When you keep secret all the ways that you are a mess inside, you're not protecting your friends. You're preventing them from really knowing you. Share your stories - the sad ones and the mad ones and the super funny ones. Knowing you (warts and all) is, in the end, all that your true friends want.
This summer, I have spent hours watering, feeding, pruning, harvesting fruit and simply enjoying my garden. It's not surprising at all to realize that I'm tending to more than my plants out there. I am also taking gentle care of myself.
Can you remember your first real friend? I recently found a picture of mine and the memories that had been tucked away with that lost photo filled with me joy. Friendship is one of the greatest gifts of life. If our friendships bring us so much joy, just imagine how good it could be to become our own friend! Plus when we figure out how to befriend ourselves, we're able to be an even better friend to our friends. It's a win-win!
This summer I find that rather than yearning for amazing experiences, I am most looking forward to embracing the chance to exhale and relax into my ordinary life. There is something very settling about doing simple things that I can watch unfold over weeks and months.
Friends, I am super P.O.'d. The worse part is that I'm not just P.O.'d at the person who upset me. I'm even more P.O.'d with myself for still being so P.O.'d. I would desperately like to stop this "extra," self-inflicted pain and suffering. What am I to do?
The summer after my brother died, something deep within me learned the power of adjusting the aperture of my awareness. Keeping my metaphorical lens as small as possible helped me realize that - moment to moment - I was OK. This same strategy is helping me to feel more settled and calm in the wake of the national and global chaos of the last months.
This season of giving and receiving gifts is a good time to ask yourself - what if joy was something we didn’t have to wait to receive? What if joy was something that we could seek and even create for ourselves? If we were more joyful people, wouldn’t we also, as a matter of course, be more generous and caring? Take a moment and ponder what you could do right now that would give you a little joy. Now, give yourself the joy of doing it!
Some years it is easy to count my Thanksgiving blessings. Some years it isn't. No matter the struggle, I have found that there are moments that I wouldn't change. Noticing these is the key to a thankful heart.
What happens in your head when you sit or lie down to rest? Are you, like me, making lists? Maybe repeating those lists over and over so you don't forget when you stand up? Are you so busy wondering if you've had enough rest that you're hardly resting at all? Why do so few of us not know how to truly rest? Resting both requires and teaches us to be where our body is. Being fully present like this is a skill that is really hard for us, but that makes us much happier people.