One of my regular newsletters had this paragraph in it this morning: “The first step in our journey of deeper authenticity and freedom is telling the truth about what gets in our way. By getting real about this in an honest, vulnerable, and compassionate way, we gain access to a deeper level of truth.”

The truth about what gets in our way…. hmmmm…

Earlier this month I was struggling with emotions that I thought I “shouldn’t” be feeling, or that I “should” be able to control. I was getting myself quite knotted up about things, until the universe started letting me know that I needed to change my thoughts about those thoughts.

One day last week, a friend was talking to me about letting go of the idea that I should or shouldn’t feel a certain way – if I’m feeling emotions, I just need to acknowledge that they’re there, try and understand why they arose, then let go of my attachment to them and trust that the universe will work things out the way they are meant to be for me. I then had 2 newsletters from different sources, talking about letting go & trusting in your “higher power”, whatever form that may take.

Now, I know when I’m getting messages I need to listen to… it’s happened too often to ignore!

So I decided to be kind & loving to myself, acknowledging the validity of those feelings, ask my higher power for help, and I quit beating myself up mentally for getting caught up in them. And guess what… I let the light back into my heart & mind.

I can now see that I’m NOT stuck in the past! I may have certain emotions triggered by memories, but there is no regret about the past … I wouldn’t be who I am, or where I am, today if my past had been different. And you know what? I like who I am, warts ‘n’ all

A boat docked in a tiny Mexican village. An American tourist complimented the Mexican fisherman on the quality of his fish and asked how long it took him to catch them.
“Not very long,” answered the Mexican.
“But then, why didn’t you stay out longer and catch more?” asked the American.

The Mexican explained that his small catch was sufficient to meet his needs and those of his family. The American asked, “But what do you do with the rest of your time?”
“I sleep late, fish a little, play with my children, and take a siesta with my wife. In the evenings, I go into the village to see my friends, play the guitar, and sing a few songs …. I have a full life.”

The American interrupted, “I have an MBA from Harvard, and I can help you! You should start by fishing longer every day. You can then sell the extra fish you catch. With the extra revenue, you can buy a bigger boat.”
“And after that?” asked the Mexican.

“With the extra money the larger boat will bring, you can buy a second one and a third one and so on until you have an entire fleet of trawlers. Instead of selling your fish to a middle man, you can then negotiate directly with the processing plants and maybe even open your own plant. You can then leave this little village and move to Mexico City, Los Angeles, or even New York City ! From there you can direct your huge new enterprise.”
“How long would that take?” asked the Mexican.
“Twenty, perhaps twenty-five years,” replied the American.
“And after that?”

“Afterwards? Well my friend, That’s when it gets really interesting,” answered the American, laughing. “When your business gets really big, you can start selling stocks and make millions!”
“Millions? Really? And after that?” said the Mexican.

“After that you’ll be able to retire, live in a tiny village near the coast, sleep late, play with your children, catch a few fish, take a siesta with your wife and spend your evenings doing what you like and enjoying your friends.”

Know where you’re going in life … You may already be there….

Thanks to Caryn for emailing me this.

I read an email forwarded on to me today, with some interesting thoughts on stress. Here are a couple of paragraphs:

“Some people consider crawling along in traffic an opportunity to listen to their favorite music or relax and do their best thinking. For others, traffic is a nightmare that will ruin their entire day. For some, a late appointment is a stressful experience, for others, living in a third-world country without running water is a joyful one. Adversity or opportunity? It depends on your perspective.

It is not your circumstances that are to blame for the issues in your life. Rather, it is your response to those issues that is the problem. [If you can] control your response to life’s issues they lead to powerful results. Your response is always a choice. Whether you know it or not, either you make the right choice, or the wrong one is made for you.

Successful people and great leaders do one thing differently than most people during times of challenge. They think for themselves and choose powerful states of being instead of sinking into the prevailing negative default state of their circumstances and the people around them.”

This is a very powerful way of reframing our reactions to stress. I do this … sometimes! And it really can defuse situations. I plan to practice more

(from Sonia Ricotti http://leadoutloud.ca/)

A friend reminded me of this quote today (possibly from the Buddha) – and I found this short video as a visual representation:

(skip the first 15 seconds if you’re in a hurry )

Above The Clouds The Sun Always Shines

I about the French Buddhist monk, Matthieu Ricard about 6 months ago, and of course as always happens his name now keeps popping up into my awareness.

He’s called “The Happiest Man On Earth” after taking part in experiments to show the positive effects of meditation on the brain.What I found most encouraging is that after daily meditation practice for just 3 months, differences can be perceived in novice meditator’s brains.

Something to ponder: “Happiness is an inner state of being, influenced by external conditions, but NOT dependant on them.”

This is quite a long video (From Google Tech Talk), so I recommend watching it in 3 or 4 sessions – I enjoyed his common-sense approach to things.

Change your Mind Change your Brain: The Inner Conditions…

Let me know if you enjoyed this…
Tracey

In his book, The Four Agreements: A Practical Guide to Personal Freedom, A Toltec Wisdom Book, Don Miguel Ruiz wrote:

“Humans are dreaming all the time. Before we were born the humans before us created a big outside dream that we will call society’s dream or the dream of the planet. The dream of the planet is the collective dream of billions of smaller, personal dreams, which together create a dream of a family, a dream of a community, a dream of a city, a dream of a country and finally a dream of the whole humanity. The dream of the planet includes all of society’s rules, its beliefs, its laws, its religions, its different cultures and ways to be, its governments, schools, social events and holidays.

“We were born with the capacity to learn how to dream and the humans who live before us teach how to dream the way society dreams. The outside dream has so many rules that when a new human is born, we hook the child’s attention and introduce those rules into his or here mind. The outside dream uses Mom and Dad, the schools and religion to teach us how to dream.”

Take a moment to reflect on that.

Have you ever thought about the idea that the dream you think is the dream may not actually be your dream?

The vast majority of people are brain-washed into thinking that the dream is to have more and more – more money, more things, more of just about everything. The trouble is that when we believe that more is better and equate it with being more, we equate people with less resource as being less – less smart, less able, less valuable. We discount them. We even do this to ourselves and we miss the many inner gifts that we all bring to life.

And when we believe that’s just the way things are, we don’t question. We assume limitation and we give up our resourcefulness and creativity to find new and different solutions and ideas.

Have you ever stopped to think about your own definition of success?

In fact, why is success considered to be important in the first place? After all, if you think about it, life is all about the experience – whatever that experience may be, it just is – whether this relates to your personal life or your business. But in our culture, the primary, if not the only, measure of success is financial and little attention is paid to other definitions of success.

We’ve all bought into the bigger is better, and more is better. That isn’t necessarily so. For example, in business, the usual mantra is growth, growth and more growth. And yet, this may not be sustainable, as Yves Chouinard, the Founder of Patagonia pointed out, when he said that constant growth is not sustainable but this fact is disguised by many companies when they lay off employees and contract, because they transfer that to an “extraordinary item” for accounting purposes.

Don’t keep buying into it. Don’t live the dream! Instead live your dream.

Because we are so caught in the same thinking as the vast majority, thinking the same way as we have been “taught” to think and dream, most people don’t realize that they are not connected with their own inner passions and so their own dream. Many of the outstandingly successful people are seen to be mavericks, people who often didn’t make it through school, people who were often labelled as rebels or troublemakers, especially when they were at school. Yet, these mavericks have gone on to create new trends, new businesses and have come to be leaders whom many look to for inspiration.

And you have the very same attributes as any of those so-called mavericks. Everything is already within, it’s already there. Your only task is for you to tap into it by re-connnecting with that deeper part of you that was pushed down in earlier years, as you learned to play the game and dream the dream that you were taught.

Stop! Get back in touch with you and what you want. What’s your dream?

© 2009 Veronica Lim. www.veronicalim.com

RESOURCE BOX:

Veronica Lim coaches and provides strategies for coaches, consultants, and other service professionals who are ready to have more business, more time, more money and more fun, by leveraging their energy, time, passion and expertise. Claim your free report, “7 Simple Steps to Creating Your First Passive Income Info-Product” by signing up for your free Success Kit at http://www.veronicalim.com

Sign up for free, and help spread the word – we really really REALLY need to take action – we can’t rely on others, or even our own governments, to do things for us – get involved

The following extract from an earlier email was sent in an email I got today – I just loved the irony of it!

A man sat at a subway station in Washington DC and started to play the violin; it was a cold January morning. He played six Bach pieces for 45 minutes. During that time, since it was rush hour, about one thousand people went through the station, most of them on their way to work.

Three minutes went by and a middle aged man noticed there was a musician playing. He slowed his pace and stopped for a few seconds, but then hurried on to meet his schedule.

A minute later, the violinist received his first dollar: a woman threw the money without stopping.

A few minutes later, someone leaned against the wall to listen to him, but the man looked at his watch and started to walk again. Clearly he was late for work.

The one who paid the most attention was a 3 year old boy. His mother dragged him along, but the kid stopped to look at the violinist. Finally the mother pushed hard and the child continued to walk turning his head all the time. This was repeated by several other children. All the parents, without exception, forced them to move on.

During the 45 minutes the musician played, only 6 people stopped and stayed for a while. About 20 gave him money but continued to walk their normal pace. He collected $32. When he finished playing no one noticed. No one applauded.

No one knew this but the violinist was Joshua Bell, one of the best musicians in the world. He played one of the most intricate pieces ever written with a violin worth 3.5 million dollars.

Two days before his playing in the subway, Joshua Bell sold out at a theater in Boston where seats average $100.

This is a true story. Joshua Bell playing incognito was organized by the Washington Post as part of a social experiment about perception, tastes and priorities of people. The outlines were: in a commonplace environment at an inappropriate hour: Do we perceive beauty? Do we stop to appreciate it? Do we recognize talent in an unexpected context?

One of the possible conclusions could be:
If we do not have a moment to stop and listen to one of the best musicians in the world playing the best music ever written, how many other things are we missing?

Well… I’m sure I would have heard the music but not done much more than that… and you??

I came across this organisation last year, and found their ideas really appealing. If we work at reducing the amount that we complain, how much better will our own world be? I sent off for my free purple bracelets to do the “break a habit in 21 days” program, and have been attempting it ever since

The basic premise is that you can break a habit in 21 days. But what the purple bracelet does is make you realise that it requires awareness and effort to do it! You wear the bracelet, and when you find yourself complaining, you have to switch it over to the other wrist. THEN … very important… your 21 days starts from scratch! Your goal is to keep the bracelet on the same arm for 21 days straight.

The average a person takes to achieve this is about 6 months – but the changes are almost immediately noticeable as you become more aware of your own power to influence the state of your day, and that of the people around you.

Go to their website & read up on it – and if it grabs you, then get your bracelet too!

Bonus: when you get one bracelet (just paying P and P) you get sent 4 free, to pass on to friends

Thanks to my friend Tina for sending these to me…
Twelve things to remember:

1. The value of time
2. The success of perseverance
3. The pleasure of working
4. The dignity of simplicity
5. The worth of character
6. The power of kindness
7. The influence of example
8. The obligation of duty
9. The wisdom of economy
10. The virtue of patience
11. The improvement of talent
12. The joy of originating