Friday, October 30, 2015

Start

Begin where you are, not from where you wish you were. You are not there yet, but you can be. We don't start from the finish line. We start from where we are.

The finish line is our goal, our desire. It sets our general direction, but it is not our focus. Our focus  is what we do from where we are to where we wish to be. Our focus is where we have power and can make an impact. We set our goal and go from the starting line. Wanting to begin somewhere other than where we are can delay us, deviate us, confuse us, make us stumble and skip important milestones. Starting somewhere other than where we are is to cut corners and can limit what we can achieve. It can also deprive us of enjoyment, learning, growing, developing greater competency and proficiency and becoming more skilled. More importantly, starting somewhere other than where we are can discourage us for we make the process haphazard, chaotic and difficult. It breeds impatience and infuses anxiety into our efforts. This hurried version of ourselves is not the best.

Today is a good day to reassess our goal and where we are in relation to it. It is a good day to start from where we are. Let us purposefully find joy in everything we do. Let us focus on today. We are on our way and that is what truly matters.

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© Millicent Maldonado and www.soulcerer.com, 2012-2015. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this site’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. All rights reserved.

Wednesday, October 28, 2015

Rituals

I have faith in rituals. My faith is not in the having any control over anything with my performance of a ritual. What I have faith in, trust in, is the outcome. This outcome is not necessarily immediate, but it is cumulative. In rituals I find comfort, connection to Spirit, grounding, reorientation, gratitude and a sense of order resulting in my well-being. No matter what, I am well. I put faith in, I receive goodness, well-being, awareness, wisdom, knowledge and a-ha.

Throughout my day I participate and respond spontaneously as I need to, yet, all goes better when I honor my rituals – morning meditation, writing, reading. Sometimes I have to adjust, to say yes to something else. The adjustment helps. Forgoing my rituals does not. At night, I take time to reconnect, unwind and decompress with other smaller yet just-as-important rituals that help me relax, sleep and mend. These rituals are part of my health, productivity, peace of mind and joy. They recharge me. There's more to these rituals and there are more of them. Some are daily, some are not. They bring cohesion to all that I am. Rites right my thinking.

The word ritual has a religious connotation. Rituals need not be religious. They align our energy and our psyche to what we believe. They can be a form of meditation. They bring composure to our scatteredness and keep us connected to who we are and what is important to us. Rituals can be as simple as a ball player making the sign of the holy cross at the bat, drinking a cup of tea in the bathtub every morning, lighting a candle in memory of a loved one, reading a verse from scripture before bed or going for a three-mile-run in gratitude for good health. They can also be more intricate and involved, by ourselves or with others.

This Wednesday morning is part of my ritual. Maybe reading this is part of yours. Rituals are an honoring, an observance of ourselves and our lives. Today is a good day to observe yourself and your life in a special way. What will your ritual be?

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© Millicent Maldonado and www.soulcerer.com, 2012-2015. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this site’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. All rights reserved.

Friday, October 23, 2015

Feel good playlist


Music is a great medium to transform our moods, to lift us up, to get out of a funk and into feel-good energy. Today is a good day to feel good. Pull up your iTunes radio, Pandora or Spotify and look up feel good tunes this morning. Here's what's on my playlist this morning. What's on yours?











Trenchtown Rock – Bob Marley
Pumped Up Kicks – Foster the People
Hey Ya – OutKast
Happy – Pharrell Williams
Keep Your Head Up – Andy Grammer
Downtown – Macklemore & Ryan Lewis
Crazy – Gnarles Barkley
Moves Like Jagger – Maroon 5
Hey Mr. Tambourine Man – Bob Dylan
Get Lucky – Daft Punk
The Man – Aloe Blacc
Virtual Insanity – Jamiroquai
Call Me Maybe – Carly Rae Jepsen
Imma Be – Black Eyed Peas
You Can Call Me Al – Paul Simon
Get Down On It – Kool & the Gang
Shut Up & Dance – Walk the Moon
Sugar – Maroon 5
I'm Nothing Without Love – Fun
Holiday – Madonna


Image downloaded from www.wallcoo.com.








© Millicent Maldonado and www.soulcerer.com, 2012-2015. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this site’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. All rights reserved.






Wednesday, October 21, 2015

We collide

As long as there is movement, there will be collision. Whether it is our elbows clumsily hitting the edge of our desks as we move about focused on the task at hand, bumping into others on the dance floor, backing up into our neighbors mailbox with our car, our lives colliding with the lives of others or our desires colliding with the desires of others, with motion there is collision. It is kinetic. We usually collide in opposing forces and direction. This shouldn't stop us from moving. The key is to keep moving, avoiding obstacles, deterrents and bumps by staying focused on our desires and goals – regardless of the motion or motionlessness of others. We stay the course.

Far from being an individualistic approach, keeping ourselves on track requires constant movement and commitment to our path. When we do so, we radiate an energy of productivity and positive action. Gains are increased for everyone for, with our activity, we encourage flow, initiative, liveliness. We inspire with our action. We contribute to our families, communities and economies.

We don't wait around for others and we don't try to keep up with others. This would trip us up. We move forward at our pace, consciously. Collision will happen, but, as we stay aware, purposeful deliberate and mindful, it will happen less and less. We flow, empowered by our determination and willingness and supported by our intention and Universal goodness.

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© Millicent Maldonado and www.soulcerer.com, 2012-2015. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this site’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. All rights reserved.

Friday, October 16, 2015

Stay

In our fast-paced world, we tend to go from one thing to another without a distinction between one thing and another. We go from sleeping to jumping out of bed to the morning news to running around getting ourselves and others ready to jumping in the car to traffic to school or work or to school and work. And this is all before nine in the morning. We go on like this. A continuous stream of activity. We jump in and jump out with no awareness and we end up not garnering many benefits that can come from many of the things we do.

We go on vacation without breaking from work. We return from vacation and go straight to work. We meditate and, as soon as the chime goes off, we jump up and go. We do the same with journaling, prayer, walking in nature, yoga, swimming in the ocean, reading, deliberate daydreaming, having a good conversation, giving a presentation, talking with children, having a glass of wine, running and exercising, among other things. What if we stayed a minute or two after meditation or any other activity we do? What if we let the energy created or the knowledge brought about settle, sink in, before we prematurely go from one state to another? We could spark creativity, bring forth equanimity, find joy in our experience, fire up our imagination and our artistry, feed our vision, sort out our thoughts, assimilate what we learn, discover something new, find inspiration, understand better, slow down our heart rates, find satisfaction, gain insight, develop appreciation, and, at the end of the day, know how we spent our day. Isn't that better than going about in a frenzy?

Today is a good day to ease from one activity to another. Reap the benefits of everything you do. Stay a minute or two. Take a moment to think, ponder, reflect and enjoy before going on to the next thing.

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© Millicent Maldonado and www.soulcerer.com, 2012-2015. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this site’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. All rights reserved.

Wednesday, October 14, 2015

The Seed

This is our therapy. When life gets hectic, we head to the beach. There, he gave me a massage. I sat in lotus and completely let go as he worked the knots on my back. I closed my eyes and concentrated on my breath. I was intent on not thinking. When I opened my eyes, a small crumb of something rested in the middle of my open hand. It was a metaphor. It was a seed.

Positive thoughts are powerful when they mean something to us, when we feel something good around and about those thoughts, when we have emotions that are congruent with what we think. Some days it feels close to impossible to align our spirits with a positive thought or feeling. Some days the world weighs on us and nothing feels quite right. Every effort we make on those days is towards carrying on, heavy-hearted, to keep up with our commitments and responsibilities. Our minds, spirits and bodies join in stress, confusion, sadness, anger, lethargy, indisposition and a sense of hopelessness. We vibrate low, giving off dragging energy, calling on to us more of what burdens us, more of the same. On days like this, a positive thought can feel forced and superficial.

How do we shift out of this funk? One seed at a time. We find one thing we enjoy and we relish in a good feeling around that one thing. We attach a positive emotion to it. We fully enjoy that moment. It is a seed. Nurtured with warmhearted feelings and emotions, it becomes the smallness that makes the day bearable for us. We begin to plant a change in our moods, spirits, frames of mind, temperament, attitudes, outlooks and circumstances.

Today is a good day to be deliberate. Intentionally find your seed. Pick a moment today, pick a good thought and attach your heart to it. Breathe it in. Plant it. Your seed could be a child's smile, a funny YouTube video, a kind gesture observed between strangers, an email from an old friend, your favorite something on special, a smell that reminds you of someone you love, a really good song set on the radio, among other things. Tomorrow, pick another good thought, another good feeling and, in time, you will create a habit of positive thoughts that mean something, can shift the energy in which you operate and make a difference.

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© Millicent Maldonado and www.soulcerer.com, 2012-2015. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this site’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. All rights reserved.

Friday, October 9, 2015

A better life

A woman was planning to hold a garage sale. She was running out of storage space in her house and could use the extra cash from the sale for unexpected expenses that had come up. As she and her friends prepared the items to be sold, she kept putting items to the side. Maybe not, she thought. Maybe I will hold on to this a little longer. "Why are you keeping those?", one of her friends asked. "Because I paid too much money for them to sell them cheaply."

Some things keep us from moving forward, from having more. Many times it is something that no longer serves us. It is difficult to give up the years we put into a marriage, the money we put into a house, the extra hours we worked day-after-day, year-after-year, in a career. We don't want to throw away all of the time and effort invested. We are afraid of invalidation, losing our identity, waiving our roles as experts in a certain field, having to begin again, feeling lost, not knowing what to do and being uncomfortable. We hold on to things, people and situations long after they have stopped fulfilling us, giving us joy, having any value or opportunities to learn and grow.

Until we do – until we let go, give up, walk away from, go another way – we remain stagnant and fearful. When we let go, give up, walk away from and go another way, a better life unfurls for us, bravely. Courage is its own call. It beckons itself. It metamorphoses into an act of faith. It summons answers, clarity and a path from the space we have created. That space is willingness and trust. It overcomes fear and apprehension. A curious attitude surfaces and life seems new again. It is. When we finally make the choice to release what no longer serves us, we release ourselves to a life we'd much rather have. Today is a good day to muster bravery and follow the path to a better life.

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© Millicent Maldonado and www.soulcerer.com, 2012-2015. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this site’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. All rights reserved.

Wednesday, October 7, 2015

Speech Impediment

Many of us would not consider ourselves to have a speech impediment, yet most of us do. I don't mean the physical conditions that can cause someone to have a lisp or the psychological conditions that cause stuttering. The impediment we carry is our own speech. What we say to others, to ourselves, our mental chatter creates hurdles for us, unnecessary obstacles that delay our blooming, the full enjoyment of our days, the relishing of our relationships. Our stammer comes from our negative self-talk, our criticism of what is, the judgments we utter constantly. The energy spent on heavy spiels and incessant talk take away our power. Our words, spoken and unspoken, arise from our thoughts and beget corresponding energy and action. Movement and creation start here. Stagnation too. What we say matters. Our best intentions are blocked by our pessimistic, critical, judgmental talk. When we talk of improbabilities, impossibilities, when we use words such as can't, hate or should've, we lower our energy and our capacity to create great things. We diminish ourselves with explanations and qualifiers and defeatist talk.

Today, let us help ourselves with our words. Let's encourage what we want to accomplish with positive speech. When someone pays us a compliment, let's say thank you and mean it. This morning, as we enter the bus, the office, the coffee shop, the school and any other place we go to, let's say good morning and mean it. Words are incantations and can make things happen or they can block things from happening – good or bad. Let us pass on vibrant energy today. It is in our hands and it is in our words the power to remove the impediments created by our speech. Let us today uplift our discourse to embolden, cheer, support, inspire and motivate ourselves and others.

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© Millicent Maldonado and www.soulcerer.com, 2012-2015. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this site’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. All rights reserved.

Friday, October 2, 2015

Thank you

It is usually those things that matter to us the most that cause us despair, heightened anxiety and the deepest grief. Our stress level can rise considerably for many reasons. It could be loss due to death or separation, fear of an unknown outcome at work, worry about the wellbeing of our children, instability as a result of fluctuating income, being overwhelmed with responsibilities, the consequences of wrong decisions, conflict in our closest relationships or health problems, among others.  It is easy to get caught up in feelings of hopelessness, discouragement and victimization. It seems we are always on guard. Ready for a fight or a run. And still, we have to carry on.

Today, let's take a few moments to shift from these heavy and negative feelings to feelings that will lift us up and motivate us. Let's use the power of our thoughts, the power of gratitude, in connection with our breath to relax our minds and ease the strain in our systems.

Set a timer for five minutes or longer, preferably one that will not startle you at the end of the set time. Sit comfortably and close your eyes softly. Breathe through your nose for a count of three and hold the breath for a count of three. Breathe out for a count of five.

Breathe in for a count of three. Breathe out for a count of five.

Bring to mind someone, something or a situation that may be causing you stress and say thank you. Find something to be thankful for about whatever came to your mind. Breathe in, 1-2-3. Breathe out, 1-2-3-4-5. If this is difficult, be thankful for this moment. Thank you for this moment.

Continue the in-three-breaths, out-five-breaths pattern of breathing for the rest of the time set on your timer.

When the timer alerts you, open your eyes slowly and smile. Stay for a minute or two before you continue your day. Feel calm. Nothing has changed, except for you. All is well as long as you carry this feeling of composure, internal balance and harmony. As the day goes on and you feel as though you may lose this sense of equanimity, come back to it by taking a deep breath or two and saying thank you.

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© Millicent Maldonado and www.soulcerer.com, 2012-2015. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this site’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. All rights reserved.