The Christmas Tree

Trying to find a parking spot made me notice that December ‘energy’ is amping up! Which is a good reminder before getting swept away in the excitement to make sure we set our intention of how we want to feel during December.  Here’s a fun way.
Take out your ‘imaginary Christmas tree’ and place it where you will always see it in your mind’s eye. Then choose a few words as ‘ornaments’ to guide you through the month. Here is a sample of some words.

Peace  Calm     Restful     Tranquility     Kindness   Quiet     

or

Noise    Irritation    Rushing   FOMO  Expectations   Tired

What words do you want to put on your tree as 'ornaments'? Imagine letting these words guide your upcoming holiday season. Every time you are pulled from your chosen state of being simply take a breath, picture your tree, and remind yourself of your words. 

And how about your gift list?

Spoiler Alert: The most important thing in life is not presents but peace of mind! 

What will your gift to yourself be this December…………?

What will your gift to the world be……..?

Am I Rushing or Savouring?

It was getting late, and I was rushing through my book to finish it before I went to bed. I turned the page and read the words, ‘Why are you rushing?’ That made me pause, and ask myself, why wasn’t I taking the time to savour the book? The faster, I rushed to the end the sooner the book would be over. Truth be told I have noted the same sensation when I have set my timer for twenty minutes for meditation and waited impatiently for the timer to go off. Rather than savouring how nice it is to sit quietly, and rest, I was impatient to do the next task on my list. It occurred to me life can be like that; you rush to get something done and before you know it, you’re off rushing for the next thing.

 I’ve decided an important question to ask myself from now on is, “Am I rushing or savouring this experience?” Think about how many times you could ask yourself that question.  For example, am I rushing or savouring my breakfast?  Am I rushing to my end goal or savouring the experiences that come with moving towards the goal? Am I rushing onto the next thing in life, or am I savouring what I currently have?  

Savouring life could be a game changer!  ~ Marnie

Worry Free Day

Worry Free Day

Walking down the sidewalk, I noticed how relaxed everyone looked. Contrary to me, my shoulders were tight, and my forehead felt furrowed. I wanted to know their secret, so I asked a woman. She smiled, and asked, “When is the last time you had a worry-free day?” After observing my worried face, she said, “You never have! I thought so.” She explained, "The key to good health is less worry, which means less stress. Therefore, occasionally taking a day to rest from your personal worries and concerns about the world is beneficial, both physically and mentally. And yes, there is a lot of worry out there, but you needn’t be involved in every worry. Stay with the ones that need to be attended to and remind yourself that you're only one person with superpowers, but not superpowers galore!" 

Choose a day to not worry. I'm going to choose tomorrow for my worry-free day – will you join me? Put a sign beside your bed to remind you when you wake up, ‘This is an official worry-free day.’ You can even put something like an elastic on your wrist to remind you. Every time a worry comes up tell it, “Oh didn't you hear, today is a worry-free day? Come back tomorrow if you must.” And remind your shoulders and face they don’t need to sneak in and do the worrying for you. Enjoy your day, and who knows some of your worries may disappear and you’ll be relaxed! 

~ Marnie

Worry never robs tomorrow of its sorrow, it only saps today of its joy.  
~Leo Buscaglia

The Tranquility Shop

The sign on the door said, "Welcome to the Tranquility Shop". Wow I could use some of that I thought as I stepped into the room. At first it took me a couple of moments to adjust to the subdued light and hear the gentle soothing music playing. Walking around the shop I chose a lovely candle, my favourite relaxing oil, and a soft blanket. My attention was then drawn to a beautiful comfortable looking chair. Was it my imagination? Or did I just hear the chair say “Marnie, come sit on me!” That's crazy I thought as I looked around. The shopkeeper smiled and gestured for me to sit.

I wrapped myself in the soft blanket, smelled the beautiful oil filling the air, and enjoyed the most comfortable chair. Magically my candle lit sending out a soft glow. I felt tension releasing and it felt so good. I could feel my eyes soften, my jaw loosen, and my shoulders release down, and my mind slow down.

The fun part is this room is created in my imagination, and it works because the brain often can’t tell the difference between what is real and what isn’t real. Any time you feel stress building up, pause for a moment, and imagine your own tranquility shop. Step in, slow your breathing, and rest in the chair for a couple of minutes. Your "shopkeeper" will thank you. And the more you do that, the more tranquil your day will be! 
 
Try it now! Here is a two-minute tranquility shop recording to get you started. Enjoy!

-Marnie

The Powerful Pencil

It occurred to me one day when I was writing how powerful my pencil is. You see my pencil is capable of writing something spiteful, funny, wise, dramatic, or sad. In each case the words it writes can change my mood. And at the same time, my mood can be changed by the words I write!

For example, if I am writing something depressive, if I began to change the words to a more cheerful topic, that could be quite magical. I could even elaborate and write what I would do now that I was feeling uplifted. If I was stressed, I could write how it would be for me to handle the stressful situation in a state of calmness. If I was berating myself and I wrote how I was being kind to myself instead, wouldn’t that make me feel better? 

I always have a choice; I can use my pencil to make myself feel bad or use it in an empowering way to guide my emotions towards a helpful direction.

I could liken my pencil to my thoughts. If my thoughts are unhelpful for the situation and causing me to feel bad, I could stop that train of thoughts and imagine picking up my pencil and what words do I need to write to make the situation better? And how will I do that? And then how will I feel?  I could have several coloured pencils and choose the colour I want, such as right now I would like to feel peaceful, so I’ll use my green pencil, yellow for brightness, orange for joy!  Let your pencil flow with goodness……
~ Marnie

Book of Wisdom

The Book of Wisdom
 Walking into an imaginary room I see it filled with books.  I am drawn to a green book titled ‘Wisdom'. I read the first page and it says ‘This Book Is for You.’ The second page is blank. The third page the print is so small I can’t read it. Perplexed I flip to the middle of the book, and on that page, there is a beautiful glowing heart. I laugh because now I understand the 'Book of Wisdom.' 

This book is a reminder that our life is an incredible set of blank pages, and it is up to us, not others to write the pages of our life. We get to decide how large of print we want to go through life with, knowing that if we continue to grow and expand, so will the print of our life grow, for all our loved ones to joyfully celebrate with us, and leaving beautiful stories to re-read and enjoy. Our book won’t be the most perfect book, because no one is perfect, and the pages will have ups and downs because that is part of being a human. However, the most important message is to let our hearts guide us with kindness and empathy towards others and ourselves. 
 
So my question for you is: What will be on your 2023 pages? 
 
When I find my heart is kind
To all I meet and greet
I am filled with Light to my delight
When my heart glows within I win

Act of Kindness

Act of Kindness
There was a knock on my door, and upon opening the door to my disbelief I saw a little angel with the sweetest smile and demeanour holding a heart. In the loveliest voice the angel said “Hello, as you know Christmas is fast approaching for those who celebrate it, and perhaps you have already noticed people are getting excited for the holiday and their get togethers with family and friends which is so wonderful. However, there is a favour I would like to ask of you, because not everyone is looking forward to the holidays. Some people have family that live far away, some are grieving, some ill, depressed, some lonely, others have lost their jobs, perhaps a breakup of a relationship, or the family is experiencing turmoil. And Christmas can be a very difficult time for them. If you know of someone that fits into any of these categories, or one I haven’t mentioned, could you remember to show them a kindness? It doesn’t have to be anything much, some baked cookies, a card, sharing a coffee, a smile.”
Then she reached for my palm and placed some small cards in it and gently closed my fingers and with a twinkle in her eyes she was gone.
Here's what the cards said:

Every act of kindness,
Reminds us
That our heart
Can Impart
The Sharing
Of Caring

And now dear reader I’d like to ask you to turn on your imagination, close your eyes, hold out your hand, and now I’m placing one of her cards in your hand. ~Marnie

The Teeter Totter

The Teeter Totter
Remember the last time you had an argument with someone that you found difficult to let go? Likely because you were so upset, no matter how hard you tried, you kept reliving the argument in your mind, even though the argument was over. By continuing to let the argument take center stage in your mind, you actually elevated the argument to the top thought in your mind. Here are some ideas for next time you find yourself in an argument, as we all know they are part of being human!

After an argument, you could ask yourself, is being angry how I want to spend my precious time? To help you let the argument go, visualize the two of you, on a teeter totter. The more you relive the argument, the higher you put the person on the teeter totter, and the lower you go because that is all that you are focusing on.

Next visualize straightening your legs, so you rise higher on the teeter totter which causes the other person to come down. Of course this doesn’t change what happened, but you are changing your reaction to the argument. Now that you are higher on the teeter totter your perspective changes by seeing the argument as small in the big scheme of things. You can now choose a mindset of peace rather than contributing to anger. This lets you choose healthy, more interesting and more inspiring thoughts to focus on.

Lastly, bring out the kid out that’s inside of you, and run over to the slide and climb high! See the view from up there, more expanded, more full of potential. Your life is more than than focusing on your argument. Enjoy the slide, and get on with your next adventure!

"We often take for granted the very things that most deserve our gratitude." ~ Cynthia Ozick

Gumball Feelings

Gumball Feelings

Do you notice how your feelings are constantly in flux? No matter how hard we cling onto a feeling it eventually disappears. Sometimes we wake up and feel in a bad mood for no reason. Then someone can visit us who is in good cheer and before we know it, we're laughing with them. Some feelings are strong emotions like anger and physically make us feel tense. Others like love can make us feel wonderful. It's like a gumball machine inside of us with all these feelings waiting to come out.

We could see a dark blue gumball as a feeling of depression, an orange gumball as a feeling of joy, a red one as anger and a green one as peaceful. If we were to put our five cents in the machine and a blue gumball came out and we chewed it, we could recognize and acknowledge that we were feeling a bit down and therefore our behavior would likely reflect that, we wouldn't really feel like doing anything. After acknowledging that we were feeling a little blue we might think of putting our five cents in the machine and taking out an orange one. We could do that by perhaps listening to music; thinking about things you have gratitude for, watching a funny show, going for a walk-in nature.

Think of the colour of your gumball and what behaviour(s) contribute to that colour. What gumball do you want to chew?

Plug In or Out

What if you carried around an imaginary plug with you? Any time you need a boost of confidence you could take your plug and plug it into a wall full of confidence. Immediately you would feel an inner smile, stand taller with softened shoulders, and feel like 'you got this!' Or if you need some courage, you could plug into your wall of courage, and envision feeling a surge of courage flowing through you, 'you can do it!' The walls are limitless - why not try humour, compassion, kindness?

Alternately you could do the reverse. When someone is causing you to feel upset, you could imagine unplugging from their wall, feeling the disconnected plug in your hand, disengaged from the negative energy. They may continue but you feel peaceful, wisely having chosen to unplug. Perhaps you find you need some quiet and rest from all the negative news. Imagine unplugging from the noise. As you breathe in feel the difference, let the quiet bringing you back to balance.

Your plug is very portable and always with you. Practice unplugging from the lower vibrations such as anger, gossip, complaining, unhelpful comments, and plug into the higher vibrations of life that make you and others feel good, gratitude, empathy, joy, love, and peace. Let those vibrations flow! Everyone including you benefits when you do.

Imagery is Powerful! The more you use your plug the more powerful it is. Have fun with your plug and notice how it works.

Authors of our Life Story

Authors of our Life Story

We are all authors of our own Life Story. We are storytellers who have our own personal narrator talking non-stop to us. Some stories we keep to ourselves, others we share. Some we embellish, some we ignore.

If we visualize ourselves, with a pen in our hand about to write the next paragraph of our life, we can decide how we would like it to be. We can recognize that sometimes we have absolutely no control of certain situations, and yet the next paragraph still needs to be written.

If we look at ourselves as being authors of our own life, it gives us a lot of control. We can edit, we can change, we can introduce new characters, have some characters leave, learn a new skill, or drop a habit that doesn’t serve us. By knowing that we are the lead character and author of our Life Story, we cannot rely on or blame someone else for our story, but realize it is up to us.

Take a moment and ask yourself "How do I want the main character of my Life Story portrayed?" "How do I want this Story to play out?" "What am I going to do in the next paragraph, that next page, next chapter of my life?"

And lastly, don't forget to enjoy the act of writing!

~ Marnie

Helpers

This is a pivotal moment for all of us. To set new intentions, extend kinder ways of living to others, and to our planet. It is up to each and every one of us to create a new world, starting now.

Take a moment to sit back, and imagine a new normal of peaceful co-existence, with no tolerance for hate or violence. Instead, a commitment of uniting together, and embracing our differences.

Feel the excitement of thinking about a world filled with love and peace. The leaders we choose have a forward vision, realizing that greed, anger and old grudges no longer serve us. We collectively realize we do not need as much as we thought we did, and enjoy living a simpler, less competitive, less consumer-based lives. We cherish our time together with family, friends, coworkers and community as our new priority becomes a sustainable earth. Society works together for future generations to come.

What a privilege it will be to look back and know that we were part of the movement to begin this new kind world. This new vision is what our hearts are needing, and our hearts will lead the way. It's your choice - how can you contribute to this new vision? How can you be a helper?

Hope

Hope is having the idea that whatever is troubling us will get better. Perhaps not always in the way we want, but somehow it will alleviate our suffering. By having hope, it gives us the strength to cope with whatever adversity that is happening in our life.

Hope can be like a very good friend who is only a phone call away. And when you phone hope you can tell hope all your troubles, concerns and heart sadness and ask hope to help you be strong and able to face the trials you are currently going through. And know that just because you cannot see hope, simply knowing hope is with you is just as powerful. And you can call hope anytime the phone is available 24/7. Ask hope to bring you a way of finding peace with this situation, to bring you comfort. And breathe in the energy of hope, let hope become part of every cell within you and from here on in let hope be part of your life. Look for ways hope is helping you, imagine hope always available to give you a loving hug of hope, and as long as hope comes along for the ride you will have comfort.

Changes

There are so many changes in life. It seems you just get used to a change and it changes again. One can’t help but feel a little resistance to change because it is comforting to have familiarity. However, every time we have that resistance to an inevitable change, we create a tug of war within.

One side of us wants everything to stay the same, and the other side knows it must accept change and pulls us in that new direction. Often the resistant side might appear to be stronger, louder, and often more negative. However, if you imagine yourself holding on to the resistant side of a rope, how long can you hang on for before you drop from exhaustion? It takes a lot of effort to resist.

Therefore, the next time an inevitable change comes along that you have absolutely no power over, think about the tug of war rope. The acceptance side is eventually going to win, so why cause yourself all the unnecessary stress and mental discomfort? Instead, you can say to yourself 'Here comes change again!' Simply go with it rather than resisting. Who knows it might be the best change ever! ~ Marnie

The Milkshake Decision

The sign said Chocolate, Vanilla, and Strawberry milkshakes. I thought I’d love a Strawberry milkshake and my mouth began to water just thinking about it as I stood in the lineup. Then someone walked by me with a Chocolate shake, and it looked so good I changed my mind. Next, I saw a Vanilla one and realized that is what I wanted. The lineup was moving slowly, and I kept waffling between what flavor of shake I would order. I couldn't believe it I was actually getting stressed out about what milkshake flavour to order the longer I tossed it around in my mind. It occurred to me how often a very simple decision can get blown out of proportion and take up way too much mental energy. After all, will I even remember this milkshake decision a week from now? Is this milkshake decision life changing? Of course not! Strawberry it is!
Memo to self: I will now become aware of the magnitude of a decision and categorize accordingly so I do not get mental overload over a simple decision! I’ll ask myself is this a milkshake decision?

The Case of the Bright Red Shoes

One morning I woke up and after I got dressed, I was left with the choice of what shoes to wear. My bright sparkly red shoes, or my practical black round toed shoes. Of course, my red sparkly shoes weren't as comfy as my sensible black shoes, but they were definitely more fun to wear. So, the dilemma was comfort and practical, or fun and uncomfortable? And there lies the paradox of life. Sometimes to bring more fun into our lives we must feel a little uncomfortable, until we've stretched ourselves a little. If we always wear the practical black comfortable shoes, they will serve their purpose, but they aren't actually fun and there's never a change with them. So, I could think of the next decision I have to make as ‘shall I make the comfy familiar easier black shoe choice, or could I make the sparkly red fun shoe choice, and be OK with a little discomfort until I get used to the new experience’? Seems like the red shoes win!

The Message from the Dolphin

Imagine being on an air mattress bobbing gently on the waves. It feels so nice to be away from all the day-to-day activities and noise as you contentedly bob along. The warmth of the sun and the rocking motion has the effect of making you sleepy. And suddenly you see a dolphin swimming around you in circles. Are you dreaming or is this for real? Why is the dolphin circling you? Does it want to play or is it simply curious who you are? It appears to be smiling and you smile back at it. And then you ask, “hey dolphin do you have a message for me?”
To your dismay the dolphin dives down deep and disappears and it occurs to you what the message from the dolphin is - you can ask everyone outside of you for their opinions, and advice but to get the true message you need to dive deep inside of yourself to get your answer.
You know it, you always have, you've just let others answer for you. And now you know the message of the dolphin.

Is It Helpful to Multitask?

It seems natural to do more than one task at a time, however the brain does not like to do that. The brain handles tasks sequentially and can switch attention between tasks so quickly that we are given the illusion that we can perform multiple tasks together. Therefore, if you want to get more done using less effort, aim to work on what is called your attentional ability: focus and concentrate on one sequence - one task - at a time and avoid distractions. When you try to mentally multitask, you slow down your thinking and everything takes longer to accomplish. The brain loves the rhythm of sequences!

One Grumble A Day

What if we were only allotted one grumble per day? You would need to be sure not to use up your one grumble on something that didn't really require it, in case a bigger need for a grumble came later on in the day. Every time you felt yourself starting to grumble you would need to ask yourself “Is this my one grumble today or could I let this one go?”

So if we went with this idea, during the day our question becomes - Does this situation need a grumble, YES or NO ? And you may end up noticing a lot of the NO grumbles really are meaningless. Instead of indulging them with your time and energy, you would likely find you have a lot more time and energy to put towards more meaningful actions.

From there, you could ask yourself, what if I go the whole day and I'm about to go to sleep and I haven't used my one grumble? Do I get to add it to tomorrow? And the answer would be NO, because the less grumbles we carry forward with us the more peaceful our lives become, because now we spend our time focusing on the delights of our day!

Magical Beauty

I saw some magical earrings glittering on my dresser and put them on my ears. Suddenly I could hear birds chirping, the wind rustling the leaves in the trees, and children laughing.

Then, I saw a pair of magical sparkling glasses and put them on. As I looked around, I noticed all the little things I hadn't noticed before, like the beautiful colour of the bark on the trees, the vibrant green colour of the grass, the blue sky with every cloud so different and yet so soft.

And then, I saw the loveliest colour of magical lipstick and put that on my lips and such peaceful, kind words flowed from my mouth.

I decided to keep my magical earrings, glasses and lipstick on all day and what a day I had; all I saw was beauty!

And now I know I can put on my magical earrings, glasses and lipstick anytime, and what beauty there is to see!