Heart Pocket Word for the Day is Memory!

The word from my heart pocket is, ah, oh right ... Memory.
 
Ladies and Gentlemen, the delightful Pam Peterson!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HzSaoN2LdfU 

Have a memorable week everyone!

Heart Pocket Word for the Day is Sensitivity!

Thank you to Linda Viet for her sensitively beautiful photography - Click here to see more!

The word from my heart pocket is Sensitivity.

Have you experienced a moment when everything seemed completely clear? It might stop you in your tracks on the most ordinary day. Suddenly everything feels ... easy. You aren't struggling. You aren't worried. Your senses are aroused and peaked. You don't feel fat or broke or unsuccessful. In that moment, you feel in tune, perfectly pitched within your life. For that moment, you are.

Our sensitivity to our surroundings defines our experience in the world. Exactly as it feels, every experience is unique to each person. Different people encounter identical outward circumstances and can experience them exactly opposite. Contrary to how it feels, every experience begins inside ourselves. Our cognizance, our emotional state, our habits and our belief system - everything we are comes into play when our sensitivity responds to every second - every nanosecond - of our lives.

Let's talk about what sensitivity is. An acute impression. A consciousness to self and beyond. Affected by a situation, an idea, a belief. The nervous system is keenly in tune with one's surroundings. A knowing and understanding. A relationship quality. Our many senses are heightened including perception and intuition. We are vulnerable in this state if we are deeply hurt or enduring great pain. We are ingenious - in genius - penetrating the usual layers of emotional fog and the distracting noise of the world. In its most practiced form, our sensitivity is one of our most powerful human tools. It is our willingness to be vulnerable that fuels this power. It is our choice to see beyond ourselves that makes us sensitive. Every human being has this incredible tool at his disposal and completely at his discretion. Any choice made without using this tool is questionable. 

The source of sensitivity is personal. It begins by being sensitive to oneself. If we avoid our feelings, discard our self-worth, devalue and discount ourselves, we cannot be sensitive to others in a balanced way. We will come to the aid of others from a needy place. Our intuition will be blocked and our advice and help will be colored by our own lack of self-knowledge. This doesn't mean we should wait to help others before we are "perfect". When we offer help - in an emergency or in an act of good will - we are practicing our sensitivity and we give ourselves the opportunity to learn not only about others, most of all, about ourselves.

To be sensitive is to be human. It means we want to get and give love. It is basic to our nature. Any act that isn't sensitive bears examination.

To live sensitively isn't a prerequisite to living. But like each of our behavioral choices, with practice it becomes a habit ... and this particular habit enhances and deepens the beauty of daily life.

Heart Pocket Word for the Day is Anxiety!

Image by Pauline McGee - Click here to see more of her beautiful work! 

The word from my heart pocket is Anxiety. 

The word itself raises our blood pressure. 

Anxiety is a secondary emotion. It acts as a mask for all sorts of real emotional offenders like jealousy or hurt or disappointment or fear. It's what is known as a "secondary emotion" because it distracts us and provides temporary protection for us to wear. Defenses come in artful disguises. We usually choose the one that best fits the underlying primary emotion. It could be by rationalizing the situation intellectually or by trying to ignore it or by distorting the situation and selectively seeing only what we fear most. Sometimes we "project" our feeling onto others and despise them for it or attack before we can experience any more negativity. This is commonly known as "the best defense is a good offense."

No matter how we color it, anxiety is a reaction that results due to an emotional threat. In its best light, anxiety is a GIANT CLUE that something is amiss. When anxiety occurs, it shuts down the awareness of the source emotion and in many cases, this defense temporarily aids us in functioning, riding on the secondary emotion until we can open the window a bit wider to allow reality to show itself. It also limits our thought and creativity.

It is when we hang onto worry that anxiety takes its toll ... on the body, on the mind, on our lives. All sorts of illnesses have been exacerbated by a person's focus on fear, sadness and jealousy, including cancer, heart disease, and strokes. 

There are some wonderful ways to release anxiety. Just knowing that anxiety is a warning device, a siren that goes off to alert us something is wrong but is not the root of the bad feeling, allows us to stop right where we are and examine what is happening. Once the signal is acknowledged, we can find a quiet place to calm our anxiety, to breathe deeply and slow our pulse. Clearing the mind through exercise (brisk walking or running or swimming) helps curb our anxious armor, and gets us to a more relaxed state of mind so we can organize our thoughts without the cloud of high emotion. The image of opening a window - wider and wider - helps us feel less trapped during a panic attack. When we can see ourselves "taking off the sweater of anxiety", laying it across a chair while we face what is really bothering us, we know our defense is in proximity if we need it. We don't feel so alone.

There are deep rooted anxieties that require relief with the help of professionals trained in guiding us to a place of revelation and release. There is no substitution for having a "safe place" to unleash our biggest fears and our most painful grief. When our anxiety is immediately noticed and given the attention it warrants, it is more easily soothed and our underlying emotions more effectively resolved. Imagining a safe place in our minds allows us to ease into a more relaxed frame of mind. Our muscles loosen, our mind thaws and even expands so we can once again think clearly enough to move to a next step.

The next time anxiety knocks on your door, imagine excusing yourself to open a window, and another and another and another, if need be. Let the air clear your brain and lighten your heart. Thank you, Anxiety, for sounding the alarm. I can take it from here ...

Heart Pocket Word for the Day is Challenge!

Unfinished Sculpture by Deb Clay - click here to learn more about her charming artwork & poetry!

The word from my heart pocket is Challenge. 

A challenge isn't always welcomed. It is never convenient. That's part of the challenge. The word has taken on nuances of meaning: difficulty, obstacle, trial. Originally, the word came from Middle English, around the year 1125, and it was associated with invitations to duel. Or so it is recorded. 

If we think about our lives in this way, a challenge is an invitation to confront ourselves, to make a demand, to question and to dare. It doesn't have to be a negative experience! Even when it is a surprise, something we hadn't planned, we have a choice on how to see it. Instead of immediately reacting, we can stop and evaluate the qualities of the challenge in front of us. The bigger the challenge, the greater the possibility for reward. 

When we feel threatened or trapped by a challenge, we use a different name. We call it a burden, bad luck, suffering, distress. We spend energy worrying and imagining the worst that can happen when we are in this frame of mind. It works wonders to re-frame and rename what is before us. The word challenge helps us see we have choices. It is open-ended and for some, is motivating and activates movement toward a resolution and even a triumph! If the challenging situation feels overwhelming and beyond our imagination (and control), we can compartmentalize it, breaking it down into manageable bits so it doesn't seem so large. We see we can have an impact. We can feel inspired to "rise to the challenge".

Each of us has felt this! Each of us has overcome our miserable self to become our heroic self. We like this feeling, even if circumstances don't evolve the way we imagined. If we participate fully, using everything we know, we emerge with new information and the good feeling of having tried our best.

These are challenging times. If we focus on the outside - that is, the world around us - we miss the opportunity to personally succeed. The world around us warrants our compassion and observance, our participation when we are needed, and of course, it is there to enjoy. The challenge in changing the circumstances of the world begins with the personal challenges of us as individuals. How we respond to our daily challenges, the manner in which we approach personal hardship and suffering, the way we "see" and relate - calls for exploration. Whenever we do this, what follows is discovery and if taken far enough, success and real understanding. When we choose to give ourselves a challenge, we are taking charge of our lives and there is no greater way to experience living.

Give yourself an edge in 2011. Challenge yourself to get what you want this year. Do you want to go back to school? Have more free time? Create a new lifestyle? Do you want to make art or write or finally learn to play an instrument? Join a theater group? Change jobs? Lose weight? Get into a loving relationship? Make more money? Have more fun?

The idea of having to work for something - to rise to the challenge - gives us that edge. Big or small, when we accept a challenge, we become the hero of our story. 

Heart Pocket Word for the Day is Simple!

Internal Heart by Kathleen Tennant. Click to learn more!

The word from my heart pocket is Simple.

A simple fact. 

The simple truth.

A simple life.

The word almost works like onomatopoeia. Just saying simple makes me want to remove the clutter around me. I want to go through the spaces in my mind and sweep out the corners, freeing it from remnants no longer of service, making room for what is new. I want to see what is there without having to rearrange and re-stack the piles of ideas and plans and once-useful-no-longer-clear opportunities in order to have stretches of surface and time and fields of energy where all that wants to grow has ample light and a place to take root. 

Every year we have a great symbol that rolls by us, THE NEW YEAR, and if we let it, we can be inspired to let go of what isn't working, to simplify the view so we can envision what we want in our future. There is no right or wrong way to do this. We may want to be physical with this process by literally cleaning out drawers and cupboards and shelves. We may need to be free of relationships that bind us to harmful emotions and behavior. Maybe we have a habit(s) that is holding us back. Usually it takes a simple first step to get the ball rolling. The Nike adage "Just Do It", is brilliant in its simple message. In a single movement, we activate. The power is unified and uncomplicated. In simplicity, we begin.

If you are having trouble with your New Year's resolutions, if you want to make sense of the change that is happening, whether your dream is directly in front of you or on the horizon, now is the time. Simply begin, and begin simply. Be singular in your actions and savor the pleasure simplicity brings. The chaos will come soon enough. It is a vital part of creating your goal. And when you start in this uncomplicated and natural way, there is a fascinating and sometimes mysterious quality to it, as if you placed an order and what you need to begin appears. To get to the heart of the matter the fastest and finest way, make it simple.