With everyday stresses putting pressure on all of our lives, it sometimes becomes hard to feel motivated and with the weight of the world on your shoulders, you may become unhappy with your life.

Meditation and Mindfulness are two approaches that are generally associated with relaxation and appreciating the world around you, however they can also be used as a part of everyday life to improve our mindset and the way we live.

Mindfulness is the act of becoming aware of everything around you, how you’re feeling and the stream of consciousness that flows through your mind. Noticing and appreciating the thoughts that enter and leave our minds is a good way to remind ourselves that every thought does indeed come and go, much like everything else in life, namely our problems.

Sadness is one thing, tears are another. Tears are a beautiful release. Sadness is a holding on. It is holding on to what was or what you thought was and what you thought was supposed to stay but did not, could not.  Tears are designed to let sadness flow out of your heart.
 
There is hanging on, and there is letting go. In each case, we are talking about illusion. Every dream that ever came true, it is still illusion, you understand.
 
In the world, everything goes on, yet it is all a golden brick path. Nothing ever was, and everything was not. In a manner of speaking, the world, which is made of matter, has no substance. The world is like a photo.
 
The extant world does not hold the reliability you desire. There is a tendency for you to see the world as a liability, a gauntlet that you are required to run through. Too often, this life that you see as a gauntlet is too much for you, and you don’t know where to turn. In a wilderness of life, you feel lost and, perhaps, entrapped.
 
Let go of the illusion of danger. No matter how real-seeming, even danger is illusion. You cannot capture life as if you could squeeze it in your hand. Come to admit that life is elusive. The more you try to catch life and clasp it, the more it seems to run away. You can see that life runs away from you. You almost have it in the palm of your hand, yet you don’t clasp it. On the other hand, you may run away from life, and it picks you up and drops you here and there.
 

Many of the layers and subtleties in Orwell’s 1984, though fixed for the sake of fiction, so perfectly reflect the non-fictional world – the impulses of totalitarian institutions and the spirit of individuals – that it has become a near timeless representation. Arguably the most significant political fiction ever written, 1984 begins with the daily Two Minutes of Hate during the time period “in preparation for Hate Week.”

Orwell knew… Hatred is a control mechanism.

The more repressed a society the more hateful all within must be. In order for oligarchical collectivism to take hold – in order for the few to benefit over the many without recognition or revolution – hatred must be infused. Hatred leads to the “us and them” mentality which drives clever reasoning to convince people to kill and be killed in the name of an institutional godhead. The more repressive and evil an institution, the more hatred they will drive and instill.

HJ: Life is inevitably filled with challenges and it is the inner strength and resilience we have cultivated that allows us to successfully and prosperously navigate them.  The always wise Rick Hanson shows us a simple but powerful practice for cultivating this inner strength and resilience to be able to thrive in any situation.

- Truth

Grow a Key Inner Strength

Key inner strength is the good stuff we want to have inside ourselves.

By Rick Hanson Ph.D. | Psychology Today

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What do you need?

The Practice:
Grow a key inner strength.

Why?

We all have issues – including demands upon us, stresses, illnesses, losses, vulne...

“This is why alchemy exists. So that everyone will search for his treasure, find it, and then want to be better than he was in his former life. Lead will play its role until the world has no further need for lead; and then lead will have to turn itself into gold. That’s what alchemists do. They show that, when we strive to become better than we are, everything around us becomes better, too.” ~ Paulo Coelho

Transformation is tough. Even healthy transformation is difficult work. In fact, healthy transformation can be even more painful than unhealthy transformation. It is scary stretching comfort zones and breaking mental paradigms. It’s uncomfortable thinking outside of traditional and parochial boxes, especially when those boxes are all we’ve ever thought inside of. Creating art is one of the ways we have to smooth the transition of transformation, and art can even make the process an exciting adventure.

Attachment is the origin, the root of suffering; hence it is the cause of suffering. – The Dalai Lama

You’ve probably seen or read something like it before on the Internet.

A beautiful image with a short quote that says something to the significance of “let it go” (if you don’t believe me, type “let go” into Google and look under the images tab).

And I’m not talking about the Frozen theme song, I’m talking about the idea of letting go of things in your life, whatever that may be.

But rarely is it actually explained how to actually “let it go”. More often than not it’s become no more than a slogan for happy living, with vague guidance at best.

What I do find interesting though is that most of us seem to realize intuitively how important it is to live without clinging to things, even if we’re not exactly sure how that’s supposed to happen.

By John Holland

Is your soul trying to get your attention?

Synchronicities and so-called coincidences are clear signs that the Divine Source is knocking on your door. Sometimes it could be a soft tap or for those times when you’re not paying attention, it could be a loud bang!

When source works through synchronicities, it can manifest itself in some pretty unique ways. I have my own definition and refer to them as my divine nudges. For example, it’s when I hear the same phrase or saying from more than one person in a day? It’s when the same numbers keep showing up in your life? Has someone mentioned the same person you were just thinking of? Have you met someone out of the blue who seemed to answer a question that you were just pondering?