If there’s one thing I know about Earthlings, it’s that they love to laugh. How many times have you caught yourself howling at an old re-run of “I Love Lucy”? Lucy and Ethel at the chocolate factory… Lucy stomping grapes in Italy… the list goes on. But making people laugh wasn’t the only thing Lucille Ball was terrific at. She understood one of the great principles of life on planet Earth: she knew how to love herself. Yup. Love herself. Turns out Ricky wasn’t the only one who loved Lucy. Lucyloved Lucy!
“I have an everyday religion that works for me. Love yourself first, and everything else falls into line.” – Lucille Ball.
Great quote, eh? It’s on my fridge door. Imagine loving yourself. So simple. So profound. And so… well… uncommon, right? How consistently do you treat yourself with kindness? How often do you really love you?
Yet loving ourselves is the basis of all Self-care. We need to feed our bodies with nourishing foods, feed our minds with nourishing thoughts, and feed our souls with inspiration.
The question is, do we actually do that day in and day out? Heck no! We get caught up in the stories we tell ourselves: “We aren’t worthy, we don’t have time, we don’t deserve it.”
Dear Earthlings: What a load of crap.
Yogic philosophy talks about a principle known as “Ahimsa”. It’s a Sanskrit word that means “non-violence against other living beings”… people, animals, insects… and … you guessed it… ourselves!
Not loving ourselves is actually against yogic law. Hey, wouldn’t it be great if we could hand out tickets???
Feeling stressed? Welcome to life. Personally, I think the world is wired to encourage stress so that lots of different companies can make lots and lots of money.
Think about it.
What do we Earthlings do when we’re feeling stressed? We turn to wine, beer, liquor, marijuana, fast food, processed food, expensive dinners out, expensive vacations or a session of retail therapy. Many of us do these things because we don’t have the tools we need to manage our stress. It’s that simple. We turn to something outside of ourselves instead of looking inside, where all the power lies.
Breaking free is simple. And best of all, it’s free.
Close your eyes and breathe. Focus onyour breath going in and out of your nostrils. Imagine your thoughts are tied to the strings of balloons. Let them float away. You don’t need them anymore.
Do this for two minutes a day. Anywhere. Lying in bed, in the shower, on the toilet (really!), in line at the grocery store, sitting on your front porch in the morning, anywhere.
It’s a re-boot for your brain that lets you approach your day from a place of calm instead of a place of overwhelm.
There are 1440 minutes in a day. Can you devote 2 of themto staying on your surfboard as you ride the wave of life? 2?
The next time you go to the Dollar Store, take a minute to notice what I call the “Wall of Sugar”: bags of candies hanging from little silver hooks, and boxes of chocolate bars sitting in tidy sugary rows. Not to mention the Betty Crocker icing, Pop Tarts and cookies you’ll find there, too. It all looks so pretty. But let’s call it what it is: socially acceptable crack cocaine. Cheap sugar wrapped in shiny paper; the ultimate wolf in sheep’s clothing.
The more we’re hooked, the more we buy… and that’s the way, uh-huh, uh-huh, they like it – uh-huh, uh-huh.
While the multi-nationals rake in billions in profits (some sources suggest the worldwide sugar industry will be worth 100 billion dollars by 2022), we humans pay the tragic price with skyrocketing rates of obesity, diabetes and heart disease. The sugar barons are killing us. Killing us. And what’s worse – we’re letting them.
Of all the things Earthlings do, this has got to be one of the weirdest. We allow big business to hook us on an addictive substance, poison our bodies and make us sick. Oh, and then we go back for more. How messed up is that? Answer: incredibly.
Time to wake up, fellow rebels! We don’t have to be slaves to sugar. You heard me. The solution is simple: just stop buying it.Yup. With those four simple words, we can storm the barricades and be free!!! Where’s the cast of Les Miserables when you need them? Oh yeah. Right here. 😀
Ever catch yourself yelling at the GPS in your car? You’ve programmed your destination and everything should be tickety-boo. But Thelma with the British accent is telling you to turn left, and you’re sure she must be wrong, so you override her… turn right… and promptly get lost. Here’s the thing. You told the GPS what you wanted, but you resisted the directions it gave you. Crazy, huh? The same thing happens with our internal GPS,our personal emotional guidance system. Its job is to lead us where our heart wants to go. When we don’t follow, it physically hurts. We feel a gnawing ache in the pit of our stomach. So why do we resist? Most of us probably aren’t even aware we’re doing it. Fear is hijacking our ride. It’s taking us on a detour miles from the place we really want to go. Wouldn’t it be great if we could think differently? Do differently? Spoiler alert. We can. Instead of resisting, try allowing.Let yourself go where your GPS is leading. The energy of life wants to flow like water and take us downstream – where things are easy, fun and joyful. It’s up to us to allow it to. How many times have you slammed on the brakes when what you really wanted to do was hit the gas pedal? Sure, it takes practice; any new habit does. But the payoff will be huge. The payoff will be feeling good.
Pop music. It’s catchy, sure, but have you ever noticed how it sometimes focuses on the past and what went wrong there? Think of The Beatles and “Yesterday”, or Adele and “Hello”. The melodies are beautiful, but the lyrics are filled with sadness and regret. Energetically, they’re vibrating at a lower frequency – and listening to them makes us vibrate at a lower frequency, too. Kind of like a tuning fork, eh? Most of the time, we probably don’t even realize it; we’re too busy singing along with Spotify to notice. Vietnamese monk Thich Nhat Hanh knows a thing or two about this. He’s a big fan of Now. Visit his Buddhist monastery in France and you’ll notice there’s a tradition there. At designated times during the day, the sisters and monks ring a mindfulness bell. Everyone within earshot stops their conversations and whatever they are doing, and brings awareness to their breathing. The bell is a reminder to come back to this moment – the one where our life is unfolding… Now. When you think about it, some of the best music brings us back to now… where we feel a smile on our face and joy as we sing along. Regret over the past and worry about the future don’t even enter our minds. How do we get there? Change the playlist, baby, change the playlist. Pharrell Williams anyone?
Wouldn’t it be great if we were constantly surrounded by love? Nothing but positive vibrations, loving words and intentions swirling around us from sun-up to sundown? Last time I checked, the world we live in was a little more cranky than that. Nuclear war, terrorism, murders – you name it – there’s enough bad stuff going on the world to keep the TV newscasts in business 24/7. The more we watch, the higher the ratings, the higher their profits. Ever notice how awful you feel after you watch? It drags your vibration down, pure and simple. The good news is that we can literally change our focus and changethat vibration. Yup. One of my favourite spiritual teachers, Pam Grout (author of “E-Squared”), knows all about it. Pam sees life as an energy lab where we create our own reality . Stay with me, okay? And she loves experiments. My favourite one asks you to look for “Sunset Beige” cars the next time you’re out on the highway. “Ha!” I thought. “Like anyone drives a Sunset Beige car.” Lo and behold, when I changed my focus and looked for them, I discovered that they are – well – everywhere. Just like good in the world. Just like love and kindness and compassion and joy. They are everywhere, too… swirling around us from sun-up to sundown. And all we have to do is look for them. We really do get what we look for. Bazinga, baby.
