Would you have been irritated?

girl-waiting-mdThe examining rooms were all filled. My husband and I were waiting for the eye Doctor to arrive, to peer into his eyes and decide if all was well. I couldn’t shake the cattle car feeling. We were waiting to optimize his schedule not ours. I was irritated, very irritated.

How many of you would say, “Of course, I hate when Doctors do that”? From one perspective this response is understandable. However, from a creating perspective, it doesn’t. I was allowing circumstances to determine my experience of life. Would I choose to sit around and be irritated? Would I choose to put that negativity though my body. No!

I thought waiting meant that we weren’t important enough.  I had the expectation that a caring Doctor wouldn’t have us wait. I was judging and taking the whole thing personally.

I could have been aware of the situation without judging and without taking it personally. I could have decided how I wanted to be (e.g, relaxed) and then decided if there was something I needed to do (e.g., go out and ask when he might be coming, express my concern if I really had to get out of there by a certain time, get something to read, meditate ).

As a co-creator of life, I  know that the quality of my life, my life experience, is my choice. What am I choosing now? What are you choosing?

 

I want the flowers NOW!

I keep staring at them, willing them to shoot up their yellow flowers. I want the color but my garden is taking its own good time. It’s still May, too early for most of the perennial flowers, especially these Western Sunflowers, to bloom. I’m feeling impatient.photo-2

Spring has been here forever.  I want warmer weather and the richness of the harvest. Silly of course, and just a passing emotional storm  Yet I’m aware that in our world of instant messaging, it’s easy to lose touch with the natural rhythm of things.

Waiting is seen only as a delay. Defining goals suddenly slips into a dissatisfaction with what we have now. Being where you are seems not enough. You forget to appreciate and enjoy what is.

Fortunately I can laugh at my impatience. It too will pass.

I walk back into the house remembering that now is the only moment I have.  And, I smile.

Fixing isn’t always what I want

Two years ago a candle melted on our fireplace stone mantle. I tried everything anyone suggested to get it up. I scraped, ironed over a brown paper bag to soak up excess wax, used degreasers, and finally carburetor cleaner to get the oily stain out. All suggestions were unsuccessful, many gave me a headache.DSC02414 - Version 2

I explored going to a local stone place to replace the worse section but I’m not doing it. Seeing the stain still bothers me!  WHY am I not taking action?

As I was berating myself for not getting it off my “to do” list the other day, it dawned on me:  I was solving a problem, not creating something I wanted. Yes, the stain bothered me, but I don’t particularly like the mantle. There is no energy around fixing it.  I’d fallen into the trap of fixing a problem (I really should…) vs. creating what I want.

So now I’m exploring what a different mantle might look like. I’ll create it or decide to live with what I have. Either way it’ll be a clean choice and will free energy that’s been trapped in the “I’ve got to get this fixed” mode for the past two years.
Creating works! Shoulds?…Well, not so much.

Luck? Perserverance? Timing?

Cathy Thomas has written about her own creating process in getting her book published.

“For several years I have had the intention of writing a book. …..I can tell you that at the start, the idea of me actually writing a book seemed really crazy. …So what I did was just start… And then…my dream got stuck. I just could not get it to move forward.”

The creating process can be messy, with many opportunities to just give up. In Cathy’s case, there were no heroic bells and whistles…just a thread of desire for it to happen that kept it all moving. She listened to her own sense of when to move and when to let it rest. She was open to it not happening at the same time she still wanted it. Creating often requires holding polarities: seeing the end result complete but being OK with not having it;  being willing to put a hold on something but still be alert to possibilities…..

Read the rest of Cathy’s post here:   Making your Dream Become a Reality.

 

Our heart is also our personal GPS

We know the heart is a muscle that pumps blood through our bodies. But it turns out, in addition to being a physical pump, the heart generates an  electromagnetic field that extends out from the heart itself. The more coherent the field’s sine-wave, the greater our intuitive ability, our creative responses in situations and our sense of well-being. Learning to generate a more coherent field is an important skill for those interested in being effective creators. At the heart of creating is the ability to chose our responses and what we want in life vs. reacting to situations and the opinions of others.

How does heart coherence work? “Now researchers theorize that the energetic heart functions as a “receiving station” through which nonlinear information couples to the physical heart (The Energetic Heart). By intentionally engaging sincere heart feelings like love, care, appreciation and compassion, participants in studies have been able to generate a coherent or sine-wave like heart-rhythm pattern. HeartMath theorizes that the more coherent people are, the more receptive they become to this field of intuitive heart intelligence.” from HeartMath.org.

The energetic heart is our personal GPS system for choosing wisely, reducing stress and achieving results we care about.

There are simple tools you can use to tap the power of your own energetic heart. But like all things of value, you have to practice them and, remember to use them. Simple doesn’t mean no effort. But with practice you can live with less stress, be more effective in your choices and positively affect those around you. Not bad!

In the shelter of a tree…

We take for granted the benefit nature bestows on us. Six months after a tornado hit Moscow, Ohio, one woman remembers:

She “used to be able to walk from her home for five blocks down toward the river and be under trees nearly the whole time. Not anymore… now she knows why she has always loved Moscow’s trees … There is the shade, of course. But now she says the wind feels different. It is harder when it sweeps up from the river. And she can hear the barges that carry coal to the William H. Zimmer Power Station on the north edge of town.”*

So here’s to greater appreciation of those everyday things, like the trees we take for granted or get annoyed at when they shed leaves or nuts: the “things” we will truly miss when they are gone.

*The Enquirer, Sunday, Sept. 2, 2012 p. B6.

Lessons of a Creator: #5

I found a way to shift my attention away from my thinking mind, to ask questions and to listen for the answers: FOCUSING IN MY BODY. I shift my attention into my body (I focus on my heart), center with my breath and feel a moment of genuine care. As my thinking mind quiets,  I can get a felt sense of what is going on.  I can tune into an inner guidance that goes beyond my fears, worries and limitations.

My heart-focus filters out the noise my head is  broadcasting.

(Some of the science  behind this can be found at: www.heartmath.org)


Lessons of a Creator: #4

Our thinking minds are heavily influenced by what we’ve been taught, our beliefs about how things work, and our assumptions about people. These, too often, lead to worry, judgment, and fears that distort what we think is happening, and limit what we think is possible.

As a creator, I learned I had to go beyond what my “head” can do for me. That led me to lesson #5…

Lessons of a Creator: #3

Most of us really don’t really believe what we want matters. But it’s the first step in learning we are creators. We start by wanting something, which leads us to learn about the creating process itself.  We begin to trust that we can have what we want. And, it’s only then, that  we can hear the invitation to go deeper: to listen to the silence, to step off the edge of what we thought was possible. In Alice of Wonderland’s terms, we fall down the rabbit hole– running into paradoxes, living  bigger questions, losing the world we thought we knew so well.


 

Lessons of a Creator: #2

Too often, what has been missing,  is the most important question:

“What do I truly want?”