Where To Begin?

Where To Begin?

My heart has been broken over the past week since the murder of George Floyd.  I’ve found myself processing my feelings, struggling to find the right words and also the actions that I should take.  As a spiritual person, I look up and ask for guidance and direction.  This weekend I felt compelled to create a loving kindness meditation to share focused on creating more love, light, and compassion and release feelings and energies that harden our hearts. You can access the meditation below.  I hope that it helps in any small way.

I also was led to many verses and quotes that provided me with some comfort.  One book that I was led to was Where To Begin by Cleo Wade.  Cleo is a very talented, insightful and inspiring young author. She is wise beyond her years and I find myself referring to this book and her book Heart Talk often.  I wanted to provide a selection from her book that I included in yesterday’s meditation.  I hope that it helps you as it has me.  Cleo reminded me that we each are more powerful that we think we are, and that we can impact change in our homes, our communities and on a broader scale.

“We spend so much time thinking we don’t have the power to change the world,

We forget that the power to change someone’s life is always in our hands.

We all have the power to relieve someone’s pain with our embrace.

And lessen someone’s suffering with our kindness.

Change-making does not belong to one group of people.

Change-making belongs to all of us.

You do not have to wait for anyone to tell you that you are in this.

You don’t have to wait around wondering what you should do.

Get to work on what you can do. 

The time has always been now.

Begin.

Start by doing what you can with what you’ve got.”

Where you are, and in your own way.

We don’t have to be heroes, wear a uniform, call ourselves activists, 

Or get elected to participate. 

We just have to be brave enough to care.

In love and light,

Aneta

Choosing FREEDOM over perfection

Choosing FREEDOM over perfection

I’ve become more aware of an affliction that many of us share - it’s our quest for perfection and high achievement. It’s a striving, a daily challenge, an itch that we keep scratching.  It’s filling every minute of the day with activities to feel a sense of accomplishment as we cross them off the list.  Not only is perfectionism exhausting, but it can cause us to procrastinate and not take chances on new ideas for fear of judgment.  What if we seek perfection, but what we really need is FREEDOM. 

Seeking to do something well is not the real problem - high standards and exceptional quality are beautiful virtues.  It is our quest to achieve an unrealistic goal, the punishment we inflict upon ourselves if/when we miss the mark, and our fear of judgement from others that indicate that this quest is not without cost.

What if we sought freedom instead of perfection?  What would freedom look like in our daily lives? Choosing freedom over perfection allows for more creativity, joy and peace in our lives. Freedom allows us to remove the shackles of our own self-constraints and instead experiment with self-expression and growth during the process. 

It is not easy to decide to abandon our need for perfection, and in my experience it’s something I work on daily.  I’ve found that by making small changes daily I was able to add more freedom, passion and purpose into my life.    

• Incorporate more creativity into your life.  Sketch, color, draw, write, cook, bake - experiment with hobbies just for pure enjoyment.  Choosing activities that can get messy and are subjective allows you to experiment with completing tasks without needing them to be perfect.  

• Do something that scares you everyday.  Maybe it’s writing an article, posting a video, or starting a new activity.  Determine what is good enough, instead of waiting for it to be perfect.  Trust me, it’s not as scary as you think it is, and by practicing things that scare you more often, the fear and worry will dissipate.  

• Eliminate what is not necessary and what doesn’t bring you joy from your daily list.  Some things end up on our lists everyday because we feel the urge to fill every single minute of the day with activity.  It’s ok, and actually healthy for us, to take time to rest, to think and to be fully present in the moment.

• Add your self-care to the top of your daily to-do list.  If you do not fill up your energy tank first everyday, you will not have anything left to give to others.  Add items to your daily list that focus on your health, your growth and development, and your happiness and peace.  

• Start saying “no” to things that don’t matter and saying “yes” to things that align with your dreams.   How often do we say “yes” because we feel like we should, or because we don’t want to disappoint those we care about?  Others’ agendas don’t need to become your to-do list. 

• Stop comparing yourself to others.  We each have a 1 in 400 trillion chance of being alive.  Each of us has unique experiences, skills, talents and interests.  Focus on what brings you joy and start there. 

Every day is like a blank piece of paper.  We cannot control or choose all of our circumstances, but we can choose to focus on activities that create more peace, passion, purpose and freedom in our lives. 

Let me know what you are adding or eliminating from your list.  

Be an agent of love, kindness and compassion.

Be an agent of love, kindness and compassion.

We are all connected in our humanity

It’s sometimes easy to imagine ourselves separated from others through constructs like ideology, borders, race, gender, age, etc. As global citizens we have been divided often on social media with our posts, and comments. Emotions have flared at times, and our words have been unkind or judgmental.  Recently, our attention has shifted to staying healthy, social distancing, and for many, anxiety due to uncertainty.

We are reminded that we are not separate, we are quite connected. We share the same air, the same space, the same planet.  What we choose to do now matters.  We are interconnected. Let’s choose to unite through acts of kindness with our thoughts, our emotions, our words, our intentions, and our actions. Choose to be an agent of love, light, kindness and compassion.  

Ideas to spread love and kindness:

• Call or video call your parents, your siblings and your friends and tell them that you’re thinking of them.

• Reach out to your neighbors, especially the elderly, to see if they need anything. 

• Support local businesses like restaurants by ordering take out.

• Ask how others are doing, especially those who are working and may feel anxious about their own health

• Turn your cameras on during meetings to promote greater connection - no one cares what you’re wearing :)

• Share positive messages that will inspire others through social media

I’ve recorded another meditation. Practice this loving kindness meditation and send out positive prayers, good vibes, and energy to the world