Living With Grace

The person who is a master in the art of living makes little distinction between their work and their play, their labor and their leisure, their mind and their body, their education and their recreation, their love and their religion.  They hardly know which is which. They simply pursue their vision of excellence and grace in whatever they do, leaving others to decide whether they are working or playing. To them, they are always doing both.  ~~~ from Zen Buddhism

This passage on grace really zinged through me as we are halfway through July.  It seems that many things that I go to do or try to do are minefields of issues or tasks that have to be done before I can actually do what it is I wanted to enjoy.  I was not feeling the flow of things.  I was not moving with grace.  I had to figure out my block, in me, and release it.  It is a work in progress.

Moving through this month, and through life, try to remember that you can be graceful in what ever you do.  It is born in us.  We forget it, and then forget how to be graceful.  

May your life flow with ease. 

Blessings,

Judy

Be Your Best Self

 

The poster says:  Your best life comes when you commit to being your best self.  —- Cheryl Richardson

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Over the years of working and coaching people, I have had many people question what it means to be your best self.  Their concern is that a person is so busy learning their job, taking orders from a boss, and working long hours along with trying to cope with a family and parental tasks that they do not have time to think about best.  They do as good as they can which is mostly not their best.

The concern is valid.  All of us have outside pressures on us that can interfere with self learning, contemplation, and reflection.  The pressures interfere with how we see ourselves and our values and interfere with us setting boundaries.

To be our best self, we need to slow down and take a breath.  We need to think about the things that we want to do as our best self.  For many, this may be about being the best self as a father or mother or brother or sister or child to a parent.  It may be about learning everything one can about a hobby that fascinates and fulfills them.  There is no right answer.  It also means that one must let go of trying to be perfect in other things.  In other words, one must set boundaries around what is the best and what is okay, and how one splits their attention and time.  It is a complicated life!

Blessings,

Judy

Solitude

 

Sometimes, we simply need a place to be by ourselves, in the stillness of nature, so that we may find ourselves.  Solitude is about learning to be alone with one’s self. It is our choice. We need to be quiet.

It is not about being cut off from others, by others.  Being cut off from others, by their choice, is isolation.  

Today, when you meditate, quizz yourself on all the times you felt like you needed solitude.  When you have your list of recurring instances, look at it to see when you need to schedule some solitude time. You then begin working with the flow of your life.

Blessings,

Judy