Running around like a blue-arsed fly this Christmas?

Take a breather, honestly. What is your reason for the season?

Our whole lives are spent in a whirl wind of activity, of chasing and becoming, of doing. Why not make Christmas a time for doing the opposite? Why not make it about remembering how all of life can be, if we so wish it?

Christmas is about the return of the light. Literally, in terms of the re-birth of the sun after the shortest, darkest days in the northern hemisphere, and figuratively, in terms of the return of the Christ.

Why not make it about return and remembering? Celebrating the big picture. Taking time out. Giving thanks. Giving gifts because you want to express your love, not because you have to.

Instead of rushing about even more, go ahead and enjoy yourself. Be full of presence and stillness. Go slower. Take time to celebrate with your friends and family.

At the end of the day, what is the most important thing to you?

What a difference an attitude makes. The world does not owe you anything. On the contrary, you are absolutely blessed to be here.

Every moment that you are simply alive is nothing short of a miracle.

Realise that and you will be so filled with gratitude and awe you will never demand anything ever again.

Have strong opinions but carry them lightly. Be open, receptive and flexible.

Make no demands. Have preferences, strong ones if you wish, but insist not. Hold onto nothing, set nothing in stone.

Your opinions are not you. Your beliefs of how things should happen are not you. All beliefs are simply an idea of what is true from your point of view at this point in time.

The truth is much closer to you than any belief.

Hold onto nothing - take nothing seriously.

Happiness does not lie in things. Happiness comes from gratitude for things.

Having more things is not the key to happiness. Appreciating what you do have is.







Image: http://singlemomwithlove.com/goodness-gracious/

the courage to be open

“Courage is what it takes to stand up and speak; courage is also what it takes to sit down and listen.”
~ Winston Churchill

Following your heart is good, but make sure you're listening to your heart and not your head.
Checking in with the people around you is invaluable. Being that open to reflection is not the easiest thing to do, but its better than getting lost.

Help

Advice for life, for now and forever more:

"Never in pride rely solely on your own strength. Help will come when you need it, even when least deserved, if you but allow it. Be receptive to the good flowing to you always."

MSI

There is help everywhere. There is nothing that you have or will experience that someone else hasn't. You just need to make the first step and ask. 

Don't try and do this alone. This life is not about lone individual strength, its about "standing on the shoulders of giants": Using the support that is all around so you can do the things you are good at.

Surround yourself with people that are better than you are. Follow your heart but also listen to them. That is the fastest way to growth and success.

Peace is everything

Peace is everything.

Without peace there is no effectiveness. There is no clarity of thought, no clarity of action. There is no joy or love.

Without peace there is existence but no Life. Peace is fulfillment.

Living in peace is the most important thing you can do for anyone else - without inner peace there will never be world peace.

Don't postpone your peace.

Joy is spontaneous

Joy is spontaneous, yet the space it comes from takes practice. Excellence in any sphere is a habit.

Keep going towards what you want.




Image: http://www.examiner.com/article/get-creative-with-brain-food-breakfast-ideas

There is more to life

There is more to life.

Meaning, purpose, authenticity, happiness and peace lie within you, already.

If you stop for even just a moment, all those things can finally catch up; life can finally make sense.

Can you let now be enough?

Can you let now be enough?

It is enough if you allow it.

It’s never the forgetting that counts, it’s the remembering.

The more you rest now in the stillness that exists now, the more the mind vanishes. The mind hates it, because it’s the one place it can’t go. No need to listen to it. It knows nothing, it can tell you nothing about stillness.

Can remembering be enough? Because it is.

If you can be content to remember, you will have everything.

Image from: www.kimberleymackenzie.blogspot.com

What is real? What is true?
How do you know?

The unchanging truth exists within you, right now, closer than your next thought. Everything else is a commentary, an assumption, a hope or a fear. All options, but not reality.

“Each morning we are born again. What we do today is what matters most.” - Buddha


In each moment we can start afresh and be born again. It just takes the willingness to let go, and immerse yourself in presence. What matters most is how we are now.

It doesn't matter if you think you have lived a good life or judge yourself to have lived a bad life. Begin again.

Courage

"It takes courage to recognize that we are not victims to anything outside of us. Recognizing that we are perfect is one of the bravest things we can do."
- Priya Ishaya

It is so engrained in our habits to look for what is wrong. It takes a strength of conviction to detach from blaming the outside and turn within.

Though the more you rest there in inner stillness, the more you are able to declare from your lived experience that all is well, that there is absolutely nothing wrong.

The mind kicks, saying “who are you to declare such happiness, such freedom?”

The Silence Self, having nothing to prove to anyone or anything, doesn’t stir. It only rests in peace, perfectly.





Photo from The Telegraph: www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/earthpicturegalleries/8066662/The-Lion-Whisperer-Kevin-Richardson-plays-with-white-lions-at-a-game-park-in-South-Africa.html

Right in front of you

If the absolute of divine grace and beauty was right in front of you, would you pay attention?

Perhaps if you pay attention, you might perceive the absolute of divine grace and beauty, right in front of you.

This life is only about where you put your attention. You create your reality based on what thoughts you follow. When you change your thoughts, you change your world. When you look for beauty, you find it. When you look for ugliness, you find it.

The Truth is here, right in front of you. It follows you everywhere. It’s just that you are somewhere else, distracted.

Don't spend your life being distracted. Everything is here, already.