The Art of Being You

Your Soul Is Calling

How might you cultivate the art of being you today?

Each day is an offering to your soul.
How will you nourish and nurture your soul?  It is in your care.

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How will you share your humanity today? (The day after El Paso/Dayton shootings - 8-4-19)
Who will you embrace with love?  This is the true legacy you will leave behind.

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You are here to be the presence of love, joy, and peace. !!!

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A recent Chopra mantra in the 21 Day series on Relationships:  Siddho Hum - "I am wholeness." 
Let your bright light radiance shine. 

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The art of being you requires - Courage - Curiosity - Consciousness.Let these three pull you forward to inspire others to find harmony within and without.

What are the stones you will turn over in your path walk this day?

And what will you discover? 

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How might you inspire another this day? ...... 

This is the embrace of love.

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I have a friend who suggests remembering the acronym of LBGT.

Let your manifesto be LBGT  - Love - Beauty - Goodness - Truth. This is the way forward.

The Stories

What are the stories you have been telling yourself that you have built a life upon? 

Have they changed over the years, over the journey?

How does the active mind want to qualify, quantify, and justify them?

What are they now?

What have you learned? What can you pass forward that is worthwhile? 

Who is listening?  Who do you want to listen?  What does it mean to listen? 

In the later years, the wisdom years, we (I) come to know a new view of ourselves (my self).
One that is accepting, not only of this moment but all of the past, all the ups and downs that have been created that led to a whole life. This sense of wholesomeness can not be understood from a view point of 40 years ago at age 35.  There are paths, some that lead to mountain tops and others through valleys. All are worthwhile.  The journey is the destination.

What is the vision at this point?  How inclusive is it? Can you view the next mt top from here?
Come now and walk a mile with me.

Change and Flow

All things cycle

the breath in and out, sun and moon,

the tides and seasons, last night’s meal,

old thoughts and new friends.

Each morning a flock of white egrets

fly overhead moving from the east to the west,

and then returning to the east in late evening hours.

Within this rhythmic cycle there is demonstrated

oneness and dynamic balance, unity and grace,

a resonant order and harmony in the change.

The opportunity is to be the flow and the change,

in both the creation and dissolution.

The quest is with eyes wide open.

The call is with heart wide open.

The joy is in the embrace of the now.

The Infinite is calling and the need

is to trust in the beauty in your life

and let it lead the way.

richard hammer

4-7-19

Thoughts on the Path

Thoughts on the Path

Teachings, learnings, understandings, guidance from others and Source.

Mentors whether for a moment or a life time.

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Allow these quotes and inquiries to plant seeds for greater awakenings

and appreciation of the beauty inside you and all around you

on this first day of Spring 2019

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You can be totally surrendered right now. Listen for the advice that is being given you. Open to the guidance that is already within. It may be vague right now but it will become clearer with the continued surrendering.  When you feel guidance, respond to it and see what happens.

 – Jeff  Carreira

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Meditation requires no faith or memorized prayers. It doesn’t depend on a notion of God, or a feeling of channeling, or a quest for awakening. It is a state of being present. Really present. Aware of your thoughts, your breath,

your ability to move from thinking to non-thinking.

It is separate from religion, as the sea is separate from the shore.

According to the spiritual teacher Jiddu Krishnamurti,

“True spiritual practice springs from, not toward, enlightenment.

Our practice does not lead to unity consciousness—it is unity consciousness.”

from Creativity Unzipped by Jan Phillips.

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“You come from love. You exist through love and under love you shall return. That love has no judgment.  That love doesn’t require anything of you.  It only requires your presence. … Hear this not from your ears but from your soul.”  - Master Anand Mehrotra – Sattva Yoga

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 “May we all learn that pain is not the end of the journey, and neither is delight. We can hold them both-indeed hold it all-at the same time, remembering that everything in these quixotic, unpredictable, unsettled and unsettling, exhilarating and heart-stirring times is a doorway to awakening in a sacred world."

 - Pema Chodron, Living Beautifully with Uncertainty and Change

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Letting Sorrow Open Us

There are moments when a world-weariness, a deep grief for what we human beings do to each other and the earth, threatens to swallow me whole. Sometimes distraction is the only way to keep breathing. But sooner or later I have to come back to the aching heart that both holds me and lives within me.

So, I've started this little practice when I am particularly discouraged: I decide that I will let the tragic event guide me to make ten small acts of kindness. I let someone into rush hour traffic in Toronto!  I pay for someone else's coffee or meal; I help a neighbour carry his groceries from his car to his home; I tell someone how wonderful they look today; I remember to look at the cashier, the librarian, the wait staff and really thank them for their work.

I do not expect this to change the world, and it doesn't replace collective political action where that is needed. But it keeps me going when something in me is tempted to give up on human beings. And, as I dedicate each action to the memory of those killed and the struggle of those wounded and terrorized yesteday in New Zealand, it helps me be with the enormity of the sadness.

What if every bit of heart-breaking news inspired us to be deliberately generous and kind with each other?   ~   Oriah Mt Dreamer – The Green Bough – 16 Mar 2019

http://oriahsinvitation.blogspot.com/2019/03/letting-sorrow-open-us.html

Richard’s Ramblings

What if the journey was not a long one but a short one? The distance from head to heart!

What if we could re-language what it is that we see? Seeing from the heart versus eyes?

What if we were to take the next step, the next step toward peace and healing the planet?

What if we were the one to reach the hand out first with loving kindness and kind eyes?

The journey, whether up the mountain or into the valley, is an invitation. What kind of an invitation is it for you?  Are you seeking to touch into perfection or abiding Presence?

We all need a structure to relate to, from within and from without. This is grounded stability for flow.  The process called our life allows us to define and reference these structures.  The challenge is for us to listen to life as it unfolds.  “The quality of your relationships with others begins with the relationship you have with yourself.” (Deborah Eden Tull –  Relational Mindfulness: A Handbook for Deepening Our Connection with Ourselves, Each Other, and The Planet)

Anand Mehrotra says, “You get to create your own reality within your own consciousness.  …

“Every moment is the possibility of the Infinite and you get to play the Divine Game.”

Hari Om Tat Sat

Your Yes

Your Yes 

The fruit of a tree begins with a blossom. Your next fruitful act begins with a thought.

Thoughts lead the way and open gates, or deepen the existing valley being walked in.

Yogis understand this creating and deepening of channels with the term, samskara.

Three years ago in my online Penzu journal I wrote about what I was inviting in to my thought and life structure with these short lines addressed to myself and to others:

What is the narrative that you are playing today?

We each have one, some dominant, others subordinate or alternative. 

What are you living and giving permission to?

Another way of seeing this self inquiry is asking yourself about what you are acknowledging and thus strengthening with your “yes”.  What are you giving a yes to?

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A Deeper Dive

To deepen times of integrating self inquiry as a practice schedule in “down time”. It might be a half day a week, or a full weekend per month.

“Occasional periods of silence allow us to surround ourselves with stillness which makes it easier for us to then develop greater harmony within. Just thinking about the amount of stimulation that we have in just one day will help us realize that we have so many things that divert our attention from ourselves. Being able to take a break from these things, though, enables us to slow down and relax, which in turn makes time expand for us, adding a new dimension to the way we live and experience our lives. By staying at home and carving a peaceful space for yourself today you will discover that peace always lies within you.”–  Daily Om

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Find A Quote Each Day that Will Open Your Heart, Mind, and Path

"Love enough to let wisdom lead the way."

 - Lama Surya Das

You Are Enough

BY MADISYN TAYLOR

Just being here, being ourselves, is enough.

Most of us have the feeling that we are here to accomplish something big in our lives, and if we haven't done something that fits the bill we may feel as if we are waiting. We may feel incomplete, or empty, as if our lives don't yet make sense to us, because they don't line up with our idea of major accomplishment. In some cases, this may be because we really are meant to do something that we haven't yet done. But in most cases, we can let ourselves off the hook with the realization that just being here, being ourselves, is enough.

As we live our lives in this world, we share our energy and our spirit with the people around us in numerous ways. Our influence touches their lives and, through them, touches the lives of many more people. When we strive to live our lives to the fullest and to become our true selves, we are doing something big on an inner level, and that is more than enough to make sense of our being here on this planet at this time. There is no need to hold ourselves to an old idea in the back of our minds that we need to make headlines or single-handedly save the world in order to validate our existence.

We can each look within our hearts to discover what is true for us, what gives our lives meaning, and what excites us. We can release ourselves from any pressure to perform that comes from outside of our inner sense of purpose. Staying in tune with our own values and living our lives in tune with our own vision is all we need in order to fulfill our time here. Our lives are a process of becoming so that we cannot help but cocreate; being who we are, responding to each moment as it comes, we can trust that this is enough

A Daily Om post

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This from Jacci Gruniger in Santa Fe, NM: 

This year I am working with these mantras:

I AM enough

There IS enough

I HAVE enough

See more at  www.yogawithjacci.com 

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"Falling in love with yourself is as beautiful as any experience of love is. It's learning to laugh at your awkward tendencies and smile at all your quirky habits. It's learning to be grateful for the many sides you have - confident, crazy, shy, sexy, nerdy, angry, weird, and all the rest of them. It is realizing that you're one of a kind and that you deserve to give the world the best person you can be. Falling in love with yourself is being happy in your life and knowing that in this one moment in time, you're beautiful simply because you are you."     - Kovie Biakolo

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There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you.”  - Maya Angelou

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“Every time we ask a good question, we’re generating a fresh possibility and a new way of seeing our life.”  — Jen Louden

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“Slow Yoga: Musings from the Beginning of the Bell Curve”

See the writing by Kaoverii - Sublte Yoga

Good Yoga = Fast and Strenuous Yoga

(How do you answer that?)

 But cultural speed comes at a price – it creates a myriad of stress and meaninglessness induced illness and dysfunction. as J. Krishnamurti said:

“It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society.”

Not that fast strenuous exercise doesn’t have its benefits, of course it does. But when speed and productivity become the primary goal of yoga and reinforce toxic cultural values, then it becomes problematic. The antidote to our caffeinated culture gets devoured by that culture.  

https://subtleyoga.com/slow-yoga-musings-from-the-beginning-of-the-bell-curve/

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Here are a set of new themes for some of your yoga practices:

"MOTION IS LOTION"

“Movement is medicine.”

“Gentle is the new advanced.”

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My meditation teacher from Kripalu was, and is, Jonathan Foust.  You can visit his website at

 https://www.jonathanfoust.com/.  He lives with his wife, Tara Brach (also a meditation teacher, see https://www.tarabrach.com/) in the Washington, DC area. Jonathan likes to get out in his kayak and take photos of the wildlife. He has put together a great five minute review of the area wildlife of last year and is posted on youtube.  The back ground music is him playing his meditative flute.   See - Riverbend Park Images, 2018 by Jonathan Foust

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zktnsKekDDI

His annual self review questions at the beginning of a new year is asking himself –

What Worked?

What Didn’t Work?

What’s Calling Me Now?

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Perhaps your inner guru is inviting in the Essence and Energy of

Patience / Courage / Insight

Let us all slow down in 2019 and see what is really here!

The Currency of Your Life

What is the currency of your life?

“The next phase for us is where our thinking is no longer disconnected from our love.”

-  Marianne Williamson

The basis of the life experience is inquiry, experience, and expression. The opportunity for freedom exists in the saying “yes” to all that is arising in a mindful, loving, respectful, cherishing way. Each breath is a doorway in. Each day is a portal for appreciation. Each person who you let touch your life is a nurturing of your relationship with self discovery.  Cultivate a “Just this now” psych-social internal ecosystem of being “Centered – Grounded – Relaxed”.  Accept the beauty that you are already whole. Let “perfectly imperfect” be the new road sign for your path.  The integrity of you is to show up and shine this moment’s understanding of that.

The trajectory of your life is one of discovery.

The currency of your life is what you are spending and receiving.

The pulse, beat, rhythm and flow of you at the deepest level is that of love.

Live from this depth. Serve from this depth. And receive from this depth.

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For 2019 become clearer on your P’s of Purpose, Passions, and Practices.  Rest your navigation compassion points for these tracks to the horizon goal.  Then  simplify (involves letting go and de-cluttering too), clarify (involves dedicated pausing, mindful resetting into presencing, journaling, declining unnecessary small talk and distractions), and trust your inner guide (goes by various names – wisdom, soul, Higher Self or Guide, Source Energy).  This is living the truth of you.

When we pause to look deeply we can see an aspect of our true being in all things. The determined quest is to remember to pause, look, see, feel and be. On your morning walk stop and touch that tree on the path. Place a palm there and say “Hello”. Say “Hello me”.  There is an art to choosing peace, just as there an art to choosing right action.  It begins and ends with love.

Step forward into the active arc of your life with a growing sense of your own currency as being valuable and needed.  Remind yourself of Debbie Ford’s words, “Today I accept my worth and my worthiness.”  Each moment can be a reset button for a clearer understanding and acceptance of your existing wholeness.   There is an opportunity for self discovery with each breath. This remembering and doing of small steps, actions becomes a compounding habit that takes you to the top of the mountain.

                                                richard hammer

                                                     12-23-18