The DeLightFull Life

The DeLightFull Life

Delivers "soul food" for the feast of life!  

Tranquility beachside

Calm
Peaceful
Gentle
Crisp
Bright
Clear

Have a very merry Christmas Eve.

The Gift of Nature

Surviving my Christmas Chaos by daily visits lakeside.

Yesterday I snapped a few photos.

Even on the most gray day, I stumbled upon color.  Seeing the bright green moss this time of the year surprised me, normally it would have been frozen underneath a blanket of snow or ice.  

Nature filters and clarifies my stream of consciousness just as these stones on the shore are washed up one by one, distinct and refined.

A daily practice I whole heartedly recommend is to carve out time for a nature visit regardless of the weather forecast.   It won't disappoint.  

My apologies because my heart to blog daily was much bigger than the daily reality of my Christmas Chaos.

Big hearted blessings!
Dana

 

 

 

Countdown to Christmas in Corpse Pose

Flat on back

Weight of my body fully supported by the earth

Arms resting alongside my body

Face relaxed

Eyes gently closed

Stillness

Surrender my expanding "to do" list  

For a few  moments

Silence

No movement

No grip  

I'm in Savasana or "Corpse pose,"  

Savasana is the gift that keeps on giving.  

The counter balance for my Christmas Chaos.  

It's the doing nothing that makes my crazy doing enJOYable.   

My friend and colleague, Nona Jordan, The Business Yogini, wrote a beautiful post about the benefits of Savasana.   

Click here to read The Business Yogini's post.  

 Surrender, Stillness and Silence are the gentle giant tools that powerfully move us through chaos regardless of the situation.

Holiday chaos

Relationship chaos

Career chaos

Health chaos

Practicing Surrender, Stillness and Silence we discover the peace that surpasses understanding,

Our voice

Our way forward

I'll be entering Savasana everyday until Christmas.

Will you join me?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Christmas Chaos

Seven days until Christmas.  

I have more shopping to do

More baking

Wrapping

and

Moments to celebrate with family and friends.  

Every year I slide into Christmas with my hair on fire.  

I've tried to be more organized about the whole affair

until I realized

I like the chaos I create around Christmas.

I am simply not motivated to do anything for Christmas before December.  

I marvel at friends who complete their shopping, wrapping and decorating in November.  

That doesn't feel like Christmas to me.  

My desire is to move through my Christmas chaos with a healthy body, mind and spirit.  

The truth is I do have a defined method of taking care of myself during my Christmas chaos.  

I have five daily practices:

1. Reflective, prayerful and meditative time in the wee hours of the morning.   

2. Daily writing to declutter my brain and make space for creativity.  If you're familiar with Julia Cameron, The Artist's Way, the practice is called "Morning Pages."

3. Water, water and more water...all day long.  Water hydrates every function of your physical body.   If you're thirsty, you're already dehydrated which means your body is functioning in deprevation.  Never underestimate the power of fresh water to awaken your senses, enliven your body and shift your energy.  

4. I do at least one thing to support my physical body.  My practices of choice for this season include yoga, Dailey Method or  Jin Shin Jyutsu.  This morning I only spent five minutes on #4.   

5. I intentionally return to my breath regularly and ask myself, "Is my breath deep, regular, quiet and rhythmic?"  I make adjustments to my breath as needed.  These four adjectives are the atributes of a healthy daily breath.  

These simple practices are easily implemented in as few or as many moments available. 

They center

ground 

and balance 

me 

in the midst of

my Christmas chaos.

This morning while holding my safety energy lock #1,  I was nudged to share with the readers of my blog (who are possibly parched from my lack of posts)  daily suggestions for coping with Christmas chaos starting today until December 25.

Today's tip is to hold Safety Energy Lock #1 (SEL 1), Jin Shin Jyutsu practice.

SEL #1 is called The Prime Mover.   SEL 1 is located on the inside of each knee, right at the bulge, where the thigh and shinbone connect.  It unifies the descending energy (which travels down the front of the body) with the ascending energy (which flows up the back) and harmonizes us from head to toe.  The Prime Mover connects extreme heights with extreme lows.  Sounds a bit like the holidays, eh?  SEL helps abdominal stress (hoilday eating and drinking?) and headaches.  It also promotes deeper and easier breathing.   Simply place your palms on  your respective knees in the area indicated above.  Breath deeply and relax into the gentle hold of SEL #1 for as many minutes until you feel completely relaxed.  You may feel a shift in your breathing pattern.  This morning holding SEL #1 I felt a sweeping calm move through my body.  

 

What do the days leading up to Christmas feel and look like in your life?

Please do share your tips for coping with Christmas chaos.  

 

Prayer: Holy Spirit, I inhale the peace you offer in the midst of chaos.  Penetrate my heart, body and thoughts with the light of your love and tenderness.   

Jesus: lover of people, pursuer of justice, caretaker of the underdog.  

 

 

 

 

I Have a Dream

 

"Without vision, people entangle themselves in lesser dreams." 

-Bill Hybels, founder of Willow Creek Church and Association.  

Profound and potentially indicting.  

A lesser dream...

Parked in neutral.

Devoid of courage.

Avoidance of fear.

Safety is the illusion.

Possibilities beyond reach.

Bland.

Predictable.

A lesser dream is

Totally and completely unnecessary.

Yesterday our nation celebrated the inauguration of Dr. Martin Luther King's monument.

A man with a dream.

 

I have a dream.

I have a practice of writing down wildly improbable dreams regularly.

I'll let you in on one.  Sharing it feels vulnerable and risky but that's ok.  

I want to have a remarkably successful radio show that is syndicated and income earning.  A radio show that sets callers free by shedding light and truth on their suffering and unweaves the web  entangled to lesser dreams.  

I started my family twenty plus years ago with a vision for today, twenty plus years later.   I can honestly say I'm beginning to taste the fruition of my dreams as I watch my oldest daughter spread her wings and we are experiencing a new relationship together.  

I had a dream to have a dynamic marriage.

Livin' it.  

My choice of a spouse (action step) was the first factor in determining where I am today in my marriage.  

I (we) chose well.  

Breaking away from lesser dreams requires a connection to a vision, the creation of a dream followed by daily actions that make the dream come true.

If you're entangled in lesser dreams, your gut pinged when you began reading my post.

Don't sweat it.

It's NEVER too late unless you believe it's too late. 

Put pen to paper and begin fleshing out your vision, dreams and action steps. 

What do you really want?

Just to be clear, I'm not talking about a couture handbag and skinny jeans, although they're nice accessories! 

I'm talking about how you show up in the world and make a mark with a circle and a dot!  

"What does your life want to do with you?"  Poignantly explained by Parker Palmer in his book,

"Let Your Life Speak."   

A lesser dream life is the road well traveled but unsatisfying.

Real dreams keep you on the edge of your seat and

Feel just out of reach.

They're Fun, Fear-FiLLing and Fulfilling

Will you dream with me?

I had a date night with my youngest daughter on Saturday and we watched, "Dolphin Tale."

A tender and inspiring story.  

Watch this music video of the  closing song, "Safe." 

Click here. Safe by Westlife.

"How you gonna' love, how you gonna' feel, how you gonna' live your life like the dreams you have are real?" 

Duality

I am capable of the most amazing sacrificial love and I am also capable of hurting another soul.
You are too.
An inconvenient truth only if the coward's voice is stronger than the warrior's voice.

Remember my post "What You Focus on Expands?"
When we focus and act upon our potential for love, we enter the Warrior's dance and become the heroes of our own stories.
It's beautiful.
We have clarity and strategy about how to expand our voice of love in the world.
We become a mighty force of light and love with skin on.
The world needs love that can be seen and felt.
When we fail to forgive ourselves for wrongs committed, the light we are intended to shine dwindles at best and burns out at worse.
That's sad.
We trade the warrior's dance for a shadow of who we were meant to be.
Warrior's rescue and kill.

This duality exists in every human being.

It's what you do with that truth that matters.

I'm admiring a new movement I recently discovered...
"People of the Second Chance."
Google it.

I want to give myself and others all the chances required to become who we are each intended to become.

Writing on typepad for iPad...it's imperfect.
I'll update with links later.
Closing airplane door to Rome.

Defy Gravity

 

There is a WAY to defy gravity and pull out of the muck and mire of a major life crisis, trauma or transition.  

1. Be still and quiet:  Paramount to moving through a challenging situation is quiet time and space to just BE and not do.  Healing comes when we create space for our BEing.

 

2. Feel: Let yourself feel what you feel.  Don't ignore it.  Experience it.  We are meant to experience all of life's emotions.  Journal, talk and sulk over the emotions but, CAUTION, not forever.  All feelings have a role to play in the healing process but we must not be overcome by them.  It's important to discover what lies beneath the surface of our emotions.  Consider that emotions tell a story, what's the story your emotions are telling you? 

3. Allow: Recognize there is a season for everything under the sun.  Seasons come and go.  This is all about perspective.  If you trust you will move through the season, it's less likely you'll create a painful story.  When we create  painful stories we get stuck.

  

4. Listen:  There's a message in every challenging situation which comes directly from within you.  Each one of us has a built in wisdom guru called intuition.  She will provide insight for the asking when we seek her wisdom and listen.   Censor the message.  Your inner guide is not going to condemn and judge rather lead you with gentleness, love and mercy.  Run away from messages of condemnation.

 

5. ACT:  Your intuition will provide the answers about how to best take care of yourself and then you must just do it. This may require big leaps of faith and changes in the way life was done before.  On the self care journey we will most likely bump into our significant others in ways that are uncomfortable and require changes in those relationships.  Don't let this stop you.  If those relationships are valuable for your future, they will come around and honor your self care.  There are times to be ruthless about self care and healing in order to triumph over challenges and move into a new season.  

6. Shift:  Shift the negative energy caused by the challenge into life giving energy that supports a new normal.  This can be done in numerous ways.  I use the Resonance Repatterning Method but there are simple ways to shift your energy.  The most practical available to all of us at any moment is to get your body moving.  Energy gets stuck in our bodies and movement will release it.  This can be as simple as taking a walk, stretching your shoulder blades and/or hips.   Your intuition has the insight to guide you to what will best shift your energy.  If you're interested in learning more about how to shift your energy, I'd love for you to try a Resonance Repatterning session with me. 

7. Embrace: Embrace the new normal.  Life as we know it is constantly changing, relationships shifting and we must learn how to embrace the changes.  We are not who we were yesterday and we are not who we will become tomorrow.  We have the possibility to experience life in a new way every moment.  There is grace, mercy and possibility with each breath we take.   

8. JoyFull:  Be diligent about setting aside time for the activities and relationships that bring you joy.   We are meant to have fun and enJOY life.   Following your joy will refuel the love cup that most likely became drained by the challenging situation. 

I've recently moved through a health crisis.  There were moments and days I felt disparaging, I wanted to grab ahold of a painful story but I consciously chose not to and instead continued down the path of Stillness, Feeling, Allowing, Listening, Acting, Shifting, Embracing and today I'm following my Joy.   

 

forgiveness

Yesterday, I wrote down every last grievance I had been nursing against someone, tossed it in the trashcan and walked away.

A decontamination of my soul.

Peace restored.

Life happens.

We bump into one another, most of the time with no intention to cause harm and

BAM...insult, injury, injustice. 

To nurse or not to nurse.

Remember the phrase, "Don't let the sun go down on your anger?"   Ick, I had been nursing mine about four months.  

I felt the dimmer switch weakening my light.  

Simple words stitched together

Ouch, not always easy to say,

Bring freedom.

I'm sorry and

I forgive you.  

Those words work magic in the soul. 

Freedom and peace depend upon them.    

Today is the International Day of Peace.  Thanks to Anna Laurita, owner of Davannayoga, for the reminder.  

Join me in exchanging any war that may be waging within for peace.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Love > Fear Part II

Inspired by "One, the Event" and it's founder, Eric Lawyer, I've been thinking about 911 through the lens of love and fear.  I remembered a post I wrote a few years ago entitled "Love>Fear."  

It's time for Part II.  

Love finds a crack in the cement of suffering and finds it's way to the sunshine.

Love sees itself and others and casts no judgement.

Love is not violent or vengeful rather follows the peaceful path of forgiveness.

Love responds with acts of courage.

Love is multicolored, multicultural, multilingual and mutilfaceted.   

Love cannot be contained in a pretty little box because 

Love can be and feel downright dirty and messy.

Love stretches and grows and expands and knows no boundaries.

Love prefers and promotes pleasure. 

Love moves forward even when it wants to withdraw. 

Love listens and hears what silent lips dare to speak.

Love allows the deep dark cavernous places of the soul to be discovered.  

Love is daring and risky.

Fear is the rival of love.   

Fear strangles

is blind and deaf

stagnant, shallow and stunted

is aggressive and assuming.

When I feel fear, I go searching for love

because love allows herself to be found.

Finally,

Love calms and comforts my fears.

So, I'm curious, tell me about your relationship with love and fear.

I am both loving and fearful but love>fear.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I See You, I See Me

 

I See You

If you are a mother and your motherhood was not celebrated yesterday,

I see you.   

I see the feeling of invisibility despite your sacrifices.  

I see your loneliness although surrounded by many.  

Mothers 

Delay passions and professions to 

Steady growing feet and hands.

Water tender souls.

Cheerlead their children's and partner's pursuits.

Coordinate: 

Meals

Appontments

Schedules

Vacations and

Celebrations

Document the years, months and days in photographs and stories.

Fill refrigerators  and feed tummies.

Surround families with prayer, protection and a mother's perspective.  

I'm deeply sorry if you were not celebrated.

I see you and I see me.  

Here, take my flashlight.

Don't be afraid of the dark feelings.

Real and raw.  

You'll find your way out of the darkness by 

Looking at yourself in the light.

The pain is your feedback.

We are but small adjustments away from making our lives work.  (Inspired by the movie, "How do you Know?")

Make adjustments where you feel the pain. 

Steady your own feet and hands.

Water your own soul.

Become the cheerleader of your pursuits.

Where there are passions, run towards them like your life depends upon it.   

It does.