Monday, January 31, 2011

A book to curl up with....

To continue with the theme of dealing with the Winter Blahs and stormy weather ahead-- this is one book to take the time out to spend some time with---Twelve Steps to a Compassionate Life Written by Karen Armstrong .

Enjoy. :)

Dealing with the Winter Blahs

Well, we are now entering February-- the month when the Winter Blah s often sets in... so this is the perfect time to focus on some warm and fuzzy stuff, particularly with a winter storm on its way...


So, here is a site for good deeds where you can post feel-good stories to warm us up.

www.beagoodbuzz.com--

Sunday, January 9, 2011

What is the colour of your grass

With a new year, we often make new resolutions for change, but at the same time should we not count our blessings and step back to view the positive aspects of our lives-- instead of focusing on only the negative ones.


As we begin 2011, a lot of us make resolutions for change in our lives and yes, change is good, yet at the same time- to play the devil s advocate here- we have to reflect on what things we really genuinely should change in our lives.

To elaborate here,do you seriously believe that all the grass in your life is yellow. Something we sometimes simply have to come to terms with is that there is no perfect life, job, spouse, relationship, child or parent.

In other words, there is always going to be yellow and brown spots in our grass. This is something that we must take into account when making a major decision in our lives- be it personal, spiritual or career.

Yes, we all have heard of people who have made a drastic change in their lives—thinking that the grass is green over there only to find out that the grass was just as yellow over there. We often have used filters that coloured our experiences making the grass brown or yellow and so much more delectable on the other side... these filters often make us colour blind to the fact that our current grass is actually quite green exactly where we are. The filters have distorted the true picture for us thereby making us sometimes foolishly ponder a drastic and unwarranted change in our lives.

An epiphany is experienced when you realize that the grass is greener where you water it—in other words-- that only you and you alone are responsible for your life satisfaction and happiness. So sometimes you have to take out that hypothetical( spiritual) watering hose (vessel) and pour more efforts into your life to make that part of it green again.

We can look to others for inspiration and motivation in our watering efforts and how our water vessel is created. We also can journal to explore some of the issues that may be responsible for our yellow and brown spots. Depending on the situation, we can have conversations with loved ones, colleagues, coworkers, our life,spiritual, and work advisors to get a deeper perspective on some of these issues.

With a more mature, seasoned perspective with the help of mentors,spiritual and otherwise, we can now look at our grass with as few of these filters as realistically possible.

Along with these efforts , we can with a little more initiative and patience ,slowly and purposefully, turn the grass green under our feet once again.

If we go through this contemplative and reflective process, better career and life decisions can be made if we embrace and accept the reality that the grass is not always greener on the other side.

Sunday, January 2, 2011

Journalling and the year 2011

As we begin a new year, I thought it might be nice to revisit the benefits of journalling in my life and in others.. Journalling is a wonderful way of seeing your life- both spiritually and personally- in a different light.

So here again are the main benefits of journalling

-getting clarity re: what you want in your life.

-Creating and setting boundaries.

-Ferreting out life goals.

-Beginning a journey to walking your own pathway.

-Tapping into your intrapersonal/ retrospective side by means of reflection.

-Helping you take yourself and others through the experiential learning cycle.


-Finding hidden talents and abilities within your authentic self

-Finding the positive strengths in yourself and others, and building on them

For a great guidebook on journalling, you can check out my journalling workbook at " A Year in Serendipity: A Journalling
Workbook"http://tinyurl.com/serendipityjournal .

All the best for 2011