Alysse Aallyn

Category: #Family

  • #DreamTherapy – Dream Journaling with Alysse Aallyn

    Addiction – Do you dream of imprisonment? Blank walls? Chains? Our neurocircuitry mandates habit-making behavior, but our intelligence usually recognizes when we are trapped, and our dreams send distress signals.

    There’s No Escaping Addiction – But we have tremendous choice over what we become addicted to. Visit an AA meeting and the consumption of sugar and tobacco is outright alarming. Are you addicted to gambling? Do you work in sales? Were you raised in a ritualistic faith? We easily become dependent on praise, on safety, on gratification, and our brains (and our general health) show our dependency. They threaten us when the “treat” is withdrawn.

    Challenge – Open your Dream Journal and list your “Necessary sources of supply: substances and activities you can’t live without. Are you co-dependent? (Addicted to people.) Who? If you fear you are approaching a cliff-edge, you probably are. One test is to go on a “retreat” where your customary gratifications are not available, and attempt to form new gratifications. See what happens! This is such a good idea, we should build it into our lives, periodically. Just to keep us from the cliff-edge. Open-mindedly try all “freeing’ methods until you seize the one that works for you.

    Danger – There is always the chance that we will lose our autonomy. We may want to change, we know we SHOULD change, but we CAN’T. We need outside help. This is the purpose of interventions, to demonstrate to our eyes and ears that we are harming ourselves and our relationships. Denial is a powerful defense mechanism, especially when we think we’ve finally found a substance/process that “magically” allows us to live on our particular cliff-edge – a dangerous job, risky sexual behaviors, threat-filled recreational behaviors. We then have the choice of refusing to listen – giving up our relationships to keep up our self-abuse. Some hardened wretches tell anyone who listens that life itself isn’t worth it without their life-threatening self-abuse. Numbing themselves is the way they “choose” to die.

    Opportunity – You not only CAN free yourself, you MUST. It is a spiritual obligation to live this life as an enlightenment opportunity. Are you familiar with the saying, “Live simply so that others may simply live”? It means sharing honestly with others. That means studying your consumption, and scheduling time to be alone with the universe and with God, to check on the hardiness of your Soul.

    Models & Mentors – “You can’t defeat the darkness by keeping it caged inside you” – Seth Adam Smith

    “All addictions are ways to not feel our feelings”
    – Ellen Burstyn

    “Sometimes you can only find heaven by backing slowly away from hell”
    – Carrie Fisher

    “Success is the sum of small efforts, repeated day in and day out”.

    – Robert Collier

    “The most common way people give up their power is thinking they don’t have any” – Alice Walker

    Mantra – “I feel my life”

    Meditation –

    #Haiku: Addiction

    Brain cells beggared;
    Lovelorn
    Oxytocin receptors misfire
    “Feed me!”

  • #DreamTherapy – DreamJournaling with Alysse Aallyn

    The Rose – Vulnerability – Do you have frequent nightmares? Do you feel helpless in your dreams? Do you dream of children, of your own childhood? In DreamTherapy, the rose represents the soft evanescence of youth when the merest thumbprint of emphasis leaves an eternal impression. As the emblem of beauty, the Rose warns us that this quivering, temporary vulnerability may be the very definition of value as of loveliness.

    We Remember – You well recollect how you were molded. Is it a pleasant nostalgic vision or a horror story? Do you resent all the other actors in this drama? Remember, resentment is a poison we consume – we are the only ones it harms.

    Challenge – Can you turn the building blocks of your own past into a constructive, hopeful framework for the future? Can you mentally accept and explore the beauty of maturity? Let’s open Dream Journal and sketch out the ways.

    Danger – The philosophy that we are “ruinable” is a psychic snare. Terrible things do happen to ordinary people and we can be changed forever; but that is growth. You don’t want to return to a previous incarnation. We may wish specific things hadn’t happened but must keep in mind that regret prevents us from focusing on future reality. We need to understand the world we’re in NOW and map it for those who follow after. Often we can offer our pattern to help others avoid the traps we fell into. In the meantime, we can access history and literature to explore coping mechanisms around disaster and the strong people it produces.

    Opportunity – Resilience is the art we cultivate. We soon realize resilience has its own beauty; one rose may be cut down but the plant is hardly dead, in fact it offers an outpouring of constant roses. That is true beauty.

    Models & Mentors – “Vulnerability is the birthplace of love, belonging, joy, courage, empathy, and creativity”

    • Brene Brown

    “Being vulnerable is the only way to allow your heart to feel true pleasure”
    – Bob Marley

    “Sometimes you have to drop your guard so your heart can breathe”

    – Emma Xu

    “The strongest love is the love that can demonstrate its fragility” – Paulo Coelho

    Mantra – “I transplant”

    Meditation –

    #Haiku: Vulnerability

    Hardening’s spontaneous
    & painful;
    Softening’s practiced;
    & free.

  • #DreamTherapy – Dream Journaling with Alysse Aallyn

    Dependency – Do you dream of abandonment? Ruined gardens? Clinging vines? Are you afraid of being alone? In our dreams, we are reminded of all of the unpleasant aspects of needing others’ constant support in order to function. The clinging vine can’t stand up by itself, it needs an immoveable shoulder to cling to. We Americans prefer the fantasy of independence and self-determination. It’s just too threatening to imagine what might happen if the wall we’ve been clinging to ever comes down.

    No One Stands Alone – The truth is, we’re all in this together. Billionaires, leaders, CEO’s, all actually need more support than we do. So it’s time to divest of pointless shame and acknowledge the truth that humans are, for good and ill, social creatures. Open your Dream Journal and take a good look at your dependencies. Are there any that are no longer serving you? How about those who depend on you? How many are burdens? What pleasures and meanings make those burdens lighter?

    Challenge – The more we cling to a fantasy of who we are, the less we can see the true reality. List your actions for just one day and look at them in terms of ”dependencies” – bank, mail system, social security? Vehicle, gas availability, fuel affordability? Grocery stores, restaurants, our own two ambulatory feet? Weather, peace, law enforcement?

    Danger – Refusing to recognize the fragility of these systems is one danger; the ruthlessness confronting our fear creates is another. We are accustomed to the American need to muster a personal armory just in case the daily struggle for existence becomes a shoot-out; imagine the long-term effects THAT fantasy will have.

    Challenge – How can we free ourselves? What could we do to claim more psychic and physical independence? Mormons require a “year’s worth” of canned goods in the basement, the rest of us recognize the need for an emergency savings account. We are beginning to understand how a threatened supply chain can snap. Begin imagining some future failure scenarios and hash out the possibilities; if the elevator fails, is it possible to take the stairs? Your dream life will reward you with a lessening of existential anxiety.

    Models & Mentors – “Don’t set yourself on fire to keep other people warm” – Alysse Aallyn

    “Fear is the memory of pain. Addiction is the memory of pleasure. Freedom is beyond both.” – Anonymous

    “Don’t work harder on someone else’s problems than they do”

    – Ross Rosenberg

    “Enjoy togetherness but allow space. Respect differing beliefs. Accept, don’t try to change each other. Appreciate the other, but always be prepared to survive alone” – Darlene Lancer

    Mantra – “I can”

    Meditation –

    #Haiku: The Clinging Vine

    Lean too hard we’ll
    Fall together
    Allow freedom, we’re both
    Supported

  • #DreamTherapy – Dream Journaling with Alysse Aallyn

    The Soul – Do you dream of hummingbirds? The impossible flight of the bumblebee? According to C.S. Lewis, we are not a Body with a Soul, we are a Soul with a Body. Our body may be very mutable, but our soul can be immortal. Do you dream of past lives? See yourself in historical contexts? Do you ever have dreams of utter bodilessness where you are totally free, seeming to travel invisibly through the power of your mind?

    Accept Your Immortality – Can we destroy our own immortality through abuse and disbelief? Some of us would like to! Many people fearfully, officiously, vocally, and publicly, refuse this gift. But even if heaven and hell are choices some continuation of our will and our energy will continue. If we fight against this, it’s as tragic as battling against one of our talents (“I’m never going near that guitar.”) Think: Who are you harming? The direction we need to travel is in making our own company a reliable, eternal pleasure.

    Challenge – What if our mind changes inevitably – just the way our body does? Think about the differences between you, all grown up, and you at say, three years old. Imagine the joyous understanding with which you finally “get” the previously incomprehensible. If you just accept that future possibility, you can enjoy future understanding now. List in your Dream Journal the incomprehensible things you would like to understand NOW.

    Dangers – Christians locate the misery of non-progress in “sin”. Buddhists call it “clinging”. We grab on to any passing thing to stay our flight but of course it doesn’t work! The G forces start building up, creating a suction around us, meanwhile we are clinging to some crappy object, or some person who’s on an inevitably different trajectory. Relax. Let those things go. Don’t be frightened by your feelings, just study them, turn them imaginatively into huge iridescent bubbles, and “blow” them out. Enjoy the flight.

    Opportunity – Think about one of the parables, in which everyone is invited to a glorious feast. People are so threatened by this, they not only don’t attend, they murder the messenger. Watch the glorious film, Groundhog Day. Poor weather forecaster Bill Murray is sentenced to living the same things over and over and over again, trying everything to get out of these repeats, including suicide. Finally he decides to learn how to simply just enjoy himself, while being as nice as possible to the other frightened, enraged, confused souls around him. Only then is he able to move on to the next level – which turns out to be the rewarding, much-desired love of his dreams.

    Models & Mentors – “the living soul, once conscious of its power, cannot be quelled” – Horace Mann

    “The soul always knows what to do to heal itself. The challenge is to silence the mind.” – Carolyne Myss

    “Without applied awareness of the soul, happiness can’t arise”

    – Dada Bhagwan

    “The desire to know your own soul ends all other desires” – Rumi

    Mantra – “Love is forever”

    Meditation –

    #Haiku: Last Minute

    Bone grows
    Mind crashed
    Soul merge
    Skin graft
    Intervention –
    Light shaft
    Angel…?
    Laughed.

  • #Dream Therapy – Dream Journaling with Alysse Aallyn

    Spirituality – Do you dream of sunflowers? Mountains? How about other-worldly events? Parapsychological and out of body experiences? Like flying and breathing underwater, these are freedom dreams that tell us much about who we are. Our spirituality is a reaching out for connection with the numinous – something others might insist is not even there. But we feel – very strongly – that it is.

    Who’s right? Hundreds of years ago mathematician Blaise Pascal argued that we have so much to gain if supernaturalism is factual, and nothing to gain if it isn’t, so the calculus becomes simple. When you act as if the universe was richly designed by a Carer who promotes Goodness and rewards Love, you create the ideal conditions for human flourishing, whereas, as we all know, pessimism about outcomes dramatically lowers their possibilities and benefits. Certainly one could argue that our communications with each other are fraught with – mistake and misapprehension, but that’s an argument for increased effort and insight and not a quitter’s mandate.

    Follow Your Sunflower Path – Turn towards the light. Develop a plan in your Dream Journal that focuses on increasing your ability to tell health from sickness. This will help you find the right path and the right people. Goodness does not seek your diminishment and enslavement – but – the ruthless pursuit of human power does. Reach out to the wavelength you can feel is alive and beneficial in the universe. Bask in its reassurance.

    Challenge – The language of dreams is here to help. It allows us to explore our fears and answer Immanuel Kant’s immortal question, “What can we hope?” Jesus focused his ministry on healing and met virulent rule-focused pushback. His life as well as his words teach us that the “Letter” kills, but the “spirit” gives Life. It is up to us to find and nourish that spirit. Once you feel the angels around you – (I picture them as nosing deer,) your fear subsides.

    Danger – Organized religion is helpful to the extent that it leaves you free. If you feel you ae being enslaved and ensnared, you probably are. Limiting your potential and demanding money are warning signs.

    Trust requires us to follow where we cannot see the path, and so sometimes we lose the path. Sometimes we must hack out our own path through an absolute wilderness. Sometimes we realize even a trusted guide looks for what we can do for THEM. There is no journey that is free of this danger. We must maintain our ability and reserve our right to legislate for ourselves, to reverse course, to tell malignant spirits “You no longer represent me” and to seek out a healthier progress.

    Opportunity – We are never alone. All around us are pilgrims struggling with the same things we’re struggling with. Sharing and caring knits us together. Our two party political system benefits from stirring up hatreds to protect itself from change. Don’t accept it. We are not each other’s enemies. The possibilities for friendship and connection are huge, but hatred and anger lead in only one direction.

    Models & Mentors – “The world is full of magic things patiently waiting for our senses to grow sharper”- W.B. Yeats

    “You need not work to become spiritual – you are spiritual. You need only to recognize that fact” – Julia Cameron

    “The spiritual journey is the unlearning of fear and the acceptance of love” – Marianne Williamson

    “Happy people build their inner world – unhappy people blame their outer world” – Dalai Lama

    “The power of God is with you at all times, through the activities of mind, sense, breathing, the emotions, doing all the work, using you as mere instrument.” – Bhagavad Gita

    Mantra – “I seek”

    Meditation –

    #Haiku: – Spirituality

    We are all
    Planted; connected by
    Dirt; exploding our
    Seeds toward
    Light

  • #DreamTherapy – Dream Journaling with Alysse Aallyn

    The Field of Fate – Do you dream of costume drama? Historical characters? Ancient books? Do you consult tea leaves? Are you superstitious? We are all caught in the mesh of history.

    The field is too large for us to see it clearly. We can feel the pull of forces too large to resist or even rise above. We use our Dream Journal to track the stirrings of memories both past & future. Those caught in wars, in genocides, in natural disasters, are brutally unlucky. Naturally we yearn for a trustworthy clue to extract us from this maze.

    Challenge – Do you see the bigger picture? Were those who fled Germany before Hitler shut it down just “lucky” or had they learned to read the signs? Rulers by whim are especially dangerous, for their brain becomes an echo chamber rotting from within. The larger the council the better – true democracy is best, but even then there are those self-destructive ones among us desiring to “shake things up”; loving chaos for its own sake. They may hope to ride the whirlwind but no one can truly ride a whirlwind. The challenge is to see the whirlwind coming.

    Danger – Is the danger learned helplessness, our old enemy? Or is it comfort – we’ve created a prison for ourselves that’s just too cushy and familiar to leave? Sometime the danger is an inability to imagine evil: “it CAN’T get that bad” or “These people are my friends,” or ”He’s just trash talking. He doesn’t really mean it.” Famous last words. Or is it another enemy, panic? Fight and flight are not the only factory installed responses, there’s also “freeze.” Motionless, because we are too terrified to think.

    Opportunity – Have you noticed, yet, that it’s always the same opportunity we’re offered? Simply to grow up. Accept maturity. Become Godly; more like God, or as the Gnostic gospels call the Creator, “Good”. To regard each other with the wise generosity of compassion. In order to claim our opportunity we must create safe spaces to grow, think and learn.

    Models & Mentors – “We are spinning our own fates, good or evil, never to be undone” – William James

    “No matter how dirty your past, your future is spotless” – Drake

    “Our destiny is not written for us, but by us” – Barack Obama

    “If you can influence, direct or control your environment , you can make your life what you want it to be” – Napoleon Hill

    “Life is choice, not chance,” – Jean Nidetch

    “Winners fail until they succeed” – Robert T. Kiyosaki

    Mantra – “I choose”

    Meditation –

    #Haiku: Karma

    Come round –
    Goes round.
    Love reaps love
    Law reaps
    Justice
    Violence reaps
    Whirlwind.

  • #DreamTherapy – Dream Journaling with Alysse Aallyn

    Fruit – Harvest – Do you dream of fruit, perfectly ripe? Do you love to cook and entertain? Are you attracted by movies with long family dinner scenes, outdoors beneath an arbor? Is touring wine country a popular fantasy of yours? You are a person who is propelled forward by imagining smiles on the faces of others as the work of community and family harmony is celebrated and enjoyed. This vision can keep us going through bitter hardships.

    Challenge – Keeping these visions alive during the planting phase is hard, because the growth cycle is long and can be boring and uneventful. That’s why planting occurs in stages, so all your psychic eggs aren’t resting in the same basket. Learn to enjoy all the seasons, without hungering for a single season. This is a good time to contrast group versus individual gratification and ask ourselves, “What’s that about?”

    Danger – We become obsessed with gratification until it takes more and more to gratify us. The next thing you know you are in an addiction and no longer a planting cycle. We need to look forward to the abstemious times, sitting around the fire telling stories, without requiring “success” to be an endless party. Write these challenges in your Dream Journal and strategize with Dream Group about how to replenish your inner souls. Luckily sleep and dreams are the best model of fruitful dormancy. We need those periods and we need to look forward to their relief and imaginative nourishment.

    Opportunity – Every family’s celebration of the success and nourishment cycle is different. Are there leftover behaviors that no longer serve you? What fresh, exciting new ideas might you add? Is everyone in the family/community being well-served or are there grumpy holdouts? It’s also fruitful to listen to what the grumpy holdouts say, occasionally. How might they do things differently? If all they want is to harsh everyone else’s buzz, maybe they should no longer expect an automatic invitation to the feast.

    Models & Mentors – “Don’t judge each day by the harvest you will get but by the seeds you plant.” – Robert Louis Stevenson

    “In seed time learn, in harvest teach, in winter, enjoy” – William Blake

    “Every deed sows a seed, though the harvest you may not see”
    – Ella Wheeler Wilcox

    “We are each other’s harvest, we are each other’s business, we are each other’s magnitude and bond” – Gwendolyn Brooks

    Mantra – “I thrive”

    Meditation –

    #Haiku: Fruition

    Self expands –
    No more
    “For” or
    “Against”;
    Blend
    Seamlessly with
    Mother Mind

  • #DreamTherapy – Dream Journaling with Alysse Aallyn

    Dawn – Relief – All suffering comes to an end. “This too must pass” is a true mantra. Every dream is followed by an awakening which is followed by another dream. In the moment of relief from the fear and the tension that preceded it we are still shaking from the experience we went through. We are in no condition to make decisions. We are just so grateful that it is over. What is required of us, however, is appreciation of the cycle. We are surfing, whether we like it or not. Another wave will come. We had better learn how to ride it.

    Challenge – Mentally, we will rise above the cycle. Take a good, long look at it. This is hard to do when we are quivering and feeling victimized but it is necessary. What pattern do you see? The surfing analogy is a good one because the tides are not rhythmic nor perfectly predictable, we simply know another will be along soon. Is this necessary? Sometimes there’s a way out; we can change jobs, switch professions, get a divorce. Figure out where the pressure is coming from. Assess your abilities. What part are you good at? Where do you suck? Can you enjoy any part of this? How can your performance be improved? Most of us take pleasure in things we are good at. Can your enjoyment be deepened?

    Danger – Learned helplessness is real. We give up. We stop trying to game or even understand the system. We lie down under the shocks, no longer even trying to escape, until they kill us. Don’t succumb.

    Opportunity – You can win, but the game is bigger than our mortal understanding. Nevertheless, you can comprehend the majesty of what we are up against and appreciate it as a knife appreciates the whetstone. We learn through analogy, we remember through stories. You can always improve, becoming a graceful, competent athlete of our mortal existence until you graduate into the next sphere. You can change and affect your fate.

    Roll with the punches. When Jesus says, “Resist not evil” he means, allow evil to roll over you and smash itself against your non-resistance. Study martial arts to increase your knowledge of how to manage and overcome Superior Force. Cultivate a Dream Buddy, a dead or fictional character you know well and summon them to your aid. Ask your dream buddy.

    Dream Buddies don’t have to be actually alive or present – people choose such different characters as St. Francis, Sherlock Holmes, Mother Theresa, Joan of Arc, Mulan, Buddha and Jesus to be their buddies. Some are more comfortable with an animal – your personal power creature; the jaguar, wolf, eagle or wolverine. You can change Dream Buddies based on the problem confronting you. Ask their help before you go to sleep, solicit them to come to you in dreams to shed light upon your difficulty. Then the next morning, start writing and remembering the moment you wake up. Some key dreams take a lifetime to decipher.

    Models & Mentors – “Worry is like a rocking chair – it gives you something to do but you never get anywhere”
    – Erma Bombeck

    “For fast acting relief, try slowing down” – Lily Tomlin

    “Happiness is the relief after extreme tension”
    – F. Scott Fitzgerald

    “Laughter is the tonic, the release, the surcease of pain” – Charlie Chaplin

    Mantra – “I delight”

    Meditation –

    #Haiku: Taming Wild Mind

    Raging surf –
    Wild ride;
    Harden torrent into
    Path.
    Breathe.
    Hurricane’s Eye.

  • #DreamTherapy – Dream Journaling with Alysse Aallyn

    Night – Balance – We are different people in our dreams. We wake up amazed, even ashamed, of the things we wanted, said, did. Who are we, really? Are we the wishes and fears that rush through our subconscious or are we our daytime selves?


    The answer is – we are both. We must balance between the flood of desires and objectives that sleep flushes out.

    For everything there is a season,
    a time for every activity under heaven.

    
A time to be born and a time to die.
    

    A time to plant and a time to harvest.


    A time to kill and a time to heal.
    A time to tear down and a time to build up.


     A time to cry and a time to laugh.
    A time to grieve and a time to dance.


     A time to scatter stones and a time to gather stones.
    A time to embrace and a time to turn away.


     A time to search and a time to quit searching.
    A time to keep and a time to throw away.

    
A time to tear and a time to mend.
    A time to be quiet and a time to speak.


     A time to love and a time to hate.
    A time for war and a time for peace. Ecclesiastes 3

    Balance is a key law of nature to avoid the dreaded death-like stagnancy. Once our conscious is in harmony with our subconscious, our dreams will balance our waking life. In dreams we try on many lives. Even the worst nightmare can be looked at objectively, as a story with potential significance.

    Moderation in All Things – said Hesiod, the Roman poet 750 BC and its still good advice. We use balance as a whetstone to sweeten our pleasures and soften our griefs; torrents that are otherwise unsurvivable.

    Challenge – We need to set up our brain’s “reward system” to handle pleasure and suffering or we will be prescribed drugs in an attempt to achieve the same effect chemically. Drugs can be useful as training wheels; ideally we want to teach our systems to achieve the same effect naturally. Calm is the first step to balance, so we must learn to calm ourselves. Meditation and yoga offer the best methods for reliable self-soothing. First we assert calm over our breath, then our bodies, lastly our thoughts. It’s not that difficult! Reminder: we do it every night as we fall asleep.

    Danger – Unfortunately our contemporary life has become a competitive pursuit of “highs”. A good life well-lived provides natural highs – learning a sport, falling in love, listening to music, having children, enjoying the grandeurs of nature. Our intellect teaches us that every “high” is dramatically enriched by thinking and planning! That’s why we are called the species “homo sapiens.” Therein lies the benefit of Dream Journal.

    The pursuit of highs without the thinking, planning, consolidating and enshrining stages always leads to excess and grief. Highs for their own sake inevitably disappoint, leading to a pursuit of more and more dangerous highs, which, if we are not thinking about them, sharing them with others and incorporating them into our beings, damage our core ability to experience joy.

    Opportunity – Joy that is held in the mind and considered is joy endlessly re-experienced. It will be yours forever, and you will be able to share it with all the people you love for the rest of your life. Conscious dreaming (often called lucid dreaming) provides the best avenue to filter these experiences down to your subconscious level. Always have a joy to think about just as you are going to sleep, and another for when you are waking up. This will sharpen your apprehension of ecstasy and deepen your life.

    Models & Mentors – “The key is not to prioritize what’s on your schedule but to schedule your priorities” – Stephen Covey

    “Don’t get so busy making a living that you forget to make a life” – Dolly Parton

    Mantra – “I balance”

    Meditation –

    #Haiku: Stability

    To assert balance;
    Employ wealth of
    Eternal universal mind

  • #DreamTherapy – Dream Journaling with Alysse Aallyn

    Day – Focus – Good morning! Do you wake up fearful, fretful and exhausted? Why do the terms “woke” and “wakened” have such a bad rap, when all they mean is being fully aware?

    Being “Awake” Is Not Just Desirable but Necessary. We need awareness to achieve balance between the negative and positive forces that block or enhance us. If we refuse to wake up we are prey to indescribable fears.

    Worry borrows trouble and erases pleasure. It’s OK to plan but it’s destructive to worry. “Rumination” is endlessly thinking over a problem in a circular way – it isn’t going anywhere. If you dream only about your problems, you are at risk of wasting your valuable dreaming time.

    Learning to Self-Soothe so you can Focus productively – The Buddhists are fabulous at training the brain to calmness. This is a physical discipline and it does take practice. But as in any practice, we start out needing both effort and commitment, and you will have to “forgive” yourself over and over – “I suck at this.” Learning to enjoy the process is key. You are your own toddler. Be delighted by the effort and moved by the commitment. You don’t yell at a toddler for falling down. Study the work of Pema Chodron (libraries everywhere) for assistance.

    Challenge – Regard your mind as a “wild horse” in need of soothing and training. It is scared of everything it sees. Talk to it calmingly. Focus on small, pleasurable things, the green grass, the blue sky. Give thanks for the green grass and the blue sky. Focus on the breath – out with the worry, in with the fresh day of joy and discovery. Now close your eyes. Are you still seeing the green grass and the blue sky? Isn’t that wonderful? Now they are yours forever. Tonight you will dream about them. Cherish them in your heart.

    Danger – How strong is your negative voice? We all have at least one – some of us have many. List them in your Dream Journal. We need to recognize them to firmly push these destructive forces away. Your negative voice is belittling, angry and demeaning. It doesn’t think you can accomplish anything. It is not a helper, in fact it is toxic and we are going to tell it goodbye. Read Viktor Frankl’s wonderful Man’s Search for Meaning and Pinkola Estes’ Women Who Run With the Wolves for advice on how to pluck the lotus of joy from the mud of despair.

    Opportunity – Learning to focus at our advanced age is nothing to be ashamed of. It is a daily practice of mindfulness and joy in the classroom of creation. Be proud of your effort, your commitment and the confidence you are modeling for all future generations that life itself is a dazzling gift. You are alive at this perfect moment for some perfect reason. Let us find it.

    Models & Mentors – “Your habits will determine your future” – Jack Canfield

    “You’ll never change your life until you change something you do daily. The secret of success is found in your daily routine.” – John Maxwell

    ‘Practice isn’t something you do when you’re good. It’s what makes you good.” – Malcolm Gladwell

    “It’s easier to prevent bad habits than to break them.” – Benjamin Franklin

    Mantra – “I wake”

    Meditation –

    #Haiku: From Within

    Glowing eyes:
    Focused feet
    Heart worn on the outside
    Motive’s brainchild.