Our earth, known inĀ some cultures as Gaia, is the giver and sustainer of life. We need to respect her too, as this Native American Hopi Elder explains.
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Tag Archives: spirituality
Formula for a great start to a new week
Here’s a formula to start your week on a good note:
Make peace with your past. If there is anything you’re holding on to from the past week (or even the
past year or earlier), release it. Put the baggage down. Lighten your load. Allow yourself to move forward. Forgive others who you think may have slighted you. Forgive yourself too. Breathe in light, love and peace. Breathe out stress, hurt and pain. Give thanks for each moment. Welcome new experiences and joys into your life. Take a few moments and visualize your perfect week. If that’s too far ahead for you, image your perfect day. Smile.
Here’s to a great week ahead!
Life = Risk
If you’ve ever tried to learn something new, achieve a goal, set a resolution, you’ve been met with failure somewhere along the way. Hopefully it isn’t too often. Hopefully you’ve managed to pull yourself up, dust yourself off, and go on to achieve greater heights, like these individuals, who never said never.
Don’t lose heart. You can do it!
Give yourself permission
Image by Capture Queen via Flickr
Today, give yourself permission to liberate yourself from the things that you force yourself to do because you think they “should” be done.
Like forcing yourself to finish reading a book even if it sucks.
Or answering your email as soon as you receive it.
Obsessively checking your Facebook or Twitter.
Thinking that missing a day of posting on your blog will bring aboutĀ a catastrophe.
Let go of some of these beliefs that hold you back. You’ll feel liberated. Free. I promise.
For some fun, quirky things to let go of, check out White Hot Truth’s permission slip.
What did you decide to let go of today?
Create a morning ritual
Image by kalyan02 via Flickr
The loud ringing of the alarm on my cellphone jerks me out of bed and running helter-skelter to face the day every morning. I rush through the house like a whirlwind ā brush, bath, get dressed, put out some cat food, grab a cereal bar and race to work. It doesnāt have to be that way.
Instead of waiting for the last alarm (I have three, in case youāre wondering) to jolt me into action, I can get up with the first, or even the second, and ease myself into the day. On the days when Iāve managed to do that, I make myself a cup of hot lemon tea and do nothing until Iāve finished it. Itās my time to think, dream, imagineā¦before I go forth to meet the world. Iāve noticed that on those days Iām calmer, more focussed and less stressed out.
But I havenāt really done anything about that observationā¦until recently. And for that, I have to thank Pilar Gerasimo for her article, Reclaim your mornings. According to Pilar, you need to create a morning ritual
Image by Ray Devlin via Flickr
for yourself and ensure that you do it everyday. Your ritual can be long and elaborate or short and simple, but the key to success is to have a minimum commitment ā i.e., on the days when you donāt have enough time, spend at least 5 minutes with yourself before you take on the world. Pilar also shares her sister Andreaās morning ritual. Sheā¦
ālights a candle and a stick of incense, then puts on relaxing music. She unrolls her yoga mat, sits, and — at minimum — takes three long, centering breaths. Generally, those three deep breaths lead her into a gentle yoga practice that may last anywhere from 5 to 30 minutes. At the end of her practice, she meditates for a few moments, sending loving thoughts to her friends and family, and setting some key intentions for the day. When her mat-based practice is complete, she makes tea, has breakfast, and only then does she turn on her phone, consult her calendar and begin the active portion of her day.ā
Her minimum commitment from this long ritual is to āUnroll the mat, sit, take three breaths. That’s it. The rest is negotiable.ā
This inspired me to design a morning ritual for myself.
Image By derekGavey via Flickr
I find a comfortable spot to sit in – could be cross-legged on the bed, or on the drawing in the drawing room. I take three deep breaths, and do a short guided meditation to start the day on a positive note. Then, I draw a Card for the day to give me a feel of the vibrations and the things to watch out for.Ā After that, breakfast, and then I’m ready to face the day. My minimum daily commitment is to take three deep breaths and draw a card for the day.
Iāve been doing this since the past three weeks, and already, I feel a tangible difference in the texture of my days.
What small ritual can you create for yourself every morning, or do you already have a morning ritual? Tell me about it in the comments!
I believe…in magic!
Image via Wikipedia
I believe that our beliefs change as we age. When I was around five, I believed in the fairy godmother and the tooth fairy, I believed that wicked witches and jealous queens existed, that there was a forest somewhere filled with enchanted creatures that can talk, and that mushroom rings meant that there had been a council of fairies…
But of course, as I grew up, I lost the magic somewhere. Life became a what you see is what you get deal.
Image by ToastyKen via Flickr
That changed again, when I met the wonderful man who was to become the hubby. We got married despite great odds, only because I believed that this was going to be. Since then, I have slowly opened up to the mysteries of the universe. I read a lot of great authors and some wonderful books, especially Neale Donald Walsch’s Conversation With God series. Now, again, I believe in magic.
I believe that we have a loving, compassionate God. That we are made in his image so we can go out and experience life, embrace it, warts and all.
I believe that things happen because we choose them – the good as well as the bad. Our thoughts shape a lot of our life experiences, so I believe in choosing good thoughts.
Image by AlicePopkorn via Flickr
I believe that angels exist. They don’t have to be of the winged variety. That stranger who found an envelope with office money that I had left at the phone booth and came running after me to return it was an angel – I didn’t have enough money to replace what I would have lost that day.
I believe that we can see God in the natural beauty around us, in the moment before dawn, in the innocence of a child’s laugh.
These are some of the wonders of the universe that I believe in.
What do you believe?
Are you killing your dreams?
Kant said that we require three things by which to measure happiness: someone to love, something we like to do, and something to look forward to.*
Look closely at this statement, and youāll realize that most people have someone to love and something that they like to do, itās the something to look forward to that we sometimes forget .
When we ignore our dreams, our life feels withered and empty
I know, I forgot about it too, recently. Life goes along smoothlyā¦we work, spend time with family, meet up with friendsā¦life has a steady rhythm and we donāt do much to shake it up…happy to maintain the status quo…not realizing that we just might be killing our dreams in the process.
Image via Wikipedia
So, how do you know if youāre exactly where you need to be right now, or if you need to challenge the status quo? I got the answer to this question by chance, just when I needed to hear it the most, as I was scrolling through my Twitter steam. āKilling our dreams: the three symptomsā flashed out at me that day ā an article by the master himself, Paulo Coelho.
The first symptom is the lack of time. Ever looked at those super busy people and wondered how they find the time to fit so much into their day? Theyāre living their dream. Itās those of us who say weāre too busy to do this or that who are actually shying away from fighting for what we believe in.
The second symptom is our certainties – a false belief that we are being wise by not demanding more from life. When we look at others striving hard to achieve their dreams, we choose to retreat into our own daily existence, not realizing that the fight is what excites and rejuvenates.
Image by Yuliya Libkina via Flickr
The final symptom is complacency. Since weāre satisfied with the way our life is going, we get comfortable in our daily routine. We brush our grand dreams under the carpet, believing we are āmatureā in seeking only professional and personal development, and are surprised when we hear others saying they want still more in life.
When we renounce our dreams, we go through a short period of tranquility because we buy into the illusion of comfort. But our dead dreams begin to rot within us and to infect our entire being. We become cruel to those around us, and then we begin to direct this cruelty against ourselves. Thatās when illnesses and psychosis arise. What we sought to avoid in fighting for our dreams ā disappointment and defeat ā come upon us because of our cowardice.
And these don’t even have to be really big dreams. They could be small ones too.
I always wanted to have a vase of fresh flowers at home. It makes the entire room just come alive, doesn’t it? But as time went by and life got busy, I found myself waiting for those special occasions when the hubby would bring me flowers, and that dream of always having fresh flowers fell by the wayside.
But recently, I’ve picked that dream up and dusted it off, examined it and decided that it isn’t something that I want to give up on. So, I have decided that I will buy fresh flowers every week during the winter and monsoon months. It’s rather pointless to bother is summer, because flowers just wilt away in a day.Ā Here’s the bunch of blooms I bought myself this week – pretty, aren’t they?
Sit down and ask yourself: what are your dreams? Are you living them, pursuing them, or have you given up on them?
* Thanks to the Designer Wife for sparking this idea with her post on Measuring happiness
Technological spirituality: 6 ways to tune into you
Image via Wikipedia
Technology has been evolving at a rapid pace. Remember the days of yore, when we used to call the telephone exchange to place STD calls. You had to wait for the telephone company to connect your call, you never knew how soon ā or even if ā your call would go through. Fast forward a few years, and we had the ability to place STD calls ourselves without having to go through the switch-board. A few more years later and mobile phones emerged, allowing us to make STD and ISD calls on the go. Fast forward to the present, and you have multiple ways to stay in touch ā phone, email, internet calls through Skype, Facebook and even Twitter.
This ability to constantly be in touch, in real time, is a boon when your family stays far away. Youāre now no more than a phone call, e-mail, status update or tweet away. Itās also become possible to stay connected to the office while on the go. Look around, and youāll see people in the gym handling office-related phone calls, busy executives sitting in the coffee shop with their laptop updating an important presentation or checking and answering work e-mails.
But in this constant race to be up-to-speed with everyone and everything around us, it has become increasingly difficult to find time to connect with ourselves, with our spirituality, with God. It doesnāt have to be this way, though.
The very technology that has connected us to friends and family around the world has also given us myriad tools to connect with ourselves on a deeper level. Here are six ways in which you can tune in to you even when youāre on the go.
YouTube: Most smartphones these days can connect to and play YouTube videos. The next time youāre in the train commuting just log on to YouTube, look for meditation, scroll through the numerous options that come up, plug in your headphones and hit play. You can also visit the Soulful living page here on Modern Gypsy to access a collection of hand-picked meditation music or guided meditation videos and find yourself. Subscribe to the blog and youāll get a new meditation video every Sunday, along with a lot of other interesting content on a variety of topics ranging from book reviews to travel stories to observations on daily life.
Twitter: There are a lot of spiritual gurus and motivational speakers on Twitter who send out inspiring tweets everyday that can give you a nugget of wisdom in 140 characters or less. They also post links to relevant content on their blogs or other sites that you can visit whenever you have a few extra minutes, or favorite and go back to later.
A few people to follow: @paulocoelho, @DalaiLama, @RockSolidAdvice, Ā @RevRunWisdom. You could also follow my Inspirations list on Twitter.
Mailing lists: There are a lot of websites and blogs that offer spiritual content and insights online. Subscribe to a few of their mailings lists and youāll have some thought provoking articles to read the next time youāre stuck at the doctorās office or in a nasty traffic snarl. You can even save them on your smartphone using apps like Instapaper, which allow you to save webpages for offline reading.
Facebook: Have you come across the nifty Facebook app called God Wants you to Know? If you havenāt, I suggest you check it out. It gives you a new message from God everyday ā daily bite-sized pieces of inspiration that at times are exactly what you need to hear.
Apps: There are a lot of religion and spirituality apps available that you can download onto your smartphone or tablet. You can download The Bhagwad Gita as a book or in audio; Buddha-in-a-Pocket offers powerful insights from the teachings of the Buddha; The Life Purpose App, which provides full access to Dan Millmanās bestseller The Life You Were Born to Live and calculates and provides details about your life path.
Podcasts: There are a lot of meditation podcasts available on iTunes that you can download the next time youāre updating your iPhone/iPad/iPod apps. Spend 10 minutes before you start your day to meditate, or listen to vedic chants while commuting and see the difference it makes to your day. Youāll operate from a more calm, focused and peaceful state of mind, and if you make it a regular practice, youāll notice that you arenāt as stressed out as you used to be.
Iām sure Iāve just scratched the surface of the millions of options out there. Are there any tools or apps that you use to connect with yourself?
Meditation music
Here’s a lovely piece of music that you relax or meditate to.
Hope this piece helped you relax!
Meditation Music: Zen garden meditation
Wonderfully relaxing music – maybe that explains the name of the clip, because it doesn’t really have anything much to do with Japanese Zen gardens otherwise.
Hope you enjoyed the clip!