Tag: sarah ban Breathnach

• Spoiled Brat?

  Sarah Ban Breathnach writes in her book, “Moving On,” let’s take a fresh look at the word that saps our strength often:

  Scared.

  “What difference do it make if the thing you scared of is real or not?” wonders Toni Morrison. Fair enough question. Woman have always know how to comfort the fears of others; we just don’t remember to use the same tender, loving, tactics on ourselves. So the next time you feel a random panic attack starting, take a deep breath, and transpose the “a” and the “c” in “scared” and you’ll find not only another word but a world of difference. You’ll uncover the

  Sacred

  Doesn’t that make you feel better already? It works for me, every time. I’d be willing to bet the house that your sacred, like mine, is very close – the walls surrounding you or the floorboards supporting you, even if they need a good scrub. The best definition I ever heard of fear is “False Events Appearing Real.” When I am anxious I notice that my fears seem to be speculative future-tense marauders. Will there be enough? What will I do? How will I cope? The best way I know how to disarm such fear is by keeping a Gratitude Journal. A Gratitude Journal is a polite, daily thank-you note to the Universe- and a reminder to yourself of the very real blessings you have now. In this moment. You know how insulted you are after you’ve knocked yourself out for your kids and all you get in return is surly silence. What am I raising you probably wonder, a bunch of brats? Well, an ancient spiritual axiom teaches us, “As below, so above.”

  Because you’re not spoiled rotten, at the end of every day write down five things or moments you experienced for which to be thankful. Small pauses that brought a smile or a sense of relief during the day. The kindness of somebody holding your place in the post office line when you have a lot of packages to get from the car. The plumber showing up on time. Fitting in to last summer’s shorts. A hug from a friend. A fortune cookie with just the right message. Saying no to a bake sale without guilt. Easily switching carpooling days. Getting an extension on the deadline. Better yet, meeting the deadline, Phew!

  We think it’s the big moments that define our lives – the promotion, the new baby, the renovated kitchen, the wedding. But the narrative of our lives is written in the small, the simple and the common. The overlooked. The discarded. The reclaimed. Life is not made up of minutes, hours, days, weeks, months, or years, but the moments. You must experience each one before you can appreciate it.

  Whether you are chopping carrots, shampooing your hair, writing a memo, making love, talking on the phone, walking the dog, or eating an apple, savor those sensations involved. All of those moments, whether happy, routine, or even painful are Life’s heartbeats.
  Sarah

  In the past six years I have been made to be much more sensitive to each of life’s heartbeats, to feel that which is in reality now, and even how life seems to be lived on a pinhead of time, how it literally is the heartbeat of life.

  This moment, the one we are breathing in is where life happens and to be grateful or even to see all that arrives is overwhelming.

  I love how she says we could be like spoiled brats and not even pay attention to all that the Universe gives us each day.

  Yesterday while delivering mail in the high winds and whiteout conditions, I focused on the black bare roads at times, and was so grateful to see their blackness in midst of swirling white. “Thank you black roads!”

  When you begin to look for things to be grateful for, you will find more and more grateful things.

  I will just watch how I go about my days, how I approach or leave little moments in time, and I a grateful child or a spoiled brat?

  February 19, 2011

  gratitude, journals, life, Moving On, sacred, sarah ban Breathnach, scared, thank, Universe, you

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• The Artist Way

  On the CD of “Romancing the Ordinary” by Sara Ban Breathnach, she mentions Julia Cameron a few times. She is the author of the book, “The Artist Way”.

  My brother sent me the book and notebook that went along with it a little over six years ago to begin discovering the Artist within me.

  Julia wanted us to write “Morning Pages” just a simple practice of writing a few pages each morning, putting to paper our thoughts.

  They could be just stating what we had to do that day, how we were feeling, just ramblings but getting them out of our heads and on to the pages, cleaning up the space to be creative.

  I was a beginning student to this Way, when all hell broke lose in my life, and what surprised me greatly, is that I clung to these morning pages, which often grew to day long pages, for sometimes I wrote morning, noon and night.

  I filled that first book in a short time and then bought my first journal and after four years of writing longhand, I began a blog.

  I still write most days, sometimes more depending upon the unsettledness of my soul; writing is now part of who I am.

  What is so synchronistic is this book came to me just a week or so shy of a major event in my life, and it helped me find my way.

  What also has happened simultaneously my Artist arrived, she is having a ball playing with ladies, fabric, colors, designs, and is going places Artists go and her work is in an Art Gallery.

  I don’t know the way, but it seems to happen anyway.

  Perhaps that is the Artist Way.

  (I will have to go back and read in her book to see the marks I hit unbeknownst to me.)

  February 13, 2011

  Artist Way, Books, colors, creating, fabric, Julia Cameron, learning, life, quilting, Romancing the Ordinary, sarah ban Breathnach, soul, writing

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• While waiting…

  What came to me today while mindlessly tossing mail, was that the reason I was so sorely affected by my daughter’s life, was that her life was in my life, that we didn’t have a clear and separate space between what is hers and what is mine, the apron string was still connected.

  The impact upon my body and psyche was equal to it happening to me, where my inner wounded child responded, my ‘mental lady’ mom came out ready to fight battle, and the Loving awareness arrived all fully engaged in her life as soon as she spoke of her crisis.

  What was so beautiful and tragically displayed were how all the parts of me felt and responded and finally released her to be on her own, a completely felt separation and liberation for myself but more importantly for her.

  She was given her life without any strings attached to me.

  While it was the hardest thing for me to do, to let my child go it was almost like a second birth, but this time a birth of freedom.

  And a three-week labor of intense inner working and letting go.

  As long as I feel the strain or worry of what her actions will be, there is a string attached into my world, and I have to snip it to let her be fully and completely free.

  It is not to say, I will no longer give word of wisdom or point out what I see in reality, or how I see changes happening between her and I, I will. But the greatest thing is, that our bodies and psyches are separated.

  It almost seems like this was my last co-dependent exam, a lesson with huge consequences one that my old co-dependent self would have longed to get wrapped up in like an old cozy blanket.

  Yet this time it felt like I was being possessed by another’s life, that their choices had the power to make or break my life, take my peace, destroy my inner sanctity of love and joy and that I was once again riding shotgun in another’s life.

  It was the ultimate life review of how it feels to be a victim in a co-dependent relationship.

  When I look at my daughter there are no strings attached to my happiness or my unhappiness, instead I am sitting in a place of wonder.

  I wonder what it is she will do.
  I wonder how it will affect her.
  I wonder, but my life isn’t totally eclipsed by her life, I feel space opening up and distance coming in.

  A place where If she is to suffer, I can be there as the non-suffering one, we are no longer one big animal of two.

  Today, I was listening to a CD by Sarah Ban Breathnach called, “Romancing the Ordinary.” What she is teaching and talking about is how to romance your self and be fully engaged and in love with you and your life.

  It is simply delightful in the very simple ways we can look around where we are and see what is all there. How we can listen instead of just hear, how we can use all our senses to connect to the Universe.

  I am thinking as long as I was connected to the lives of so many, there wasn’t space or feelings of my senses left for me to use in my life, for me to feel for me, to see for me, to be for me, for so long my life has been used by others.

  Sarah spoke of the waiting. And in my case I have been waiting for my daughter to make a choice, breathlessly waiting, life stopping waiting.

  What Sarah suggests is to make use of the time while we wait, while the Universe and her soul converse and decide, I can use this time in a million little ways.

  While I wait, I can quilt, I can read, I can sit and watch the sunrise, I can sip tea and watch the fire, feel the warmth of a quilt, smell the scent of a candle, and the waiting will pass by…in delight.

  I can’t know tomorrow or what or when or if, how her life will go, but I can get busy in my life while I wait.

  I love this.

  I already listened to a few CD’s while I waited.

  I enjoyed a bowl of soup and homemade bread, while I waited.

  I love that I am free to pass the time while I wait, instead of sitting and worrying while I wait.

  What a huge gift to live my life while I wait to see what transpires in hers. When she needs me, I can stop enjoying the waiting and act.

  I can’t tell you how this simple idea freed me or gave me permission to enjoy my time while waiting.

  February 11, 2011

  apron, bondage, children, choices, co-dependent, freedom, life, mine, ours, parents, released, Romancing, sarah ban Breathnach, separation, strings, the Ordinary, waiting, yours

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