Tag Archives: DailyOm

A Timely Reminder

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One of the reasons I haven’t been very communicative lately (other than frequent migraines) is that for several months now I’ve been feeling stuck in a slump with nothing much interesting happening in my life and in my head. Whether this is actually true or not doesn’t seem to make much of a difference when it comes to feelings. Every day I receive the DailyOm inspiring spiritual lesson of the day and most of the time I just stick it in a folder to read at some other time, since inspiration and spirituality are not high on the agenda these days. But this one caught my eye and really made me feel a whole lot better. Here is an excerpt for your reading pleasure:

No Going Back
Every Step is Forward

Periods of intense forward movement often give way to periods of what seems like stagnation.

There are times when we feel that we are spinning our wheels in the mud in terms of our spiritual progress. This can be especially true following a period of major growth in which we feel as if we’ve gained a lot of ground. In fact, this is the way growth goes—periods of intense forward movement give way to periods of what seems like stagnation. In those moments when we feel discouraged, it’s helpful to remember that we don’t ever really go backward. It may be that we are at a standstill because there is a new obstacle in our paths, or a new layer to get through, but the hard work we have done cannot be undone.

Every step on the path is meaningful, and even one that seems to take us backward is a forward step in the sense that it is what we must do to move to the next level. In addition, an intense growth spurt requires that we rest for a time in order to fully integrate the new energies that have been liberated by our hard work. When we feel we are not making progress, we can encourage ourselves to take a moment to rest. We can meditate more, feed ourselves well, and get extra sleep. Before we know it, we will be spurred on to work toward the next level of our development, and this rest will make sense then as something we needed in order to continue.

A Timely Reminder

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Monthlies kicked in yesterday, and though I seemed to be doing better for a day or two, I’ve been thrown under the waves again, feeling very sick and in pain from head to toe. At least I know for sure this is only temporary. I thought my daily dose of wisdom from DailyOm was right on cue and well worth sharing:

Below the Surface
Finding Deep Strength

We have all have times in our lives when we think we don’t have the strength to carry on. You do, and you can.

We have all faced moments in our lives when the pressure mounts beyond what we feel we can handle, and we find ourselves thinking that we do not have the strength to carry on. Sometimes we have just gotten through a major obstacle or illness only to find another one waiting for us the moment we finally catch our breath. Sometimes we endure one loss after another, wondering when we will get a break from life’s travails. It does not seem fair or right that life should demand more of us when we feel we have given all we can, but sometimes this is the way life works.

When we look back on our lives, we see that we have survived many trials and surmounted many obstacles, often to our own amazement. In each of those instances, we had to break through our ideas about how much we can handle and go deeper into our hidden reserves. The thought that we do not have the strength to handle what is before us can be likened to the hard surface of a frozen lake. It appears to be an impenetrable fact, but when we break through it, we find that a deep well of energy and inspiration was trapped beneath that icy barrier the whole time. Sometimes we break through by cutting a hole into our resistance with our willpower, and sometimes we melt the ice with compassion for our predicament and ourselves. Either way, each time we break through, we reach a new understanding of the strength we store within ourselves.

When we find ourselves up against that frozen barrier of thinking we cannot handle our situation, we may find that the kindest choice is to love ourselves and our resistance too. We can simply accept that we are overwhelmed, exhausted, and stretched, and we can offer ourselves loving kindness and compassion. If we can extend to ourselves the unconditional warmth of a mother’s love, before we know it, the ice will begin to break.

Burst (detail)

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Burst (detail)Click on the image to view larger version.

Sometimes our lives contract before they expand. We may be working hard on ourselves spiritually, doing good in the world, following our dreams, and wondering why we are still facing constrictions of all kinds—financial, emotional, physical. Perhaps we even feel as if we’ve lost our spirituality and are stuck in a dark room with no windows. We may be confused and discouraged by what appears to be a lack of progress. But sometimes this is the way things work. Like a caterpillar that confines itself to a tiny cocoon before it grows wings and flies, we are experiencing the darkness before the dawn.

When things feel tight, it’s easy to panic or want to act in some way to ease the feeling of constriction. We might also spin our wheels mentally, trying to understand why things are the way they are. However, there is nothing we need to do at this time other than to be patient and persevering. We can cling to the awareness that we are processing the shift from one stage to another, and the more we surrender to the experience, the more quickly we will move through the tightness into the opening on the other side. Just like a baby making its way down the birth canal, we may feel squeezed and pushed and very uncomfortable, but if we remember that we are on our way to being born into a new reality, we will find the strength to carry on.

Even as we endure the contractions, we can find peace within ourselves if we remember to trust the universe. We can look to the natural world for inspiration as we see that all beings surrender to the process of being born. In that surrender, and in the center of our own hearts, is a willingness to trust in the unknown as we make our way through the opening.

Article from DailyOm.com
Fractal Art: Burst by Sven Geier, The Fractal Bargain Bin

Girl Time, Shopping and Materialism

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I spent some time shopping downtown with my sister-in-law Sophie today. Her and my brother are heading back home to Australia tomorrow morning, via a five day stop-over in Tokyo (I’m totally jealous) so the get-together was an occasion to spend girl-time with my “little sister” while they’re still here. I also hung out with both of them yesterday at the Museum of Contemporary Art, and then in a café comfortably shielded from the freezing cold where I quickly realized that everything that was coming out of my mouth was in some way connected to my new computer and iPhone. I guess it isn’t so surprising considering how much time I spend with my new toys. I’ve always been sensitive to issues of materialism, mostly because I’m keenly aware that my dedication to amassing “stuff”doesn’t exactly jive with some of my ideals. After a small bout of shopping and a late lunch at a French Bistro with Sophie, I came home and found the following very à propos article in my mailbox, kindly provided by DailyOm:

Clearing a Space for Change
The Weight of Objects
In life, we tend to have an easier time acquiring possessions than we do getting rid of them. Just as we harbor emotional baggage that is difficult to let go of, our lives can tend to be filled with material objects that we may feel compelled to hold on to. Most people are not conscious of how much they own and how many of their possessions are no longer adding value to their life. They fiercely hold on to material objects because this makes them feel secure or comfortable. While it’s true that the ownership of “stuff” can make you feel good for awhile, it seldom satisfies the deep inner longings that nearly everyone has for fulfillment and satisfaction. It is only when we are ready to let go of our baggage and be vulnerable that it becomes possible to recognize the emotional hold that our possessions can have on us.

It’s not uncommon to hold on to material objects because we are attached to them or fear the empty spaces that will remain if we get rid of them. Giving away the souvenirs from a beloved voyage may feel like we are erasing the memory of that time in our life. We may also worry that our loved ones will feel hurt if we don’t keep the gifts they’ve given us. It’s easy to convince ourselves that unused possessions might come in handy someday or that parting with them will cause you emotional pain. However, when your personal space is filled with objects, there is no room for anything new to enter and stay in your life. Your collection of belongings may “protect” you from the uncertainties of an unknown future while keeping you stuck in the past. Holding on to unnecessary possessions often goes hand in hand with holding on to pain, anger, and resentment, and letting go of your material possessions may help you release emotional baggage.

When you make a conscious decision to fill your personal space with only the objects that you need or bring you joy, your energy level will soar. Clearing your personal space can lead to mental clarity and an improved memory. As you learn to have a more practical and temporary relationship to objects, positive changes will happen, and you’ll have space to create the life that you desire.

The Two Lists

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First of all, thanks to all of you who have sent me you well wishes today in one form or another. January 1st is turning out to be a tear-filled day for me so my apologies for laying low. Perhaps I worry too much that the first day of the year will impact the 364 others to come. There is a story that appeared in the DailyOm yesterday which I’d like to share with you all. Since I’m in no mood to be making any kind of New Year’s resolution today (maybe because there are too many to make), I thought the message of this story was very timely.

New Year’s Resolutions: The Two Lists
A Message from DailyOM Co-Founder Scott Blum

I was fortunate to spend time with an enigmatic man named Robert during a very special period of my life. Robert taught me many things during our days together, and this time of year reminds me of one particular interaction we had.

“Now that you are becoming more aware,” Robert said, “you need to begin to set goals for yourself so you don’t lose the momentum you have built.”

“Like New Year’s resolutions?” I asked.

“That’s an interesting idea,” he smirked. “Let’s do that.”

By then I was used to his cryptic responses, so I knew something was up because of the way his eyes sparkled as he let out an impish laugh.

“Tonight’s assignment is to make two lists,” Robert continued. “The first is a list of all the New Year’s resolutions you WANT to keep, and the second is a list of all the New Year’s resolutions you WILL keep. Write the WANT List first, and when you have exhausted all of your ideas, then write the second list on another sheet of paper.”

That night I went home and spent several hours working on the two lists. The WANT List felt overwhelming at first, but after a while I got into writing all the things I had always wanted to do if the burdens of life hadn’t gotten in the way. After nearly an hour, the list swelled to fill the entire page and contained nearly all of my ideas of an ideal life. The second list was much easier, and I was able to quickly commit ten practical resolutions that I felt would be both realistic and helpful.

The next day, I met Robert in front of the local food Co-op, where we seemed to have most of our enlightening conversations. “Tell me about your two lists,” Robert said as the familiar smirk crept onto his face.

“The first list contains all the things I SHOULD do if I completely changed my life to be the person I always wanted to be. And the second list contains all the things I COULD do by accepting my current life, and taking realistic steps towards the life I want to lead.”

“Let me see the second list,” he said.

I handed him the second list, and without even looking at it, he ripped the paper into tiny pieces and threw it in the nearby garbage can. His disregard for the effort I had put into the list annoyed me at first, but after I calmed down I began to think about the first list in a different light. In my heart, I knew the second list was a cop out, and the first list was the only one that really mattered.

“And now, the first list.” Robert bowed his head and held out both of his hands.

I purposefully handed him the first list and held his gaze for several seconds, waiting for him to begin reading the page. After an unusually long silence, he began to crumple the paper into a ball and once again tossed it into the can without looking at it.

“What did you do that for?!” I couldn’t hide my anger any longer.

Robert began to speak in a quiet and assured voice. “What you SHOULD or COULD do with your life no longer matters. The only thing that matters, from this day forward, is what you MUST do.”

He then drew a folded piece of paper from his back pocket and handed it to me.

I opened it carefully, and found a single word floating in the middle of the white page:

“Love.”

Photo by guillaumeo, Flickr.

My Latest Playlist Addition

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I’ve just purchased Eco, an album by Jorge Drexler on iTunes. It’s playing in the background as I write this. His song Todo Se Transforma brings to mind a Latin Jack Johnson, which makes for some very pleasurable listening. But although I love music and have an extensive playlist, things are very quiet here lately for some reason, so it’s quite telling that I’ve chosen to break the silence with Dexler’s songs.

I had never heard of Drexler until today when my DailyOm music newsletter profiled Eco, an album recorded in 2004 which, according to DailyOm “stands as the highlight of his career”. Born Jorge Abner Drexler Prada in Montevideo, Uruguay, Drexler followed in his family’s footsteps and studied medicine to become an ear, nose and throat specialist. But his love of music won him over and he released several albums from 1994 to 2004. In 2005 Drexler became the first Uruguayan ever to win an Academy Award. He was awarded for composing the song Al Otro Lado del Río for the movie The Motorcycle Diaries starring Gael García Bernal, a biographical road movie about the young Che Guevara. The organizers’ decision to replace Dexler with Carlos Santana and Antonio Banderas to perform Al Otro Lado del Río at the ceremony was the cause of some controversy and Dexler’s response was to sing a few lines of his song followed by a simple “thank you” when he received his award.

Dexler’s music is a rich blend of traditional Uruguayan music, Brazilian Bossa Nova, and mainstream pop among others, and combines to creates a smooth, rich and multifaceted experience. All this accompanied by Drexler’s soft and gentle voice (singing in Spanish throughout) makes for a pleasing journey, a sort of auditory road-trip along beautiful and unfamiliar scenery.

Here’s an excerpt from the title track. To listen to more of his music online for free, click here.

The Tortoise And The Hare

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The classic tale of the tortoise and the hare reminds us that different people take life at different speeds and that one way is not necessarily superior to another. In fact, in the story the slower animal ends up arriving at the destination first. In the same way, some of us seem to move very quickly through the issues and obstacles we all face in our lives while others need long periods of time to process their feelings and move into new states of awareness. For those of us who perceive ourselves as moving quickly, it can be painful and exasperating to deal with someone else’s slower pace. Yet, just like the tortoise and the hare, we all end up arriving at the same destination eventually.

People who take their time with things are probably in the minority in most of the world today. We live in a time when speed and productivity are valued above almost anything else. Therefore, people who flow at a slower pace are out of sync with the world and are often pestered and prodded to go faster and do more. This can be not only frustrating but also counterproductive because the stress of being pushed to move faster than one is able to move actually slows progress. On the other hand, if a person’s style is honored and supported, they will find their way in their own time and, just like the tortoise, they might just beat the speedier, more easily distracted person to the finish line.

It’s important to remember that we are not actually in a race to get somewhere ahead of someone else, and it is difficult to judge by appearances whether one person has made more progress than another. Whether you count yourself among the fast movers or as one of the slower folks, we can all benefit from respecting the pace that those around us choose for themselves. This way, we can keep our eyes on our own journey, knowing that we will all end up together in the end.

~ Adapted from a DailyOm article, from December 27, 2007

Every day I receive this kind of inspirational article from DailyOm. This one in particular spoke to me today. And while it’s an interesting article, they don’t mention anything about people who alternate between being tortoises and hares, as I have. Those individuals must be particularly rare. I definitely know what category I’m in right now. What about you?

Illustration from Project Gutenberg

Singing Poetry, Rapping Spirituality

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I made two astonishing musical discoveries today. Both are surprising because of the unexpected combinations the artists have chosen for their projects, the results of which are completely unique sounds. I was also both pleased and perplexed that I had not heard about either of these albums before, since they are by artists and thinkers I have great admiration for. Once again, I gladly share my cool finds with you.

Google “Carla Bruni” these days, and the first hit will likely be a paparazzi-style photograph of her with French President Nicolas Sarkozy along with a feature about her previous high profile relationships. Bruni is no stranger to the tabloids, where she’s been featured alongside Mick Jagger, Eric Clapton and Donald Trump (which she reportedly dumped) among others. Up until 2002, the French-Italian beauty was mostly known for her thriving modeling career — she was among the flock of über-famous supermodels of the nineties, including Christy Turlington, Linda Evangelista, Cindy Crawford, Naomi Campbell and Claudia Schiffer.

By 1997, Bruni quit her modeling career to focus on her music. Her first album Quelqu’un m’a dit came out in 2002, surprising the critics and naysayers. As is the case with most French singers, she doesn’t have much of a voice, but she makes up for it with talent in droves and a finely tuned sensibility. The album received rave reviews and sold two million copies worldwide. I bought the album soon after it’s release and was instantly hooked by her fragile voice and poetic lyrics.

For her latest album, No Promises, released in spring 2007, Bruni chose 19th- and 20th-century poems over her own (excellent) writing. She chose poems by W.B. Yeats, Emily Dickinson, Dorothy Parker, Christina Rossetti, W.H. Auden and Walter de la Mare, and set them to her own folk, bluesy and Chanson Française musical arrangements. While this combination could have ended up sounding contrived, Bruni’s casual style and natural sensitivity make for a delightful combination. A must-have.


Click here if you can’t view the interview on the YouTube screen above.

Deepak Chopra & Dave Stewart’s album, Grow Younger, Live Longer (2001) was delivered directly to my inbox, thanks to the DailyOm musical review. It’s not exactly a new release, but if it’s new to me I’m fairly sure it’ll me new to other readers out there in the vastness of the internet. Deepak Chopra’s words make a lot of sense to me, and I end up listening to his talks intermittently as I’m working away at the computer thanks to the fact that I usually have iTunes on random, so it might be interesting to hear his words actually set to music. Here are highlights from the review:

“Deepak Chopra is well-known for his groundbreaking work reconciling Eastern and Western medicinal thought. Dave Stewart came to fame in the 1980s as the instrumental half of the Eurythmics and has been active ever since as a musician and producer. This musical collaboration, then, is an all-star affair, one bound to please a wide range of listeners. You may have heard Chopra on meditation tapes or lectures, but have you heard him rapping? Well, maybe not rapping, but there is certainly a lighthearted approach at work here. One gets the impression that the two were having a lot of fun making this album: Chopra reads old Indian spiritual poetry (one of the tracks is even from a taped telephone call), and Stewart tricks it all out with bells, whistles, drums, synthesizers, ambient effects, spice, and everything nice.

“Grow younger / Live longer / Move harder / Love stronger,” Chopra intones in a relaxed rapping style, as Stewart lays out the mellow reggae-inflected rhythms. The cool facade of disaffection so prominent among easy-listening chill-out music is off here, which is liberating to Stewart.

Too “up” for meditation or holistic healing sounds, this album is more for driving or hanging out and letting the power of Chopra’s constant reminder to “grow younger / Live longer” stand in for the usual romantic longing of most song lyrics. How much more productive is it to have a mantra like that in your head than the usual pop lyrics?”

To listen to more excepts from both Quelqu’un m’a dit and No Promises, as well as Grow Younger, Live Longer, visit iTunes..

Simple Gestures Of Solace

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Adapted from a DailyOm article,

Offering Comfort
Sometimes it’s difficult to see someone you love hurting, struggling, or in pain. You might feel like you need to do something to ease their troubles. It’s important to be sensitive to what our loved ones truly want in these moment when they’re asking for help, otherwise, we might very well get carried away and say or do more than is really needed. The greatest comfort and support sometimes come from just allowing ourselves to let go and simply exist in the present moment with the other person.

It might be helpful to think of the gestures of kindness that were the most healing to you when you were upset. Was it gentle words such as “I care about you,” or the soothing presence of someone holding you and not expecting anything in return that you found most consoling? When you’re able to recall these times it becomes easier for you to keep in mind that giving advice or saying more than is necessary isn’t always reassuring and that “less is more”. What is truly comforting is having someone who’s just there for us, and isn’t trying to fix us or our problems. When you feel the urge to offer advice or repair a situation, you can take a few deep breaths, let the impulse pass, and bring your attention back to the present moment. You don’t have to do anything more than that to be a good friend.

On Compassion

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Adapted from a DailyOm article,

In The Presence Of Difficulty

Compassion is the ability to see the deep connectedness between ourselves and others. True compassion recognizes that all the boundaries we perceive between ourselves and others are an illusion. When we first begin to practice compassion, this very deep level of understanding may elude us, but if we start where we are, we will eventually feel our way toward it. We move closer to it every time we see past our own concerns to accommodate others. As with any skill, our compassion grows most in the presence of difficulty.

We can practice small acts of compassion every day, when our loved ones are short-tempered or another driver cuts us off in traffic. We can extend our forgiveness by trying to understand their point of view; we know how it is to feel stressed out or irritable. The practice of compassion becomes more difficult when we find ourselves unable to understand the actions of the person who offends us. These are the situations that ask us to look more deeply into ourselves, into parts of our psyches that we may want to deny, parts that we have repressed because society has labeled them bad or wrong. For example, acts of violence are often well beyond anything we ourselves have perpetuated, so when we are on the receiving end of such acts, we are often at a loss. This is where the real potential for growth begins, because we are called to shine a light inside ourselves and take responsibility for what we have disowned. It is at this juncture that we have the opportunity to transform from within.