by Candy Paull
—Eckhart Tolle
Ask yourself what you can do to stay connected to a greater awareness and to bring a sense of presence and attention to the life you lead today. What does it mean to live in such a way that you experience yourself and others as expressions of the Divine? If the ancient saying “As above, so below” is true, how can you bring heaven to earth—and is it possible to find the eternal in the temporal, heaven on earth as well as above? How do you discover and nurture serenity in your daily life?
Cultivate alignment with a greater spiritual reality, the hidden rhythm of universal love expressing itself through creation and in human hearts. If you are willing to live with the questions, enter the silence, listen with all your senses, and surrender to love, you will discover that there are no ordinary people, no ordinary places, and grace is at the center, a hidden presence that is available to all. Drawing on the deep wisdom of the timeless and eternal, you will discover that your daily round of errands, laundry, meetings, work, relationships, and social obligations begin to partake of the attributes of timelessness, peace, and even eternal bliss. A serene and fulfilling life can emerge as the fruit of your thoughts, choices, beliefs, and attitude.
Activity: Focus on the Good
What you think about colors your experience of life. Your ability to focus your awareness is a wonderful tool for creating positive change in your perceptions. You can choose to create a better life on a thought-by-thought basis. If you focus on what you dislike, what makes you angry, and whom you disagree with, you’ll find that your mind will dwell on those negative thoughts. You can change your focus and choose to think about what is good and true and beautiful. Focus your thoughts on the good in a situation or a person and your mind naturally looks for more good. Consciously choose to look at everything, even difficult people or unpleasant situations, as if there is a hidden blessing to be found. Affirm that even the most stressful situation offers a hidden blessing and that a deeper truth lies behind the changing circumstances you find yourself experiencing. Be grateful for the good that is in your life. Accept each day as a gift. Cultivate a thankful heart. You find what you look for, so focus on reasons to be grateful. Your gratitude will help you develop a more positive and life-affirming attitude.
Three Affirmations
Every right desire of my heart is filled with ease and grace.
My heart is at peace, my mind is at rest.
It is all God and it is all good; all things work together for the highest good.
If the day and night are such that you greet them with joy, and life emits a fragrance like flowers and sweet-scented herbs, is more elastic, more starry, more immortal—that is your success.
—Henry David Thoreau
To be interested in the changing seasons is a happier state of mind than to be hopelessly in love with spring.
—George Santayana
Throughout the year, you want to enjoy as many simple seasonal celebrations as possible to make your life more serene: gather fall leaves, build a snowman, pick a spring bouquet, light sparklers, have a summer picnic, visit a farmers market. Celebrate the seasons of life by bringing people together. For instance, celebrate the first day of spring with a tea party or host a fall harvest potluck on the night of the big football game. Decorate your home with fall pumpkins, winter evergreens, or spring flowers. You don’t have to limit yourself to birthdays and holidays when you want to celebrate with a friend. Create your own special occasions and celebrate life together. These may be spur-of-the-moment meetings or planned festivities, but with good friends, even just being together can be a special occasion. Celebrate a raise, a promotion, or the accomplishment of some cherished goal. Celebrate the first rose in bloom, the first day of summer vacation, the first tomato from your garden, the last rose of summer, the last day before school begins, the last day of the year. Gather your earthier friends to have a drumming circle beneath a full moon. Enjoy an Oscar night dessert party. Choose an unconventional holiday like Groundhog Day as an excuse to invite others over to share a special meal and watch the movie Groundhog Day. Enjoy the round of the seasons by sharing the high points with friends and family.
Whatever your preference or mood, use the following suggestions as inspiration to also create your own private celebrations to savor the gifts that every season brings.
Spring
Spring has returned. The earth is like a child that knows poems.
—Rainer Maria Rilke
1. Plant a Tree
Planting a tree is an act of faith that expresses a deep hope for the future. It can be a gift to your children and your children’s children. Johnny Appleseed planted apple trees across the frontier, knowing that future generations would enjoy them. Timber companies plant trees, knowing that they will be harvested thirty, forty, or a hundred years from now. Plant a tree—or a seed, if you don’t have space for a tree. Make it a tangible symbol of a seed of faith you’re planting in your heart.
2. Speak Encouraging Words
Words are important. The things you say can inspire, encourage, and uplift. They can be agents for harm or agents for healing. Speaking encouraging words doesn’t take much effort, but it does take a conscious decision. Your choice to speak kind words will cause positive seeds of hope to be sown in the lives of others. Gentle words can soothe a troubled spirit and smooth out tangled relationships. Just as small seeds can grow into tall trees, those few kind words can grow into a lasting legacy of love.
3. Be a Child for a Day
The wise person understands that childhood goes to the roots of your soul. Children have wisdom that adults have forgotten. Reclaim your childlike wisdom and pretend to be a child for a day. If you don’t remember how to be a child, invite a youngster to spend the day with you. Indulge in favorite childhood activities. Go to the zoo, roll in the grass, or play with other children. Have a day of pure fun. Think about ways you can cultivate a childlike spirit, imagination, and openness.
4. Put Your House in Order
View spring cleaning as a healing ritual. Cleaning house is like cleansing and ordering your life. You can ignore clutter, but it is still a distraction, like a squeaky wheel or dripping faucet. Create an oasis of restful cleanliness and order in your home. Use your housecleaning time to put your thoughts in order, too. There is something about repetitive work that allows the mind to think more clearly, and cleaning house can be symbolic of other cleansing and ordering in your life.
5. Stop and Smell the Roses
Do you take the time to enjoy life’s bountiful gifts? A dewy rose smiles at you from a neighbor’s garden. Daisies dance by the roadside as you drive to work. A planter full of impatiens colors the entrance to the bank. An unfolding bud or a colorful flower is a sign of grace in the midst of a busy day. Bury your nose in a fragrant blossom and let the day’s stresses melt away. Buy a single rose and place it in a vase on your desk at work. Let it remind you to savor the beauty of life.
Summer
Summer is the time when one sheds one’s tensions with one’s clothes, and the right kind of day is jeweled balm for the battered spirit. A few of those days and you can become drunk with the belief that all’s right with the world.
—Ada Louise Huxtable
1. Enjoy Summer Abundance
Summer ripe tomatoes can never be duplicated by cardboard-flavored winter supermarket tomatoes. When fruits and vegetables are in season, they deliver fabulous flavor at the lowest prices. And so it is with life as well. Savor the long days and summer heat. Listen to cicadas sing. Watch your garden flourish and follow the path of the sun as it arcs through the sky every day. Enjoy fruit when it’s at its peak and be thankful in whatever weather a day offers. Go on a summer picnic. Light sparklers on the Fourth of July. Go diving in the local swimming hole. Pick wildflowers. Take a nap on a lazy afternoon.
2. Take a Soul Vacation
There are vacations—and then there are soul vacations. A soul vacation can happen in a few minutes, a few hours, or a
few days. Instead of packing your bags and heading for distant destinations, you can indulge your imagination, spend some time in contemplation, and satisfy your soul with the honey sweetness of the present moment. A soul vacation makes much of small things. Enjoy a good book that takes you on inner adventures. Watch a bee browse in the heart of a flower, or stroke a cat’s soft fur. Take a walk in the woods. Sit and think about life.
3. Breathe Deeply
Babies breathe naturally and easily, filling their lungs with air and releasing the breath fully. As adults, we often lose that sense of ease and openness, breathing more shallowly, restricting the inflow and outflow of breath. Do you take quick, shallow breaths? This kind of breathing creates tension. Take a gentle deep breath, feeling it reach down toward your belly. Exhale with an audible sigh. Did you feel your body relax as you exhaled? Spend ten minutes breathing gently and deeply, allowing the breath to relax and refresh you.
4. Be a Tourist in Your Hometown
Do you appreciate the place where you live? Do you know its history? Where would you go if you wanted to show an out-of-town friend the local sights? If you travel hundreds of miles to see the sights of some other part of the country but neglect the treasures waiting for you in your own backyard, you are missing out on wonderful adventures. Visit the tourist attractions in your own city and explore the sights. Visit a local museum, a favorite restaurant, a park, or a historical sight. You may be surprised by what you’ll find!
5. Go Barefoot in the Grass
When Moses encountered the burning bush, the Lord told him to take off his shoes for he was standing on holy ground. You may not be confronted by a burning bush or hear a Voice from heaven, but you can choose to see common earth as holy ground. Children find wonder in simple things, like soft green grass and squishy mud. Get in touch with your inner child. Take your shoes off and go barefoot in the grass. Or paddle your feet in a mud puddle. Or feel the sand between your toes. Revel in the tactile sensation of the good earth beneath your feet.
Fall
Autumn is the eternal corrective. It is ripeness and color and a time of completion; but it is also breadth, and depth, and distance. What man can stand with Autumn on a hilltop and fail to see the span of his world and the substance of the rolling hills that reach to the far horizon?
—Hal Borland
1. Sing in the Rain
The day may be gloomy with dark clouds and showers. Your mood might match the day. Light the fires of your heart with a chant of praise, a hymn of wonder, or even a funny doo-wop song that makes you laugh. You don’t have to be a great singer to enjoy the benefits of making music. When you sing, your whole body resonates with the sound. You take deeper breaths and get more oxygen into your system. Singing can give your spirit a lift. The music will bring sunshine into your soul.
2. Have a Good Cry
A stiff upper lip and holding your emotions in are highly overrated. Nature has a built-in tension reliever for both men and women, and it starts with a willingness to cry and to allow those deeply felt emotions to surface. Tears can be healing. When life is stressful, or pain and sorrow seem overwhelming, the best prescription might be a good cry. If a moody rain is falling, let your tears overflow like the healing water dropping from heavy clouds. When the storm has passed, you may even see a rainbow shining through those tears.
3. Get Out in the Fresh Air
If you’ve been closeted indoors too long, your thoughts get as stuffy as the closed rooms you’ve been living in. It’s time to get out and let the wind blow through your hair, the sun shine on your face, and the fresh air invigorate your attitude. Let the glorious colors of autumn remind you that life is larger and airier and freer than the enclosed world you’ve been immured in. Watch a squirrel scrambling through leaves, intent on her business. Gather colorful leaves to take home. Nature shares secrets of renewal with those who will take time to listen to her.
4. Appreciate Art
The soul longs for beauty and to express itself through beauty. Art, architecture, music, and human creativity express the soul of the artist. Artists teach us to really see life, capturing the moment so we can meditate on it again and again. Cultivate an appreciation of art. It will enrich your life, expand your understanding, and feed your soul. Enjoy a trip to an art museum, hang meaningful pictures on your walls, take a class in art appreciation. Make art an essential part of your life. It will nurture your soul. Practice art as meditation: Make a collage, paint or draw, and express yourself through creativity.
5. Seek Serendipity
Serendipity is the ability to find valuable or agreeable things not sought after. Cultivate an attitude of faith and optimism. Be flexible and spontaneous. Explore a specialty shop that intrigues you, such as a fabric store, hardware store, spa or salon, travel store, candle shop, or import store. If something intrigues you or draws your attention, explore that interest. It may lead you to a whole new adventure. Appreciate delightful surprises that remind you the world is large and you never know what a day will bring forth.
Winter
Sometimes our fate resembles a fruit tree in winter. Who would think that those branches would turn green again and blossom? But we hope it, we know it.
—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
1. Dream by the Fire
Dusk is settling in, and the evening lights are coming on. The hearth glows with the warmth of the fire, and you are comfortably ensconced in an armchair or cushioned by soft pillows. It is a time for dreaming and allowing the cares of the day to fall away. Let yourself dream by the fire. Build a warm fire on a winter evening. If you don’t have a fireplace, create a cozy atmosphere with low lamplight, candles, and comfortable cushions. Let body and soul take time out for contemplative rest and renewal.
2. Choose Uplifting Entertainment
Make better entertainment choices, especially in winter when there are not as many outdoor activities available. Choosing entertainment alternatives that lift your spirits and encourage you to be a better person will give you extra energy and enhance your spiritual life. Your entertainment choices color your mood and affect your attitude. Inspiring entertainment makes you feel better about life. When you want to watch something on TV, look for programs that inform as well as entertain. Better yet, get away from passive entertainment altogether and create your own fun with friends and family.
3. Make a Pot of Soup
Making soup is a very comforting thing to do. There’s something soothing about chopping vegetables, simmering broth, adding herbs, and tasting the alchemical transformation of common ingredients simmered together. When you make soup, you are transforming simple veggies and broth into an ambrosial and sustaining meal that feeds the body and nourishes the soul. Buy the best of autumn bounty from the vegetable stand. Enjoy the simple delights of homemade soup.
4. Take a Winter Walk
Bundle up for whatever weather is going on outside and take yourself out for a winter walk. Even if the weather outside is frightful, a winter walk can be delightful. Getting outside is good for body and soul. Stretch your legs and enjoy the outline of bare branches against a winter sky. Take delight in the crunch of snow under your feet and catch snowflakes on your tongue during snowstorms. Before you leave, prepare hot chocolate or hot spiced cider to welcome you home and warm you after your winter expedition.
5. Repair or Restore Something
Take advantage of all that indoor time to do a little mending and restoring. Pick one simple project to restore, repair, or renew. Enjoy the process of creating something useful or beautiful out of broken things. You can reupholster an old chair, refinish a table, repair a favorite piece of clothing, or restore some discarded treasure to its rightful place of honor and use. Ply your needle, sand the surface of the wood, or paint a bright new color on a dingy, faded wall with mindful attention and gratitude.
Christmas and the Holiday Season
Winter is the time for comfort, for good food and warmth, for the touch of a friendly hand,
and for a talk beside the fire: it is the time for home.
—Dame Edith Sitwell
1. Simplify Your Celebration
Informal get-togethers and spur-of-the-moment celebrations encourage lightness of spirit and spontaneity. Invite a friend over for a cup of coffee and some cookies or host a potluck dessert evening. Instead of feeling overwhelmed by elaborate preparations, you can enjoy spending time with loved ones and nibbling festive goodies made by other hands. If you want to invest more time in enjoying friends than in elaborate preparations, create a more casual celebration.
2. Beat the Holiday Blues
Though the Christmas season is filled with joyous celebration, the holiday blues can make life miserable for some people. The expectation of a happy, perfect holiday may not be the reality you experience. The painful contrast of losses and sorrows, and even life’s little disappointments, can bring on the dark fog of depression in the midst of a sparkling celebration. If you want to beat the holiday blues, make plans to head them off before they begin. Take care of yourself. Get plenty of sleep. Take a brisk walk outdoors. Don’t forget that daily exercise energizes you and raises your spirits. Eat well instead of grabbing fast food. When you’re feeling overextended, cut back on activities and take time to nurture yourself. Let the simple pleasures of the Christmas season remind you of how much good there is in life.
3. Choose the Comfort of the Familiar
Take pleasure in familiar rituals at Christmas. Find joy in old family customs, and let soothing reminders of Christmases past comfort your heart today. Though new experiences are wonderful, there’s something deeply nurturing about the old, familiar ways. Go out to see the colorful holiday lights and decorations. Share a cup of hot cocoa with a friend. Wrap presents and put them under the tree, even if it’s a tiny tabletop tree. Call family if you can’t visit. Bake the family Christmas cookie recipe. You don’t have to re-create the old holiday extravaganzas, but do one small thing to remind you of past seasonal joys.