Love and Synergy

Love and synergy go hand in hand. Teamwork requires respect and care; each day unfolds with new challenges - I need to be open to love in the moment, and breathe through my expectations and frustrations.

My Inter-dependence manifesto is:

I am open to an abundance of creative solutions to problems. I will allow people to be different from me and will relentlessly seek the creative win-win resolution.

When emotions are high, I listen first to clearly understand, then express my own ideas courageously, clearly, and sensitively.

I am open to love. I will allow people to make mistakes, and will remember to adapt my schedule when people are more important. 

I am open to alternatives to my ideas- to synergy- to different ways of thinking and being- to the adventure of life with other people!

Agenda:

1. Love Meditation

2. Read "Mindfulness-Based Emotional Balance Workbook"

3. Synergy and Flow plan

1. Love Meditation:

Every month after the full moon, in the quiet-energy yin time of the waning moon, I practice a love meditation that progresses from receptivity, to gratitude, to generosity:

Day 1: Practice a love meditation, and open to receive blessings - send a prayer to the universe asking to be showered with love, kindness, health, and happiness.

1. 1 minute - Relax your body, and focus on the tender emotion of generous love. Allow a smile to settle on your face and in your heart.
2. 1 minute - Visualize love as soft, tingly, warm, pink light, and see it move from your heart to every part of your body so that every cell is glowing and vibrating.
3. 1 minute - Now see the pink light of love radiating to fill the whole room, then the whole city, and the whole planet earth.
4. 1 minute - See that all people, plants, and animals feel warm and happy.
5. 1 minute - Send an extra dose of love light to those people you want to have a better connection to.

2. Read "Mindfulness-Based Emotional Balance Workbook":

I'm reading again from the Mindfulness-Based Emotional Balance Workbook, by Margaret Cullen and Gonzalo Brito Pons (2015). I got it after realizing that mindfulness might be the key to gaining the equanimity I crave. This is supposedly an "8-week program for Improved Emotional Regulation and Resilience"; I'm taking it much slower. 

I'm on Chapter 6: Mindfulness of Thoughts. The last two chapters explored body, breathe, and feelings. Now we are moving on to thinking: "Our opinions, preconceptions, memories, and expectations based on previous experience, filter our direct perception and experience in the presence." This thinking we do all the time has the benefit of giving life some stability and predictability, and helps us to make decisions in any given situation.

But when we take our thoughts at face value, believing them without question, we can be deluded; our perceptions might be narrow and prejudiced. We must always remember that our thoughts are not reality.

This chapter will teach how to relate our thoughts in a way that nurtures wisdom, spaciousness, and warmth, and fosters resilience and emotional balance.  

3. Synergy and Flow plan:

I wrote last week about the feelings of panic I feel from time to time, because I can't DO enough to fix the world. I was reminded this week that productivity is not the cornerstone of success, ant that in our capitalist culture rest and under-achievement is an act of resistance. I knew that as a young mother; I can reclaim it now as a Grandma.

SLOW DOWN and GO WITH the FLOW.

I feel “in the flow” when I stay awake in the moment, and become fully engaged in whatever I am doing. I am ready to embrace whatever develops, because I know everything I experience has value. My anxiety and anger drop away, and my joy and peace increase.

And amazingly, when I remember to be in the moment and go with the flow, I get more done.

My synergy and flow plan: 

1. Be prepared - have a plan and visuals, and gather supplies each morning for grandson time and projects. 
2. Live with Immediacy– Slow down and just BE; allow the day to unfold at a natural pace. Listen to my intuition and my gut, as well as messages from the Universe.
3. Be Passionate and Brave- Engage all of myself (physical, mental, spiritual) in my priorities so that I create an explosion of power!