Committed to helping you create a life of miraculous self-compassion and divine creativity, enabling you to connect your unique gifts with the world's great need.

Dear Ones,

As the crises in the Middle East grows more heartrending, it feels impossible to know what to do, say, think, or believe. I feel a sense of deja vu creeping over me; it's the 70's again. Haven't we learned anything? The optimist in me (who embarrasses me sometimes, she's so Pollyanna but she is who she is) wants to say, "Can't we do some non-violent communication between all three groups?" There was a letter printed in our local paper this week written by a man who had been shouted out by a driver when he was crossing the street -- "Hey, watch where you're going." They saw each other a few minutes later in the grocery and he apologized, and told her he had been thinking about a dear friend who had just died and wasn't paying attention. Then she apologized because a minute early a child had ran out in front of her car and she was still shaken. Then they hugged! I don't know about you but every single time I build up a story about why someone is a shit or stupid or wrong, if I actually take the time to talk to them and not someone else, the resentment and anger almost always melts completely away -- and when it doesn't, there is always something to learn there, too.

Okay, don't scream at me for being so simplistic about such a divisive and complicated conflict as the Middle East and there are people working there to make a difference using such basic ideas as open hearted dialogue. Personally, here's what I'm doing. I cannot control anything other than my own responses. When I go into fear, shock, and rage it takes me out of my center, my connection with myself and Spirit. I will be more effective praying for the highest good of of all beings from a place of peace and connection to my heart. So, I focus on my "middle," my belly, and know that if I get into the story of horror, the after shock and stress hits my belly and then my body must process all those stress chemicals. My logic tells me that is not good for anybody. I am committed to living my beliefs, holding true to my values, even when it's easier to live dismay, outrage, and fear.

The more we make peace into a verb that informs our moment by moment actions, the more we sense it in the world (in the most unlikely places), the more we create it, the more we can focus on the expansion of peace. If what I most want from others, is what I most want to give then in this situation what I most want is peace and my peace is what I give you.

Paz Siempre (peace always),

P.S. As a writer, I firmly believe in the power of putting words to paper. If you haven't tried it, look into the Work and download a free "Judge Your Neighbor" Worksheet and process it with a partner. With all the wars inside us, this is a great tool to practice "let peace begin with me."

Self-Care Minder
Breakthroughs and Breakdowns

Speaking of inner wars, I have been blogging a lot about inner turmoil and sharing snippets from conversations that have spoken to me. What I want to share with you now is that if you are experiencing a breakdown of any kind, take a deep breath (I mean literally, not figuratively). Take another and read this: My friend Ann Cheng quipped recently, when I told her how horrible and unlovable I had been feeling, "You must be ready for a big breakthrough." What a lovely way to think of it, I thought, and then the next day the big breakthrough came I noticed the feeling of being connected, of being loved, at being at peace, came back.

She was right.

Then I heard Rev. Dr. John Polkinghorne, physicist and theologian on the radio show Speaking of Faith (very highly recommended -- I get it as free podcast) "There is a very interesting scientific insight which says that regions where real novelty occurs, where really new things happen that you haven't seen before, are always regions which are at the edge of chaos. They are regions where cloudiness and clearness, order and disorder, interlace each other. If you are too much on the orderly side of that borderline, everything is so rigid, that nothing really new happens, you just get rearrangements. If you are too far on the haphazard side, nothing persists, everything just falls apart. It's these ambiguous areas, where order and disorder interlace, where really new things happen, where the action is."

Breakdowns are not failures; they are a tilling of the earth so a gorgeous flower can emerge, a melting of the ice so waters can flow, a mixing of chemicals so life can grow.

Why do we get so, so, so attached to negative drama? Why do we always fall for the "the familiar pain is better than the unknown?" It's the way our brains are wired and we can work to rewire them (more about that as I start to talk about my upcoming book The Life Organizer: A Woman's Guide to a Mindful Year) One way is to stop, soften your belly, and focus on your heart. Bring up a memory of how you want to feel. Stay there for 15 seconds, feeling and focusing on "wholesome" states as the yoga sage Patanjali counseled. Fears make more fears, they do not make your life more important, they do not help your create more love. So, gently, intently dissolve the fears.

I love learning! I love this moment with you. We break down barriers through this newsletter, through blogs, through our journals. Break down, break up, break free. The faster we break, the quicker we transform to what is next for us.

Comfort Wishes
"You'll never be able to steer your life the way you used to. Your new steering mechanism has been activated," Rudy said, still chuckling. "It's wireless," he continued, "and tied into a current of energy and intelligence beyond anything you can imagine." As I pared away at lilac branches, it came to me. That for the first time I really knew -- knew in the deepest part of my mind -- that I do not have to bend life to my will. Willpower is the caveman approach to life. I could... watch life unfold instead."
From The Wisdom of Yoga by Stephen Cope