Tag: dreaming

When the Earth Slept: A Quarantine Fairy Tale

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Picture Created by Melissa Wooten Art

*Due to the overwhelming response I have received from this story, it is currently in the process of raising funds to be published.  If you’d like to support this journey by pre-ordering a copy, please do so HERE.  You can also share this story with others who may benefit from it!  Thank you SO much for your help!

Once upon a time the Earth got VERY sick. Her temperature rose and rose and rose until it erupted into a slew of wildfires that ravaged the land. She shook with chills, causing massive earthquakes and every time she sneezed, torrential winds kicked up. The people called them tornadoes and hurricanes. She cried because she felt so awful and her tears created floods that washed over the soil.  Try as she might, the Earth could not get her sickness to go away. There was simply too much that she had to do to support all of the living organisms walking along her surface and she was not able to get the rest that she needed to heal and thrive again.  She thought and she thought, and she thought, until finally she came up with a solution. She would look to the people to help her.

So, she came to the people and she asked them to go their homes.

She asked them to spend time with their loved ones and to close their doors and to stay inside for a while so that she might get the rest that she needed without having to worry about them and take care of them.  So that she could rest her weary spirit, just for just a while.

At first, the people felt wary and afraid. They had never been asked to close their doors and stay inside. How would they keep themselves busy? How would they work and make money? How would they entertain themselves if the stores and the movie theaters and the bowling alleys and the playgrounds were all closed? They crossed their arms and shook their heads no and the Earth wept harder and the floodwaters rose. She shook with despair and the grounds cracked beneath the people’s feet.

Eventually, after watching the Earth continue to struggle and realizing the damage that her struggles were doing to her, the people began to talk to one another.

“We would not allow our own kind to suffer this way without rest,” some of them exclaimed. “We must give her the chance to sleep and heal as she carries so much responsibility on her strong shoulders,” they said.

And so, it was decided. The people shut down their shops and their movie theaters and their bowling alleys and their schools. They cancelled their plans to fly away for vacations and they agreed to postpone their meetings and their get-togethers and their parties. They went into their homes with their loved ones and they closed their doors.

Then a heavy silence fell over the Earth. Gone was the din of cars swooshing past one another on the roadways. Gone were the sounds of jet engines roaring overhead. Gone was the clanging of hammers and the growl of power tools as construction came to a halt.

The Earth took a deep breath in and let a giant exhale out as she settled in to nap.  She was lulled to sleep by only the sounds of the birds chirping, and the crickets playing lovely tunes; the wind whispering through the trees, and the gentle crash of the waves upon empty shores.

Many suns rose and set, and the moon cycled from new to full and back again. Meanwhile, behind their closed doors, many of the people became restless. They had not yet learned to appreciate the stillness and the quiet.  They were afraid of the unknown; afraid of how long the Earth might sleep. They wondered if they should wake her. They talked together and decided that they should try to.

And so, on a beautiful, early morning, just as the sun was peaking over the horizon, the people went outside and they began to dance. They started slowly at first, hoping that the gentle rhythm of their feet drumming against the Earth would tenderly wake her from her slumber. Still, she slept. The people began to dance faster. Still, she slept. And so, the people began to jump and yell and shake their bodies, twirling in circles and prancing across the Earth.

Still, she slept.

Yet somehow, as the people danced, they forgot that they were trying to wake the Earth from her slumber. They realized, as they moved and shook and allowed joyful sounds to burst from their mouths, that they were reviving an old song together. One that had not been sung for many, many years but that they felt rise up from deep within them.  They felt cheerful and connected to one another, some of them for the first time in ages. They smiled and laughed. They felt appreciation for one another and for their strong bodies and capable hearts.

As this shift happened in the minds of the people, the Earth finally began to stir. She stretched her long limbs and blinked her eyes opened. She looked about and saw beautiful things happening all around her. Animals that she had not seen in long passages of time crept slowly out of hiding to drink from her rivers and streams. Thick smog that had hung heavy over the mountaintops began to dissipate and she was able to see snow-capped peaks that had been hidden from her view for ages. She took a big, deep breath in and noticed that the air tasted sweeter and cleaner. She saw the now crystal-clear oceans shimmering in the distance.

And then, she saw the people. All of them dancing together, creating beautiful music, rejoicing in each other and massaging her skin with their rhythmic steps.

She felt the sickness slowly leaving her body. Deep within her core, a stirring began, like a small flame flickering in the breeze. As she continued to watch the people, the flame began to grow and grow and grow. The more that the people danced and sang and rejoiced, the more powerful this warm buzzing in her center became. She realized that their joy and love and connectedness were her medicine and she felt stronger and stronger still as she observed them.

The people, lost in their exhilaration, had stopped thinking about their stores and their bowling alleys and their money and their vacations. She noticed that they were remembering, instead, their deep connection to each other, to her, and to all the ways that she supported them. As she healed, they began to heal and as they began to heal, so continued her healing. They were part of the same and were learning to work together in new ways. However, the people knew they could not dance forever. So, one day, they stopped dancing.

When they did, they took the time to look around them and they too began to notice the animals coming out of hiding, the icy mountain tops in the distance, the crystal cleanliness of the air and the beautiful blues and greens of the oceans.  As Earth once again allowed her people to come back outside and enjoy her many natural playgrounds, she noticed that they did so with a new respect and sense of wonder.  They took greater care to keep the beautiful Earth clean and to honor her wildlife. They took the time to learn more about her plants and the natural medicines they could provide.

They devoted their energy to finding solutions to heal the very things that had been making their beautiful Earth sick in the first place.

As the people took better care of the Earth, the Earth responded with great love. She offered up new resources for the people to use to keep her soil and waters and air clean.  She granted their wish for more knowledge and taught them the ancient ways that they had become so disconnected from. She continued to show them the beauty of simplicity and encouraged them to take the time to dance whenever they felt called to do so.  Together, the people and the Earth created a new way of being.

And so, they all lived happily ever after.

Learn more about this story by clicking HERE.

Open to Grace

17In Yoga Teacher Training, we are taught that opening up to grace is an integral part of our practice.  It’s that moment in a yoga class where your teacher is instructing you to settle into the space around you, let go of thoughts, worries and to-do lists that might be sabotaging your relaxation, and let yourself become present and aware so that you can receive your yoga practice.  In a dimly lit studio, sprawled out on your mat, with no disturbances other than the gentle sound of you and your neighbors breathing, soft music playing in the background of your thoughts, this can be a relatively easy and safe space to do just that…to completely let go.  After all, that’s why you are there in the first place, right?  What happens, though, when you’re not on your mat?  Opening to grace feels a lot more difficult to do when you are in the throes of your day to day activities, children arguing in the background, a pile of bills arriving in the mail, stacks of paperwork to get through at the office, a lawn to mow, and the mountain of laundry spilling out of your clothes hamper staring at you every time you enter your room.  However, these are the times when opening to grace is absolutely the most important.

Grace is defined by dictionary.com as “simple elegance or refinement of movement”, but to me, it is so much more than that.  It is a willingness to surrender to the truth that we are each going through exactly the things that will help us to become the best versions of ourselves, even (especially) in the moments where it feels completely the opposite.  It is the ability to find strength in our struggles and to participate fully and completely in all aspects of our lives, good, bad, scary, exciting, or otherwise.  It is the knowledge that our perception of what is happening in our lives is so much more important than the situations themselves, because the situations are impermanent.  It is the power to stand strong through the storms, holding firm to the knowledge that calmer waters are ahead of us and that there is an important lesson for our soul within each and every moment.  How amazing would it feel to bring the same peace, calm and quiet that you find on your mat, or out in nature, or in your bath (or whatever it is that you do to connect to this space) into the daily situations that are a natural part of life?  Well, you can, which is pretty good news.

Take a minute to inventory what’s going on in your life that’s stressing you out or causing worry or fear.  Write it all down.  Read it back to yourself without any judgement.  Instead, maybe you can find a little curiosity.  What is your soul trying to help you to learn by these difficult situations?  For most of us, our difficulties often become repeating patterns, causing us to feel like something is wrong with us or that we are just destined to always have this particular issue in our lives, but this couldn’t be farther from the truth.  These moments that challenge us are opportunities for us to get know ourselves better.  For example, if you are somebody who is constantly struggling financially and worried about how to pay the bills, this might be your soul telling you that your job is not in alignment with what you really want.  It may also be an indication that you have some limiting beliefs around money that need to be acknowledged and explored so that prosperous energy feels welcome to flow into your life.  If you find yourself struggling with relationship after relationship, perhaps it is your soul trying to urge you to look in a different place, or to learn to love yourself first so that you can openly receive true love back.  Maybe it is an indication that you subconsciously don’t feel worthy of love and so you are inadvertently pushing it away.

Remember, we attract the energy that we put out…like attracts like.  Therefore, it’s not what we WISH we believed or what we WANT to believe, but the actual beliefs stored deep, down within us, that are shaping our realities.  It can be scary to dig down and unearth them, but consider for a moment, a diamond.  My dear friend and colleague, Amy Lombardo, put this in such great perspective for me.  Diamonds are formed way down in the Earth’s mantle (about 100 miles deep), and start as chunks of coal.  It takes a tremendous amount of heat and pressure to create this sparkly gem, but once the work has occurred, the diamond is pushed to the surface naturally for all to enjoy.  Your thoughts are like these diamonds.  YOU have that same sparkly gem deep within in you, just waiting to be exposed to the heat so that it can emerge and shine brightly out to the world.  When you can accept that knowledge and open to grace, knowing that you have a deep well of untapped potential within you and the power to change your reality, the world opens back to you.  Your sparkly gems are naturally pushed to the surface and the Universe responds by shining back.

Where in this very moment can you open yourself to grace?  Where can you replace fear with curiosity, and hopefully learn something about yourself through the process?  Start right now.  The more that you practice this the easier it becomes.  Opening to grace is not something that needs to be confined to your yoga mat.  It is accessible in each and every moment to help you come back to center, find your calm and elevate yourself towards all of the possibility just waiting to be discovered within you!

If you need some help unearthing your spark, please visit my website HERE to learn more about transitional life coaching and my 12-week program, Ascend to New Heights.

 

Let Yourself Dream BIG…

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If I could give you one piece of advice today, the title of this blog post sums it up.  Let yourself dream BIG!  I’m not talking kind of big, or a little big, or big just to the point where it feels attainable….I’m talking REAL BIG!  Envision your life exactly the way you would ideally love for it to be, and actually allow yourself to marinate in it for a bit.  Set a timer, lay down somewhere super comfy, close your eyes, and see it all up close and personal.  Imagine it as though it were the most natural thing in the world.  Walk through the corridors of your mansion on the water, feel the wind blowing through your hair as you race down an abandoned road with the top down in your new convertible, smell the decadent meals being prepared for you from your gourmet kitchen, gaze into the eyes of your soul mate as they happily gaze back, climb to the top of a mountain and listen to the sounds of nature and solitude, feel the burn of the warm sand on your back as you relax beneath a cloudless, blue sky with the sounds of the ocean crashing on the shore.  Let yourself be fully present to all of these sensations, and make time to do it EVERY DAY!

I know where your mind might be going right now…yep, I’m onto you.  “Here she goes…she’s read too many damn New Age books and thinks that doing all this is going to miraculously manifest all of these things into my life.  Well, it sounds like bullshit to me.”  Well guess what?  I have some good news…it sounds like bullshit to me too…and miraculous manifestation is NOT what I’m suggesting.  Does that stuff work?  I’m sure it probably does for some, but for the rest of us, it probably takes a little more determination, flexibility, hard work, and bravery to achieve real tangible results.  So what IS the point of all of this daydreaming?

Daydreaming is what’s going to keep your soul alive and bursting with creativity as you move through the challenges, speed bumps, and even the little victories, that will inevitably appear as you continue on your life path.  The fact is, making your dreams come true WILL take effort on your part, but that doesn’t mean that it has to suck.  Taking the time to reconnect to the grandiose vision of your perfect life that you have in your head, reignites the spark and fuels the fire of whatever end result excites you.  It also keeps you open to the possibilities that truly exist.  Success, happiness, peace, balance, health, vitality, prosperity…these are not things solely available to those born to privilege or to gurus, wise men, or other spiritually enlightened beings.  These gifts are available to each of us, although our path to achieving them will look different across the board.  If somebody handed you a present with your name on it, would you say, “No thanks, I’m cool.” or would you eagerly grab the present, rip the paper off it, throw back the damn lid and WOO HOO with delight at the sparkly ball of possibility that sat inside?  Yeah, that’s what I thought.  I’d politely refuse too…..NOT!

So what’s the next step?  Maybe all this daydreaming stuff still feels a little weird to you.  Maybe you are a little curious.  Hell, maybe you’re not even reading this anymore because you are laying on your bed with your eyes closed and a big, silly-ass grin on your face!  Wherever you are, it’s the perfect place to start.  Grab a journal, answer the questions I’ve listed below, and start creating this vision for yourself.  Go BIG…remember, we’re talking REAL BIG!  MTV Cribs BIG, Lifestyles of the Rich & Famous BIG, Harlequin romance novels BIG….they are your dreams….OWN THEM.  You have them for a reason!  Are you ready?  Good!  Remember to get as specific and detailed as you can.  Grab a pen and write this down:

In my ideal vision of my life:

What does my romantic life look like?

Where am I living?

What am I doing for work?

How much money am I making?

Who am I friends with?

Where/when/how often am I vacationing?

What are some risks I am taking or ways I am challenging myself?

How am I giving back to others?

What does my spiritual practice look like?

Okay, this is a good start….now KEEP GOING!  Write so much your hand hurts and your heart is pounding from all of the excitement you’ve generated.  And then read it back to yourself, add anything else you might want to add, and read it again.  Read it every day. Dream it every night.  Make it your mantra.  And start taking REAL steps towards making it happen EVERY SINGLE DAY!  That will be different for each of us, but choose just ONE thing.  Maybe you are looking for a new relationship, so each week you commit to going on one date, or putting yourself in one place that would be good to meet your ideal mate, or going to get yourself a makeover so you feel amazing and bold and ready to knock ’em dead.

We are all rock stars in our own rights.  YOU have the key to your happiness.  You won’t find it anywhere else.  Dream big and open some doors!

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