Living High, Living Mighty, Living Righteously.

As I've been shoveling and walking outside in this winter weather that I have grown accustomed to over the past few weeks, I noticed something. It's nothing enlightening, or deep. Just the fact that when you find a patch of ice in your path, and you catch yourself from a complete wipe out, your body does a little dance.

The next time you see someone slip, although it is always quick and often times funny, try and watch their dance. We will do anything to stop ourselves from falling, just as a result of instinctive reflexes. But when you slow the corrective movements, you will see what I mean. The feet go in all different directions, the hands flail around, the hips rotate, and the neck moves from side to side. Everyone has a different dance, no two people have the same reaction and reflex time. It is something very specific and unique to each person, based upon past environmental experiences as well as inherent biological factors. I've come to realize that ice is one of life's little reminders of the importance of dancing, and on a larger scale, soul expression.

Let me ask you this: How often do you take a step back from your daily routines, the busyness that we allow ourselves to succumb to; to do something that will further the nurturing of your soul? I do not claim to be an expert on the topic of nurturing the soul, but from personal experience I find that I do little things each day to help me find my focus or clarity, I am in a better mood and the lenses that I view the world through tend to fall away to a certain degree.

The little things that nurture the soul are specific and unique to each person. They include anything from simple repetitive tasks (doing the dishes, washing windows, sewing, etc), to artistic expression (drawing, playing music, painting, dancing, scrap booking, singing, etc), to things that further your connection with yourself as well as faith of some sort, (praying, meditation, reading), and anything else that helps you relax and get in touch with your self and those who surround you everyday.

When was the last time you did things like this, to just let yourself be and free yourself from the manacles that tend to bind you to your responsibilities and the daily stresses that are often a result of our own thoughts. When was the last time you took a good, deep, refreshing breath? We breath all day, and it is usually unconscious unless you focus on it. But have you ever noticed how good one deep breath into your lungs feels? Once you realize it, you tend to continue breathing deeply and find how relaxed it can make you. When I take the time to breath deeply and meditate, it allows me to come to terms with what things have taken priority over others, and whether or not they should have. It allows me to break away from the self-centered way of thinking that our society today preaches. It furthers the connection I have with people and allows me to be empathetic instead of apathetic, selfless rather than selfish.

I don't do this as often as I should. I wish I did it often enough to make it a habitual, daily (but not routine) practice. If everyone took time out to consider why people act the way they do, what could be motivating them, or what could be troubling them, then what a far cry the world would be from the one we live in today. In other words, if everyone cared for the gifts that are received when interacting with other people and by realizing the importance of recognizing the emotions that are beyond our own selves, perhaps we could get closer to peace and further from strife and conflict.

We pour all of our money, time, and efforts into furthering our outer appearances, our social status, and basically just trying to fit into the prescribed way of life that society tells us that we need to fit in. Instead of focusing on the important things that will further us on our individual journeys, we tend to fall into distorted lives that are not truly reflective of who we actually are. Be true to yourself and your feelings or you will burn yourself out trying to complete the simplest tasks of living. Once you are burned out, it is harder to get the spark that will light you up again and it will leave your soul extinguished for when more difficult tasks present themselves.

The only one who can care for your soul and be aware when things go awry is yourself. So try your best to be yourself. That is all that anyone can ask of you. Those who accept the true you are the ones you truly need and those that don't aren't worth bothering with.

Peace. Love. Hope. Faith.

You Never Know

Seize the day, put no trust in tomorrow.

- Horace

I was surfing the Internet a few weeks ago and I found this quote. It immediately struck a chord with me so I copied it down. It is not an entirely original phrase, because when it is boiled down to the raw ideas that motivate the phrase, it tells us of the sacredness as well as the briefness of life itself. I believe that this idea has been floating around since life itself started, and the reality set in of how limited of a time we have on this earth.

This past year has been quite an eyeopening time for me, as I have started to practice introspection quite a bit. I have learned so much about myself and discovered areas of my personality and self that I never brought to light before. From this I have found that I have been pretty careless with my time in the past 19 years of life. I have spent a lot of time being anxious, being sad, taking foolish risks that could have had a detrimental effect on my health. I basically took every day as if it was owed to me and if I wanted to waste it away being sad and angry at the world, so be it. This realization has hit me hard again and again, like running at a wall and getting up and hitting it head on again. As I have come to realize that I continually fall into the same pattern, I do feel that this realization has allowed me to try and veer from the pattern slightly, bit by bit.

So thoughts have been running crazy through my head since I have realized that I have been living in a habituated pattern of anguish and sadness for many of my days. I have begun to turn my life around, trying to live more freely from the self-induced confines that I have put myself under. So the point of my writing is to establish a written record of the beginning of a new phase in my life. Hopefully I can stick with it. I believe I can, because if I falter I know that I have a strong support system of people who will encourage me to keep at it. And for that, I am thankful.

Everyday should be a good day to die. Every minute should be spent sparingly, never taken for granted. Live in the moment because the present is the only thing that is really certain. The future is relative. Today is yesterday's tomorrow, yesterday's future. If you spend your time planning or worrying about the future, you miss what is happening now. This very second. Not to say that planning or worrying don't have their place, but when they overtake your life to the degree that you lose your days, you need to take a step back and try to reevaluate.

If you died at the end of the year, the month, tomorrow or in the next breath, would you have regrets about how you lived your life? I'm trying to live without too many regrets, worrying about worthless things. I need to let the chips fall where they may, leave the myth of perfection alone, and see it for what it is, an unattainable, yet unwanted goal. I should let my imperfections and mistakes that I make, not define me, but help build me into a better person.

Strive for peace of mind, body, and soul because you never know...