Simple things in life are the most beautiful
I just saw the most beautiful thing. I woke up this morning in East Sussex at my Dads by the sea. I stepped out on to the balcony and saw the sun creep between the clouds creating a ray of magnificent light. It shone down like angels floating on the seabed. Only sprinkling light on one tiny section of the sea. A white line that made the sea sparkle in a hypnotic way. I could have starred for hours. The overwhelming calm sunk deep into my soul and in that moment the world was silent my thoughts stood still. I couldn’t even hear the cars passing by. My heart was filled with love and gratitude for all of nature. I was being, totally present. These are the simple moments that so many let pass by. Being present in life and absorbing each ray of light into your soul, or feeling the earth on the ground under your feet, or tasting each droplet coffee. These are the easiest ways to be in the moment, to live and feel in a non- judgmental way. Each day if we could do this we would see the world in better light the little things that bother us would fall away. Try today to be totally present you’ll be pleasantly surprised. It made my morning, Love to all of you x
“We want our sitting to make us what we are not; we want to be calm, clear, or enlightened. We’d like to be able to call that rejection of our self just as we are 'aspiration,' but all too often it’s just another word for self-hate. Sitting, first and foremost, is sitting with who we are―what we see in the mirror. Our practice is to sit and look and say to ourselves, over and over, 'That’s me.' Cherish your questions, but do not chase after answers. Sit still amid your doubt, restlessness, loneliness, and anxiety. They are not obstacles to your practice―they are your practice.”
—Barry Magid, Practice: You Can’t Do It Wrong
Tara Brach on Radical Acceptance
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For many people, the term “acceptance” implies that they are OK with what they are experiencing. How would you explain what you mean by “Radical Acceptance” to someone who is not OK with feeling angry, sad, or anxious?
Radical acceptance has two elements: It is an honest acknowledgment of what is going on inside you, and a courageous willingness to be with life in the present moment, just as it is. I sometimes simplify it to “recognizing” and “allowing.”
You can accept an experience without liking it. In fact, let’s say you are feeling stuck in anxiety and disliking the feeling. Radical Acceptance includes accepting both the feelings of anxiety and the aversion to it. In fact, acceptance is not real and not healing unless it honestly includes all aspects of your experience.
There is an increasingly well-known adage that says “What you resist, persists.” Your identity gets hitched to whatever you are not accepting. And the more you push something away or run from something, the more your sense of self is linked with that experience.
2011 Goals Revisited...
As I sat 31k feet above the US watching the white fluffy clouds pass below me I was compelled to reflect on my goals for 2011 and then to try to nail down what goals I want to achieve in 2012…
I had only 3 goals for 2011. They were:
- Eat healthier
- Run a marathon
- Be present in every moment
Let’s revisit how I have done on each of these shall we??
1) Eat healthier —- Actually this has been a WIN for me for the entire year! Do I have moments, occasions and funks where my eating sucks? Hell yeah! But this year I did go Paleo for the 2 full months before I ran Boston and found that I was in the best physical shape of my life. I gave up the belief that I had to carb load to prepare for a race. My body actually rebelled when I reintroduced carbs so now I am probably more like 85% Paleo.
Not sure I could ever go 100% as I do love my coffee creamer, my occasional breakfast sandwich or a great pasta dish. I need to get back to omitting the dairy…that was the biggest challenge for me yet offered me the best benefit!!
2) Run a marathon —- SERIOUS WIN!!! If you are new to my blog you should know that last year on April 19, 2011 I ran my first and the grand daddy of all marathon’s…The Boston Marathon. My race re-cap is here if you are interested in reading it.
I had the amazing opportunity to run this race with Reluctantrunner (she IS reluctant because I sorta talked her into running it with me!!) Our race recap’s are VERY different as are our experiences even though we both ran the very same race and finished seconds apart. I can tell you that after that race I was on a runners high that made me feel like I could conquer the world but I could not say that I would run another marathon. So I can safely and confidently say that when typed the word first up above that I WILL RUN ANOTHER MARATHON!! I am not sure if it will be on my 2012 goals or not. It may be 2013…but IT WILL HAPPEN!!
3) Be present in every moment —- WOW!! This one was a big one for me!! And I can say with pride and confidence that I have been present in all of the moments of my life this year. In the past years I had done a good job of masking my emotions and going with the flow, pretending everything was okay and really truly missing the moments. I was guilty of cheating myself out of pure joy and out of pure anguish because I just soooo often “floated” through situations. This year…this year I chose to ACTIVELY be PRESENT. Sometimes this has not been easy!! Yeah — it is easy in the giggles, laughter, love, joyous, fun filled moments. I have laughed until I cried and laughed so hard that I thought that it would count as an ab workout. But, also, this year….I have allowed myself to feel pain, sadness, frustration, anger, wanting, yearning and angst. I have cried myself to sleep…I have cried in the shower…I have cried on MANY a run!! I have yelled at the world, at God, at my kiddo (sorry baby girl) and at life!! But this…this chance to really be ALIVE and PRESENT in my day to day existence has made a WORLD of difference in who I am and how happy I have become!! It really is true when people tell you that you have to embrace and go through all of the pain and hurt to feel the true joy and pleasure. This year, in 2011, I did that…and I am sooooo happy and proud that I did because now I am actually WHOLE & HAPPY WITH WHO I AM!
I was sharing with my sweetie upon arrival to Boston yesterday that I had this post in queue and was trying to re-cap my goals from last year. He knows what they are as he has seen them MANY times hanging over my kitchen sink with the check boxes next to them. When I told him that I was most proud of #3 and my ability to really be emotionally present he told me something that bought tears to my eyes. He said, “I am proud of you and the person you are becoming. I am a lucky man to be able to witness and share this with you and am impressed with everything you have set out to achieve this year. You have done an amazing job!” That right there is soooo worth being emotionally raw and open in my life… because the ones who are closest to my heart see it, live it and appreciate it!
Soooo… now with 2011 solidly in the books as a WIN I need to set out to determine my 2012 goals!!!
I cannot wait to see what 2012 has in store for me!!!
