September 11, 2013
Today, I am grateful for the little things that bless my life each day. A smile on a stranger’s face, the birds that sing at the break of day and the sweet serenity of stillness in the evening. ~ Pamela J. Leavey
April 23, 2013
If you are like me, and most everyone else in the world, there are days when you struggle to find inner peace, contentment and happiness in your life. Yet, if you reflect back at the end of each day, you will find that you can see happy moments in every day.
Erica Rodefer Winters wrote about her efforts to find happiness at Yoga Journal‘s blog, The Good Life. Winters suggest a keeping a “daily happiness log” as journaling method to find contentment:
Each day before I go to bed, I sit down and try to recall the one happiest moment of my day. I allow myself one line on my ruled paper notebook to express the moment (because I know I need to keep it short if I’m going to do it every day). At the end of each week or whenever I’m feeling down, I read what I’ve written, re-living each happy moment one by one. It always brings a smile to my face. I look for themes—things that make me happy time and time again, such as listening to my daughter laugh—and I know these are the things on which I should focus my energy.
One of the loveliest parts of this exercise is that when I’m keeping the journal, I know I’m going to need to write something down at the end of the day so I start to really look for the happy moments. I realize that I make mental notes of a lot of happy times throughout the course of the day. I’m starting to feel more contentment in this beautiful life I’m living. It doesn’t mean that I stop working toward my goals. It just means that even if I never reach them, I can still slow down and be happy with where I am right now.
What a fabulous idea… You keep it short and simple… And then reflect back on the list weekly. I love this idea so much, I’m going to start my happiness journal tonight!
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October 2, 2012
“Today, I am grateful for the little things that bless my life each day. A smile on a strangers face, the birds that sing at the break of day and the sweet serenity of stillness.” ~ Pamela J. Leavey
(Photo: Great White Egret at Parker River National Wildlife Refuge ~ c. Pamela J. Leavey 2012)
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February 5, 2012
I was first introduced to the teaching of J. Krishnamurti while studying A Course In Miracles, with Tara Singh while living in Los Angeles. Since then I have found great comfort and wisdom from the teaching of J. Krishnamurti…
The center of suffering
When you see a most lovely thing, a beautiful mountain, a beautiful sunset, a ravishing smile, a ravishing face, that fact stuns you, and you are silent; hasn’t it ever happened to you? Then you hug the world in your arms. But that is something from outside which comes to your mind, but I am talking of the mind which is not stunned but which wants to look, to observe. Now, can you observe without all this upsurging of conditioning? To a person in sorrow, I explain in words; sorrow is inevitable, sorrow is the result of fulfillment. When all explanations have completely stopped, then only can you look -which means you are not looking from the center. When you look from a center, your faculties of observation are limited. If I hold to a post and want to be there, there is a strain, there is pain. When I look from the center into suffering, there is suffering. It is the incapacity to observe that creates pain. I cannot observe if I think, function, see from a center- as when I say, ‘I must have no pain, I must find out why I suffer, I must escape.’ When I observe from a center, whether the center is a conclusion, an idea, hope, despair, or anything else, that observation is very restricted, very narrow, very small, and that engenders sorrow. ~~ J. Krishnamurti, The Book of Life
Let go of the suffering, I believe Krishnamurti is saying here. Release it. Sorrow is inevitable, we all go through it. We can’t get past it if we hold it at our center. It’s a hard lesson, but in time we must release the sorrow and suffering and move through it.
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January 31, 2012
Via His Holiness The Dalai Lama on Facebook…
“Generosity is the most natural outward expression of an inner attitude of compassion and loving-kindness. When one desires to alleviate the suffering of others and to promote their well-being, then generosity – in action, word, and thought – is this desire put into practice. It is important to recognize the “generosity” here refers not just to giving in a material sense, but to generosity of the heart.”
We so often equate generosity with a monetary or material worth, but in truth a single smile, a good thought towards someone, a visit, time spent with a loved one who is ailing, all of these things are generosity in action.
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May 18, 2011
“Sometimes your joy is the source of your smile, but sometimes your smile can be the source of your joy.” ~~ Thich Nhat Hanh
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