Mountain Pose is one of the most basic yoga poses for beginners.  Mountain Pose is a Standing yoga pose and is often the first posture to be learned.

Many yoga practice sequences begin and end with Mountain Pose.  In sanskrit, mountain pose is called Tadasana.

This pose may look simple but in fact it is often difficult for people to master because it requires bringing equilibrium to the body and mind energies.  Beginners should familiarize themselves with postures with regular practice and attention gradually and work on a variety of asana’s to correct any postural problems.

Beginning Mountain Pose:

• Stand with feet together, big toes, ankles and heels touching.
• Keep your knees straight, keeping your thigh muscles raised.
• Lift the front of the body, extending the spine upwards towards the ceiling, stretching legs up.
• Shoulder blades should be pulled back, towards each other, while the shoulders are held back.
• Arms should hang loosely to the sides with hands facing the hips, relaxed.
• Relax the face and extend the neck up looking straight ahead.
• Your concentration should be focused on centering the body with your weight balanced on both feet equally.
• Keep an awareness of the soles of your feet.
• While extending upwards, make sure you are focused on both sides of the body equally.

When practicing Tadasana – Mountain Pose, stay in the posture for up to 60 seconds.  If you are practicing Tadasana as part of a sequence of poses, less time is required.

Extra Notes:

Do not hold the breath.

If you have injury, back or knee problems, to not jump into poses, move into them gradually and gently.

As with all health care practices, consult your physician if you have concerns.

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In the picture you can see the red string that ties the bamboo stems together. This is also part of the practice of Feng Shui for auspiciousness. Also note odd numbers are positive in Feng Shui lore.

I once had a friend who loved to buy goldfish for their Feng Shui effects, but she never took into account buying bigger tanks for all the fish she brought home, so I ended up buying tanks, equipment, and became the caretaker. I fell in love with their unique personalities as much as she did. Odd numbers in goldfish were her reason for buying more, regularly.

Interestingly, I just learned with my recent purchase of bamboo that Lucky Bamboo is actually not bamboo, but Dracaena. I thought I’d pass along that interesting bit of wisdom.

Besides Feng Shui, bringing plants into your home is great for purifying the air of toxins and bring oxygen into your space. Not only do plants look good, they also make you feel good.

Plants are really important in Feng Shui by bringing in the energy of the life force into your area.

The shape of plants is important.  Plants like the Dracaena (bamboo) are upright and have pointed leaves so have a Yang energy.  Place them in the south as well as in corners where they can move the energy.   Plants that are more round and hang are considered Yin and do well placed in the north for a calmer energy.

If you don’t take good care of your plant and it gets sick, it will create energy in your space that is stagnant.

Cut plants may be beautiful, for a while, but are dead.  Choose living plants that are potted instead.

More on Feng Shui and plants to come soon.  Stay tuned and bookmark Symbolic Living.

Namaste.

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A pleasure to watch and to meditate on the mysteries of existence.

We hope you enjoyed this video and others we will be sharing.

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Should I bother to explain? My last line of the last paragraph is pretty much the essence of Guerrilla Gardening, to my knowledge anyhow. I am about to read an article about the subject, so maybe soon I will be better informed as to the intricacies, if they exist, of my newfound rebellious approach to saving the planet. Maybe someone out there has some experience or knowledge to share?

For now, I will share what I know by telling about my recent dip into the art of Guerrilla Gardening….

My boyfriend and I were set to help out some local schools and community groups plant trees. When we showed up to plant, we found ourselves walking along a nature path in a forest in order to find our comrades. To our surprise and disappointment the group was planting under the canopy of a perfectly happy forest. There was the occasional field, but as I understand it, fields are important to forest ecosystems because they allow for light loving species to grow and feed the other animals that rely on them.

When we inquired as to the strange location of the tree planting endeavor we never received satisfactory answers. It seemed as though a surplus of trees had been handed down from somewhere and needed to be used up. This is just my assumption, but it was all very weird indeed. Anyway, the two of us helped out for a bit, but very much felt that our efforts were futile and could be better used elsewhere.

We carefully wrapped 7 saplings into a sweater and armed with a shovel and a truck (yes, I’m sorry, a truck) we ventured to find areas in need of trees. Our first stop was an old gas station lot that had been cleaned up and given a fresh coat of dirt and turf. We gave 4 trees a new home in the lot.

Next came a stretch of grass near the highway that was looking rather bare. Following this, one tree ended up in my father’s yard, to replace the magnificent beauty of a pine that had been unnecessarily cut by hydro workers, and the last into a pot to in our apartment until we can find a suitable home for it.

So there you have it. My brush with Guerrilla Gardening; small, short lived, but very satisfying and quite possibly addictive.

Planting native species wherever you see fit is a euphoric way to feel like you are actively making a difference. I say spread those seeds, plant those saplings and get your friends to help you out!

For now, I’m going to read more about my new found extra-curricular activity and if anyone can share some wisdom on the subject I would be delighted to read it!

~ Leisha C.D.

Check this video out for some inspiration on starting your own Guerilla Gardening.

You don’t have to go as far as this guy did. He took it to the next level and went all out! Just throwing a few seeds into an area is awesome enough to make a positive change.  It’s always nice to go back to a place and see that you made it a little more beautiful and alive.  Do what feels right and good.

Guerilla Gardening

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Start in Standing Mountain Pose – Tadasana.

Bend Forward at the waist touching your hands to the floor about shoulder width apart (you can bend your knees here a bit if you’re not that flexible).

With your hands firmly planted on the floor, jump your feet back a few feet.

Bring your lower body to rest on the floor, and point your toes while bending your arms. Basically, this is like lowering yourself to do a pushup.

Then extend your arms, while keeping your lower body on the floor, bringing your head up, facing forward.

Pay attention to your shoulders. They shouldn’t be up around your ears, press them back so you have a firmness between your shoulder blades and your chest is opening forward and make sure they are aligned with your wrists below them. In the picture above, the wrists are further ahead of the shoulders, and should be corrected by bringing the lower body forward more so her shoulders and wrists are aligned.

Stay in this position for about 20-30 seconds. Breathe naturally.

To come up, go through the steps in reverse back to standing mountain pose.

Cobra Pose is very similar except instead of extending your elbows, you keep them bent at your sides so your stomach stays on the floor. The process is very much the same as in Upward Facing Dog.

If moving from Downward dog to upward dog simply dip downward by bending the arms and lowering your waist to the floor while scooping your head upwards extending your arms again. Somewhat like a push-up with an arched back and the lower body resting on the floor.

Enjoy the Moment. Posted on symbolicliving.com with permission.

Eternal Bodhi

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Gratitude to your life, your body, your spirit, your existence. Gratitude for the sun rising each day to warm you, to nourish life on the earth. Gratitude for the Divine union yoga offers.

Sun Salutations give you the opportunity to be connected with light and your heart.

You can do sun salutations any time, but a great time is in the morning when the sun is rising. Let the light of the sun shine on you and fill you with a feeling of wellness as you practice this yoga routine.

Sun salutations are quite simple to get into a routine. Simply put, they start from standing, down to the floor and back up to standing in sequence.

1. Standing in Mountain Pose

2. Forward Bend

3. Downward Dog

4. Updward Dog – Midpoint – time to reverse the sequence

5. Back to Downward Dog

6. Back to Forward Bend

7. Back to Standing

Breathing is important in Yoga. When you move, breathe. Inhale and Exhale fully. Let your breath flow with your movements.

1. Start, standing in Mountain Pose.

• Stand with feet together. Looking straight ahead. Hands to your sides or together in front of your heart chakra.
• Inhale, and raise your arms to the sky.
• Look up to your hands.

2. Bend Forward at the waist.

• Bend forward at the waist. Exhale.
• Hands to the ground.
• Head facing your knees.

3. Downward Dog

• Inhale Look up while you’re still in forward bend.
• As you Exhale Jump both feet back or step one foot back at a time about 3 feet.
• Stay in Downward Dog Pose – Breathe. Inhale & Exhale a few times.

4. Upward facing Dog

• Move from Downward Dog into an Upward Dog.
• Do this by bending your elbows and bringing your chest towards the ground.
• Then to get into the Upward Dog position look up to the sky, extend your arms.
• Long Inhale through the movement.

5. Return to Downward Dog

• Reverse out of Upward facing Dog back to Downward Dog.
• Breathe a few times. Inhale. Exhale.
  

6. Return to Forward Bend

• Jump both feet forward or step one foot up at a time.
• Straighten your legs staying in forward bend at the hips.
• Inhale. Exhale. Inhale Look straight ahead by lifting your head.
• Bring your head back down.

7. Return to Standing Mountain Pose

• Come up from forward bend. Roll your spine up.
• Raise your arms outwards and towards the sky. Inhale.
• Exhale, arms back down to your sides.

If you are stepping one foot at a time instead of jumping to get into and out of Downward Dog, go through all seven steps on one side then the other. Thus, with the same foot coming forward and stepping back through the 7 part cycle. Then during the second cycle of the Sun Salutations use the other foot.

When you get used to doing sun salutations you can use it as a foundation to your practice, adding more poses to the sequence.

Enjoy the Sun. Enjoy Spring. Enjoy the Moment.

EternalBodhi.com Posted on Symbolic Living with permission

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For years, Autumn has been my favorite time of year.  The air gets so crisp and fresh, the colors, the earthy fragrance from the tree’s, leaves and grasses.

This year, Spring has arrived with flowers on my mind.   Hyacinths, Crocuses, Tulips, Daffodils, and many I know not the name, are starting their journey towards the sun.  This year, spring has really caught my attention, unlike I have remembered for many years.

The sun is rising earlier and setting later.  Easter has arrived and passed and now we have the warmer summer months to look forward to in the Northern Hemisphere.

When I think of plants and how they strive towards the light it makes me think of the intention of Yoga and Kabbalah.  Both are ways of seeing and experiencing a connection to the light.   As above, so below, the ancient axiom that heaven and earth are connected.  Recently I was reading a bit about Yoga and it’s purpose.  In the West Yoga is often considered mainly as a physical exercise to stretch and strengthen the body.  That however, is work on the biological form.  Yoga is much more, not only does it affect the mind, but it’s very purpose is for spiritual union with the divine.  I’ve read, Yoga is about the human tapping into that spiritual energy force and bringing it down to the earth.  Like being a conduit of the spiritual world and connecting the earth to the light, and vice versa.

Similarly, Kabbalah or Qabalah in the esoteric sense, explains the process of creation of the Divine into the physical world from the spiritual subtle worlds and humanities climb back up the tree of life towards the originating source, the light.

When I look at the flowers blooming in spring, the birds arriving with their songs, I see the manifestation of the Divine, the life force.  Flowers show us the beauty of light, and what light and earth produce together.  They are like an expression of a Divine Union of elements manifesting themselves in the most artistically pleasing expressions of  the  senses.

It is endlessly fascinating how nature is coded with such complex signatures to bring forth the most creative and inspiring works seemingly without effort for our delight and opportunity to experience.

If you’re ever feeling down, or disconnected from yourself there’s nothing like really appreciating nature.  There’s so much to experience in nature, yet every day people are stuck to their routines and busy, hectic schedules.  Life passes us by when we don’t take the opportunities and prioritize what’s really important -  I mean, what’s really important.  Life and enjoying it.

Step outside on a sunny day and enjoy the art all around you.

To me, nature is symbolic of the Divine.  People think the Divine is so far away, but to me, it’s all around us.  You just have to see it in the everyday things we take for granted. It’s always there.

Got something you want to share.  Contact us.

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In the West, and likely in all the world from place to place, we are conditioned to be judgmental of not only others, but of ourselves.  We are conditioned to be critical and self righteous, but we can change this by becoming more aware of our thoughts and who we are.

We can see the harm this conditioning does when others are treated badly, made fun of, criticized for being who they are.  This type of treatment to others causes feelings that are not joyous, abundant and loving.  This type of treatment comes from a place of fear, ignorance and a lack of compassion when our ego’s desires to create the illusion of us being better than others takes root.  It is so easy to harm others through our actions and words.  Karma teaches us that actions have results.  When the intentions behind your actions are harmful they reverberate to others and return to you. It does not truly feel good to treat others poorly, it is an illusion that is temporary and unfulfilling.

Namasté is a sanskrit word used frequently in the West in practices like Yoga and Meditation and is known in the East for it’s communion with others.

Namasté is a term of recognizing the Divine in others and is translated to mean “The Divine in me bows to the Divine in you” or “The Light in me bows to the Light in you” and similarly related variations thereof.

This is a recognition of the universality of the source and spiritual essence that is within all sentient beings.  It is an honoring of the sacred oneness of all that is with reverence, appreciation and respectful kindness.

There have been moments when I’ve been in a crowd of people and I’ve judged others unfairly.  There have been some moments of epiphany when this happens as well.

One day in the grocery store near the automated cashier counter I saw a woman who was very pale, very different looking than other people in general standing with a man, putting her order through.  She looked drained of energy, sickly almost.  For a brief second my mind flitted to judgments.  Negative thoughts about her appearance, really quite shallow thoughts, recognizable everywhere we turn these days. I too had fallen victim and in turn created victims of the viciously unfair thoughts applied to complete strangers that can plague our unawakened minds. Then in a flash something dramatic came over me.  A feeling of light poured over her, or through her and I could feel it so strongly.  It radiated. My mind immediately changed to a feeling of complete compassion, oneness and seeing her truth.  In her it was as if the Divine had become so clearly present.  My eyes softened, and a truly powerful surge of love flooded out all other considerations.  An understanding that she too suffers, as we all do; that her suffering was real, became genuinely apparent.  It was not a feeling of pity in any way.  It was a feeling of reality.  That this woman was on her journey in this life and has so much to live for, to enjoy, and so much pain to endure, all at once.  She was the presence of the human experience of life, in that moment, totally and undeniably real. I was there, to witness and feel who she was, in her state of being as she was, and it transformed me in that moment.

As I walked away to get to the cashier with my order, it was as though I became my real self again.  Remembering who I really was.  So much more authentic than all that chattering drivel of judgments that passes through our minds.  I realized who she was and who I was.  I felt light.

Another experience I had which I remember clearly, a couple years earlier, was when walking through a college hallway and seeing a man walk by.  Immediately I judged him as so many of us do.  We really are conditioned from a very young age to see what in others we can label as less than valued. When I saw him, my judgment again immediately escaped me.  This time though it was as if I saw a beam of light within him, at the core of his being.  It wasn’t something visual, nothing I could see with my eyes, rather it was a very strong sense of the light.  A sense that came through in a visual within, not externally.  In that moment too, a compassionate feeling overwhelmed me.  I realized that this was the light spoken of in the term Namasté.  As I looked around I realized that this was the hidden light that was in all of us, including myself, and it lighting up, it was resonating with the light in others. In that moment I did not feel guilty for my previous moment of negative thoughts.  In contrast, I felt relieved.  I was relieved to know that from the darkness of my thoughts, light was born, and I could release the negativity and let it go.  I felt like I was seeing the truth of who he was and those other thoughts were merely illusions that could dissipate so quickly for they had no real weight of authenticity.  They were not the truth.

It is so amazing how in a crowded area with so much going on around us, it’s as if everything fades away except for the power in that moment of transformation.  Everything vanishes from importance and an awakening takes place.

In hindsight though, those negative thoughts we do carry around with us do have weight.  A weight that is so heavy on our hearts and minds and clouds our vision of what is true.

If we all saw the light in others, and shared our light through our kindness and living with compassion there would be more love to enjoy, more laughs not at the expense of others, but laughs of enjoying the presence of others.  It is sad that in our society a large portion of our laughter is generated from the ridicule and belittling of others.  This is not true laughter, it is a spasm of unawareness that leaves us knowing less of the truth of ourselves and others.

If you wish to truly feel good and share that goodness with others, be kind, be generous,  be loving.  It will change your view of the world, your experience and the experience of others. Live your truth.  The real truth of who you are.  See the truth of the light in others, under all those layers.  It is there, in everyone.

Have enough compassion for yourself, to have compassion for others.

“When your mind is liberated your heart floods with compassion: compassion for yourself, for having undergone countless sufferings because you were not yet able to relieve yourself of false views, hatred, ignorance, and anger; and compassion for others because they do not yet see and so are imprisoned by false views, hatred, and ignorance and continue to create suffering for themselves and for others.”

“When another person makes you suffer, it is because he suffers deeply within himself, and his suffering is spilling over. He does not need punishment; he needs help. That’s the message he is sending.” — Thich Nhat Hanh

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“This comes from much upper” my local friend told me with a certain exaggerated, wide-eyed look which would later become his signature expression every time he unveiled another miraculous crystal from its grubby newspaper wrapping.

My friend was a priest at a local temple and was lucky enough to encounter the villagers who had made this amazing find.  They had brought a piece into the temple as an offering and were praying for guidance, having little connection with the world, yet knowing they had found something of value.

Their prayer was instantly answered when my friend brought me the first piece.  I bought everything they had, so beginning my lifelong pursuit of these amazing gifts of nature.

Over the years, my wife, Maria and I returned many times, staying for months at a time while my local friends combed the villages, listening for word of any new finds.

Alas, there was usually only a trickle and what we did find was often of poor quality or badly damaged.  I cannot possibly describe the heartbreak I endured time and time again as we found simply breathtaking specimens with the point completely smashed off or with so many dings and scratches that I wished they had never been disturbed.

This prompted me ever onward and upward, pursuing the dream of one day finding the magical, high altitude places where these wonders of nature formed and have rested undisturbed for millions of years; the untouched plateaus where no footprint exists, save that of the  ‘jungli bukrah’ or wild mountain goat.

For years I searched in vain, learning that these places are always the best kept of secrets among the locals and that it was a long way to 4000 meters to find nothing!  I visited villages at high altitudes, only to discover that the people were less accommodating than I had imagined and the wide diversity of local dialects made communication difficult. Some didn’t seem to understand even ‘namaste’, the most common of greetings throughout much of India.

I continued to buy any less-damaged pieces I could find from the locals I encountered in the valleys, coming up with only small batches for my months of work. Until one day I stumbled upon the most beautifully forested, pristine valley I had yet encountered.  In one of only two villages in the area I met the family who would drastically alter the direction of my search and lead me to the ‘Crystal Shamballah’of which I had dreamed for over a decade.

We now conduct expeditions to high altitude localities in search of the rare hydrothermal conditions and alpine-type clefts which exist in this region and are necessary to produce some of the oldest and most spectacularly clear quartz crystals on our planet.

Using only simple hand tools we carefully extract these rare treasures, leaving as little trace as we can of our activities.  The most amazing thing of all is that in these conditions, at high altitudes the crystals just seem ripe for the picking and barely a hammer is struck!  In massive clay-filled pockets and fissures, exposed over countless years by erosion, the crystals lie, waiting to be plucked by the gentle hand of the intrepid adventurer who dares!

Now the time has come to bring these magical gifts of the Himalayas to the world.   Placing these sacred stones in the hands of lightworkers and healers worldwide they will come to rest in every nation.   With this pattern of dispersion we create a Great Planetary Crystal Grid, centered in the mightiest of mountains on our Earth.  Maria and I are proud to be the messengers of this land of diversely colorful and ancient spiritual heritage, reaching back into time immemorial, the Himalayas of Northern India.

Coming Soon to Symbolic Living – Himalayan Quartz Crystals.

Exclusive pieces directly from the Himalayan Mountains.  More Information Soon.

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Asking yourself the tough questions.

Have you ever woke up in the morning and asked yourself what you’re doing with your life? Or gone to bed exhausted after a long day and asked yourself what the point of your day was?

Are you working at a job you think is meaningless and pointless to your existence, except to keep you alive for the next day of work? Or does your hard work and efforts go unacknowledged?

Are you spending your time doing things that leave you feeling unfulfilled and have you asking yourself if you deserve to be doing something better?

Do you feel like you’re missing out on the finer things you could be doing with your life?

Every day people do what they don’t want to do, and are miserable in the process. People work to exhaustion to pay the bills, day in and day out just to survive so they can go to work again. Living to work.  Others suffer through their work, even though they may love what they do, they go through torture by working with people who are disrespectful.

Maybe you’re working at a job that feels meaningless, or you come home from work depressed, wishing for something better asking yourself why you are torturing yourself. Maybe you feel like there is no hope for climbing the ladder and reaching success.

If you’re thinking like this about your current situation, you’re not alone. There are literally millions of people who are doing things they don’t want to do. Sometimes it’s necessary. After all. You have to eat. Maybe you even have others to feed too! We all have responsibilities.

I’ve been there, I know what it’s like. I know how hard it is to make yourself go through the motions just to see the paycheck at the end of the week yet it’s not enough to get out of that vicious cycle. You’re stuck in an unhappy place.

But if you’re thinking about your life or your job like it’s torturous or meaningless it might be time to take a step back and evaluate how your life experiences reflects how you think about yourself. Maybe your current situation is the perfect opportunity for you to get real about what you really think you are deserving of. If you don’t feel good about what you’re doing, there’s a message in there somewhere showing you that you deserve  more than you’re allowing into your life.

Getting back to you

If you are spiraling into depression about your job, or you’re complaining a lot about what you do, right now is as good a time as any for you to stop that and start something different. In fact it may be the perfect opportunity to take a deep breath and get real with yourself. Sometimes it takes looking deep into your own eyes in the mirror to see who you really are. Sometimes it takes a few tears. Sometimes we forget who we are, because we’re so busy doing all those external things. Nowadays many of us are forgetting who we are by being on the computer all day long either working or being hooked into the system. So many people are missing out on the finer things in life because we get stuck in a routine.

Take a break.  Go for a walk.  Get away. You know, a lot of people smoke to get those 5 minutes of deep breathing and an opportunity to step away and be with themselves for a moment.  We all know though, there are much healthier ways to self reflect and get away, even if only for a brief moment to have “me” time.  Me time is important time, take the opportunities. Enjoy nature for a while.

Purpose. What’s right for you.

There is value in all jobs in society, we all have a place to offer our abilities and to give back to others, to make a difference. If everyone were stars, if everyone were painters, musicians, doctors, lawyers and all those careers the west promotes as the highlight of la purposeful career life, we realistically wouldn’t be able to sustain a  balanced livelihood. We need a variety of skills and talents in the world, where everyone has their place in contributing their uniqueness, making for nearly endless opportunities and choices.

But sometimes people feel like they aren’t contributing to your ability, potential or desire.

If you want a fulfilling job that makes you feel like you’re thriving, the best place to start from is getting real with yourself and pinpointing what you would really love to do.  This is sometimes easier said than done. Maybe you feel like your skills aren’t where they ought to be to get you to that dream place of comfort and thriving passionately about your  job and life. Maybe you’ve worked so hard, day in and day out, hour after hour and there’s no end in sight to a better experience of your life, or maybe it’s so far away you feel like giving up.

Everyone has their place and every job has it’s point of purpose, but if you’re not satisfied with what you’re doing, you can change things. Whatever it is that is keeping you from getting real with yourself and getting grounded in living to your potential, you can make the choice to stop the cycle, at least for a minute to take a step back and evaluate where you are and where you’re going. Nobody said it would be easy to get real with yourself, but if you want to change things, you are going to have to.

Sincerely ask yourself why you are doing what you do.  Really, what is the deepest, core truth of why you are where you are? How did  you get there?  How did your choices create your experience? If what you are doing is not to your potential, or to your desires of what you would like, why? (See external factors and you below).

Fears

Many times when we are limiting our reach to get to where we want to go, it has a lot to do with deep rooted fears.  Fears that have us scared to take an active role in changing our lives. Sometimes the fear of failure keeps us from acting. Procrastination and laziness can frequently be the result of our internal fears and in turn, emphasize them.

You may be scared to pick up that instrument and get better.  You may be afraid to start that new business, or take a chance changing careers.  There are countless things we don’t do in life because of our fears.

Getting where you want starts with a desire.  It’s the cause of your desire that’s important.  It says more about who you really are than anything.

Love your Work

These days it seems everyone wants to be a star, to be famous, at least at a young age it’s a major cultural focus imprinted on us through MTV and the desire to live a glamorous fun life. This is a product of our culture and reflects an emotional, egotistical need to be recognized, acknowledged for who we are and what we have to offer. There’s nothing wrong with being recognized for your abilities, but when people desire recognition, fame and fortune for the sake of their ego’s you know there is something deeper missing, something that needs to be filled.

The people who get places, are the people who focus on what they want and make it happen. Unfortunately, many people want what they perceive to be success but aren’t willing to do the work necessary to get there. People also have a very narrow scope of what success is, thinking it is only the high profile careers. Think outside that narrow scope.  Think about what really would bring you joy. It could be as simple as working around friendly people every day caring for plants.  It could be working your way to seeing the world from space by becoming an astronaut. The range is limited only by your real passion for enjoying what you do.

When people do what they love, everything changes. Work becomes play, but you still have to do the work.  In the physical world, action is necessary.  Thoughts are important, but they aren’t everything.  They are the springboard for action.  Action is required to see any results come to fruition. Thoughts are the roots that lead to the results.

Wishing for something doesn’t make it so.  There’s a process, and you have to take charge.

Changing the Cycle

It can be so much easier to go back to the way things are, but then nothing changes, and the same complaints and feelings you have now, might still be there in 10 years, even more. If you are in the same place now that you were 10 years ago, complaining about where you aren’t, you know you’re stagnant.  If you’re stuck in a cycle, you are likely to also be stuck in a pattern of thinking. That pattern of thinking is about how you see yourself and what you believe about yourself. Not only about your work, how much you dislike it but you may also be stuck in a pattern of complaining, or other negative forms of viewing your reality.

If you are, remember you’re going nowhere thinking like this about your current situation, unless you use those complaints to start analyzing yourself and finding out why you are allowing yourself to continue the experience that leads to those complaints. Believe me, many people love to complain more than they really want to change their lives and situations. Complaining can only make it worse by feeding the situation through throwing your potentially good energy after bad. In the end… you’re exhausted and in the same place. So use the negativity to do the opposite. Use the negativity to be a sign post to transforming the pattern. Transforming the pattern will change your experience.

There is opportunity here for you to have self realizations that are worthwhile.  It’s time to make a change.  The change starts with you, right now. Use it to recognize your values, and your self worth, but don’t dwell on what isn’t.  Focus on what is possible.

It starts with acknowledging those feelings you’re having that are off.  Turning them around, and getting real with yourself about how you got to where you are now, to this place that feels dissatisfying, without blaming others, and keeping the focus on you and what you can do.

External factors and your potential

Sure there are external factors that influence our lives.  The world and our experiences are an interconnected web, a dance of actions and reactions.  Of course, not everything is in our control.  The world goes on doing it’s thing and you’re part of the process. It’s sometimes silly to think about our lives as being fully in our control, that’s called solipsism, and we aren’t alone in this world, we are in it together. So yes, others affect you, as much as you affect others, and that’s where we can sometimes make it easier to blame others for what’s going on in our lives.

You however, have the most potential in creating self change by your reactions to external influences and changing your actions and what you focus on and apply your attention to.

Without blaming others, the only way you can change your life, and change your perspective of your life is through you.  Blaming others takes the focus off you, and in that kind of process you lose out on the opportunity of really changing yourself and your life experience. After all is said and done, it’s you who can be the one to make things go in the direction you want. Others can’t do it for you. But if you start blaming yourself, that’s no better.  Put blame to the side.  Blame focuses on the past.  Forget about that. Start thinking about now.  What you think, here and now is what makes the difference.  There really is no way to change the past, except your perception and relation to it.  Use it as a positive tool to know yourself better.

You have the potential, you need to work on recognizing you have it within you to take steps towards what you envision will bring you joy.  Don’t focus on the rewards, like money and vacations, and all those extra’s, focus on what would make you feel good to do.  What can you contribute that would make you feel good about yourself?

What is now

You want to get to a more positive place, start seeing the positive in the now.  Take away all those layers of negativity, strip them away, and see the opportunity in all that is happening provides you with. Dwelling on those external factors outside your control won’t create change.  What creates change is your reaction.  A good friend once said to me, many years ago, “It’s not where you are going, it’s where you’re coming from that matters”.    Those words are transformational. Become responsible for our own point of view and what you do with it.

In terms of your job or career, it’s not about what you’re doing, it’s about how you do it.  No matter what you do, do it with a good attitude. It will change everything, and it will change you. A stepping stone to a new you, and potentially a new career you’ll thrive in.  It starts with your attitude.

When you’re doing what you may label as the “grunt work” to survive, remember it doesn’t always have to be that way, and when it is that way, it doesn’t have to make you miserable.

Doing your best. When you do your best it becomes about you, and not about the status of the job.  It becomes about who you are in the process of whatever you do.  That’s significant, and that changes the whole game.

Love the simple things

Loving the simple, everyday things, will reflect in loving where you’re at now, and loving who you are. Ultimately it’s about loving yourself and loving others that matters in life.  When you start to do that, your on the road to personal success in every moment, which paves a path you can feel good about walking on. This road branches out in directions you never thought possible because when you change your perspective you change your opportunities.

Don’t hate to do the dishes because it has to be done.  Feel good when you’re doing the dishes.  Enjoy the warmth on your hands, the blessing to have enough water to do the dishes with, not just drink it to live. When it’s raining, but you want it to be sunny, be grateful you have so much water in your life, you have so much more than you require to drink.  It may not change the external situation, but it puts things in perspective. When you’re cleaning up the mess after your partner, be grateful you have someone in your life you can feed and love.  Find the positive in the situation.  If it’s difficult to find the positive at least look at how it provides you an opportunity to see who you are, your fears, judgments, opinions.  Get to know yourself better. After all, one of the most important parts of life is getting to know who You are.

More self awareness, is the precursor to doing what you love.

Really ask yourself the tough questions.  Get real with yourself.  Take time for yourself to get to know who you are and what you really want in life. Acknowledge your fears and all the things that keep you from being proactive in creating the results you want. Turn your negative thoughts into catalysts for self awareness. Love the simple things in life and you’ll notice your perspective changing about others and yourself. Enjoy nature, get in touch with the real you, not the idea of what you think you should be or do.

Nobody said it would be easy to do what you love.  There can be just as many tears and hard work in doing what you love than doing what you don’t love.  The difference is, you feel a sense of satisfaction after all that sweat and time devoted to feeling fulfilled. You also get much clearer about who you really are, what you want, what you’re deserving of and what you define as your self worth in the process towards finding what you love to do.

When you do what you love you feel a sense of satisfaction.  Like you’re on purpose.  Don’t work just for the money, that’s asking for a treacherous battle in survival mode.   After all money is necessary these days.

Not everything brings in a lot of money, but if you’re happy in the process let it be. Love it for what it is. Work at what you love and the money will show up, sometimes it takes a while, but it will.

If you didn’t need the money, what could you do every day and love doing it without getting paid. Now brainstorm opportunities out there that will pay you for doing something that would allow you to be passionate about it.

A lot of times, opportunities in life show up that we hadn’t expected.  Our desires change too.  People change careers many times in life, and find out more about who they are in the process. You may have an idea of what you’d like to do, but one day you may find that there is something completely different you hadn’t expected that you absolutely are head over heals for.  Trust the process of life.

Be kind to others and yourself.  Find things to love about everyday life, the people you meet, the things you do, and you’ll notice yourself feeling more authentic to your purpose. It will reveal itself and in the process you’ll blossom.

Take a moment to go outside and reflect on nature and your place in the bigger picture, bigger than any of your own ideas of what you should be doing.  You’ll find yourself in time.

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