mindfulness

Can you stop talking?

/ Shamanic Healing of Ames / Leave a comment

Can you stop talking for a time each day and sink deeper into your mind to a place that does not know speech?

DSCN5385 (640x480)

Cottonwood leaves and seeds

Can you stop thinking, obsessing, ruminating, judging, and analyzing for a time each day and allow yourself to rest from the constant barrage of thoughts? A moment of peace?

Can you observe the flood tide of words and thoughts in your mind floating downstream and out of your awareness? Can you put down your shiny device, turn off the TV, the radio, the computer, the little object that beeps, blinks, and demands your attention? It may seem impossible!

Can you make some room in your mind for silence? Can you clear a space – your own private, peaceful refuge within your mind?

Can you slow down your pace just for a few minutes each day and touch the central core of you, the infinite, the loving, the deep, the expanded heart and soul of you? Can you become intimate with your true self?

You belong!

/ Shamanic Healing of Ames / Leave a comment

Dear ones, do not put yourself down for getting nothing done today!

You breathed the cool autumn air, took delight in the crimson and golden fall color so beautiful right now. You allowed yourself to be, with no agenda, no worries, no second thoughts.

2015-10-21-14-51-21-640x480

Red and gold maple leaves

You felt your heart beating and the blood moving through your body, the air flow in and out of your lungs as they expand and contract. You felt cool water flow into your throat and filter through you.

Did you heard a flock of crows calling to each other as they flew from tree to tree? Did you open your eyes to the bright deep sky, the wispy clouds moving lazily with the wind, dissolving and re-forming?  Did you enjoy watching the scarlet and amber leaves raining down in the breeze?

You took part in this great web of life today, no matter what you checked off on your to-do list.  Simply by being here in a physical body, you have chosen to cast your lot in and belong to the great throng of life here on this earth.

Do not fool yourself, there is no test for admittance here. There is nothing you need to prove! You belong here.

Live in the here and now

/ Shamanic Healing of Ames / 2 Comments

My beloved, do not waste your precious moments worrying about the future or feeling bad about the past. Live in your body, in the here and now.

DSCN2930 (480x640)

Sunlit grass

Each breath you take is an opportunity to choose a new way of thinking, a better feeling, a more compassionate outlook, and to drop those tired beliefs that keep you stuck.

You have power to create your life, to change as a caterpillar changes into a butterfly, and heal those aspects of your life that aren’t working. Do not blame yourself or others. Love yourself, be kind to yourself and support yourself fully in what you want to accomplish, the person you intend to become.

You create the blueprint of your future life through your thoughts and feelings, expectations and beliefs. You grow into the dimensions, the possibilities you envision for yourself. You create your future from this present moment.

Do you dream a small dream for yourself? I ask you to begin to allow yourself to expand your dream. Find clarity within your mind. Expect the best!

Lazy day of letting go

/ Shamanic Healing of Ames / Leave a comment

Have a lazy summer day.

2016-05-30 10.30.48 (640x480)

Summer grasses

Let the breeze shimmer your leaves. Rest with trust in your roots and the earth that supports you.

You can afford a day of rest, of letting go… Letting your mind be clear and blank… settling in to your body, feeling the ripples of thought and feeling that come and go. Now going deeper and feeling the blood coursing through you, the weight of muscle, the bone and skin, the breath as it expands your lungs and ribs, your eyes fluttering beneath their lids…

Let your tense muscles relax. It’s OK to let parts of you be soft and relaxed on your lazy summer day. It’s OK to do nothing but breathe and let your heart beat, your eyes blink, to feel the life course through your body.

Now, just for today, lose the agenda, the to do list, the killer instinct, the high heels, the dress for success, the act you feel you must put on. (Is this you?) Who invented suits and ties? Why?

You are so much more than what you do! Get to know yourself beneath the persona, the snappy business attire, the synthetic rules someone has imposed upon you, your place as a cog in the “system”.

Who are you really?

Pay attention

/ Shamanic Healing of Ames / Leave a comment

Pay attention to the here and now, for life does not happen inside your head.

2016-05-13 08.59.02 (480x640)

Spring ephemeral – Jack in the pulpit

 

Life does not happen on the TV, on your “smart” phone,  or in your computer. It unspools from your heart, that rhythm instrument each of you humans possess, but sometimes forget. It arises from the feelings and emotions of your body. That is life! Feel it! Be one with it!

Attune your life to the rhythms of your body– the heart and breath, your earth, your sun and moon, our seasons. So many clues exist to help you order your waking and sleeping, your eating, your quiet and active times with perfect balance and health.

Yet you allow the gadget called the clock to order your day. You march to its beat, you obey it’s dictates. You have given it power to tell you when to sit, and when to move, when to eat when to sleep. Your body is not consulted. And your health declines.

You allow the big box with moving images and the shiny hand held blinking things to arrest your attention, to take you away from your power and flow, to distract you from your life’s purpose and the precious days and nights that make up your lifespan.

Someday, as it must, your lifespan will come to a close. Will you mourn those precious moments you spent in your head, ignoring the here and now, the countless hours on your “smart” shiny thing, the days and weeks mesmerized by the moving talking images that you will forget in a moment when the power is switched off?  You yourself are ephemeral, your body will not last.  How do you choose to spend your time?

Back away from the devices. Pay attention to your body, to nature, to your feelings.  And live.