A kind practice

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First, come into the present. Flash on what’s happening with you right now.  Be fully aware of your body, its energetic quality.  Be aware of your thoughts and emotions.

Next, feel your heart,  literally placing your hand on your chest if you find that helpful.  This is a way of accepting yourself just as you are in this moment,  a way of saying “This is my experience right now, and it’s ok”

Then go into the next moment without any agenda.

 Pema Chodron, Living Beautifully

photo elvert barnes

Sunday Quote: Now

leaf river

We have only now,

only this single eternal moment opening and unfolding before us,

day and night.

Jack Kornfield

Relating to all

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One of the most toxic new-age ideas is that we should “keep a positive attitude.” What a crazy, crazy idea that is. It is much healthier, much more healing, to allow yourself to feel whatever is coming up in you, and allow yourself to work with that anxiety, depression, grief. Because, underneath that, if you allow those feelings to come up and express themselves, then you can find the truly positive way of living in relationship to those feelings. That’s such an important thing…..It’s not  about some “spiritual experience” of being high all the time. Not at all. It is about living with the ongoing stresses and strains and difficulties – and joys –  of life, but doing so in a way that we feel whole. Living in relationship with the struggles of life is what makes us human.

Michael Lerner, The Difference between Healing and Curing

photo andrea westmorland

Hold everything lightly

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From the beginning
the flying birds have left
no footprints on the blue sky
Musō Soseki, Zen Buddhist Monk, calligraphy artist, poem writer, and garden designer,  1275 – 1351
photo wing chi poon

Labelling

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This is most people’s reality: As soon as something is perceived,

it is named, interpreted, compared with something else,

liked, disliked, or called good or bad by ….the ego.

Eckhart Tolle

photo eviatar bach

In the details

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The secret of happiness

lies in taking a genuine interest in all the details of daily life,

and in elevating them to art.

William Morris, English Designer, 1834 – 1896