This is a useful, practical article on five strategies for working with those negative thought loops we all can get caught up in. And, good news is these strategies really do work! Click on the link to read the article: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/renee-jain/negative-thoughts-throw-them-out-and-four-other-ideas_b_6308030.html
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Just posted a new video over in the Educational Video section of my website. This TED TALK by Phil Hansen titled "Embrace the Shake" is really about radical acceptance and the power, freedom, creativity, and possibility that can come by learning to work with reality as it is, instead of wanting so much for things, people, situations etc to be different than how they are. While in art school, Phil Hensen developed a tremor in his hand and he gave up on his dream of becoming an artist. That is, until a neurologist suggested that he "Embrace the Shake"..... Check it out by clicking on the Education Video link to the left of this blog.
Just posted another great TED TALK video by Brene Brown (click on Educational Videos link on the left links bar to locate this talk.) Exploring the concept of 'Wholeheartedness", Brene explores the following questons: How do we learn to embrace our vulnerabilities and imperfections so that we can engage in our lives from a place of authenticity and worthiness? How do we cultivate the courage, compassion, and connection that we need to recognize that we are enough – that we are worthy of love, belonging, and joy?
 One phrase that I am know for saying is "we always have a choice about how we respond to what life is handing us at any given moment." Tara Brach, author of the book "Radical Acceptance", wrote a wonderful blog post just on this point, which I have re-posted below.
Tara's post: One of my favorite stories took place a number of decades ago when the English had colonized India and they wanted to set up a golf course in Calcutta. Besides the fact that the English shouldn’t have been there in the first place, the golf course was not a particularly good idea. The biggest challenge was that the area was populated with monkeys. The monkeys apparently were interested in golf too, and their way of joining the game was to go onto the course and take the balls that the golfers were hitting and toss them around in all directions. Of course the golfers didn’t like this at all, so they tried to control the monkeys. First they built high fences around the fairway; they went to a lot of trouble to do this. Now, monkeys climb…so, they would climb over the fences and onto the course . . . that solution just didn’t work at all. The next thing they tried was to lure them away from the course. I don’t know how they tried to lure them—maybe waving bananas or something—but for every monkey that would go for the bananas, all their relatives would come into the golf course to join the fun. In desperation, they started trapping them and relocating them, but that didn’t work, either. The monkeys just had too many relatives who liked to play with golf balls! Finally, they established a novel rule for this particular golf course: the golfers in Calcutta had to play the ball wherever the monkey dropped it. Those golfers were onto something! We all want life to be a certain way. We want the conditions to be just so, and life doesn’t always cooperate. Maybe it does for awhile, which makes us want to hold on tight to how things are, but then things change. So sometimes it’s like the monkeys are dropping the balls where we don’t want them, and what can we do? Often we react by blaming…ourselves, or others or the situation. We might become aggressive. Or perhaps we feel victimized and resign. Or sometimes we soothe ourselves with extra food or drink. But clearly, none of these reactions are helpful. If we are to find any peace, if we are to find freedom, what we need to do is learn to pause and say, “Okay. This is where the monkeys dropped the ball. I’ll play it from here, as well as I’m able.” So, how do we do that? What if you pause right now, and take a moment to be quiet. Can you think of a place in your life where things are not cooperating with how you would like them to be? Whatever unfortunate place the monkeys have dropped a ball in your life, bring your focus to that. It could be something that happens in a relationship with another person, where you get reactive. What would it mean to “play the ball” here? If you could tap into your deepest wisdom, your true compassion, how would you like to respond to these circumstances? One of the great teachings in spiritual life is this: It doesn’t matter what is happening. What matters is how we respond. How we respond is what determines our happiness and peace of mind. So how might you respond with presence, when you find the monkeys have dropped the ball in a difficult spot? For more posts by Tara, check out www.blog.tarabrach.com (click on link to open) |
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