Self-inquiry for Growth

“Clouds come floating into my life, no longer to carry rain or usher storm, but to add color to my sunset sky.” ― Rabindranath Tagore, Stray Birds 

When we become adept at self-inquiry and insights, it leads to growth and belief in ourselves.  How does that faith develop with positivity and development of self-esteem?

Begin on Monday and ask a question, What teachings and understandings do I need to attract into my week?

Spend the week gathering experiences and revelations to address that inquiry.

Study your dreams to develop insights.

Experiment and improvise with daring ideas and gambits.

Mistakes lead to prospects that unfold in unexpected ways.

Launch your life with the advice of Stephen Dunn,  " . . . no whining on the journey."  Let the drudgery and frustrations evolve without limitations for production. See colors and potential in the clouds that gather.

Consider communicating with the influences that have developed who you are.

Joy of Trees

 

"I'm thinking of dating trees. We could just stand around all night together.  I'd murmur, they'd rustle, the wind would, like do its wind thing."  - Kim Addonizio, Wild Nights

Trees amaze at their ability to assist us. 

They provide shade and scent. Branches share leaf colors in autumn.

Did you climb and hug them during childhood? Consider it now.

Birds and squirrels find resting spots on their limbs.

When downed to create useful items, they bed us, provide seats and sitting places.

Daily items attest to their immortality.

Observe and honor their grace.

Benefit from the joy of trees.

Find Clarity

A few times in my life I've had moments of absolute clarity, 

when for a few brief seconds the silence drowns out the noise and I can feel rather than think, and things seem to sharp and the world seems so fresh. I can never makes these moments last. 

I cling to them, but like everything, they fade. 

I have lived my life on these moments 

They pull me back to the present, 

and I realize that everything is exactly the way it was meant to be. 

- Christopher Isherwood

List your moments of absolute clarity. Describe them with all the senses. Find yourself deep within the experiences.

Take in the aura of color. Feel the breeze. Breathe in the mingle of scents. Listen for the collaboration of sound. What else do you taste?

Realize you have possibilities in each moment. Move into the flow with absolute clarity.

 

A Diversion into the Dictionary

“The dictionary is the only place where success comes before work.”   

- Vince Lombardi 







Vince Lombardi’s quote inspires dictionary play to notice where words might travel. Open the dictionary at FUN. 

Discover that Fun comes after fumble and fumigate and before function. This reveals you need to have fun to function.


Turning another page at random, find grave. Now that word has several meanings. Notice that it comes after gratitude but before gravy train. The dictionary defines gravy train as a situation where someone can make a lot of money for little effort. That goes against Lombardi’s philosophy.

Continue to let your eyes take you on the dictionary wander. 

Humerus comes before humorous and could tickle the funny bone of the hummingbird. Perseverance arrives ahead of persimmon with persistence up ahead.

Doofuss and doohickey wait before doorway with doorsteps and doorstops ahead.





Make Gratitude hold more power than gravity as you recall how you grazed your Thanksgiving feast. Hope you did not forget the gravy.

Take a diversion into the dictionary for fun and discoveries.

Fascination of Black and White

By moonlight, we see in black and white. We cannot see colors. There is something fascinating and valuable about seeing the world that way. We see only what is essential. We see form emerging from a sea of blackness. . . . We can look at the world so familiar by daylight and see it anew in the black and white of moonlight.  – Ming-Dao Deng, from The Lunar Tao: Meditations in Harmony with the Seasons

In, The Practice of the Wild, poet Gary Snyder says, "Life is not just a diurnal property of large interesting vertebrates. It is also nocturnal, anaerobic, microscopic, digestive, fermentative: cooking away in the warm dark."

Take several photographs and turn them into black and white.

Write into the darkness of shapes and shadows.

Search for new meaning in the areas of light.

Let emotions arise.

What do you find in the black and white of moonlight?

Find writing ideas and emotions cooking away in the warm dark.

                                             Pay reverence to what's underneath, elusive and uncanny.

Patience. Perspective. Perseverance

 

Our doubts are traitors

And make us lose the good we oft might win

by fearing to attempt.    

  - Shakespeare

If we begin with certainties we shall end in doubts; but if we begin with doubts, and are patient in them, we shall end in certainties."  Samuel Bacon


How do you deal with doubt? 

Does it interrupt certainty? 

Where does patience fit in?

Add perspective and perseverance to the mix.

Find examples of how you accomplish the above.

Happy Thanksgiving

 

“For each new morning with its light, for rest and shelter of the night, for health and food, for love and friends, for everything thy goodness sends. I awoke this morning with devout thanksgiving for my friends, the old and new.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

Research confirms the importance of Gratitude when felt and also shared with others. Subjects were asked to write their gratitudes. After ten weeks in the study, they exhibited major increases in their happiness scores, felt more optimistic, and better about their lives. 

They also reported exercising more and had fewer visits to the doctor following the experiment. The second group wrote about daily problems and situations that left them unhappy. These individuals felt comparably unhappy as a result.

"If thankfulness were a drug, it would be the world's best-selling product with a health maintenance indication for every major organ system," said Dr. P. Murali Doraiswamy, head of the division of biologic psychology at Duke University Medical Center. Oxytocin, the social bonding hormone, floods the brain and body with euphoria during moments of happiness and feelings of security that can result from a hug.

Enjoy a Grateful Thanksgiving Day.

Storytelling

 

The Bini people of West Africa tell a story about a time when the sky was so close you could reach up and touch it with your hand. The sky provided food and nobody worked in those days. Everyone just had to stretch their hands when hungry and break off a piece of the sky. 

The sky demanded that individuals should only take whatever they needed for one meal, no more.  No one could store food.  Everybody obeyed this rule except for one greedy man who broke off a large piece. Unable to finish this piece, he tried to store it but the food rotted. 

The sky became so angry about this waste it shot up so far away where no one could reach it. Since then people have had to work to get food.

Recall the first story with a moral or message told to you during childhood. Why does this message stick with you?

Does your family tell a story based on a family happening that has become a myth everyone tells in a variety of versions?

If you cannot recall a story or are unaware of a family myth, create one today.

Notice With Wonder

 

"Give me the mind of a child." - Pablo Picasso

Children experience delight and curiosity in discoveries. They seek direct experience of the world as it unrolls. The joy of adventure becomes stimulation for their creative exploration.

As we grow, intuition requires a similar sense of wonder. It begins with awareness and the ability to expand and explore the images that flow. Eyes climb trees of possibility and fingers feel the crust of bark as bodies spiral into the branches. The breeze sends scents for inhalation. A new world opens for playfulness in all aspects of life.

Reflect on an event you observed in the past week with freshness and a twist. Take a mental stroll to a familiar place and observe it for the first time with a child's attitude and insight.  

Notice the ocean as more than water and waves. See color in variety and subtlety of gradation. Hear a bird's music and the wind's roar.

Get into a rhythm a child might use to explain each situation.  Notice with Wonder.

Take On the Night

 

It may be that when we no longer know what to do

we have come to our real work

and that when we no longer know which way to go

we have begun our real journey.  

- Wendell Berry

 ". . . wanderer, there is no path, the path is made by walking. By walking one makes the road, and upon glancing behind one sees the path that never will be trod again."

- Antonio Machado

Metaphorical thinking helps us connect to the secrets and mysteries inside. If one decides to experience what lurks behind the door or deep inside one's own cavern, self-knowledge awaits. 

Robert Frost felt, "poetry takes you to a place you have been and thought you'd never return to."

Days provide challenges and chances to take. 

At sunset, the sun exhausts its focus and blends into the sea.

Elipses and clouds merge.

Colors translate

the sky.

Tangerine translates

into persimmon.

Where sun dragons

prance.

Move into the darkness. 

Bring a lantern for revitalization. Illuminate sensitivities.  

Take on the night.

Mind Laundry

Who likes to do laundry? Although the process seems tedious, it feels satisfying to have fresh clothes.

Writing into, around and beyond frustrations helps launder the mind. 

Enlightenment and freshness result. 

Choose three areas of cleansing to explore. 

Suggestions:

Write into anger.

Identify the people or situations that irritate and cause anger for you. Write suggestions to avoid similar events in the future.  How might you approach them in creative and humorous ways?

Write around negative memories.

Write a list of negative memories that bother you. Review each memory from a distance. Imagine the memory as an observer. Add colors and scents. Write what you learn from each memory from those perspectives. 

Write beyond self-criticism.

Write about the ways you criticize yourself. Don’t censor. Dive in to discover the origins of your criticism. Take a break. Distract yourself by listening to sounds in the environment (the sound of a refrigerator, clock ticks, passing cars, birdsong). Return to the keyboard or notepad. Write three of your strengths.

Write into Positivity.

After you have determined your three concerns or have written into the above suggestions, take another break.

When you return, finish the laundry by writing a positive memory of successes you have enjoyed, seeing what you saw at the time, hearing what you heard, and feeling what you felt. 

Just Be

 

What keeps you from staying in the present moment?  Take a breath . . .

Just be.

All thoughts and experiences are impermanent. Why would you pay attention to the scurry of thinking that occurs in daily life? When you realize you do not need to attend to these thoughts, it feels easier to drop them.

Find ways to discover the hidden influence of your most ingrained emotional patterns.

How might that happen?

Think of three patterns that often circulate in your mind.  

Are they: Fears. Situations that will not happen. Relationship issues.

Take stock of your current condition and find balance.



Humor always evokes the positive feelings. When negative thoughts creep in, name them in silly ways and then just laugh.

Just laugh and just be.

Benefits of Gardening

 

"Every day is one more reminder from Mother Nature that I'm not in control." 

- Joe Lamp'l creator of,  Joe Gardener  https://joegardener.com/about/

                                        

Gardening provides a way to practice acceptance beyond perfectionism. No perfect garden exists. Bugs and birds eat plants and poke holes into leaves. Creatures come in to nibble. Weather challenges. Plants grow faster than others, then just wilt. Others sprout and create color and scents. 

Change in a garden occurs all the time. A garden helps us learn to go as it grows. Joe Lamp'l says, "pursuit of perfection is a waste of time—especially in the garden. So don't bother!"

Acceptance in the garden or in other situations does not mean giving up. We bring our best efforts to what we can control and release the rest. With gardening that means "preparing the best environment you can possibly make for your plants," says Lamp'l, "and allowing nature to take it from there. Your garden (like your life) is in bigger hands than yours." 

With a growth mindset, we're constantly learning. When something doesn't work out as planned, it serves as a learning opportunity rather than a "failure." Mistakes mean more learning and more growing. We can even look forward to our mistakes and create onward. 

"I love making mistakes," said Lamp'l, "because I look at them as a chance to learn something new. Through those mishaps, you can understand what happened and why, and you can be empowered to relate that learning to new things." 

The Japanese expression "shinrin-yoku" means "forest bathing." It captures the experience of being immersed in green. Research has found submersion in natural landscapes helps with depression and illness recovery. Looking out on a green landscape lessens anxiety and promotes other positive effects. 

Doctors have started writing prescriptions for "green exercise." This includes nature walks which reduce blood pressure and mood improvement more than strolls long the street.

Mindful presence happens in a garden. The garden serves as a protected place where we practice doing what we're doing; focused in the moment.

Lamp'l described finding his "Zen moment" in his garden, where he tunes in to his experience.  

"That's sacred time for me," he said. "When I'm out there weeding, I want to hear the birds."

A garden provides a place to move away from negative news or computer activity and experience nature's offerings.  

With vegetables grown there, a garden provides fresh and healthy foods. Studies in this area tend to find benefits of the "Mediterranean" diet and similar types, which emphasize consuming minimally processed whole foods. Items that your garden will yield. Growing your own food provides an added positive.

Connections with others happen in a garden offering advice and sharing benefits of techniques.

Make a plan to start a garden. If you enjoy one new, keep it growing.

Begin with flowers and plants. Add others as you discover scents and colors of interest.  

Bring the outside inside. 

Add greens and blooms to all your rooms.

More on the benefits of gardening: 

Joe Gardener's site:  https://joegardener.com/about/

Toni Gattone, The Lifelong Gardener, Gardening with Ease and Joy at Any Age.

November Gratitude

 

“For each new morning with its light, for rest and shelter of the night, for health and food, for love and friends, for everything thy goodness sends. I awoke this morning with devout thanksgiving for my friends, the old and new.” 

–Ralph Waldo Emerson

Research confirms the importance of Gratitude when felt and also shared with others. Subjects were asked to write for what they felt grateful. After ten weeks in the study, they exhibited major increases in their happiness scores, felt more optimistic, and better about their lives. 

They also reported exercising more and had fewer visits to the doctor following the experiment. The second group wrote about daily problems and situations that left them unhappy. These individuals felt comparably unhappy as a result.

"If [thankfulness] were a drug, it would be the world's best-selling product with a health maintenance indication for every major organ system," said Dr. P. Murali Doraiswamy, head of the division of biologic psychology at Duke University Medical Center. Oxytocin, the social bonding hormone, floods the brain and body with euphoria during moments of happiness and feelings of security that can result from a hug.

Gratitude helps us discover the wonders in life. Happiness and contentment result as by-products, especially when gratitude is shared.

Enjoy a Grateful November.

Nature's Miracles

Time to stop for nature's miracles

without cellphone delays.

When many of us require an audience,

the poppy never requests applause.

It needs to rise from the earth,

to shine with each morning's dew.

Reciprocate with a scent of awakening,

to flare magenta into a twirl.

Soon majesty of the moment will

attract a bee to nuzzle the future.