Anne
Earlier today, I realized how much I was looking forward to blogging. I kept running ideas by my inner editorial board and smiling.
It reminded me of how i got about my daily swim at the Jewish Community Center on 14th St. In NYC. I’d make plans around swimming.
Which led me to reviewing ‘good for me behaviors’ that I’ve been consistent about (at least for a period of time):
walking 5 miles in the early morning, practicing the violin, going to a weekly painting class, meditation, doing Yoga.
They all had things in common:
1. Doing them makes me feel good.
2. they have a beneficial effect. They stimulate endorphins and promote well-being.
3. They reflect closely held values and what matters most.
In order for anything to stick and rate a commitment, it’s got to feel good – not just six month down the line, but now.
Blogging feels good and it is late and I am tired. I’ve kept my promise and no more miles to go before I sleep.
When Lily was a very little girl – maybe 2, she had a book about a baby bird who falls out of its nest and spends the book going around to different animals asking: “Are you my mother?” She asks, in turn, a cow, a cat, a goat, and a pig, all animals that toddlers love to imitate – moo, woof, cock a doodle doo, oink – “Are you my mother?” And one after the other, each tells the baby bird that their baby is a calf, a puppy, a chick, a piget and, “No I’m not your mother.” The baby bird, disappointed but undaunted continues its search until it comes across the mother bird who has been looking frantically for her baby bird and they are, happily ever after, reunited.
Today, when I came home I walked into my house and met a creature who looked like my daughter LIly but who acted like someone else. I asked, “Are you my daughter?”. She snapped, “No, I’m not your daughter, ” and stormed out. She returned a little later, in yet another incarnation, looking familiar but still behaving in disconcerting ways, thinking she could maybe fool me. I asked, “Are you my daughter?” to which she replied in silent body language, “No, I’m not your daughter either.” I waited patiently ( a kind of searching) for my off=spring, my heart seeking her out and my arms longing to enfold her and hold her close. Finally, yet another young woman emerged and entered the kitchen, combed and dressed to go out, speaking in tones I recognized as her own. I gave thanks and knew, “Here she is, finally, done shape-shifting, back, prodigal and on her way out.” I breathed a sign of relief and climbed back into my nest watching her walk up the steep driveway to her car.
My amazing Sunday began with the treat of a 3 hour Yoga class with a teacher new to me and new to the island. He began by suggesting that to monitor, measure and manage in the practice of asanas (yoga postures) helps us to monitor, measure and manage challenges in our everyday lives.
To monitor is to pay careful attention, to notice what is going on (with than hamstring, shoulder, lower back). To measure is to play with moving into discomfort and then to back off and to manage is to handle the the challenges of a position with mindfulness and grace – having monitored and measured first.
As a lover of both Yoga and metaphor I appreciate the notion that paying attention, taking stock and acting based on intelligent inside information is key in life as in Yoga.
It sounds like the law of attraction in action to me and it’s the way I’ve been suggesting you deal with challenges – getting present (deep breathing brings us back to the NOW) and noticing, getting into that observational look-out to take stock and see where we are inside and out, and then finding the better feeling thought to managing what’s going on with detachment, intelligence and vision.
Don’t you love how what you learn over here works over there?
Have you ever thought about how you can apply the strengths and strategies that work in one situation to another, seemingly very different problem? What does lengthening your spine before bending have to do with your business or your relationships? How could taking 5 deep breaths in each pose apply to cooking a great meal or writing, or creating the next best thing to ?
OM Shanti.
Today was the debut of A Taste of Paradise: A Sampler of Healing Practices for Body, Mind and Soul. The 1/2 day ‘retreat’ was a collaboration between me (Coach Paradise) and Jane DiCola,( Bliss Retreats and Zumba Instructor). It was the manifestation of a dream and it was awesome.
We had 19 attendees who snapped up our limited spaces within the first week of the promotional email. Each presenter (including myself on Law of Attraction and the finale of energizing Zumba) provided a fun, value packed experience that left people wanting more (it was a taste after all).
We pulled off a classy, smoothly running event – from the safari bus that shuttled people to a world class villa with a view of the British Virgin Islands – to the bouganvilla and bird of paradise that adorned the tables to the life changing offerings that had people lined up to make appointments with our presenters.
If I am in the business of collecting evidence for success and prosperity as I spread love and well-being, my collection grew greatly today. And, if this retreat wasn’t enough well-being for one day, I arrived home to a phone message from a radio listener, “You are the best thing on the radio.”
Sweet dreams are made of this.
Collaberators par excellence
Today was the debut of A Taste of Paradise: A Sampler of Healing Practices for Body, Mind and Soul. The 1/2 day ‘retreat’ was a collaboration between me (Coach Paradise) and Jane DiCola,( Bliss Retreats and Zumba Instructor). It was the manifestation of a dream and it was awesome.
We had 19 attendees who snapped up our limited spaces within the first week of the promotional email. Each presenter (including myself on Law of Attraction and the finale of energizing Zumba) provided a fun, value packed experience that left people wanting more (it was a taste after all).
We pulled off a classy, smoothly running event – from the safari bus that shuttled people to a world class villa with a view of the British Virgin Islands – to the bouganvilla and bird of paradise that adorned the tables to the life changing offerings that had people lined up to make appointments with our presenters.
If I am in the business of collecting evidence for success and prosperity as I spread love and well-being, my collection grew greatly today. And, if this retreat wasn’t enough well-being for one day, I arrived home to a phone message from a radio listener, “You are the best thing on the radio.”
Sweet dreams are made of this.
Collaberators par excellence