Category: mindfulness

  • Purrsiflage – Daily Horoscope for Your Inner Kitty with Alysse Aallyn

    Jan 27

    Today Is Up to You – The Universe puts you in charge this morning. Time to make up your mind – will this be a good day – or a bad one? Do you wake up fearful, fretful and exhausted? You’re too much of a worrier. 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.

    Purrsons Build Workable Routines – Then Explode Them Creatively

    We construct lists and calendars in our Training Journals that are very much Works In Progress. Every effort’s an experiment. If you do not rise to the level of your goals, you fall to the level of your systems, so we must build good systems. As Zig Ziglar reminds us, there’s no elevator to success. We’ve got to take the stairs, one step at a time. We will build ourselves up so strongly that ultimately we will be able to trust our subconscious, even our unconscious, to do the work for us. Purrsons create independent selves to transcend their quotidian selves. This is why cats appear so composed and self-sufficient.

    Taming Wild Mind to Focus Productively – Buddhists are fabulous at training the questing brain to calmness. This is a physical discipline and it does take practice. As in any practice, we start out needing both effort and commitment. You will have to “forgive” yourself over and over – “I suck at this” is a beginning, not an end. Learning to enjoy the process is key. Meditation teaches us how to live in the present moment. You are your own toddler, so mother yourself.  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.

    Your Toddler Self is Frightened by Everything.  As we meditate and the fears boil up, we talk to ourselves calmingly. Focus on small, pleasurable things, the green grass, the blue sky. In our gratitude practice, we 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.

    How Strong is Your Negative Voice?  This is the first enemy we must defeat. We all have at least one – some of us have many. Banish them firmly. 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’ excellent Women Who Run With the Wolves for advice on how to pluck the lotus of joy from the mud of despair.

    Purrson 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

  • Purrsiflage – Today’s Horoscope for Your Spiritual Cat with Alysse Aallyn

    Jan 16

    Today We Open our Third Eye and access our Inner Wisdom. We may physically live in the Now, but it is our greatest good fortune as Paw-Purrsons that we can enrich our present with powerful visions of past and future. In our dreams, we can expand this to universal pasts and futures. “Now” serves as the lens through which our Body stays focused. To be absent from the Now is to miss the key to ecstasy that is our birthright.

    Patience Multiplies Wealth – Wealth can be psychic, emotional, spiritual as well as physical, financial and actual.  

    Eating unripe fruit robs us of our harvest. Therefore, we learn to settle into the Now, line up our Past, Present, Future with our Conscious, Subconscious, & Unconscious levels. It’s a trick we master through the practice of meditation, which is the opening the Third Eye. The first step is Emptying. Push your thoughts, memories, worries away. Concentrate solely upon your breath. If this is too hard, choose a mantra (such as “Thank You” or “Namaste”) or a piece of music without lyrics (Marconi Union’s Weightless is fabulous for this.)  Just celebrate the emptiness, the Nothingness. As thoughts come to you, release them like balloons. Celebrate You.

    In the Control of Your Own Mind Lies all Freedom. Without it you are a slave, whatever the world may think. Buddhists call your mind a “wild horse” that must be tamed. The Wild Cat within you is a scrapper – you shouldn’t scrap with yourself.

    Learn to Greet the Now as an old friend who knits everything that is “you” – all the scattered psychic pieces – back together. You can FEEL the healing.

    Risk It – In our new digital world it’s very difficult to claim Time for yourself. Can you turn off all the flashing lights, the alerts, the signals, the seductions, the threats? You absolutely must learn to do that, you must feel “important” enough to do it. It’s a lifelong job that soon becomes a respite you greet as an old friend.  Turns out, feeling entitled is the most difficult part of the task. Tell others, “This is my recharge time. It’s absolutely critical.” Twenty silent minutes per day. Alone. You. 

    Finding Eternity – and the Eternal You – through the Now. It doesn’t come easily. It comes through your infinite willingness, your scrupulous patience, your holy dedication. Don’t give up on You.

    Give Up Your Competitiveness. – Nothing happens. Nothing happens. Nothing happens. Surrender your expectations. Push away the sadness, the depression, the loss, the anxiety, the rage, the worry. All can be released into the universe, floating away from you to pop harmlessly in the stratosphere.  You are alone now with the infinite. Slowly you begin to feel the pleasure, an indescribable ecstasy in which your ordinary human body becomes incandescent. Suddenly you want better things for yourself. More sleep. Better dreams. Healthier food.  A world of love and joyous possibility. Dip your toe in that completeness, twenty minutes per day. (Or more, if you can.) Now you have a glimpse of Heaven.

    Purrsons Tune In to their Energy Source – Purrsons learn to treasure their peaceful daily meditations as a source of strength. If you allow the pool of your mind to settle, you will be able to see deeply. I personally prefer eyes-closed meditation. Concentrate on your slow deep belly breaths. If a thought jumbles past, think the word, “Clear”. Keep breathing. Keep clearing. You will feel rooted to the soil, grounded on the earth. The energy will start to bubble through you.

    Purrsons Stay Focused – Split focus – sometimes called “multi-tasking” – is the current work modality for a reason, and the reason is that it diminishes your psychic power and makes you easier to control. 

    If you focus your full attention on anything or anyone, you will begin to feel the power flow between you and this object/idea/person. This is scary at first, but you will get used to it. Living beings (plants included) flourish under this attention and the connections that are made last forever.

    Purrsons are Mindful – Understanding the power of the Now is your Purrson strength. You are entirely here, entirely present in this moment. You have completely accepted your current incarnation. There will be time, alone with your Training Journal, to savor the past and call upon the future, but for this moment you know how to be entirely present in the Now. It is unbelievably powerful. It feels like Love.

    Models & Mentors – “What you think, you become. What you feel, you attract. What you imagine, you become” – Buddha

    “You can’t stop the waves but you can learn how to surf” – Jon Kabat-Zinn

    “It takes courage to say yes to rest and play in a world where exhaustion is a status symbol” – Brene Brown

    ‘You are the silent watcher of your thoughts. You are the stillness beneath the mental noise. You are the joy beneath the love and pain” – Eckhart Tolle

  • The Book of You – Haiku Diary by Alysse Aallyn

    #HAIKU: The Shadow

    Loss

    Shades love

    As waking subdues

    Sleep.  Alert,

    Brave –

    We begin

    To end.

  • Butterfly Language for Caterpillars – Soulmate Seeking with Alysse Aallyn

    Day = FOCUS “On Reading the Alumni Directory”

    “The Power of Routine”

    “Begin anew with the Day, as Nature does” says George Woodberry. What good advice! Every dawn is a fresh chance for us to put new principles into practice, make original resolves and absorb consequent lessons and engender successful strategies that bring us closer to our goals. If, as the sages say, “it’s the journey not the arrival that matters” then each and every day is, literally, the first day of the rest of our lives.

    We are launched on the journey of a thousand steps. Isn’t it the ideal to make each step as blissfully supportive as possible?

    On our quest for a soulmate, aren’t we really looking to be freed from the hum-drum round of daily ordinariness into the ecstatic upper stratosphere, the bliss of the spiritual? Isn’t that what we’re really after? This is what causes our frustration with where we’re at, right now.

    What we need is to infuse the ordinary with the spiritual, and like any skill, this attitude can be practiced and IMPROVED and we can start NOW. In Tantric Attachment, “Day” represents your supportive routine (both conscious and un.)

    Today’s goal is to make your habits conscious, improve them with mindfulness, then allow them to sink into the subliminal where they can be accessed emotionally and kinetically. We plan to turn OURSELVES into the exact life partner we have been looking for!

    Some of us are morning people – others most definitely Not. I started out in life as a night owl and after kids, I changed. Now I don’t think I can write anything intelligent past 3 PM! (It’s currently 7:25 AM.) Every morning must contain spiritual, physical and refreshment practices. Our great enemy is all this anxious doom-scrolling we all do, when we can clearly see it raises, rather than lessens our distress and confusion. Let’s figure out a way to contain it, because that helpless victim can never be our best self.

    In a frantic, worried or angry condition nobody can share or enjoy anything. The best choice would be a morning of thought, prayer, gratitude, healthful eating, gentle exercise but if this is not possible let’s keep our survey of The News, Email, etc. to a specific low number. To be loved, we must love ourselves. This is an inflexible rule. Therefore, you must keep telling yourself, “I love you. That’s why I’m taking such good care of you.” Commit to The Day!

    ON READING THE ALUMNI DIRECTORY

    I’m surprised
    So few of us have made it.
    The years seemed quiet
    The years seem far between.
    Through interstices the
    Class clowns fall –
    Sluts & giants; the
    Nobodies –
    Possessed & hunted
    Now as they were then;
    Haunted.
    “Address unknown”
    “Lives with Mom”
    “Religious cult”
    “Deadbeat”
    “Moved…nowhere.”
    My blood-mate’s still unmarried
    I wonder how
    We’d get along.
    I translate terpsichore to unknown
    Tongues, he’s Law and
    Journalism; how’s that
    Compatible?
    He lives so far away.
    Time off’s a bitch, plus
    They got my address wrong.

  • #DreamTherapy – Dream Journaling with Alysse Aallyn

    Meditation – Mindfulness – Are you wakened by nightmare? Lie quietly in the dark, anchoring yourself with your own breath. Your soul is free, your brain is rampaging, but your body is centered Here. Feel it. This is called Mindfulness. If you are sleeping with a Dream Buddy, touch them. Use their body as your anchor.

    We can only live in the Now, but it is our greatest good fortune as a species that we can enrich the present with powerful visions of past and future. In our dreams we expand this to universal pasts and futures. But the Now is the lens where our Body is focused. To be absent from the Now is to miss the ecstasy that is our birthright.

    Patience Multiplies Wealth – Wealth that is psychic, emotional, spiritual as well as physical, financial and actual. Eating unripe fruit robs us of our harvest. Therefore we must learn to settle into the Now, learn to line up Past, Present, Future with Conscious, Subconscious, & Unconscious. Open your Dream Journal and make Six Categories: Now, Past, Future, Conscious, Subconscious & Unconscious.

    Consider the Moment – you are in the Now but what are you thinking? What does it remind you of? What are you fearing? Have you ever experienced anything like this before? Does this experience make you feel attached to any other human, living or dead? When you have considered this, it is time to meditate.

    Master through practice. The first step is Emptying. Push your thoughts, memories, worries away. Concentrate on your breath. If this is too hard, choose a mantra (such as “Thank You” or “Namaste”) or a piece of music without lyrics (Marconi Union’s Weightless is fabulous for this.) Just celebrate the emptiness, the Nothingness. As thoughts come to you, release them like balloons. You are the world’s anchor. Celebrate You.

    Challenge – In the control of your own mind lies all freedom. Without it you are a slave, whatever the world may think. Buddhists call you mind a “wild horse” that must be tamed. Learn to greet the Now as an old friend who knits everything that is “you” – all the scattered psychic pieces – back together. You can FEEL the healing.

    Danger – In our new digital world it’s very difficult to claim Time for yourself. Can you turn off all the flashing lights, the signals, the seductions, the threats? You absolutely must not only learn to do that, you must feel important enough to do it. Turns out, that’s the most difficult task. Tell others, “This is my recharge time. It’s absolutely critical.” Twenty silent minutes per day. Alone. You. Finding Eternity – and the Eternal You – through the Now. It doesn’t come easily. It comes through your infinite willingness, your scrupulous patience, your holy dedication. Don’t give up on You.

    Opportunity – Nothing happens. Nothing happens. Nothing happens. You must give up on your competitiveness. Surrender your expectations. Push away the past, the fears, sadness, the depression, the loss, the anxiety, the rage, the worry. All can be released into the universe, floating away from you to pop harmlessly in the stratosphere. You are alone now with the infinite. Slowly you begin to feel the pleasure, an indescribable ecstasy in which your ordinary human body becomes incandescent. Suddenly you want better things for yourself. More sleep. Better dreams. Healthier food. A world of love and joyous possibility. Dip your toe in that completeness, twenty minutes per day. (Or more, if you can.) Treasure this glimpse of Heaven.

    Models & Mentors – “The first thing to learn is the breath.” – Confucius

    ‘Breathe In. Let Go. And remind yourself that this very moment is the only one you know you have for sure, and give thanks for that.”
    – Oprah Winfrey

    ‘Feelings come and go like clouds in a windy sky. Conscious breathing is my anchor” –
    Thich Nhat Hanh

    “While we breathe, we hope” – Barack Obama

    MANTRA – “I am”

    Meditation –

    #Haiku: Meditation – Mindfulness

    Joyous
    Breath
    Supports
    Eternal now:
    Blossoms spirit;
    Sparks
    Thoughts,
    Shared
    Dance