Stress-free

I got about 4 hours of sleep last night and woke with a splitting headache in the vicinity of my right eye.  Moved to Sag's unoccupied bed and therapeutically rubbed my "heart" spot, my eyes (about an inch north, south, east, west of them), my breasts (women: this is something I rarely remember to do and it is so therapeutic...I highly recommend), my neck (on the right side), right under my collar bone (on the right side), my right temple, and my fingers and fingertips.

This took about an hour and then I got up.  It's been about thirty minutes and the pain is gone though I can still feel the spot.  Relief.

A few minutes ago, I read Gluten-Free Girl's latest blog post and was reminded again to breathe.  And relax.  She quoted a 100 year old man who recently ran his first marathon.  When asked the secret to a long life, this is what he said:

“The secret to a long and healthy life is to be stress-free. Be grateful for everything you have, stay away from people who are negative, stay smiling and keep running.”

This time of year is tough on so many of us.  For me/us, in addition to the holiday whammy of Thanksgiving and Christmas (and the seemingly so much that they entail: travel to visit family, big, honking meals, holiday cards, gift giving...which I have been consciously working to simplify more and more with each passing year), we observe and celebrate Sag's birthday, Cap's parents' birthdays, Cap's annual big reading conference, Cap's end-of-semester, our anniversary, and Winter Solstice.

The forces...they are sheer.

As I travel through Holiday Time 2011, I want to remember these words above.  I strive to be stress-free.

Peace and love.

Food for thought

"While violence has been a factor in our slums and ghettos for decades, never has it been so deadly.  Today children face the almost impossible task of making life or death decisions all alone, in a matter of minutes, sometimes seconds.  Even those of us who have been lucky enough to survive enough violent encounters to have gained an amount of expertise in dealing with violence find the current codes of conduct to be so harsh, capricious, and variable that it makes it almost impossible to help young people cope with the everyday violence they face on the streets and in schools.  Today many children grow up in a waking nightmare of sudden death around every corner."

~ from Fist stick knife gun: a personal history of violence in America by Geoffrey Canada

Meditation

"...the greatest strength is in gentleness."

Lighten up

...the words that came into my Inbox this week from Pema Chödrön.

Lighten up.

Simple.  Impeccably timed.  So hard to do.

I know enough to trust that this will pass.

And to recognize the futility of struggling...grappling.

To not abandon myself because it's so uncomfortable.

Here is the body of this week's "Quote of the Week" from Pema.  If you like it, you can sign up to get yours here.

LIGHTEN UP

Have you ever been caught in the heavy-duty scenario of feeling defeated and hurt, and then somehow, for no particular reason, you just drop it? It just goes, and you wonder why you made “much ado about nothing.” What was that all about? 

I’d like to encourage us all to lighten up, to practice with a lot of gentleness. This compassion, this clarity, this openness are like something we have forgotten. Sitting here being gentle with ourselves, we’re rediscovering something. It’s like a mother reuniting with her child; having been lost to each other for a long, long time, they reunite. The way to reunite with bodhichitta (awakened heart) is to lighten up in your practice and in your life. 

Peace and love.  And if you need it, a gentle nudge to lighten up...I know I need it.

Rumi quote

"Observe the wonders as they occur around you. Don't claim them. Feel the artistry moving through and be silent. Don't grieve. Anything you lose comes round in another form." 

 

Thoreau

  image pulled from web.

"We live but a fraction of our life. Why do we not let on the flood, raise the gates, and set all our wheels in motion? He that hath ears to hear, let him hear."    -Henry David Thoreau

I came across this Thoreau quote today and fell into a memory.  Sent spiraling with a smile.  I dig this guy.

Shades of blue

1. Toasted pine nuts for breakfast.  Satisfying and nourishing.

2. He looks like his baby-self in the very best way.  "To be awake is to be alive." ---Thoreau

3. This moment of zen was followed by a frolic in the water.  He is an earthly embodiment of "all in".

4. They sing and sing and love and love.  Almost bought it on iTunes but remembered the ever giving library at the last minute.

P.S.  Thanks to Cap for the awesome pictures of the kids at the ocean.

More words to live by

...especially good for me to remember...I have patience for others and life in general, but not so much for myself.

"The best teachers have shown me that things have to be done bit by bit. Nothing that means anything happens quickly - we only think it does."

---Joseph Bruchac, Abenaki

Word

"It does not require many words to speak the truth."

--Chief Joseph, Nez Perce

I am

...subdued.

An intense period (mercifully short) knocked me down Friday and Saturday. Mother's Day yesterday was mellow and pleasant.

This morning...

Same old shit sounds more negative than I feel, but it kinda feels that way...(the same old shit part, not the negative part...)

It's a spiral, which is what I always contend. Looping curves which move forward, up or down, inward or outward...always onward, never closing.

So, yes, I am in process (seemingly in forever loops) with sleep, Qigong, food, homeschooling, decluttering/organizing, being.

Yes, being.

Here's a quote from D.A.R.E. an essay by Michael Chabon. He's talking about marijuana, but these words have struck a chord within me (who has not smoked pot since sometime during college).

"...could intensify the sunshine of a perfect summer day, but it could also deepen the gloom of a wintry afternoon; it had bred false camaraderies and drawn my attention to deep flaws and fault lines when what mattered---what matters so often in the course of everyday human life---were the surfaces and joins."

At the crux of my striving for balance lies this choice...of the surfaces and joins over the extremes both high and low. I am realizing and recognizing that my brain appears neurobiologically predisposed to tipping towards the highs and lows. That is where I feel most alive and most whole.

(Enough so that I've possibly been overcompensating for it in some ways, but not enough so that I've begun self-medicating or am unable to function in the world.)

So I turn my attention, in a more conscious way, to the surfaces and joins. Words can be such a catalyst...I am so grateful for writers for that.

This explains a lot

From ADD-Friendly Ways To Organize Your Life:

"Although we don't really understand the neurological mechanism, the ADD need for stimulation is well known. It is more obvious among hyperactive/impulsive ADDers because their stimulation seeking is quite observable, from fast driving and fast talking to sky diving. But, even quiet, inattentive-type ADDers stimulate themselves through daydreaming, television, escape novels, and overeating if the events around them aren't interesting. Thom Hartmann, a well-known writer on the topic of ADD, hypothesizes that those with ADD crave a sense of aliveness more intensely than others. Some ADDers are so intolerant of boredom that they start an argument or create a crisis to avoid understimulation. Stimulation-seeking behavior can be either your key to success or your undoing, depending upon how it is managed."

Wow. It is unreal, seeing very real, very true aspects of myself from a new and different perspective.

I'm grateful.

Buddhist quote

From my "buddhist quote" thingy on my iGoogle:

"We live in illusion and the appearance of things. There is a reality. We are that reality. When you understand this, you see that you are nothing, and being nothing, you are everything. That is all."

Dragon's Way notes

• Last night during our group Qigong practice, I noticed that I wasn't yawning nearly as much as I usually do (in class or at home).

• When I walked into class last night, my teacher noticed immediately that I seemed 'happy'.  I felt a smile burst on my face and felt like the freaking Sun as I answered, "I am happy, thank you."

• It is usual for me to start heating up while I practice.  As I practice with more regularity after a fallow period, I've noticed that sometimes I break a sweat.   Last night in class, I didn't feel a rush of heat till #6.  I haven't been practicing this one at home because I'm not always sure my downstairs neighbor is home/awake.

• I did yawn during this morning's practice.  Getting the lying prone blockages out.

• I did practice #6 because I happened to notice my neighbor leaving for work.  As I practiced, I could feel reverberation all the way up the meridian line along the inside of my thigh.  I did the brush hitting up that line last night in an attempt to alleviate the maddening itchiness on my shins.  I absolutely love feeling the connections, on top of knowing that they're there.

• As I transition more fully in the food aspect, I'm noticing that I don't feel as hungry as I thought I would.

• I am aiming to read more of the book and handouts this time around.  My teacher mentioned the various points of self-healing that comprise this program, and reading/rereading the written material is one which I have not taken full advantage of.

"It is difficult to say how old the practice of Qigong is.  Some believe it goes back far more than five thousand years.  The word Qigong literally means "energy work", but the actual practice is far deeper than its description.  It is a powerful self-healing discipline that is particularly effective for women who want to prevent or alleviate menopausal symptoms.  As we've said, Qigong can help you connect your body, mind, and spirit by allowing you to gain control of and direct your own Qi or life force.  Its biggest benefit is that it can develop your intuition and let you see the world in a different way.  This view is one that can take you beyond the senses."  (from the Dragon's Way book)

More bell hooks

Inspired by more bell hooks over at ColinResponse.  Great quote and excellent photo.  Hope you're getting your Monday groove on without too much Ego resistance :-)

From the pages of Sports Illustrated...

"We are not human beings having a spiritual existence. We are spiritual beings having a human existence."

Teilhard de Chardin

Wise words

"The first factor in the revolution of consciousness is the mystic death of the ego - the death of negative thinking, negative personalities. We must purify the soul of the inner enemies. Every time a defect manifests - envy, gluttony, anger, lust, whatever - that impulse to the heart. Ask, `Do I really need to invoke this?' And then honor the heart."

--Willaru Huayta, QUECHAU NATION, PERU

I've been digging this guy's words lately.  (Really ties into the words I received from you last night, B.)

And watching this flower.

 

 

 

What have you been Hearing and Seeing lately?

Edith Wharton's words

"...interested in big things, happy in small ways."

Love that. That's me.

Thanks Expanding Life.

More wise words

How does one keep from “growing old inside”? Surely only in community. The only way to make friends with time is to stay friends with people…. Taking community seriously not only gives us the companionship we need, it also relieves us of the notion that we are dispensable.
-Robert McAfee Brown

Wise words

Love is an action, never simply a feeling.  (bell hooks)