Listen for the joyful noise!

Listen for the joyful noise that is coming from your own heart! It's there, it really is. Anytime that we feel confused in our lives, we can take a moment to breathe and feel inside for the heart perspective. "What is my heart saying?" is the most useful question I will ever ask myself at any given moment. All inspiration comes from our own hearts, and it always feels light, like love, solution, playful humor and compassion.

The most important and powerful goal I feel that I wish for everyone is for all of us to be able to hear our own heart and to trust what we hear. If we are going to err, it is far far better to err on the side of trusting our own inner guidance, always. And the beautiful thing about that is that when we own that, fully own it, then we understand that we cannot know what is best for others, right? Funny how that works. ;-) <3

I promise you, it really is true that no other person can hear what is best for you, or anyone who is listening in their own heart. So get in there and start to figure out what is in your own heart, it may not be easy, but it is the key to everything. There are many awesome teachers out there that can help, I bet if you look around and listen for the joyful noise in your own heart, you will find just the right ones for you!

Love Is Always The Answer

I edit my posts, comments, etc., quite often and sometimes I even delete them entirely. I do this because I try to make sure that the things that I am putting out to the world are coming from love, from my heart, from an inspired place. I grew up with a spiritual teacher that taught me that intention is everything and that love is the highest intention, as well as the most effective way through… everything. So, when I come across something that feels like a 'problem’ I try to stay in my heart and to look for solutions. When I see things that I just really don't like, I try to simply hide them without judgement. Love accepts everything, light and dark, equally, that is the nature of love, obviously. For me personally, staying in my heart and in an inspired place means keeping my focus on the things that shine, keeping the company of people who hold love and inspiration as their intention, and not indulging my ego’s whims.

That being said, I believe that everyone's path is perfect for them, I genuinely do, I’m not just saying that. We are all beautiful works of art in a state of perpetual transformation and transformation requires cycles of both creation and destruction. Because of that, none of us can know what is best for another. It is on each one of us to feel our way through this crazy life and to either listen to our hearts, or not, if that is where we are at. I was taught at an early age that everything happens for the best, and that’s how I choose to see the world, through the eyes of faith. That choice has always worked well for me, perhaps if it hadn’t I might not feel as I do, hard to say. My choices are only what I feel are best for me though, not anyone else, unless they feel it for themselves.

I believe in all of this because it's what I learned from my spiritual teacher from an early age, but also because it is what I have observed in my life and the lives of many other people that I know as well. Holding this understanding, for me, requires being comfortable with contrast, and owning how invaluable it is, and always has been, to my own process of transformation. All of the challenges in my life help me to become more and more resilient and I value resilience pretty highly. Also, all of my experiences have made me who I am today, and I actually do love my perfectly imperfect self. I am not always successful at keeping myself aligned with my heart, and that is actually a good thing too because it keeps me humble… well hopefully! Ha ha ha.

The Thing About Love & Respect...

When you work on loving and respecting yourself, you concern yourself less and less with what other people think or do. You begin to realize that the thoughts and actions of others are only letting you know when you are listening from your heart. Your heart will only ever inspire you to love yourself and others more, it will only speak to you with a positive voice. The heart speaks from love, from lightness of being, from kind and playful humor. When I listen to the joyful noise I am hearing my heart's voice, this I know for myself for dang sure. Huzzah! ;-)

And, of course, when you work on loving and respecting yourself, you genuinely hope for everyone to do the same. When you work on loving and respecting yourself your ability to feel compassion for others grows and as that compassion grows it is like a big bubble that melts animosity for others, even those that you do not understand at all. Agenda no longer feels good, only inspiration does. Appreciation starts to feel more and more delicious to your soul, and of course, you will begin to notice more and more people in your life treating you with love and respect. That's how it works, just like happiness, it's an inside job.

Go look in a mirror and think of someone that you love very very much, someone that inspires and gives you a feeling of joy. When you have connected with those wonderful feelings, then look into your own beautiful eyes and say I love you to your own sweet self. There are many ways to work on loving and respecting yourself more, this is just one simple easy way to start shifting the inner momentum. It takes bravery for some. Try it, especially if it sounds ridiculous and feels embarrassing, in fact... just try it and see if you notice any shift at all. 

Contemplating Kindness

Kindness seems to be a bit of a theme this week, I love it. I feel like this meme from Byron Katie generally sums up my feelings about it but I felt like adding my two cents anyway, as I often do, ha ha ha. MwwwaaAH!

To me, kindness is really just love, and like abundance, love always wants to share itself. When you make love a life goal, beginning with loving and accepting yourself, and working towards living more and more in your heart, kindness is a bi-product of that work. I especially feel like a champion of love when I feel genuine kindness towards someone who has felt like a challenge in my life. For me, understanding that love and happiness always want to share themselves makes it easier to see a challenging person with love. Happy people wish for everyone to feel happy. People who feel loved, want everyone to feel loved. When I remember this, it becomes easier not to take unkindness personally, and to work towards meeting it with kindness.

Kindness to me isn't necessarily about taking care of others, physically or emotionally, it can be, but sometimes it's just about trying to see the best in people whether you like them or not. It can mean having compassion and accepting people wherever they are at, sometimes from afar, and wishing for the best for them. Sometimes it means keeping one's mouth zipped and staying the hell away from them, ha ha ha. I am always working on speaking from my heart, and with honesty, but also with discretion around what I choose to say, or not say... pausing and asking myself is this useful? Am I pushing an agenda or speaking from my heart?

Sometimes, for me, kindness really is about keeping a healthy boundary. If I feel that my presence, actions or words are not wanted or valued, or if I feel taken advantage of, or any kind of resentment, it's best to step away, clean my own internal shit up and then assess whether to talk it out or if it's best to simply offer love and light from afar. Kindness without boundaries, or showing kindness towards others at the expense of kindness to our own sweet self, well that is really just codependence, which I have found does not often end well, lol.

What is kind in any given situation really depends on the individual situation in that moment but, imho, genuine kindness always comes from the heart, it feels like inspiration, and it gives space to whoever needs it. Love, love and more love to all y'all.