"For fast acting relief, try slowing down." ~ Lily Tomlin
As a kid I loved watching variety shows. They were filled with a plethora of unusual talent. One of my favorite acts was the guy attempting to keep several plates spinning atop sticks. At this time of year, I find myself recreating that old familiar balancing plates on a stick stunt.
The additional frenzy of the holidays can make the stress of our daily workload reach turbo charged levels. Santa Claus will soon be coming to town with visiting relatives and friends packed and stacked in his sleigh after all. Sure makes me wish that like good Ol' St. Nick, I had a workshop filled with elves to help with getting all the extras done in time.
"I promise you nothing is as chaotic as it seems. Nothing is worth diminishing your health. Nothing is worth poisoning yourself into stress, anxiety, and fear."
~ Steve Maraboli
This mad dashing and scrambling about sets the stage for distraction and can cause us to be less careful travelling between home base and our workplace grind. So far this week I have received calls that two close friends had been in serious auto accidents.
As we look forward to time off spent with loved ones, let us take pause to ponder this year's opportunity for fellowship. We are spending so much energy to make everything perfect from decorations, to meals, to gifts with little thought about being present and really actively participating in enjoying the moments.
"Sometimes the most important thing in a whole day is the rest we take between two deep breaths."
~ Etty Hillesum
In each moment and each breath you share over the coming days give yourself, your family and friends the gift of presence. Instead of trying to "enjoy" yourself, intend to exist "in joy". Eat and laugh heartily. Exchange gifts as a cheerful giver. And when you feel like you are about to lose sight or control of one of those spinning plates, take a deep breath, giving thanks for every plate, and let the plates fall where they may.
Choose this holiday season to exist "in joy".
Are you breathing?
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"It's 4:58 on Friday afternoon. Do you know where your margarita is?" ~ Amy Neftzger
"Thank God it's Friday!" is a familiar refrain. A dominant one across cultures. Four words that carry the weight and cares of an entire week plus three in many cases, especially for those balancing other responsibilities like family, school, second jobs and side gigs.
Commitment to our work is imperative, however, we must also make self care a priority. If we are not well in our mind, we are without clarity. If our body is sick, our daily functioning is limited, and if we are ill within our spirit, we are unable to receive. Attempts to live with imbalance leads to incapacity and our ability to operate at maximum capacity for giving in our service to humanity through our work becomes distorted.
"Each person deserves a day away in which no problems are confronted, no solutions searched for. Each of us needs to withdraw from the cares which will not withdraw from us." ~ Dr. Maya Angelou
Balance is a necessity and we must seek it in every aspect of our lives. When it is not a priority, we decrease our opportunities to experience joy. When this occurs, our peace is disturbed and resentment sets in. Most times, we don't hate our jobs, we have just allowed the frustration that comes along as a result of depletion of resources to dominate our lives. Our resources are our minds, our bodies, and our spirits and we must protect them.
Are you living for Fridays?
What is causing the loss of joy in your work?
In what ways can you begin to recover balance in your life?
"There are two aspects of individual harmony: the harmony between body and soul, and the harmony between individuals. All the tragedy in the world, in the individual and in the multitude, comes from lack of harmony. And harmony is best given by producing harmony in one's own life."
~ Hazrat Inayat Khan
As a Sufi teacher from India, Hazrat Inayat Khan, has created several beautiful writings exploring human evolution one of which is "The Art of Being and Becoming."
In this work we receive instruction concerning getting to the center of life. Master Khan believed we could produce harmony in our lives through "the tuning of the heart." As we commit to this work of "tuning" we can change its vibration, he has said, which allows us to experience the joy and ecstasy of life and as a result we can offer the same to others.
"The natural tendency of every soul is towards harmony, and the tendency towards inharmony is an unnatural state of mind or affairs. The psychology of man is such that he responds both to harmony and inharmony." ~ Hazrat Inayat Khan
Much is discussed in this offering concerning the great unrest and discord in the world and from where it emanates. As humans we have the natural tendency to give back what we receive, be it criticism or praise. And Khan says it is from our ignorance of this one fact: that inharmony creates inharmony and that by giving way to inharmony, we allow inharmony to multiply.
As inharmony exists within our responses to inharmony if we learn ways to change ourselves for the better from within, we can help transform our world into a more peaceful, welcoming, and loving place.
A study of this reading might encourage you to examine the following:
Do you function in harmony in your daily living?
What habits have prohibited your ability to increase harmony in your life?
What mechanisms can you begin to apply to help increase your ability to live in a more harmonious way with yourself and others?
"God has never created a soul without giving them a gift." ~ Steve Harvey
As an active part of Creation, all we do produces a ripple effect in the Universe.
We don't often give much conscious thought to the fact that each of us is operating within spiritual gifts poured into our being by our Creator. Consider how the work you engage in serves humanity in big and small ways. Though not in the traditional sense as what we experience at church, mosque, temple, or synagogue, each of us has a ministry.
"There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit distributes them. There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord. There are different kinds of working, but in all of them and in everyone, it is the same God at work." ~ I Corinthians 12:4-6
Most spiritual gifts will fit along the categories of serving, teaching, encouraging, giving, leadership, compassion, wisdom, knowledge, discernment, faith, healing, and helps to name but a few. And it is within these realms of service we find our divine purpose in the Earth plane.
"As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God's varied grace." ~ I Peter 4:10
As you enter your sacred space this week, consider asking for revelation in the area of spiritual gifts. Allow the Creator to reveal how your hands become His in the service of your fellow travelers. The needs of humanity are great indeed and God operates in abundance through each of us.
There are enough hands in the Earth to break every chain and meet every need once we know how we fit into His Plan. Submit to His Purpose by becoming a good steward of the gifts He has endowed and watch Him work through you in mighty ways.
Have your spiritual gifts been identified?
In what ways have you been applying your spiritual gifts through your work?
How has sharing your spiritual gifts with others broadened your human experience?
"Your work is to discover your work and then with all your heart to give yourself to it." ~ Buddha
The third chakra, the solar plexus, is our seat of empowerment. The energy of this center allows us to meet challenges and move toward goals with confidence. "Fired up and ready to go" would be the mantra associated. Blockage here stunts a desire for growth as it determines our level of self worth. A well functioning manipura aids the belief that we have something meaningful to contribute to the world in an excellent and effective way.
Fortunate are those who find their vocational niche early in life. My work with students gives me great joy as I have a passion for encouraging them to develop their best selves so they can make informed choices that set the tone for the rest of their lives. Though I cannot choose for them, I can walk alongside them as a guide through the process of discovery, courage, planning, and perseverance. My excitement for them is palpable as they are just beginning and are awakening to the possibilities.
"The only work that will ultimately bring any good to any of us is the work of contributing to the healing of the world." ~ Marianne Williamson
We are all servants and vessels of healing. What we offer, we receive in like kind within ourselves whether positive or negative. Consider the work you have chosen or that which has chosen you. If you examine your motivations closely you can identify an internal need that drives you toward it. You are either giving from an abundance of joy or pain.
It gives me joy to serve as teacher and encourager in my work. I have been abundantly blessed and it provides an opportunity for me to give back in a way that suits my talents. Even at the end of the most challenging of days, I am fulfilled.
We are ever seeking balance within and our vocation plays an active role in this process. As you walk through your day, meditate on the work to which you have committed your gifts and time. Discover the place from which you are giving, to what purpose, and whether you are left with the feeling of being half empty or half full.
Like energy begets like energy. Be healed as you are healing.
"All work done with love is healing work." ~ Eric Micha'el Leventha
Are you making a daily offering from a place of joy or pain in your work?
What parts of your internal self are you seeking to heal through your work?
Did you choose your work or did the work choose you?
"Though we cannot see the heart, we can see the life." ~ David Paul Kirkpatrick
In the school setting, when someone visits your space of teaching and learning, they should immediately know the subject you are charged with instructing. For example, a literature teacher's classroom may have Shakespeare, Dickinson, and Dunbar quotes lining the walls. While in a science room, depending upon the discipline there might be a periodic table, a skeleton, a rock collection, microscopes, or a snake aquarium. The point here being that it is easy to surmise from the outside evidence the seeds of knowledge the teacher is sowing in that classroom.
"The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control." ~ Galatians 5:22-23
The same can be said of the spirit in which we are cloaked daily as we work. Each of us possesses a different vocational personality. Some perform well on their own, while others excel under a team based model. More often than not, we find ourselves positioned in circumstances with personalities very different from ours. As a boss, you may be an overbearing micro manager who would rather delegate for fear of taking responsibility or you may be working alongside negative absent minded individuals with far less experience than you.
If this is the work environment in which you currently find yourself, we might pause here to consider the purpose inside these sticky circumstances and the seed we are producing. If we are open, we see endless opportunity for pruning, for growth, and for sharpening of self.
Each day in our work we are called to examine the fruit we bear. None of us is perfect mind you, but when our staff and co workers think of us, consider their witness and the impressions they might share if asked.
"Be kind for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle." ~ Plato
Work toward learning to "be" present in your breath. And remember, your fruit is showing.
As a personality, how do you approach challenges in the work place?
Which fruit of the spirit is most evident in you at work?
What areas in need of sharpening are being revealed to you through your interactions at work?
"Growing up is losing some illusions, in order to acquire others." ~ Virginia Woolf
As school children, we all wrote the infamous "what do you want to be when you grow up" essay. Most of our responses described what our family envisioned or the juvenile hero/heroine fantasy of following in the career footsteps of our parents.
I recall that I marveled at the speed of my mother's fingers and the ease with which she deciphered those little squigglies I later learned were shorthand. I was so impressed at her transcriptionist skills and though she was proud of her education and business training, she encouraged me to aim higher. "You have to be better than me. That's why I work so hard, so you can be better and smarter than me." Many years into my own professional experience, I finally understood what she meant.
"Growing up happens when you start having things you look back on and wish you could change." ~ Cassandra Clare
Little did we know as children how much our parents were juggling and sacrificing. With just 24 hours of breath, sometimes 10 to 14 of them were devoted solely to earning a living. In addition, there was bill paying and budgeting, meal planning and grocery shopping, house keeping and home repair, homework help and teacher conferences, laundry, doctor appointments, birthday parties and family time. All of which left little time for making self a priority. Yet without attention to self care, the must do lists are just dreaded chores that become impossible to manage over time.
"Where'd the days go, when all we did was play? And the stress that we were under wasn't stress at all just a run and a jump into a harmless fall." ~ Paolo Nutini
I chose a different career path and I am pleased I was given the freedom to do so. As a mother, my advice to my children will be the same I was given with one caveat.
Seek balance.
As you regroup and look forward to a new work week, reflect upon that long ago essay and the work to which you find yourself committed and consider where creating balance might be necessary.
What holds true today from your original essay?
How are you spending your 24 hours of Breath?
Are you in need of greater balance between your work and personal lives?
