Mental Health and Wellness Archives - Page 2 of 27

Joy Spiritual Meaning vs Daily Joy

Joy is used and experienced in many ways in life. And spiritual joy is one of life’s mysteries that doesn’t have to stay a secret to you, to help your life now.

Seeing a painted sky through a window can be a joyful experience that brings us closer to spiritual joy. 🌄

“Things and conditions can give you pleasure, but they cannot give you joy.” – Eckhart Tolle

But in our lives, most of the daily joy is not lasting as we get bored or the scenery changes, such as the season we’re in or a pretty sunset. 🌅

Daily joy is a common calm feeling we can have when we sip on a nice comfort tea… or get reminded of something that puts a smile on our face… or have a good outlook about the future days ahead.

I had one of these joyful days yesterday with a cinnamon chocolat-y flavored rooibos tea… that’s good anytime for Ayurvedic balance, and especially great in season and life transitions that’s life now and always for all of us. 🌿

I can always tell my daily balance state by my tea and spice desires.

Feeling calm is joyful. And feeling warm and fuzzy inside is where joy and happy feelings meet…

Joy is the new happiness.

Joy is used more often in trending media channels associated to describing general things in specific life seasons like: “I felt a sense of joy for…”

These descriptions are usually external triggers that are situation-based.

…Something in our surroundings prompted the joy.

These common joy ways are acceptable and often more surface fleeting feelings (if a deeper purpose or meaning context isn’t added).

“Joy” in daily word usage can often get tossed around like word salad and is not the same as the deeper joy that’s spiritual rooted, where the deeper meaning is often missed… and this article is about the spiritual joy you tap into.

But it’s good to know that daily joy can help you more easily get into spiritual joy.

It can be the primer or vehicle to get you there.

By contrast, someone or something at any moment can ruin your fleeting daily joy, peace, and pleasant feeling with a piece of sad or irritating news as quickly as the joyful feelings arrived.

“Stopping to smell the roses” 🌹is a good self-care practice that initiates or resets daily joy that’s good for calming and mental health.

…In a more relaxed headspace like out in calm nature, this can help prep you to look deeper for your spiritual joy that’s within and anywhere you go.

…Or you can miss the spiritual joy messages.

Spiritual joy is the kind of joy you don’t experience unless you’re intentional to tuning in.

The spiritual joy source is the higher world channel that’s inside you (spirit).

You can look up to the sky or Universe if you need a visual reminder.

Or it’s where you search inside you for ad hoc bright ideas and higher possibility inspiration. 🎨

In this spirit acknowledging realm, you are internally connected to the Universe.

You can do this in prayer, or just simple quiet acknowledgement that you are not alone.

With your spirit, you’re never alone because the spirit is another energy source inside you.

Acknowledgement helps you to unleash spiritual joy that gives a deeper satisfied feeling about understanding this Universe and that you matter to more than just the people you know.

It’s a higher way of thinking or a knowing like a gut instinct.

An example is when you feel goosebumps when seeing a solar eclipse in-person that has deeper profound meaning that makes us wonder about our existence, who we actually are inside, and why we’re here on earth.

It’s heartfelt, and we feel the outer ripple effect as sensations on the body and skin.

How to experience spiritual joy (or more of this deeper feeling):

Tap into your quiet spiritual inner being channel.

One way is you do mindful active listening for the quiet whispers inside you.

It’s not woo woo if you don’t make it about that as our lives zoomed out are big woo-woo miracles from the start 🎉🎉… and so you make your spirit about higher purpose living and your personal growth… while keeping level-headed and your feet on the ground for most your waking hours.

This can become your everyday healthy life as it is for me, as much as daily cooking and reaching out in community. 🌱

You can do this out walking in nature or sitting in a quiet spot indoors.

And to go back to your daily living, you shut out the spirit whispers that is subtle like daily wind.

You get back to your busy headspaces and to-do lists, listening to your thoughts and the noises of the external world… or simply get back to the work in front of you.

That’s the frequency most of us are on during our awake hours, unless we’re intentional to carve out time for something else higher.

If you’re in a loud restaurant or sports arena with friends, it’s unlikely you’ll hear your spiritual joy calling there.

But, spiritual joy can happen even if you’re not purposefully trying…

Maybe a wave of emotion strikes you in the air, or you blurt out impromptu somethings that feel right at the moment as the spirit inside you tries to help lead you to your better purposes in this life.

But at the time that happens, you don’t know why you did or acted out that way that was harmless, but curious to you.

Your spirit inside you knows better because it’s prophetic.

And you can be in ordinary circumstances like a concert or conference and a speaker that comes on discussing a topic or mission in the world that you’re aligned and passionate about that strikes your spiritual joy… or you meet The One (your person) at a grocery store and you feel instant chemistry without saying a word in the smoothie drink aisle.

The alive-in-you spirit can show up at any time without invitation to give you clues to help you.

This is the essence of the joy of the spirit.

There are also times when some people get spiritual awakenings for longer than moments or a day.

Those are not as common, but it’s the same spirit source creating spiritual joy.

Many wonder if they have a spirit inside them…

There’s a spirit in each of us that’s gentle and quiet if we listen.

To be clear, this is the same as the Holy Spirit living in us as defined by the Bible for Christians who understand what that means.

The Holy Spirit (or Spirit) is a heavenly being living daily and inside you ready to do life with you when you choose to invite this being into your life.

Believe me, a decade ago I didn’t know this.

…And like former-me, everyone is not aware of this spirit presence, but everyone still has a spirit inside them.

Depending on actions and how they choose to live their life, the spirit can be the good and effective influence in their life.

How you choose to live is your personal willpower choice.

You can purposefully invite in your good spirit.

It’s 24-7 operating inside you like a quiet and invisible angel… ready to help you (and other lives around you that you encounter) if you’re willing to be helped.

Helping includes suggesting with higher thoughts and sudden reminders, and guiding you to make the next best steps that you can choose to listen to (like a passing gut instinct), or ignore and listen to your louder thoughts.

Unlike people, our good spirits don’t hurt people. Only we or other people have the ability to do that as we have an ego in us.

The good spirit can’t create any harmful situations because it comes from the heavenly perfect good realm that isn’t earth bound.

It’s easier to explain this to anyone as the Universe looking out for you.

And now you know better how unleashing spiritual joy works inside you if you didn’t before.

This can be a part of your daily way when alone or finding quiet time.

You can give praise and gratitude for the daily favors and blessings you experience to re-center, get back to calm and daily joy, and remind yourself of the spirit in you.

With more favor comes joy (like the common happy-joy kind) because you deeper know you’re cared for.

You also naturally get better answers in life that are higher truths if you tune in regularly.

You’re less likely to make a wrong turn when you keep your steps close to tuning in consistently (and not taking a busy season off that can easily happen in our cultures).

This is where you gain wisdom and get better aligned perspectives.

You can get epiphany that it’s not about the things you do or acquire, but who you are and are becoming that matters most.

People, things, and situations are an integral part of our lives and they help move us along for our purpose discovery, and so we can help the world we’re in.

With the help of your spirit and developing more faith, you can trust the future and believe in what you don’t see in your life but believe all will work out for good (that fear and ego can shut out).

And if you’re new to spiritual joy and finding faith, one of the biggest challenges is tuning into the quiet frequency in a noisy world, and deliberately tapping into your spirit for answers vs. culture’s comments.

These ideas can be intriguing to a curious beginner (that was also once me)…

But like anything else new, it takes intention and practice.

The first habit step can be to set an intention or goal if that works better for you, to invite in your spirit in your life. A goal example could be you measure the number of days you do this.

You can achieve this in meditation, yoga, or in any quiet time.

Learning to relax and repress the mind’s loud ego thoughts also work to quiet the noise that internally competes and drowns out how the spirit softly communicates (that’s as different in us as each of us is).

Even if we’re listening to relaxing instrumental music, that can crowd out our spirit if we’re day dreaming on something else or focus-thinking about the music itself.

There’s a time and place for that if we’ve had a long day or just wanting to relax.

But remember, coming back at least once a day to your higher channel helps us in so many life aligning productive ways! 🌅

Without our spirit’s quietly working in us, our planet would be a hopeless, chaotic mess.

But our world is not this way… it’s organized under the hood with the help of our spirit working in us.

It’s not perfect or perfectly good and never will be, but there’s more quiet good than bad.

…Just look at all the productive and buzzing actions going on in nature daily. 🌱

And when you unleash your spirit outward (that’s the only one you’re responsible for), then you feel a sense of deeper joy and positive outlook living on this planet.

It’s life changing and life-giving as connection.

You’re never alone.

…And you’re fully loved.

And when you go out in the world doing your daily rounds and business, you can keep your head up and appreciate the kind people and the favor their spirits are greeting you with.

It’s a positive energy, and if we send our joyful spirit out, then that’s usually what we get back. And if we don’t get that, we still celebrate how we showed up.

With new insight about yourself and your spirit that’s with you always (and always has been even before you knew), you’re a better person.

You keep growing in ways you couldn’t have imagined before, and the way you started isn’t where you end up!

Finding out what that is, is everyone’s bread crumb journey. It’s a life adventure that’s exciting (and not boring).

Having lived both sides fully, starting out in my 20s thinking I had to make everything happen on my own and then evolving into relying on my spirit to guide me decades later, I would never go back to the old ways. 100% never.

With accumulated wisdom and new insights, comes purpose and meaning in a transformed life that optimizes the one life we live.

We get transformed inside and that brings joy and higher self-perspectives as veils are lifted. That’s the opposite of self-suffering that when you look back was survival existence.

You no longer have to deal with past self-hangups in phases of life created by former beliefs and perspectives.

You wisely let go and grow out of former patterns and Imposter Syndrome.

Your spirit of joy helps to grow and transform your healthy mindset, attitude, and insecurities. That’s something to celebrate. 🎂

I celebrate with food like a balanced delightful bowl. How do you celebrate?

Transformation Change Lead to Purpose

Transformation change such as changes in identity (and realizing that you won’t go back to past and old identities that no longer serve you) lead to personal growth and purpose.

That’s what this article is about.

And I believe what this Life is meant for (…while enjoying the perks and good foods that our living planet offers). 🎉

Consider: why would you stay the same as you started as an adult? You know the better way now than you did even a few years ago.

As adults, one identity we all grow out of is our childhood identity as a rite of passage.

With more years, we gain more experience, knowledge, privileges and freedoms, and respect for our wisdom gained and shown in our lives and communities we belong in.

Accumulated wisdom is a wealth of knowledge as byproduct of transformation change.

And life transformations are about wise growth and celebration of life where each year we live, we can celebrate a new year and our birthdays.

We also get the free-will choice to live life differently than our past… making healthy changes.

And a positive transformation change from personal growth would enhance our future lives (for the rest of our lives).

Embracing a new change inside us could change us deeply.

While we’re not in control of our life destinies or even what opportunities come our way, we can take wise daily steps that lead us to the right ones for us when we’re ready.

If we’re open to and available when something big comes our way or when opportunities call that may not be what we thought or thought we wanted, that can accelerate our growth and reaching our fullfilling purposes we’re destined for.

If we’re stuck, going in a different direction is worth investigating.

Avoiding a new direction in front of you would be like trying to turn back time or fit the genie back in the bottle to the former life seasons with the better perspectives you have now.

Because today and now is already yesterday tomorrow. The clock and current situations move whether we want it to.

…So being proactive and unafraid to jump into our lives’ fullness is a good way to look at making big leap changes that’ll help us sooner and head us toward our brighter future. 🚀

Being open to what we didn’t know before as truth and NOW DO know is even better.

No regrets of the past because our past led us to better discoveries and ways today.

And that keeps us fearless and pressing onward.

Making a radical transformation change (personality, beliefs, and identities) could be the difference maker. And from what I know, it comes from within…

It starts with you.

No one can make those decisions for you except you.

And no one can make other people’s life decisions except them.

So often we want to help others and our input backfires.

They do what is not best for them anyway because of their strong emotions or beliefs running inside that can go in any direction.

And sometimes what we miss about what they did was actually their best for them at the time. They were called to a different destiny than the one we thought they should head toward.

We have no control over that or them, so we stay mostly in our lane and focus on working on ourselves for our healthy lives.

I think everyone reaches a crossroad in their life where they get to pause, wonder, and productively cross-examine if they’re still on the right path… not the right career or where to live that changes over time anyway… but the higher path that’s also the wiser path.

I know for me that became evident when I had life problems in every balance wheel of life area that gave me my first gray hair stress sign at 25. That was not a wisdom hair.

…I didn’t know where to turn. So that set me on a quest to seek answers and a transformation change and transformational path that I may not have entered otherwise.

And when those problems gradually resolved (that felt like forever at the time but lasted a few years), new season challenging circumstances took their place.

Transitions happened often in my life. A lot like today’s world where two years is a long time.

But back then, I felt like the poster child for adaptability in new work environments.

From taking close, harder looks from my experiences, I realized the beliefs I had were mostly culture-influenced.

…And doing me no healthy good. They were hurting me.

I grew up and worked mostly in the Washington DC metro area that’s one of the most competitive areas in the country.

I leaned on the external clues to measure success, growth, and happiness.

But over many packing up moves and career moves, I realized it’s not about career or where you live that matters most.

It’s what you carry inside you that determines what happens next and how healthy you are (mind-body connection).

And I’ll pause here a second to recognize that I know not everyone sees life problem signs as helpful ones to make a life change…

But doing so is a gift.

It was a blessing for me so I didn’t have to live the same life I started in.

…And one that can make designed life transformation change more smooth and enjoyable than fighting truths (what’s meant to be) that can be exhausting and anxiety-fear filled.

Truths align and lead you to fulfilling purposes and your best future destiny outcome.

An illustration: we see signs blown up in celebrity’s lives who live under microscopes in America.

In prime media channels, we see whether their lives have evolved in a healthy or in an unhealthy way… such as trying to live their past selves because that’s what made them into a celebrity identity.

But holding on would hold them back in personal growth and transformation where they’re meant to move into other areas with greater impact.

It’s the same for us peeps in ordinary lives. 😊

We are all on this journey of life living and learning in the One Life we‘re given, where we look out from our perspective. No one else has the exact same perspective.

We can make our vantage point an advantage in our lives.

The point we stand is different for all of us snowflakes, but to grow, each of can ask ourselves: what am I missing in this life?

Questioning life is always good… because there’s nothing more important than life.

And if the complicated mind feeds you ideas that there is a companion, a pet, dream job, or better career that hasn’t shown up yet… then keep looking deeper and higher.

Because none of those earthly desires are answers to forever happiness. It’s what you do within that will bring the daily joy and happiness to carry you along moment by moment.

External things are a temporary vantage point.

If you were living out the dreams, after some time reality challenges would show up and the honeymoon happy feelings would wear off because now it’s every day… and that’s why we have good and bad days so we can celebrate the good ones.

Happiness is not about getting what you want, like children and young adults would tell you.

Fleeting happy feelings and getting stuff keep us moving ahead in life until we’re more mature, so we can handle more and get to the fulfilling, fruit bearing stuff that become our life passions in ripe timing.

It’s the deeper discovery within and above that will bring the joy on Life’s journey. And life transformations are the vehicles.

The life choices made today take us to tomorrow. Wisely, they will also be a part of the past soon enough. So the only thing not fleeting and temporary is who you and I are in our now vantage point that we look out from that moves with us.

We carry us and our vantage point everywhere we go, even on vacations.

And if ever stuck, we can ask the Universe to help us with our intentions: can you take me higher?

Reminds me of the song lyrics in “Higher” by Creed:

At sunrise I fight to stay asleep, cause I don’t want to leave the comfort of this place, ‘cause there’s a hunger, a longing to escape.

It’s a choice to get insight from our higher selves. This accelerates growth and in areas that may never grow if we stay doing life the same way we’ve always done.

One healthy way to look at it is we embrace transformation change.

That’s the deeper wisdom and the higher path.

Those will lead to the highest purposes for our lives here on earth.

I used to be afraid deeper spiritual change would lead me to a life I would hate or a life as a martyr, but trust led to grander things than I could have imagined.

There’s no magic age where purpose aligns in our lives, but the sooner we reach up and out, the sooner we get to leave our former caterpillar identities we started out as.

We get to transform to butterflies sooner and enjoy the sweet nectar and honey that comes along.

In yoga terms, we can go from looking down to the ground in caterpillar pose to opening up in butterfly pose and choosing to look out and up.

That’s the wise growth path I know and maybe one that helps you on your journey. 🌱

Ego Block Removal For The Life You’re Meant to Live

I share a lot about internal happiness because that’s the forefront journey I’ve been on.

And the number one reason I have found of why people aren’t living happy is an ego block that can steal one’s daily happiness.

An example of this is with people who strive for perfection…

But most people don’t come out and say they are perfectionists. It’s a vulnerable admittance to share. So if you are one or know someone who is, you can probably relate to this.

Where the opposite of perfection is imperfection.

And we’re all imperfect on this planet, so perfection is a pie-in-the sky illusion.

For one, we all forget at some point (maybe regularly) so that automatically shows our minds ability to be imperfect.

Our minds can even foil us to believe that we’re not imperfect if we forget once or twice. That complicates matters.

And that’s due to our ego or an ego block that’s present but invisible to the eye.

If we focus on what’s not perfect, we can obsess.

Or we focus on all the wrongs in this (and our) world instead of what’s right and going well.

…That’s the harmful ego’s way, and we get to flip the script and choose to outsmart our ego.

A common scenario can be where we have what we want in front of us, and then milliseconds in, we want something else… when the perfect thing (whatever it is that we wanted minutes ago), is staring at us in the face and our minds are now telling us differently.

Again, generated by deceiving ego that backfires in its plot line to protect us, as often we don’t need that coat of protection.

AND we don’t need those crooked evil forces that have a hold on us or show up in self-defeating (imposter) ways.

BUT we buy into unless we are aware.

Another way ego slithers into our daily lives is when we do or say things that gets others’ approval instead of the acts that we deeply know in our heart is best and our higher evolved selves would be proud of.

…But it’s not our fault.

It’s our ego construction that’s built that way by design.

This helps us in Life to keep evolving.

Because if things were perfect (or perceived as perfect by us), we would stay the same when we are meant to grow into better beings.

So this is what we should know:

We have an ego in our minds that can creates chaos.

It’s our job responsibility to manage our ego for our better lives.

The ego is one thing that makes us all human on earth.

But the scariest part of it all is that most people in this world walk around unaware of the fact of their 24-7 ego influences… and mostly because it’s not visible like a red traffic sign. 🛑

We can’t see the ego influence in minute by minute play because we think it is us and our thoughts. We buy into the lying ego thought narratives.

And the only way out (and our saving grace) is in our choice to be aware and observe our thoughts and actions… and deliberately choose better or opposite ways.

Positive vs. negative.

Love vs. fear.

Productive vs. unproductive.

Worry vs. faith.

Peace vs. chaos.

Contentment vs. wanting what isn’t meant to be.

Joy vs. self-pity.

Responsibility vs. blaming others…

And if we choose to live uninformed, we stay unaware when poked… like when we were immature children and didn’t know any better.

When immature, we lack knowledge and stay ignorant that our ego will use to pull us in the wrong direction and push our buttons that hurts us and often others.

In nanosecond blinks, we can have a sharp reaction coming from our subtle and deep insecurities.

It can happen so quickly… someone cuts us off or does something to trigger us, or we turn on the negative news that widely opens the door to ego entering.

Unhealthy ego can seem so ordinary to us because when we don’t know that there’s another way to live that’s optimally higher… we keep ourselves living small.

Changing our thoughts daily is healthy.

And I believe 💯% needed for our mental health and for a kinder world to live in.

Like me, you probably weren’t schooled on this. No one you respected growing up taught you this. And if anything you were taught to BOOST your ego because you got praises and awards.

Our biggest defense is constant awareness and to fight off the mood sources that our world around us creates and show up to ourselves as the better half.

Live in a positive mental bubble with both feet on the ground knowing this world is imperfect.

…And you can be part of the solution.

You can bring a smile and more love, help others, and help yourself so you can help others.

Resist your awakened ego that automatically has a mind of its own and can fire itself up any time you’re awake.

…And fuel you with its hidden agenda that can subtly derail your better path in the moment.

And it gets missed…

Because the ego feeds us warped garbage when we’re half-mindlessly scrolling on the phone or watching a show to escape.

…And that’s our common cultural ways.

It’s easy when the world outside is noisy and there are busy distractions for the ego to have its power on us, instead of us being empowered.

…Like when you have an intent to have better eating habits, exercise regularly, or a prayer life and it doesn’t happen.

And not because there’s not enough time or energy in the day, because we all have the same time and we fit in what we want to do at the end of the day (and by the end of the day when our head hits the pillow).

We can have a number of daily excuses… but the bigger overarching reason is because our ego thoughts derailed us… and we allowed that.

When we’re unfocused, rather we choose to prioritize self-care, nature’s gentle sounds, relaxation, and reset centering time to gain our focus back and to hear the nudging whispers that’s our better lifeline.

…And that sends ego (loud thoughts) back packing into the little corner it belongs in…

Until the next time, when you’ve caught on maybe just a little quicker and do the same restore or similar remedy.

Turn your ego weakness (that we all have) into your strength.

Ego is not your friend, it’s a part of you that you can turn to good.

If your ego keeps you up all night (worry thoughts, anxiety, and stress) or keeps you from being daily productive, do something proactively different and healthy to acknowledge and commemorate that ego no longer has a hold on me.

Get those inside warm and fuzzy feelings back.

Today is a new day.

Tell yourself: “I can’t get back yesterday or get back my sleep” but I can live alive today in awareness. Oh, and btw little ego, you’re outta here!”

…Because I’m here now, and I’m choosing to take the fork in the road of the better life.

And the reason I’ve wised up to our ego’s way, besides that I’m a human 😊 is that…

In my own life experience, it was years of personal suffering and beating myself up in self-pity for the smallest things that nooboodddy was thinking about except for moi … and that helped me to see what I see today and in this ripe adult time in my life.

But for yearsss, I walked around with my head in a bubble, letting repeated tapes run in my mind about life situations.

I was anything but present in the moment, and that’s the worst feeling because it sucks the life energy out (when you could’ve spent that time productively exercising or reading a book).

But ego trickster spins the idea that’s how our (as in ego and my) brain works.

“Uh-no thank you,” says my evolved self.

But back then, I didn’t not know how there was a better way or how to shut those lesser ways off (and that’s how it is for most of us living with a blind ego).

Learning to exercise higher thought mind muscles is not as easy as lifting 20 lb weights.

I didn’t know better mind-body ways to help lift myself out of the fog.

So I had no fighting chance in the beginning unaware.

But in this life, there’s higher help that lifts the fog eventually and provides revelation.

And in my case, a spiritual intervention.

…Only after some years passed from that point did it click why some people I encountered in my past acted incongruent at times.

In some of those situations, I felt blindsided by their actions and the ripple effects caused.

…And being fully objective, maybe some people felt that way about me with some of my actions earlier on in life when I didn’t know better and they never told me.

I used to think the unproductive conversations were differences in opinions or personality.

But then there were times when with the same people, we could agree to disagree. So I wondered what made the difference…

And the common intersection I got epiphany on was that the ego was at peace or acting out.

And the fully formed ego theory I now know as truth, I believe is the cause of most people problems (…and yes affects everyone in the world).

…It’s like the close family and friends that talk about their past that they never got past, or who gloat about their former glories in a seemingly storytelling-engaging way… but is ego in disguise.

And you know it’s ego because in those ego moments the high ego has to get their point, story, or agenda across. And it’s not to help others.

All of us who have been around everyday people have come across these situations where we unknowingly helped egg their ego on.

…And then as more proof that ego was the problem, there were situations where someone declared that so-and-so had a high ego (that’s unhealthy) or the high ego person even admitted it themselves.

But our own ego dismissed that information tidbit at the time said because that’s not when the high ego person is acting up… They’re acting cool and humble.

…So our minds dismiss that admission and never files away that piece of information because to the brain receiving, it’s like: what do I do with that information that doesn’t have any attached action or outcome? The statement is misaligned with the action.

So we miss the high ego signs, and keep allowing ego offenders in our lives to keep offending.

Bottomline: what we can do here is work on our own mental health-iness daily, constantly stay aware, and create our own self-happiness life story.

We can keep our own high ego at-bay that’s wanting to burst out.

It’s definitely worth the effort to be on guard of our ego and check in with our thoughts, feelings, actions, and reactions for our peace, so we don’t waste our productivity that includes our day’s joy.

And, have compassion for those who are still unaware.

We can love them and walk away from their toxicity.

Btw, this wasn’t the healthy post of what I was going to share this week, but I felt my spirit encouraging me even when the ego tried to block some words from me.

Have a happy week! 😊

Frog Pose Life Metaphors In Wet or Dry Transitions

Frog pose is an inspired pool yoga pose, and maybe one you’re inspired to do because it’s hot outside… or reminded about an aqua blue Olympic size pool… or pool blue and frog green strokes…

Blue and green painting strokes are meaning and metaphors for life. — Strokes on a painting

Where the frog stroke is one you can do in the cool pool water without exerting much energy (unlike the crawl or breast strokes). 🏊🏻‍♀️

But in frog pose strokes you are getting exercise like in water polo that look effortless on the water surface, but OH MY! is a workout.

…I remember when I was younger, I was invited to play water polo for fun and was wondering why the net wasn’t on the shallow end.

Then I quickly learned that half the sport is done under the water, keeping the body afloat while trying to score points… it’s not a leisure sport.🏐

You need your team athletic mojo and active frog legs.

And if you want to keep it easy on yourself and score yoga points today… you can do the active solo frog pose on dry land on your mat.

It’s one you could have discovered in a Hatha yoga class along with the classic frog yoga pose where your legs and arms are laying on the mat in traditional frog layout.

It’s also one pose that resembles the name and you won’t mistaken for another identity. 🐸

We all know what a frog looks like.

As amphibians, like us primates, frogs have a backbone.

Amphibians in human form would look more like Spider Man ♥️💙climbing up a building. 🕸️

But frogs have been around way longer than modern super heroes.

They were named creatures that plagued our nations back in Biblical times.

And as part of our sustainable environment, frogs help to clean up our food chain. Frogs eat pesky insects so we can stay anti-annoyed, helping us keep our Pitta cool and calm. 😌

And in gratitude, doing a yoga frog pose helps you get a good stretch up your mid-back.

Most of us can use a good daily reminder to take care of our backs that will long-term take care of us.

You’ll know if you need a dose more of healthy back stretching if you feel tension in the pose.

You can easily start off in a Downward Dog or a Dolphin pose.

Then lift arms or keep arms lifted off the floor, so that palms are flat on the floor. Check your fingers. Usually one or a few are not flat unbeknownst to you. 😉

…Sometimes we don’t know what our body parts (like our right or left hand) are doing, but when we use our eyes 👀 they’re off doing their own thing.

🌟 That’s a metaphor for aligning ourselves in our mind and body that are part of us.

Next bend your knees slightly and let the soles of your feet lift off the mat so only the toes and palms of hands are on the mat.

Your knees are bent and can be as high as somewhere between your palm and elbow height, to whatever feels good to you… because yoga is about feeling good in the stretch!

When you’re in that proper swimming frog pose form, move your bent knees in toward each other and then swim or move them out away from each other (without lifting your planted palms and toes off the mat). Do that a few times.

That’s active or swimming frog pose.

You can do this anywhere without getting wet… or breaking a sweat!

🌟Transitioning from wet to dry is a metaphor for changing seasons of life. And specifically, your leap changing seasons.

We go from summer to fall, even if the weather hasn’t changed, so we can feel off because of our internal Ayurvedic balance signals… where our bodies are feeling one way and our minds are in another place.

But often we roll with the punches and move along, adjusting as needed. Sometimes that’s what we need for our healthy growth and sometimes that can drain us and cause stress.

Most of us know what it’s like to go from relaxing seasons where nothing is happening… to EVERYTHING is happening all at once, like starting a new dynamic job or going full-throttle back to school. 🤹

…Once it starts, it’s a whirlwind until the end of the season.

The art of living in balance as I know it, is going in and out of these two opposing seasons with ease and peace.

…I remember the days in my over 2-decade long corporate work when I wished that I could take summer holiday vacation time off, and when event planning was counting down the days until the winter holiday event season ended. You may have a similar grind.

And when those work seasons ended, I got all my time back. It was all or nothing with no balance in between.

Work life balance was what you made it… and 40 hours a week was the best there was in that world. But your head was still spinning full of the busy go-go-go work theme, even on the night and weekends with an emphasis on work busy.

While in those corporate work seasons, I couldn’t see that start-and-stop seasons were good and helpful.

I was looking for a type of work-life-balance that didn’t exist. 🤔

But over time and wisdom gained, I could see that Life was actually doing me a favor…

Work heavy one season and life focus in another season IS Life balance.

When looking back, there’s a blend of both that’s all the past…

Both slow and fast paced seasons are useful and where growth is.

In the slow season, you can get clear headspace, catch your breath, and catch up on needed sleep. 💤

You recharge and reflect back to find what breakthroughs you’ve made on your journey and experiences.

And slow seasons are where you discover what growth you’ve made, lessons learned, and want to keep growing and pivoting.

And the hard charging, fast seasons with busy schedules is where you’re productive, gaining skills, and experiences that’ll be useful for the next leg of your future journey or next transitions.

💡Transitions are simply next steps… and nothing more or less.

Looking back.. I still remember picking out a first-day-of-school outfit. Funny because no one remembers what you wore and even the outfit you wore on school photo day that’s captured on camera.

…None of that ends up mattering as you get further away in time, even though at that time it feels like the most important thing in the world (in mindfulness).

And for my breakthrough, it was these accumulated small nostalgic memories and feelings that served as metaphors for this day and moment as fleeting… here today, gone tomorrow.

So don’t worry about what happens so much… and try not to worry at all (as worry is a time suck, and it sucks as a past time, yes?)❗️

Replace worry with trusting the future using your past as proof that all things do pass. And replace worry for bold living.

You can wisely pause and ask yourself: what did I do boldly today? Remember that old adage: life is not a dress rehearsal.

Life is about today, so no need to be crushed if your plans don’t work out because they will be the past soon enough.

You’ll transition into the next step that turns into your better step.

I know this in my life because most (…and maybe 99%) of my half-baked plans never panned out the way I thought or hoped.

…And I’m thankful for that.

🧡…Because that taught me that the hidden gem is in the process of what you’re doing and who you’re growing into that’ll create your life of meaning and purpose.

Meaning and purpose is the dream that’s not easy to describe or manifest quickly, but are the highest worth pursuits… and you’ll know inside when you’re on the right track.

Because you’ll feel good inside for starters.

And that’s all that’s needed to keep you balanced and growing… and that’s how life is healthy productive, happy, and meaningful.

It’s usually not the life you thought you wanted in your 30s, because everything changes and wanes in excitement, and the biggest change is: you change.

So frog leap forward in your day and life (with frog pose as a metaphor)

Make your today transition steps about:

…making myself better than yesterday

…improving older habits

…keeping healthy patterns even with schedule changes

…loving myself

…finding joy

…making new healthy supportive friends

…And staying true to what I know I can do and be. And trusting what I’m doing, otherwise I wouldn’t be doing it (among the endless number of other options I could be doing).

Maybe that’s where you are.

And if so, while you’re there, keep going and growing with where you’re at.

In my daily wheelhouse where I’m at, an anti-inflammatory healthy food list is a helpful must and maybe for you too in your busy growing season. 😎

Worry Not and Be Bold

Worry is a state of mind that is not productive. You can lose sleep when worry is left unattended… meaning, that after you’ve thought of what the worry theme is about and what you can do about it, then putting the worry to bed (and away from your good sleep 💤) is productive.

…If only it were that easy! 😉

But it’s a smart choice we get to make to let go of worry that drains.

We can’t always choose what happens to us or the thoughts that enter, but we can choose what we do in reaction and what thoughts we allow to stay.

Because worry can linger around like heavy gray clouds until it passes.

And walking away is one proactive way to get away from worry. At least temporarily…

You can quickly distract yourself from worried thoughts by changing your scenery.

Your new sensory environment changes your thoughts even if it’s just clearing your head walking down the hallway.

And this is because we get a new perspective in sight, sounds, and smells.

For me, colors, music, and pleasing scents break the pattern in my world.

And that can be for you too. You may not have yoga as a practice, so that could also be a pattern break.

In yoga poses, when you look up to the ceiling or sky, you get a different perspective than when you look down to the floor or to the side of the room that can change how you feel… calm, grounded, inspired…

Away from a mat, that’s the effect exciting travel has. When you explore a new city or place, your new senses are heightened.

If you spot a new painting or a new view from a picture window, this can be a joyful experience and mindful change of pace.

But as time passes, wherever you are and no matter how far you’ve traveled, the original worry thoughts creep back in.

The euphoric feeling from distractions wear off and the worry thoughts pop back in as easily as they popped out.

You can only distract yourself for so long and then your mind catches back up to reality.

…Your life reality (that can be worry-free thoughts).

But that’s why no one can run away from problems carried in the conscience for long in conscious living.

I tried one summer when I was 20, moving away to the beach. It didn’t work. 😀

But so often we choose to numb in semi-conscious daily living.

Like when we’re on a mission, we tend to forget nature buzzing around us carrying out life. They’re in their environment and we’re in ours, even if it’s within earshot.

As long as we’re not in harm’s way, we can miss what’s happening around us… and sometimes the calls to us that could lead to our greater life’s purpose.

If you think about it, a bird chirping is pretty loud in decibels. But often we don’t hear those over the voice and noises in our head…

And I’m no bird expert, but I’m told this bird in a tree is a red tailed hawk. It caught my eye because of its sounding vocal chords.

While I stopped to stare at the big bird for a few moments, I also noticed most people in the parking lot didn’t do the same.

…In fact, no one around me looked up. They just went on their busy day’s mission.

That’s how it is with us if we’re running on our mind’s mission. We don’t make time for interruptions… and sometimes opportunities calling us.

When we’re in a hurry, that’s even more true listening to our daily to-do list creating stress.

Worry and stress thoughts can be loud like that.

…So loud that we can miss that they’re robbing us of our full presence and better happy day.

And worry especially can play into our insecurities without us knowing (in semi-conscious living), affecting more than just our daily choices we make.

Worry is part of our DNA. It’s a Vata sign and trait in Ayurvedic terms.

Most of us have some or dominating Vata in us.

If you find yourself worrying for no good reason about everything going on in your life and others, then you likely have a Vata imbalance.

For most, that can be restored with simple lifestyle changes.

It’s not a sentence you’re stuck with in life.

If you want to know if you have a Vata imbalance and then how to restore, take the body balance quiz.

Your body helps us out by giving us preferences and through our senses.

But sometimes those are blocked from us for reasons like the noisy complex culture we’re in.

…So even if a meditation or yoga break sounds like a good idea, we could put it off even though we could definitely use the reset to help remedy our worry.

And transforming worry ways as a daily way is very possible… I know because I did just that. I got tired of holding onto worry. It’s too darn draining.

And as some friends would say, “Girl, I ain’t got time for that!”

One good habit that changed it all was to proactively pray off the worry. That was one of the 8 ways I shared to live out a don’t worry be happy life!

And another way is to picture yourself bold and fearless. Or put yourself in that frame of mind by reminding yourself how you feel and act when you’re confident…

If you’re a caring or reserved person, this is where you stop caring so much about what others think or what will happen.

You get out of your head and into your empowered self and abundant life.

It’s not about others or what happens next… it’s about you and your peace. What makes sense to you? Do it.

Let the outcomes happen. Your life is rigged in your favor with the Universe on your side.

You will be met on the other side with your bold confident moves.

The world wants the best YOU and you get to decide what that is!

So let go of worry and let go of the control of how things pan out. I know that was one lesson that took me the longest to embrace.

When I could trust “what happens next are meant to be’s,” that released me from unnecessary worry.

You’re equipped with the intuition. So when you have to make a choice, do your best and let the rest work out… even if it’s in another direction or environment.