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(* Half Moon Book Review

September 1st, 2010

Welcome to my new “Half Moon Book Review!”

half moon

I’ve been reading so many awesome books lately, I decided that I needed an official way in which to share my thoughts about them. Out of that need, the idea for this formed.

I must warn you all, if I pick up a book and am bored out of my skull by page 30, I DO put them down. I won’t power through a book and give a luke warm review. I will tell you that I stopped reading and why.

Some book just aren’t my cup of tea, as I’m sure you can ALL understand.

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Stillness Speaks by Eckhart Tolle

Stillness Speaks

This was a wonderful book. I borrowed mine from the library for two weeks, renewed it and kept it for another two weeks, and have decided to just buy a copy of my own.

It doesn’t read like a book. It’s split up into small, easily digestible pieces that make a wonderful tool for the master and novice, alike.

Some “snippets” are only one or two lines and some are several paragraphs long, but they all bring a thought provoking message about the stillness within. About how to connect with that creative and perfect silence within you.

I’ll share one of my favorites from the book as an example.

That plant that you have in your home – have you ever truly looked at it? Have you allowed that familiar yet mysterious being we call “plant” to teach you it’s secrets? Have you noticed how deeply peaceful it is? How it’s surrounded by a field of stillness? The moment you become aware of a plant’s emanation of stillness and peace, that plant becomes your teacher.

I sat down in a comfy chair and read the entire book in about 3 hours. Then I started going through and reading one little “snippet” in the morning, and then another in the evening before bed. That is probably how I will continue on with it when my own copy arrives from Amazon.

I ♥ Amazon!

This is a seekers book for sure. I also want to add; This book doesn’t read like “Eckhart Tolle.” I’ve known some people that just couldn’t follow Tolle very well and preferred not to read his books. This book is split up in such a way that it’s a VERY easy read. I would recommend it to everyone, but most especially anyone who wants to try or is new to meditation. As you read each little part, and then contemplate the words, it becomes a meditation in and of itself.

I felt like this book was a demonstration of how becoming still in the mind isn’t necessarily about sitting cross-legged in the corner with your eyes closed. Stillness is everywhere just waiting for your mind to become still enough for you to become a witness.

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My affirmations until ….. ? I LOVE these 3!!!~
I AM a miracle in motion~ Only more miracles can come from me*
My words have power~ I will choose them wisely*
Wonderful new experiences give me wonderful new ways to express the divinity that I am*

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Comments ( 2 )

Book Love, Eckhart Tolle, Half Moon Book Review, Meditation, Stillness Speaks

Seeking Life

August 29th, 2010

Happy Spirit day, my friends :)

Last night we attended Mike’s boss’ annual pig roast… And I got drunk and sang karaoke!

Some people really love to sing karaoke, and do it on a fairly regular basis. I am not one of those people. I did it last year at the boss’ party for the first time. Once I worked through the terror and the feeling that I was gonna throw up, it wasn’t so bad.

This year I was just as anxious. I had to keep pep talking myself into it.

“You’ve done this before. It’s no big deal. You LOVE to sing. No one booo’d you off stage. They’re drinking too and don’t care. Besides, you sound better than half of them. At least you keep tempo and KNOW the songs…”

So with that, I got up and opened with The Beatles, When I’m Sixty-Four.

* * * * * * * * * * *

I’m trying to live… as a verb. Not live as a passive bump-on-a-log like I’ve been doing for 12 years now.

I’m trying to get out there and do real things…. new things. Inside these walls, I have more experience than I really know what to do with. Out there, I have none.

I want to do more things that make me anxious and want to throw up… In a good way of course.

I want to feel that high, tingly, anxious, exhilarated, terrified like when you’re on a roller-coaster feeling! I want this feeling to be a part of my, maybe not everyday, but normal life.

I am bored because I am boring. There is so much out there and I long to find and experience it.

I want life to experience ME… authentically, as I am. I want to share ME with the rest of the world as readily as I want to soak up the experiences of all of It.

* * * * * * * * * * *

I’d intended to take guitar lessons with Michael this fall, and I still intend to do it, but I think we’ve had a minor change in plans.

Michael has just started a band class in school that will go on for six weeks. At the end of the six weeks, the kids who want to actually BE in the band will stay, and the rest will return to normal classes. I’m going to wait until the end of these six weeks to start guitar with him because I want him to learn everything they have to teach him about music.

Because I don’t want to wait that long, myself, and because I don’t want to start guitar without him because we won’t be in the same place then and won’t get the discount, I think I’m going to start taking piano lessons in the meantime.

I have always loved piano music and have wanted to learn to play piano for as long as I can remember. Yep, just typing it out makes me a little anxious and a little nauseated. LOL

* * * * * * * * * * *

I am learning that it’s that exhilarated feeling that creates.

It’s that feeling of overflowing joy beyond verbal expression that connects me right to the Universe. When I cultivate that feeling within me as I’ve been doing for a few weeks now, I feel as though I’m sitting right in God’s lap…. Like God is actually Santa and whatever I throw out there while on the lap will readily come flyin’ at me.

Doing things I love to do is good. I mean like, writing, riding my bike, walking in nature, playing with my dogs, etc…

These are all great feeling things that help me to create happiness in my life. But I’m also finding that, when I get the shot of super high exhilaration, it creates faster.

So I will. I will seek things that scare the crap out of me. I will seek things I’ve never done. I will seek things… feelings, experiences… all of it.

I am a seeker.

Comments ( 8 )

Conscious Living, Inspiration, Intention Manifestation, joy quest, Living Life Authentic, Music, Personal Growth, Self Love

Intending to Love My Body

July 15th, 2010

We just passed a New Moon on Sunday (7-11-2010), and I’ve been thinking about a new focus for this month. I’ve decided that feeling better in my body will be my goal (through 8-9-2010).

Who doesn’t want to feel good in their body? Especially this time of year when the weather is hot and we’re covering less of ourselves for the sake of temperature control.

I want to feel better IN my body and ABOUT my body. I want to focus on the things I love about it. I’ve actually already started this and have been doing a little work in this area for about two weeks, but it’s been very inconsistent. Starting today, I want to begin a few new regular habits.

My official intention is: I want to realize the beauty and perfection that is my body so I may love and respect it in kind*

The habits I intend to practice daily for this month are~

Get up at the same time every day
Walk
Look good 2 feel good
Take my supplements
Eat well & with intention/purpose
Drink 8 glasses of water
No more than 2 cups of coffee
Be aware of my posture and the general state of my body

How I intend to implement these new habits into my daily life.

We must remember that intentions are very powerful things, but if we’re not living in alignment with our intentions, they can fall short fast. You cannot change if you don’t change. Duh, right? But really. You can intend to create change, but if you don’t initiate the change, it cannot happen. In other words, you can’t continue doing what you always do and then wonder why change doesn’t come.

This is where I, like many others, fall short with my intentions sometimes. I know what I want, I just don’t follow through and do anything to initiate the change, or I do, but I don’t sustain the momentum, usually because habits fall off a little at a time.

There must be a plan. That’s what you would do with anything else in life you wanted to move toward. You would make a plan of action. That is exactly what I am going to do to ensure my own success.

First, getting up at the same time every day.

I’ve been having some sleeping issues lately and I know it’s directly related to my body and how I feel in and about it, so a regular waking time in the morning is going to be essential in my success.

This is also why I am cutting my caffeine intake down to two cups of coffee per day. And no caffeine after 3pm.

I’m going to walk.

I feel so much better when I get regular exercise. I have a hard time just walking though. Somewhere in my head there’s a voice saying that if I walk, I might as well run or that the walking isn’t making any difference when I know darn well that it is. It can be easy to talk ourselves out of exercise, but walking is easy, doesn’t take a lot of time, and I’m operating on a “No Excuses” train of thought this month. I’m going to sit down and get down a couple affirmations that I can apply during my walk too.

Look good 2 feel good!

After a morning walk, it’s natural to go freshen up, especially in the summer when sweat isn’t only associated with physical exertion. This is where “Look good 2 feel good” comes in. When I put a little effort into my appearance, it completely changes my entire outlook. However, often if I’m not leaving the house, I’ll stay in sweat pants all day. I don’t want to add to an image of laziness in my own head. Just making the extra effort to look nice makes me feel better, regardless of what I do that day. Besides, it’s nice to be able to walk out the door at the drop of a hat without having to wear one.

I am placing my supplements in the area where I sit to brush my hair and don my necklace and earrings, so it will become part of this daily process.

To ensure I’m drinking all 8 glasses of water, I’ll pre measure and refrigerate it before bed so it’s cold and good to go in the morning. I’m also keeping a cut up lemon in a container in the fridge so it can be readily added to my water. I LOVE lemon water!

I want to make a more regular practice of becoming aware of my posture and the state of my body.

My upper back goes out a lot and I get a lot of tension and stress in my neck that brings on headaches. I want to not only become aware of my posture, but I want to sit straighter on purpose and recite a healing affirmation with it. I’m thinking something like “Relaxed, aligned, and feeling fine!”

I’m need a cue to become aware, and I was thinking maybe a bracelet or some such thing that I can use to remind me when I look at it or touch it or something like that. I’m open to suggestions :)

Eat well with intention/purpose.

Last but most certainly not least. I am keeping more fresh fruits and veggies in my house. I am cooking good quality and good tasting food for my family. This is incredibly important. I do this on a regular basis already, except for the extra snack foods in my life. For this month I’m eliminating them. Well, not eliminating snacks, but DEFINITELY making some different choices, like walnuts with a little dark chocolate instead of the Snickers bar. Snickers really satisfies my ass… literally.

One down side of cooking and eating really great food is having it taste SO good, in fact, that you eat roughly three times what you should. I am guilty of this often. I love food. I know it’s not AS bad that what I’m overeating is garlic olive oil sauteed asparagus, but that’s still a lot of extra fat and calories. Not to mislead you into thinking I’m some oddball who only overeats vegetables. If it tastes REALLY good, I will eat too much.

I’m going to start by making sure that at least 3/4 of my plate is filled with food that originated from the ground. Then, when I eat, that 3/4 is going to be what I eat first and foremost, because I may be full and eat less meat by the time I get to it.

The intention and purpose is my favorite part. I try to do this, but forget and chat at the table and lose all track of what I’ve been shoveling into my face. I will take care to be more present when I eat. And no more second helpings. I mindlessly eat when I go for seconds. I will be sure to taste and enjoy my food, and pay close attention to signals I may be receiving from my stomach.

So that about wraps it up. I’m going to keep a journal through this. Just deciding to do this and going into it with a plan of action has me feeling better about myself already :)

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My affirmation until Sunday, 7-25-10 on the Full Moon~
As I focus upon being happy, all other joy filled things in my life expand*

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