Undone

I was in the middle of writing when I was interrupted. I tried to focus again, to concentrate, but I just couldn't. I lost the flow. The more I tried to get it back, the worse it became. I wasn't able to finish what I was working on. The interruption really got to me. I became angry.

Anger keeps the flow away and our minds on what triggered the anger. It distracts us and channels though our body making it unhealthy. So how do we break this cycle so that anger doesn't ruin our flow, our ability to deal? There are different practices we can make use of. One in particular works almost immediately. It's a 16-second breathing exercise we can use anytime and anywhere to break habitual angry reactions. 

In this practice, we breathe for four counts, hold the breath in for four counts, exhale for four counts, and hold the breath out for four counts. Repeat, as necessary. While practicing, focus on the breath. Watching the breath keeps the mind from focusing on what prompted the anger. The body will calm down and inform the mind that there is no alarm, no need to react. 

Today is a good day to put this practice to use when a situation that makes us angry or upset arises. Observe how you feel before and after the practice. Breathe and let the unsettling feelings be undone.

Image found at breathingmandala.com.

© Millicent Maldonado and www.soulcerer.com. 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.

The big F word

I've been so angry lately. It seems the angrier I get, the more anger I attract to myself. Angry people, angry situations, and reasons to become angry keep showing up in my experience. I'm overwhelmed with anger and it feels awful. I feel frustrated, powerless, impotent, and mad. I don't want to feel this way anymore. I want to feel better so I have to do something different. I have to go to the F word: forgiveness.

This is difficult for it is easier to hold on to the grievance and to complain. In our minds, forgiveness is difficult because it means letting go of something that made us right and made someone else wrong. But not forgiving weighs us down. Unforgiving thoughts are obsessive thoughts. Our minds keep ruminating on what fuels our anger. We are not able to focus, we replay our gripe, we become distracted, and we make mistakes. Physically, we suffer heartburn, headaches, stomach problems, sleeping problems and compromise our immune systems. Our hands shake, our hearts race, and we become jittery. Our moods become depressed, which can reflect as a bad mood, irritation, and hostility. We blame, judge, and get self-righteous reacting to life with resentment and coloring our experience with aggravation and bitterness.

Forgiveness, on the other hand, frees us. It allows us to start anew. It let's us move from feeling done-unto to doing, taking action, moving on, and moving forward. Forgiveness moves us from what hurt us to solutions, productiveness, creativity and a better experience. It moves us from weakness to strength of character. We become empowered over an external situation. We anchor ourselves to how we want to feel. If anything, we forgive to feel better, to lift ourselves up, to be able to put the right intention into what we do, to feel light-hearted, to learn, to be open to something more desirable, to enjoy the good, to breathe, to be done with it.

Today is a good day to forgive whatever we feel is a grievance, whoever we feel wronged us. Forgiveness is not easy sometimes, and it certainly does not mean that we condone what has happened. Forgiveness is a process. It is a change in our mindset. It's a shift from ego to inner peace. It steps us away from reactivity. Let's give forgiveness a chance. Let's let go of what doesn't serve us so that we may enjoy life more sweetly.

Image found at the-open-mind.com.

© Millicent Maldonado and www.soulcerer.com. 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.

Power

Forty-four days after Hurricane María swept through Puerto Rico, the power came back on in our apartment. We haven't seen it. For the last few weeks we have been staying at my parents' house. At some point today we will swing by our home and make sure it is still on. Electricity is being reconnected to very few places on the island, but the system is so fragile that power comes and goes. It will be like this for a while. Meanwhile, life here is still in shambles. We have felt and feel powerless.

Power can be a confusing word. We use it in reference to electricity, to a machine's capability and to force. We talk about too much power or too little. And we confuse it with force, especially in reference to personal power.

We tend to think that personal power does something to us, that we become something different–good or bad. Some people obtain a position of leadership or influence and change. Just as some people lose such a position and they change as well. Yet, it is not that we change with power. Our personalities rise up to meet us where we are. We exercise power at our level of consciousness–or unconsciousness. Once we are in a place or position to exert influence, authority, direction, control, or guidance, we demonstrate how powerful we truly are. We help or hinder, we lift or cripple, we inspire or discourage, we share or self-serve, we can be generous or miserly, we generate aid or we ignore the needs of the people, we promote progress with words, actions and policy, or we politicize, we lead kindly or we begrudge.

The truth is, we don't have to be in a position of leadership to exercise power. Power is a subtle force that moves us spiritually, mentally, and physically to exert a version of ourselves that shines through. It does in the service of the highest and best good. It regenerates itself with each thought and action that serves our highest purpose. Yet, days like today, power may be difficult for us to summon. So days like today are good days to connect with silence and allow good thoughts to rise. Let that be our moving force today. Let's tap into who we really are and power ourselves up that we may help others power themselves up. May we light the way.

Image found at wikiwand.com.

© Millicent Maldonado and www.soulcerer.com. 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.