efforts did matter, but in an entirely different way. It mattered that they did their best each moment. It also mattered that they could accept whatever consequences came.

from ZenMiracles by Brenda Shoshanna

A Note from Kabir

This morning I went looking for my Buddah Nature.
Buddah Nature, I asked, where have you gone?

This is what I heard:

Are you looking for me? I am in the next seat.

My shoulder is against yours.

You will not find me in stupas, not in Indian shrine,
Nor rooms, nor in synagogues, nor in cathedrals:

Not in masses, nor kirtans, not in legs winding

Around your own neck, nor in eating

nothing but

Vegetables.

-- Kabir

"A Note from Kabir" from the desk of Alexa Major