Do You Recognise Beauty?

We are enjoying beautiful weather here in Southern Tasmania at the moment, it's late spring and everything is bursting with life in my special place, the garden.
I was feeding the dogs, I looked up and saw a little tableau of a geranium in flower, an old post with two little ceramic birds on it and a teapot with a succulent growing in it. The beauty of it caught my breath and my attention. I don't always see beauty, do you?

I've noticed that when I see beauty, when it truly grabs me it is when I am feeling my best. It's a marker for me that my energy is operating at a high frequency. When I don't see the beauty around me in this way, it is a marker for me that my energy is lagging, or low.

I have put so much effort into trying to change that lagging energy into the high frequency sort that has me catching my breath in beauty, has me feeling that my heart will explode it is full of so much love and joy and peace. It doesn't work, not really.

What that sort of effort does is drain you so your energy lags even more.

When you can't see the beauty and feel the love, don't worry. Don't give it another thought, don't try and change it. Take your mind off it, chanting mantra, I find, works very well.

When you see the beauty, and your heart is bursting with it... drink it up and soak it in.

Little native pigface, the petals open and close each day.

A rose about to bloom, did you know that roses have the highest frequency of any plant? Grow them to uplift your energy.

What's Your Thing?

Today we went into the big smoke of Hobart, I noticed there are Christmas decorations up. Not for the first time I have silently thanked God and my own common sense that we don't really 'get into' Christmas. This blog is not anti Christmas, or anti any celebration, this blog is about choosing what you get involved in and not getting drained by societal celebrations. If you want to have far, far less stress in your life than you need to stocktake what it is you celebrate. You need to have a clean out, just as you would your wardrobe or shed because you need to make room, have room to breathe.

What do you celebrate and how? Do you celebrate what is important to you?

Celebrating Halloween in Australia is a really new thing, and in Tasmania it is very, very new. I have never celebrated Halloween and don't intend to. I'm sure it is lots of fun and for some people a real highlight in their year. For me, it doesn't matter so I don't acknowledge it. I also don't really celebrate Christmas or Easter, I do however celebrate my birthday because that is important for me.

When I saw those decorations today I immediately felt drained and tired. They are a sign of something much more for many people, a marker of the extreme stress to come. Gift buying, long drives away and time away from home and endless organising of logistics for the big event. Maybe all this really gives you a buzz and you love it, good for you. However, maybe there are other celebrations you don't get a buzz out of, maybe there are other celebrations that drain you.

Think of your energy as money in a bank account and there is only so much. Do you spend your money willy nilly? Why not?, because you don't want to drain your account. You (wisely) want some there for when you need it, you don't want to feel the stress of being broke (if you can help it). Your energy is the same. You only have so much you know. It's precious.

Choose to spend your money wisely, your energy wisely.

Recognisinig Cycles as Omens

These three beehives in a row have spoken to me this morning. I look at them and I see that a cycle has come to an end. I didn't know that the end of the cycle would look like this, and I could not have possibly seen the steps in between the first beehive coming into my life and these three now all in a row.

That's the thing to remember, life and it's steps roll out in their own time and in a Divine fashion. Rather than trying to end cycles yourself, to complete cycles and to place meeting on things happening as being the end of cycle... let the omen for the end of a cycle appear as it will.

You do not control the cycles in your life, they are following their own pattern. When a cycle ends you will, if you are relaxed, see this ending and you will be able to decipher the omens in this ending.

It has taken roughly seven years for these beehives to find this spot, in a row, as their perfect home. They speak to me of so much; learning, loving, letting go and acquiring new skills. They speak to me of so much more too. I look at them and I can see a long story, it is a part of my story. I can now sit back and enjoy looking at these three sisters in a row, I can enjoy the energy that is present at the end of this cycle. I can give thanks and I can find release.

To decipher the meaning of the omens in the ending of cycles look at the characters, the scene, the time it has taken and look to how you yourself have grown.

Is Spiritual Development Running you Ragged?

I don’t know about you but there have been, are times, when it seems that all my spiritual practises are actually causing me more stress rather than less. Given that the idea of spiritual practice is to develop inner peace and clarity of connection in mind-body-spirit and to Divine Mother it’s not a good thing or a step in the right direction to be run ragged in such a way. Why does it happen and what can we do to put a stop to it, to get our ‘life’ (time) back?

Just this morning I opened my eyes after morning agnihotra and meditation and was giving this very subject some thought. I thought about all that I do to foster health throughout my mind-body-spirit being. I thought about all that I have done in the past, all the practises I have given my time and effort to over many years and as I sat there feeling so calm and relaxed I thought about karma yoga and of what great benefit it is, how ridiculously productive it is to remember and practise karma yoga as part of one’s sadhana (spiritual) practise.

Karma yoga is the yoga of action. That is what karma means, action. So karma yoga is the yoga of your actions. It is doing the dishes, going to work, sweeping the floor, making the bed, watering the garden, feeding the family, wrapping a gift, making a card for someone, writing a letter… all of your actions can be yogic actions, all of your actions can be transformed into your sadhana (spiritual) practice by performing them as karma yoga.

You won’t be run ragged by karma yoga because it involves doing what you’d normally do though with a different focus/intention. You don’t need to set aside an hour day for karma yoga, you don’t need to go to a class. You just need to live your life with the attitude of service and awareness.

Karma yoga was not a form of yoga that I ever really gravitated towards, to be honest. However, as things often turn out… it is the yoga practise that is more dominant in my yogic life. Having spent so many years ‘working on myself’ has given me a perfect background of skills to employ in the art and act of karma yoga. I can apply almost all ‘healing myself’ skills I have learnt in life in karma yoga. The wonderful thing is, I don’t need to do most of those activities or have them as a focus in my life, I can just apply what I have personally gained from them in my daily karma yoga practise.

I have found the perfect balance and recipe (for me) is karma yoga + meditation + diet/lifestyle + agnihotra. Karma yoga needs to be balanced with meditation practise. Anything at all needs also to be balanced with meditation practise. What karma yoga does is give you the opportunity for you turn your everyday life into an opportunity for your spiritual development and overall wellbeing for your highest good. This is the beauty of karma yoga. It does not run you ragged, it is not asking you to perform more actions it is asking you to work at being more present in action. Actually you will find that in order to have more success with your karma yoga practise you need to do less action.

Less action because this means you can move, think and breathe more slowly rather than when you are in a rush. The slower you go, the better the chance you will have of being aware, mindful, and present.

So this is how you can avoid your quest for spiritual development, God realisation and personal development running you ragged in modern life, karma yoga.  It doesn’t ask more of you, it does not deem you as less or wanting, it only asks that you be present in your actions and hone that skill with the intention of opening your heart to Divine Mother and love.

Theresa Daley is a Mindfulness Mentor and Spiritual Counsellor 

He who burns his bottom must first himself sit on it.

I think we are all quite guilty of suffering some consequences that could have been avoided if only we had been mindful enough to have seen them coming. If we can pause, or tune in or in some way be aware of what the consequences of our actions will be before they are upon us certainly life is easier, healthier and more harmonious. So why oh why don’t we? Because we have not trained ourselves to be ready to pause, to tune in.

Abhyasa is practise, to repeat and repeat and repeat again. It is practise that is aligned with a spiritual goal and the benefit of abhyasa is that it prepares us. I still sometimes wonder at the way in which a stressful situation washes over me. My feeling/experience is definitely more that of a spectator rather than a participant. It washes past me and it is rarely that I feel its wake. This is because of abhyasa.  

When we wait until there is a disturbance in life and then attempt to use the breath to calm ourselves down it does not work unless we have trained our mind, our breath, ourself to deal with stress, or change or dis-ease first. We need to be prepared. In the same way that we avert any bad experience, or lessen the impact of bad experience… such as a picnic by remembering insect repellent, or a hat when going to beach, or a water bottle when going for a bush walk or a warm coat for a winter’s walk. We need to be prepared to avoid or lessen the effects of unpleasant consequences, we need to prepare ourselves to be peaceful.

This is the way to be able to avoid suffering unpleasant consequences, as much as possible. The more we embody calmness, peace, light, understanding and joy we will be carried through our environment and interactions with the world and others around us by their energy. We can’t call upon these beautiful energies and expect for them to come running if we are not first very, very good friends with them. The better we are acquainted with these beautiful energies the faster they can come to our aid. A good friend will come to your aid, to your side, far more quickly than a stranger.

Who are your good friends, who do you spend most of your time with? Is it love, peace and calmness or is it rushing, anger and stress? Whomever you are most acquainted with will come to your aid/side and each create their own consequences. If you are good friends with peace than the consequences of your actions will be peaceful. If you are good friends with stress, than the consequences of your actions will be stressful.

Theresa Daley is a Mindfulness Mentor and Spiritual Counsellor 

Shifting energy with a moment of mindfulness

What it takes to shift energy is a moment of mindfulness. A moment where we can choose to break a momentum, to instigate change, to hop onto a different more and more constructive vibe. This moment of mindfulness is the window of great opportunity we need to make a change. This moment is at a peak and in it things feel intense. When we grasp this moment and infuse it with mindfulness (our presence of mind) we shift things, we shift how we feel about a circumstance or situation. This is how it works, let's begin with an anecdotal story from yesterday.

I was hanging out the washing, the view here is expansive and it's all really quite beautiful. Nonetheless I didn't feel 'right', I felt something needed to change, that I needed to do something, but what? I was entering into a moment of mindfulness that would shift energy. I knew this because I have done it again, and again and again. I've had heaps of practise!

I was feeling annoyed, frustrated and needed to get moving in some direction. I was feeling discontent. I think feeling discontent is perhaps the worst thing I can ever feel because it sours everything. I quickly scanned through some scenarios in my mind... ought I go out? Get off the property for a bit? Ought I do some other type of jobs? Ought I eat something? Before I take any action I always do the most sensible thing first, I ask Divine Mother for advice. To cut a long story short the guidance was to do Yajna, Tryambakam Mantra to be precise. The great healer, the great shifter of energy.

So I scooped up the baby and down we went to perform the fire for over half an hour, it worked wonders.

That was a very important moment of mindfulness in shifting my energy. You don't need to perform Yajna (though it is a wonderful practice!), you need to be able to recognise when a moment of mindfulness can shift you out of the space you are in.

When you are feeling overwhelmed, stressed, upset, frustrated, annoyed etc nip it in the bud! Apply a moment of mindfulness. Stop! Just stop and do something else. Not something that will escalate your feelings, such as pushing yourself harder when you are stressed but something that feels the  opposite to what you were doing. Because that is what is usually called for. If you are being very Rajasic (active) be a little Tamasic (inert, still).

When you are just beginning to feel the onset of upset and frustration (manifest in anyway), stop and catch your breath and ask yourself... what do I need to do now? Do I need to sit and breathe, do I need to go for a walk, shall I write a letter, begin to cook a meal, what? Then do it. Apply a moment of mindfulness to shift your energy.

This works on any level, physical, mental and emotional. If you are feeling physical pain, mental stress of upset emotionally... stop and change tack. You can go back to whatever it is that needs doing once you are feeling happy again.

Don't simply press on, this is not being mindful of your well being. Shift your energy with a moment of mindfulness.

Theresa Daley is a Mindfulness Mentor and Spiritual Counsellor 

Too fussy, too busy...

Fussiness, discretion and the busyness culture go hand in hand. They are the three sides of a triangle where no matter what way you turn it a pointy end is reached. The culture of busyness, which I feel is a dominant culture in developed societies is a topic of great interest to me. Whether it be work, or play or the seemingly never ending quest for self-betterment, the culture of busyness can often be found hard at work. I have come to the conclusion that it is fussiness that is a main driver in the personal goals we are trying to meet when immersed in a culture of busyness. Similarly, it is the showing of too much discretion that works alongside fussiness. Here is a real life example.

I love people who are good at feeding you. My nana was an expert, my mother is also. I have a few friends who could teach almost anyone a lesson in how to generously feed. I hope I am a bit the same. These people are the people who offer you lunch, or morning tea and find great pleasure in sharing food and in doing so warm the cockles of heart's in their home. Visitors and residents alike.

My nana was the first person to cut you a piece of homemade pineapple pie if it were not a main meal time and the first person to set you a plate at the table (set anyone a plate at the table) if it were a main meal time. She was not a wealthy person by a long shot, but she was generous with what she had. Could fussiness and the culture of busyness be killing off such shows of generosity? I won't eat that, I won't do that, I don't have time and on the list goes. In my nana's day you gave graciously and you accepted graciously. That was that. I like it.

We can show too much discretion, it's called fussiness and it is stifling. Being proactive is important and too much of it is called busyness and it wears us out.

Have you read the Tao of Pooh and the Te of Piglet? In it, Rabbit is always placing a sign on his door and it reads 'busy, busy back soon' he is referred to as a backson. Always busy, busy back soon. A busy backson.

What drives the backson to be busy all the time is a lack of acceptance, a lack of grace. Ever searching for something else, something more perfect keeps one very busy indeed. I doubt that anyone who lives with a fairly good degree of grace and acceptance would be a busy backson.

Whilst the goal we have in mind may seem worthwhile, how are we living on a day to day basis to reach that goal? Are we being fussy, are we too focussed on our goals that we have a sign perpetually on a door that says we are busy and will be back soon?

To life a life of mindfulness and peace, we need to balance discretion with grace and acceptance. To live a life that is happy and healthy we need to balance activity with inactivity. We need goals, it's solar plexus stuff and it's important for our overall wellbeing and health but goals that are rigidly adhered to can leave us exhausted. There needs to be flux too.

A good compost heap works well because of it's as anaerobic activity, a good digestive system for the same reason. There must be space. That is what the asana (postures) in yoga are all about, creating space.

Eat to 80% capacity, turn your compost heap to bring in air, stick to your goals and ethics and allow for a little bit of give too. Live graciously and generously in the acts of both giving and receiving. Life is not meant to be so serious and hard... now, how does this wonderful song go?

Theresa Daley is a Mindfulness Mentor and Spiritual Counsellor 

Remembering Inner Sunshine

For the first time in I don't know how long I have a cold. Thanks to baby group I think. Anyway... I sat down to write and I thought quite the poignant topic is remembering inner sunshine cold or no cold. In fact, I think two of the best things about having this cold are #1 I have read so much of my book and #2 I have stayed connected to my inner sunshine.

When we are unwell, or have more quiet time on our hands or are waiting patiently for something it is a wonderful opportunity to remember our inner sunshine.

Our inner sunshine lives within us, it lives, actually, in our hearts. You can feel it there. When you feel happy or excited you can feel it flutter, or it's warmth. When we are feeling unwell, or stressed or lost or any number of things we can be forgiven for thinking that it has gone out, our inner sunshine. Though it has not, it is still there. It never, ever goes out as long as we are alive.

We can be distracted by physical aches or pains or the pains of others. We can be distracted by the woes of the world, we can be distracted by our jobs list or negative thinking... but it is still there and all we need to do is to tap into it. How do we do that?

There are a few ways, what I do is simply feel it. I can feel it glowing in the centre of my chest and tap into that and feel it. If you are a meditator (in some way) you will also find this easy to do. If you are not, you will need to close your eyes and place your hands on the centre of your chest. Feel the warmth in your hands and then feel deeper. It may take a few times for you to feel your inner sunshine, though you will. Maybe you see it?

Our inner sunshine is powerful stuff! This power is not to be underestimated. Tapping into your inner sunshine is tapping into your eternal smile, your heart, your love. Doing so is deeply healing, cathartic and will lift your spirits no end.

Theresa Daley is a Mindfulness Mentor and Spiritual Counsellor 

Falling in love with the life you have

Confession time. I have spent most of my life working hard to create a different life to what I have. Always looking outwards and coming up with what I need more or less of in my life so it could be a life that I would love. The perfect life for me. A life with more time for this or that, a life where I am always happy, a life full of joy because it is the perfect life. In this perfect life I am perfect. I have worked hard on myself to make it so and if life is not perfect than clearly it is my fault. I know now that this is a bit like a donkey trying to get a carrot that is hanging from a stick, just out of reach.

I'm not sure how it happened but I fell in love with the life I have and that is because I fell in love with who I am right now, RIGHT NOW. I have a suspicion that the course of flower essences I have been on have tipped things over the edge, as they do, and this is the shift that has happened. 

I have in fact been suffering from 'farmer's curse', that's what my neighbour calls it. You probably suffer from it to. Do you recognise these symptoms? Other people come to your garden and home and comment on how beautiful it all is and all you can see are all the jobs that need doing. Because once those jobs are done, THEN things will be beautiful. That may be the case,it also doesn't prevent you from loving what is, because you love yourself as you are RIGHT NOW.

That is how I have been (I hope) cured of farmer's curse. I see all those jobs (especially and including the jobs pertaining to my personal development) but they aren't so noisy, they are just there and they are a part of the life I live and am madly in love with. We hear it all the time, love what is, love your life. How can we do that though?

The secret (thanks flower essences) is to love the jobs too, to love the 'imperfections'. It means to no longer be bullied by 'how you can be better' and the jobs you need to do.

I look at all the things that are 'getting there' absolutely including aspects of my character and love them for where they are at, they are like a child growing, they are at a stage of growth and I don't need to hurry it all along. I attend to things with love and when I feel the joy of doing evaporate, I move on to the next thing.  Just like planting a seed, watering it and leaving it do its thing. Tending it when necessary, leaving it alone when necessary.

I have realised that the feeling of being in a rush is perhaps the most destructive thing (for my) peace of mind. I also realise that it is me (for the most part) that causes the rush. To be relaxed is most important. When we are relaxed our prana (life force energy can flow) and our body fills with ojas (bliss) and we are dis-ease free. I'm so tired of rushing myself, I'm not doing it anymore.

I think that maybe, just maybe I 'have it' this time because yesterday the baby went to sleep in the afternoon and I thought about writing and then I realised I needed to nap. So, I had a sleep instead.

When I woke, all the things I want to do were smiling at me and I felt so very madly in love with my life and myself. 

Theresa Daley is a Mindfulness Mentor and Spiritual Counsellor