On the Other Side of Sadness

I have been wondering what would make me happy.

There are 5 things I can think of, actually, that would help get me to the other side in the short term -

1) Being in sunshine, warm weather and the magnificent, magical vastness of the ocean

2) Getting done with this never-beginning, never-ending housing move - the hunting is done, the lease is signed, packing is yet to begin.

3) Settling into a new home with space, sunlight, and people I like and care about in close proximity. Creating a space where I can write, smile, breathe, pray, dance, make art, heal, and cook with others.

4) My professional work continuing to go as bloomingly as it has been, thanks to many other people.

5) Making art - Although mentioned as a tidbit in #3, I am coming to realize the power and potential of this one in releasing my sadness and stuck emotions, and in healing and creating beauty and joy.

Obviously, some of these things are in my control, some are not. Some are inevitable even if I do nothing, some require intense labor in a short amount of time.Some of these things are about the absence of what's been hard, and some are about the presence and creation of what brings joy. Both require intention and effort. I'm willing to do those things, but I'd rather do them with an attitude of "I am fierce and badass in the midst of so much tough shit going on", rather than a more disempowered approach like "I overwhelmed and have so much to do I wish it was over". I've gone back and forth between these feelings, and I'm trying to remember more often that I am badass and can handle and accomplish a lot.

Note to self: Attitude matters. It matters a LOT. Not just because it can give one actual fuel (which is significant), but because then the doing is as strengthening and positive as being on the other side (the outcome).

I can think of tons more things that would make me happier, but I will leave them alone for now because I am too disheartened by the magnitude of those, and the limited potential for change.  Right now I'm trying to focus on the next 1 week to 3 months, which is another good strategy for keeping things manageable.

Good luck to you, if you are doing a lot and trying to stay afloat and perhaps even swim. My heart is bonded with yours in the yearnings of my prayers.

Powerful Collection of Quotes

The first pose is always breath. - source unknown to me

Everything comes to us that belongs to us if we create the capacity to receive it. - Rabindranath Tagore

You are here so that someday you can look yourself in the eyes and bow to your own grace and strength. - source unknown to me, quoted on Syd Yang's blog

A dream is a poem the body writes. Even if we lie to ourselves in the day, the body is compelled to speak its truth at night. - Sandra Cisneros, Caramelo

What is to give light must endure burning. - Viktor Frankl

To complain is always nonacceptance of what is. It invariably carries an unconscious negative charge. When you complain, you make yourself a victim. Leave the situation or accept it. All else is madness.-- Eckhart Tolle

 
Overcome any bitterness that may have come because you were not up to the magnitude of the pain entrusted to you. Like the mother of the world who carries the pain of the world in her heart, you are sharing in a certain measure of that cosmic pain, and are called upon to meet it in joy instead of self-pity. – Pir Vilayat Khan

Your body is not yours alone. It belongs to your ancestors, your parents, future generations and to society and all other living beings. Keeping your body healthy is an expression of gratitude... if you are healthy physically and mentally all of us will benefit. - Thich Nhat Hanh

Forgiveness does not mean that we have to continue to relate to those who have done us harm. In some cases the best practice may be to end our connection, to never speak to or be with a harmful person again. Sometimes in the process of forgiveness a person who hurt or betrayed us may wish to make amends, but even this does not require us to put ourselves in the way of further harm. - Jack Kornfield

 

True forgiveness does not paper over what has happened in a superficial way. It is not a misguided effort to suppress or ignore our pain. It cannot be hurried. It is a deep process repeated over and over in our heart which honors the grief and betrayal, and in its own time ripens into the freedom to truly forgive. - Jack Kornfield

 

Hope isn't about believing that we can change things. Hope is about believing that what we do matters. - Vaclav Havel 

My body cannot withhold truth. - Nitika 

The erotic is a resource within each of us that lies in a deeply female and spiritual plane, firmly rooted in the power of our unexpressed or unrecognized feeling. - Audre Lorde

Have patience with everything unresolved in your heart and to try to love the questions themselves as if they were locked rooms or books written in a very foreign language. Don't search for the answers, which could not be given to you now, because you would not be able to live them. And the point is to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps then, someday far in the future, you will gradually, without even noticing it, live your way into the answer - Rainer Maria Rilke

Meditation is the medicine of the mind. - Yogi tea bag

 

The soul never dies

I finished reading a powerful book recently - Many Lives, Many Masters by Brian Weiss. He's a psychotherapist who does regression therapy with his patients to discover forgotten/repressed traumas, which can help relieve current symptoms like unexplained phobias, anxiety, depression and so forth. One of his patients starts recalling past life memories, and there begins a profound spiritual journey for both of them. Twenty years later, he has regressed over two thousand people into past life memories and learnings, and written 5 books. The core messages -

1) The soul never dies.  In each life we are surrounded by souls we have reincarnated with before, to settle our karmic tabs. This also includes souls we have loved over lifetimes, who love us dearly. They may or may not be part of our circle of biological family and friends, but they are part of our life, right now.

2) Love is of ultimate importance. Forgive, let go of fear and insecurity and anger and hate, and love whole-heartedly.

I don't have much else to say today. Sometimes it's enough to read and reflect, right? :)