Want to share your words, inspire others, be part of a loving community of authors, and expand your reach…all at the same time? I’m so happy to share this opportunity for you to become a contributing author in the upcoming book Soul Biz: Practical Tips & Heartfelt Wisdom for Entrepreneurs, Solopreneurs, & Creative Souls! It will contain nuggets of wisdom about how to run your business soulfully. It’s perfect for brand new solopreneurs and also seasoned business owners who love learning and being inspired. I’m so excited that I’m going to be one of the contributing authors! If you’re feeling called to share your story, be sure to sign up soon. Registration ends December 10, 2021! Learn more HERE.
Soul Biz: Practical Tips & Heartfelt Wisdom for Entrepreneurs, Solopreneurs, & Creative Soulswill contain a collection of stories/articles (1 page each for bite-sized inspiration) written by and for soulful business owners, entrepreneurs, solopreneurs, and anyone who offers soulful products or services (such as coaching/counseling, spiritual guidance, healing services).
It’s our hope that this book will be a great way to pay it forward to those who are just starting out with their own businesses and also a great way for authors to share more about their own experiences and spread the word about their products/services.
Mandala is a Sanskrit word meaning circle or spirit. The mandala appears in all aspects of life: the celestial circles we call earth, sun, and moon, as well as conceptual circles of friends, family, and community. “Each person’s life is like a mandala, a vast limitless circle. We stand in the center of our own circle, and everything we see, hear and think forms the mandala of our life. Everything that shows up in your mandala is a vehicle for your awakening. From this point of view, awakening is right at your fingertips continually. But it’s up to you whether your life is a mandala of neurosis or a mandala of sanity.” ~Pema Chodran
Our intention for this week is to invite more interconnectedness, compassion and wholeness into our lives. Yoga Sutra lll.24 (maitryadisu balani) teaches the cultivation of friendliness creates inner strength. Experiencing healthy compassion and lovingkindness toward ourselves and others strengthens our interconnectedness and sense of well-being. I love this passage from The Message, “So, chosen by God for this new life of love, dress in the wardrobe God picked out for you: compassion, kindness, humility, quiet strength, discipline. Be even-tempered, content with second place, quick to forgive an offense. Forgive as quickly and completely as the Master forgave you. And regardless of what else you put on, wear love. It’s your basic, all-purpose garment. Never be without it.” (Colossians 3:12-14, MSG)
“We typically think of our emotional range as something that is fixed and unchanging, a reflection of the personality we’re born with. But research is revealing the possibility that we may be able to cultivate and increase our ability to feel the emotional state of compassion. Researchers have found that feeling connected to others is as learnable as any other skill.” ~ Kelly McGonigal
💮 Where and with whom in your life can you experience more interconnectedness and wholeness, lovingkindness and compassion?
💮 Personal transformation occurs in circles, not rows. Who’s in your inner circle, supporting you, yet challenging you to grow?
Awakening Compassion Guided Meditation
Gently close your eyes. Roll the shoulders up, back and down. Take 3 deep breaths. Place your hands in a comfortable position. Settle in.
Imagine the horizon spanning through your chest with a radiant sun rising in your innermost center—your heart. As though being melted by the solar warmth, release tension in your shoulders and across your throat. Soften your forehead and rest your attention inward on the light deep within. Take 3 smooth, even breaths. As you inhale, invite the glow from your heart to expand toward the inner surface of the body. With each exhale, let the light recede. Take another 3 peaceful breaths.
Attuning deeply to your heart center, offer compassion to yourself, honoring your journey wholeheartedly, dissolving all self-judgment, shame and guilt naturally.
As you embrace yourself compassionately, you enhance your ability to offer lovingkindness to those you care for deeply, embracing both their positive and challenging qualities.
Bring into your heart the image of someone you care for deeply, releasing any expectation of how they should be, creating a space of openness in which their transformation, and yours, can occur more easily. Take a full, deep breath.
As you offer compassion to yourself and to those you care for deeply, you gradually develop the ability to offer compassion to those with whom you experience separation or difficulty.
Bring into your heart the image of someone you find challenging, perceiving their authentic being rather than focusing on their actions and beliefs. Take a full, deep breath.
As you hold this person within your heart of compassion, clearly see that all of their actions are based on a need for love, support and security, even if those needs are expressed inappropriately.
By seeing this person compassionately, your feelings of judgment, anger and resentment are released more easily, allowing you to see this person and yourself more objectively, while creating safe and appropriate boundaries. Take a deep, cleansing breath.
Now, open your heart of compassion to all beings, honoring each person’s journey, recognizing that all of us are moving, within the limits our our understanding, toward a vision of love, peace, freedom and joy.
Affirm your growing compassion, repeating the following intention 3 times, aloud or silently: With a heart of compassion, I clearly see that we all share a journey toward love, peace, freedom and joy.
Take a full, deep breath. When you are ready, open your eyes, returning slowly and gently, sensing your heart of compassion guiding your journey.
~ Adapted from Mudras for Healing and Transformation by Joseph and Lilian Le Page
💮 Continue to radiate love and compassion, expanding your life mandala. 💮
Life is a constant ebb and flow. Challenges attempt to disrupt our ease and peace, but as we intentionally cultivate joy, our energy steadies and positively shifts.
JOY = A source or cause of keen pleasure or delight; something exceptionally festive or satisfying.
What brings you joy in this moment?
What are you looking forward to that makes you smile? 😊
Take a minute to daydream and plan for joy. Allow yourself to be light and free.
“Let go of heaviness. Seek that which is light. Gravitate toward joy. Your soul and body will lead you, if only you will listen. Walk lightly. Speak and laugh lightly, as much as possible. Go lightly along your way.” ~ Melody Beattie
“…when troubles of any kind come your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy. For you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow. So let it grow, for when your endurance is fully developed, you will be perfect and complete, needing nothing.” James 1:2-4 New Living Translation
I ______ to cultivate more joy into my life. No matter my circumstances, I choose to be joyful. Divine joy fills my soul.
JOY Meditation
Think of a time you experienced COMPLETE JOY. It may be a recent happening, or from the past. Picture it clearly in your heart and mind.
Feel all the emotions.
What sensations do you feel in the body?
Where do you feel these sensations?
Label your emotions with one word.
Label the sensations felt with one word.
Tuck these words deep into your memory account of joy.
May the peace of your being leap from heart to heart and mind to mind like a wildfire in dry grass. Through the simple act of being present here and now, may the peace that passes all understanding be fanned from spark to flame to true illumination.
“Wait quietly in my presence while My thoughts form silently in the depths of your being. Do not rush this process, because hurry keeps your heart earthbound. I am the Creator of the entire universe, yet I choose to make my humble home in your heart. It is there where you know me most intimately; it is there where I speak to you in holy whispers. Ask My Spirit to quiet your mind so that you can hear my still small voice within you. I am speaking to you continually. . . words of JOY. Tune your heart to receive these messages of abundant blessing. Lay your requests before Me, and wait in expectation.”
(Adapted from Jesus Calling, September 21, by Sarah Young)
One of the best statements I have heard and taken to heart is — live with no regrets, ALL experiences are valuable life lessons. How many times have you said to yourself, “I wish I would have, could have, or should have ___________________________?
Woulda-Coulda-Shoulda All the Woulda-Coulda-Shouldas Layin’ in the sun Talkin’ ‘bout the things They woulda-coulda-shoulda done… But those Woulda-Coulda-Shouldas All ran away and hid From one little did.
This “woulda-coulda-shoulda” thinking resides in the past, in the yesterdays, and continually replays the same old stories. The practice of yoga helps us to focus on the present moment, embracing the fullness of NOW, and guides us to take the right action at the right time, gracefully leading us forward. Let’s all be the “one little did.” 😊 “We must be willing to get rid of the life we’ve planned, so as to have the life that is waiting for us. The old skin has to shed before the new one can come.” ~ Joseph Campbell
Reflection Questions:
✭ What “woulda-coulda-shouldas” replay in your mind? Begin to let them go. Imagine filling a huge helium balloon inside your heart space as you inhale deeply. Now, exhale completely, releasing all that is no longer serving you. Witness this large balloon flying away into the sky, becoming smaller and smaller as it reaches higher into the atmosphere. As you shift your thoughts from the past into the present, remember these three great guidelines — no blaming, no shaming, no judgement.
✭ What valuable life lessons have you learned along the way? Embrace them all, and be grateful for each experience.
✭ In the quiet and stillness listen to the still small voice inside. Tune into your heart space. What is your heart drawn to? What radiates? Observe and listen. Remain present. Taking the right action at the right time gracefully guides you forward.
✭ Now, is there another voice in your mind interfering, criticizing, stifling? Observe and listen. Allow this voice to dim, to soften. Honor the truth within your soul. No blaming, no shaming, no judgement.
Point of Radiance by Danna Faulds Find the point of radiance in your heart. Whether that be passion, pleasure, or pain so deep it’s etched in blood, follow where your true heart leads. When it seems there is no light, look carefully, for it is always there, that ember of the God-force. It may be hidden in a dim corner or buried beneath a pile of regrets, but it’s there nonetheless, that spark of divine essence, illuminating your next step. ❤️
May you live with no regrets. ALL of your experiences are valuable life lessons. May you gracefully take the right action at the right time, and be the “one little did.” 😊
So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you. ~ Romans 12:1-2, The Message
What is at the forefront of your mind and heart today? ❤️
Let’s dedicate this time to connecting within, receiving what we truly need. Is that wisdom for a particular situation? An answer to a deep seeded question? A need for deep refreshment and renewal? Physical or emotional healing? Take a moment to seek your trueheart, your deepest longings. Connect deeply within and without, sensing a sweet embrace, an unconditional love like no other. “At the very moment I called out to you, you answered me! You strengthened me deep within my soul and breathed fresh courage into me” (Psalms 138:3 TPT). As Brennan Manning stated, “I have been seized by the power of a great affection.” Allow yourself to be seized by a great, Divine affection, our True Connection. Love is the secret password for every soul. ❤️
Draw me into the depths. Take me down to the holy darkness to Love’s roots. I lean into that darkness, The darkness that surrounds me, This nurturing room for my restless spirit.
Let me borrow your eyes, Beloved. Then I shall see in the dark, though for answers I do not look. It is enough to wait, To wait in the holy darkness, This nurturing womb for Love’s yearning.
Listening to the sound of silence, And leaning into the song of darkness, I wait for You. Waiting with purpose for who I will become, Waiting without agenda for things I can not change, I become one with the One I love,
For I have seen too many stars, Too many stars to let the darkness overwhelm me.
I keep vigil: with my heart’s eternal questions, and with my deep longings. with those places in my being where the light has grown dim. with those whose hearts are tired, and with those whose hope is lost. for those who sleep and for those who can not rest. for those with fearful hearts, and for those whose hearts are angry. for those whose courage is waning and for those whose strength is growing. for those who suffer, and for those who keep vigil.
I keep vigil. I keep vigil. I keep vigil. I keep vigil,
For I have seen too many stars, Too many stars to let the darkness overwhelm me.
“Sometimes, the road ahead is blocked, but clearing the way becomes part of our journey. Learn to tell when it’s time to let go, to surrender, to search for another road, a different path, another dream. But also learn to tell when it’s time to move forward, through obstacles if need be, because the dream is electric, charged by Divine energy and love.” ~ Melody Beattie, Journey to the Heart
Altar Meditation
Imagine a beautiful body of water before you.
You begin to walk close to this refreshing, relaxing, healing place. It may be the ocean, a stream, a lake, or river. Hear its sounds and smell the fresh air around you. Soak in its awe and wonder. As you approach the shoreline, you notice a unique altar — it may be a large rock, a wood log, or a man made altar. Envision this sacred place.
You feel drawn to release something at the altar, something that is no longer serving you.
As you let go of what no longer serves, a beautifully wrapped gift appears on the altar with your name on it. You gently take hold of the gift, open it, and look inside.
What is it?
How does it make you feel?
A trusted Guide, a Spirit figure, softly appears before you and you speak to them about the gift.
With welcoming eyes and a receptive heart, accept their words of love.
I am always here for you.
I love you unconditionally.
You can come to Me at anytime, anywhere, dropping immediately into My Presence.
Treasure this gift created just for you.
Now, listen closely, and receive their words of wisdom for your situation or deep seeded question.
You express gratitude for their embracing Presence, and for the special gift.
Their wisdom directs your path.
You feel secure.
Your heart is encouraged and filled with love and hope. ❤️
May you continue to be seized by the power of a great affection. Love is the secret password for every soul. ✨
✨Love ~ Serve ~ Inspire✨ 