Some days are brutal! I know you know what I mean. We’ve all had them! I’ve had so many metaphors run through my head for how this feels.

• Keeping your head above water when the world is pushing you under. (I thought it sounded to much related to cash)
• When you feel like a bobbing yo-yo. (a what?)

That’s enough of that, the title says enough – like that song, “I get knocked down, but I get up again. You’re never going to keep me down.”

This is where it gets challenging. Now I’m supposed to tell you how. But what if? What if the advice I give you, that works for me, and works for six other people, doesn’t work for you, nor 567 others? Oops.

Screw it. I’m not here to tell anyone what to do. I’m just telling some stories. Your truth will speak to you, maybe the writing will help call it out. Let’s give it a try.

Entrepreneurship is a challenging road, and here’s the thing: Life is tough enough without any of us wanting to make it harder. But who knew when we were young, ambitious, courageous, naive, trusting, and invulnerable? I didn’t know; I lived and breathed optimistic spontaneity. It is true – anything is possible – provided . . . . . .

Ha! What is that about?

Timing, opportunity, location, and a whole host of variables exist beyond our control. Anything can happen, and one decision can take you so far from experiences that may be extraordinarily beneficial at some later date in your life. And yet, who knew? Who knows? I’ve found myself, at 43, looking back upon one decade or another and seeing how small choices have had extraordinary results – both positive and negative – in my life. As for getting knocked down, I’ve been knocked down hard – a few times.

These days, great things are happening. The odd part of that is the vulnerability that I experience. Imagine I could fly.

In order to fly I must leap out off a cliff into open space spread-eagle. Yes, that is exactly what I mean by this vulnerable experience. Now, once I’m out there, I must remain spread-eagle in order to soar and stay aloft. Yes, I’m floating in space, defying gravity, soaring above the earth, and I feel an instinctual impulse to withdraw myself into a cannonball in some crazy response to the alarm of defying gravity.

Who said I couldn’t fly? Who said you couldn’t fly? I can see many people who’ve suggested such things to me in the past, growing up and in adulthood. Did that necessarily stop me? Rarely. Most often I would dig my heels in and hear this spirited internal response, “I’ll show you,” or “I’ll show them.” So could I honestly buy the idea that it is people today that are slowing me down or blocking my way? Partly, but very minor in their roles, as the power choice is wholeheartedly my own.

So what happened? I freak out sometimes, I panic, I worry, I cry, I get angry. Okay, I admit it: I’m human. Yes, there have been experiences in my past that haunt my todays. You see? That’s it, right there. On up days, it’s full steam ahead. On low energy days, those ghosts from our past tease at us.

When life is overall running quite smoothly, we weather these transitions with the ups and downs much more easily. When there is some big stuff going on, or has been for a while, this can become progressively challenging. And it is always boiling down to how you respond, in order to determine the outcome of each life chapter. Things getting more negative? Take a close look at your thoughts and patterns. Things improving? You know what I mean.

Whether knocked down, getting up, or staggering along, just remember to do just that: stagger along, keep focused on here and now. Push the feelings, fears, worries aside, and look at you and your choice to experience goodness. Let go and enjoy where you are, while learning to relax into the unfolding of the next moment. This isn’t always easy for a worrier – trust me, I know – but putting a conscious effort to it, becoming aware of it, builds up the ability.

And don’t beat yourself up over it. I used to beat myself up for having lost what I once had. Life, she’s a grand and demanding mistress, offering the ride of a lifetime.

I get knocked down, but I get up again. You’re never going to keep me down.

People who liked this post also liked:

Dr. Anthony’s Self-Confidence Creator!

Money Beyond Belief! with Joe Vitale & Brad Yates

Success With NLP Master Your Mind, Design Your Destiny

Some days are brutal! I know you know what I mean. We’ve all had them! I’ve had so many metaphors run through my head for how this feels.

• Keeping your head above water when the world is pushing you under. (I thought it sounded to much related to cash)
• When you feel like a bobbing yo-yo. (a what?)

That’s enough of that, the title says enough – like that song, “I get knocked down, but I get up again. You’re never going to keep me down.”

This is where it gets challenging. Now I’m supposed to tell you how. But what if? What if the advice I give you, that works for me, and works for six other people, doesn’t work for you, nor 567 others? Oops.

Screw it. I’m not here to tell anyone what to do. I’m just telling some stories. Your truth will speak to you, maybe the writing will help call it out. Let’s give it a try.

Entrepreneurship is a challenging road, and here’s the thing: Life is tough enough without any of us wanting to make it harder. But who knew when we were young, ambitious, courageous, naive, trusting, and invulnerable? I didn’t know; I lived and breathed optimistic spontaneity. It is true – anything is possible – provided . . . . . .

Ha! What is that about?

Timing, opportunity, location, and a whole host of variables exist beyond our control. Anything can happen, and one decision can take you so far from experiences that may be extraordinarily beneficial at some later date in your life. And yet, who knew? Who knows? I’ve found myself, at 43, looking back upon one decade or another and seeing how small choices have had extraordinary results – both positive and negative – in my life. As for getting knocked down, I’ve been knocked down hard – a few times.

These days, great things are happening. The odd part of that is the vulnerability that I experience. Imagine I could fly.

In order to fly I must leap out off a cliff into open space spread-eagle. Yes, that is exactly what I mean by this vulnerable experience. Now, once I’m out there, I must remain spread-eagle in order to soar and stay aloft. Yes, I’m floating in space, defying gravity, soaring above the earth, and I feel an instinctual impulse to withdraw myself into a cannonball in some crazy response to the alarm of defying gravity.

Who said I couldn’t fly? Who said you couldn’t fly? I can see many people who’ve suggested such things to me in the past, growing up and in adulthood. Did that necessarily stop me? Rarely. Most often I would dig my heels in and hear this spirited internal response, “I’ll show you,” or “I’ll show them.” So could I honestly buy the idea that it is people today that are slowing me down or blocking my way? Partly, but very minor in their roles, as the power choice is wholeheartedly my own.

So what happened? I freak out sometimes, I panic, I worry, I cry, I get angry. Okay, I admit it: I’m human. Yes, there have been experiences in my past that haunt my todays. You see? That’s it, right there. On up days, it’s full steam ahead. On low energy days, those ghosts from our past tease at us.

When life is overall running quite smoothly, we weather these transitions with the ups and downs much more easily. When there is some big stuff going on, or has been for a while, this can become progressively challenging. And it is always boiling down to how you respond, in order to determine the outcome of each life chapter. Things getting more negative? Take a close look at your thoughts and patterns. Things improving? You know what I mean.

Whether knocked down, getting up, or staggering along, just remember to do just that: stagger along, keep focused on here and now. Push the feelings, fears, worries aside, and look at you and your choice to experience goodness. Let go and enjoy where you are, while learning to relax into the unfolding of the next moment. This isn’t always easy for a worrier – trust me, I know – but putting a conscious effort to it, becoming aware of it, builds up the ability.

And don’t beat yourself up over it. I used to beat myself up for having lost what I once had. Life, she’s a grand and demanding mistress, offering the ride of a lifetime.

I get knocked down, but I get up again. You’re never going to keep me down.

People who liked this post also liked:

Dr. Anthony’s Self-Confidence Creator!

Money Beyond Belief! with Joe Vitale & Brad Yates

Success With NLP Master Your Mind, Design Your Destiny

Do things really happen for a reason or purpose? There have been many instances throughout life when I’d doubt this explanation for unfolding events and circumstances. Yet, this weekend past, I had a direct and undeniable incident that screamed, “We misplaced your phone for that specific purpose!”

So what happened, you might wonder. Before I left the house I remember having picked up my cell phone and putting it in the back pocket of my jeans. Before sitting on it, I moved it to my coat pocket where I had a few other items. Some time later, when I reached for my phone, it was nowhere to be found, yet those other items were still in my pocket. This sent me on a wild goose chase searching for the phone.

I went back to the starting point when I first put my phone in my back pocket. I was beginning to wonder if I’d imagined the whole thing, picking up the phone and bringing it with me. Maybe I had set it on the counter at home while I sorted out other details before leaving. It wasn’t in any of the places I looked and I set about returning to the apartment where I noticed I was missing my phone. When I got there, just inside the back door, on the floor, was a huge rope of keys; one would almost have guessed they were some building or maintenance manager’s keys.

Wondering how I’d figure out who they belonged to, I started rummaging through the key rings and tags to see if I could find a clue worth following. There was one key tag with information and phone number for the TTY service, which I remember provides a telephone teletype service for the hearing impaired so they can have telephone conversations. I immediately thought of the fellow at the end of the hall on my floor.

Getting off the elevator on my floor, there he was at his door desperately searching through his bags and backpack for the missing keys. Looking up and seeing me coming toward him, he broke into a beaming smile when I lifted the hanging rope of keys out in front of me. Mission accomplished, I returned to the search for my phone, and found it within five minutes down the crevice at the backside of the seat I was occupying earlier.

Can you see a bit of divine intervention at play here?

following a stream of consciousness

zero equals infinity – you see?

no, you can’t fit limitless quantities into nothing

sure you can

no, you can’t

okay, look. with nothing, there are no boundaries, there are no limits; just emptiness

so?

so, infinite fits into that space, that emptiness

huh?

yes. and so does our universe. that’s where you’ll find God too.

huh?

yes, God. He is those spaces – perfect – there is no light, there is no dark, there is no matter, no nothing, just – perfection – the source of love, of creation – it exists in the empty space of nothing – that’s where we come from, what we’re made of.

oooohhhhh, my brain!

by going inwards, within ourselves, to reach the quiet space, we can hear God and hear our spirit – we cannot comprehend what we cannot see and what is nothing cannot be seen – and yet, nothing is everything

The Way – cannot be told.
The Name – cannot be named.
The nameless is the Way of Heaven and Earth.
The way, of how life happens, cannot be told. The name, of that which makes life happens, cannot be named. This nameless is The Way of Heaven and Earth; in other words, it is everything imaginable and even then beyond!
The named is Matrix of the Myriad Creatures.
The named, that which we can see and experience, is in the Matrix of the Myriad of Creatures; all life and physical matter that comprises and supports life everywhere in every dimension.
Eliminate desire to find the Way.
Eliminate desire to find The Way, to feel and experience the gentle pull of directive power offered by the nameless. Eliminating desire is the way.
Embrace desire to know the Creature.
Embrace desire to know the Creature. All life, physical matter, and the source energy force of which it is part, desires to know the physical manifestation, that which breathes, eats, sleeps, and sexes.
The two are identical,
But differ in name as they arise.
The two are identical, The Way, and The Name, the mystical and the physical, one cromprised of the other, both experiencing the same, each uniquely aware, and arise in different name or form.
Identical they are called mysterious,
Mystery on mystery,
The gate of many secrets.
Identical as they are, they are called mysterious; a mystery on mystery, The Gate of many Secrets.
To explore and connect the one above as the one below, the experiential senses of thought and emotion, to that of the physical and Creature form, the Gate of many Secrets reveals itself, and the Self.
Visit Love Letters Tonight

Tama’s Musings

The Secret to Healing: Feel the Pain

When we are on the path of creating the work and life we love, we will encounter pain. That’s a given. Yes, we will follow our bliss, and then rejection, fear, and confusion will find out where we live. How we deal with the pain will determine our success and joy. But most of don’t love dealing with pain.

Recently, I had a fit of insecurity, a bout of self-comparison, and then a melt down. It’s the same sorry broken record that plays again. I don’t want this pain to return. It has come so many times to my house and broken the dishes and kicked in the walls. But when it comes I feel as though I have little say. All my years of therapy and spiritual growth, and even teaching, seem like postcards from a foreign land. I know that this “pain is optional.” But in the moment, it’s the only dish on the menu.

Ironically, I am at a beautiful retreat center when this experience happens. There are ongoing workshops on meditation and healing taking place. I pause by a still pond. Barefoot meditators walk by me, smiling with peace. I want to trip them as they pass. I am not well, I tell you.

Heal my mind, I pray to any God who will listen. Take these thoughts away. I say the words, begging and demanding. I stomp my foot like a princess calling upon the powers of the heavens as though they are disobedient maid servants. Nothing happens. Evidently, I cannot even pray right in this pain.

“Try focusing on something positive,” I demand of myself. It’s almost embarrassing how much good there is in my life, and how I choose to lie down on a bed of nails instead. Seeing this makes me feel worse. There are children starving in Africa, and they’re probably singing, says my suddenly “spiritual” inner critic. Now I’m in more pain, thinking how wrong it is to be in pain.

That night, I talk to Nancy, a woman I have just met. She is a healer by trade. But more than that, she is a healer by the way she looks at me. Her face is as open as a window in springtime and her eyes have seen it all, yet look at me with burning interest. I feel the air slow down around her. I swear she is charming the molecules into sacred space. I start telling her about my situation, strategically inserting only the details that validate my cause, and make me look pretty good, not at all like the ragged and hostile character at her table. I ask her how to deal with the pain of the situation.

I am hoping she will give me some mantra or insight to make it instantly disappear. I am hoping she has some kind of talisman tucked up her sleeve. I am hoping she will say something to prop up my wounded, terrified ego, maybe something like— you’re obviously a rock star who deserves better treatment. Or better yet, here let me waive my magic wand, and don’t worry, just for you, I’ll waive my fee. Or worst case scenario, but still fine with me, I expect her to say, I know a woman who can tell you which mother in which past life did this to you. I know a guru, a therapist, a lobotomist, a drug dealer, I’ll get you connected. But she says none of those things. She says something I am not expecting. When I ask her “What should I do?“—she says quietly, “I guess there is nothing to do— but feel the pain.”

Part of me wants to say, “Come, again?”

But the wise part of me, the one that instantaneously recognizes truth, wants to giggle and toss jellybeans at her feet. That part understands and claps its hands.

“Feel the pain,” she says, and she says it with the kindness of a thousand years like water that has loved a jagged rock and smoothed it into shining. Her healer’s voice surrounds me with spaciousness, as though she can wait forever for me to take in this message.

I feel her recognize my sorrow and suddenly I recognize it—and I recognize that it’s okay to feel sorrow. I don’t need to deny it or make it wrong or try to sweep it off my doorstep and scrub away its shadow. The moment she says “feel the pain,” I feel as though the broken sorrows of the whole world are laid before me, the raw hearts of everyone, everywhere, meeting me in this single moment with knowing. Somehow we’re all in this together, and I would not make them wrong for anything—and, finally, I do not make myself wrong either.

This is what whispers to me in her words: stop running and come in out of the rain. Wrap your little girl in a warm woolen blanket. Let’s put on a pot of soup. Forgive your ego, your frightened one for its tirade, for demanding the moon as proof of being loved, for needing things to be otherwise, for taking offense because the wind blew a certain way—not your way. Take those tight shoes off. Why, you’ve been running away from your truth for so long, you must be tired. Here, let’s soak those feet in lavender oil.

The moment Nancy said, “feel the pain,” I didn’t feel lonely or separate from my life anymore. I felt as though I could be in this exact moment, in this exact state of mind. I felt as though she was asking me to allow God, the Eternal Lover of the Present Moment, back into my heart. I felt as though she was reminding me of my Real Nature, a presence so beautiful and vast, it could sit with pain of any sort, frustration, anger, betrayal, and welcome every wasp, spider, or aphid into the garden. She was asking me to give myself over to the medicine and instruction of this moment. Suddenly I realized I didn’t need Spirit to take away the pain. I only wanted Spirit to sit with me while I felt the pain. I needed to sit with this part of myself. I needed to hear her story, not to fix it, or agree with it, push it away, or try to change the circumstances that caused it. I needed to sit with this frightened part of myself. She needed to be heard. She would know how to go forward from there.

In the past, I have envisioned the Presence of Love sitting down by my side. It’s the Holy Spirit, Jesus, Buddha, the Hebrew Shekina, or the spirit of ten thousand sequoia trees. Strong Love sits beside me. Strong Love sits behind me, before me and above me and below me. Strong Love can contain anything. Strong Love can absorb the sting. Strong Love doesn’t want to be anywhere else.

In the end, pain opened my heart to myself. It’s always that way. I feel the love of the Universe when I feel my own love. I feel that love when I stop running away from any part of myself or any experience I am having. I am willing to feel the pain. I am willing to feel my love. I am willing to feel my life.

This month I invite you to sit with yourself in the middle of a feeling that is uncomfortable. Feel the pain. I hope you can hear me whisper this to you, with the love of the ages in my voice, a strength and gentleness that wraps around you. I have faith in your ability to heal yourself. I have faith in your ability to contain and absorb and dance with the truth of exactly where you find yourself in this moment. I have faith in all of us.

With my love and blessings,

Tama

©Copyright 2009 Tama J. Kieves. All rights reserved.

Feel free to forward this copy to anyone you think might enjoy it.
Please keep the entire message intact, including contact, logo, and copyright information. Thank you.

Want to discuss this or any other aspect of living your dreams? Please visit our free discussion forum at:

http://www.awakeningartistry.com/resources.discussion.html

The little things that show you care…
Originally uploaded by preciouskhyatt

Maybe it is because I’m a Virgo, maybe it’s not. I notice the little things all the time, typically having to do with social interactions among people whether in groups or not. Where my observations are even more pronounced is when I’m an active participant rather than a casual observer. Ouch! I’m sure we’ve all had some of those.

Our closest relationships, our most meaningful relationships, would be the relationship that has the most meaning in our hearts. It’s where the little things are blaring and glaring when they’re swept aside over concerns and worries of the mind, instead of relished and nourished when the connection, solace, and intimacy are sought to feed the soul. Sigh.

Ladies and gentlemen, are you remembering what is important in your day-to-day life? Take stock and express yourself in positive ways toward those who have meaning in your world. Yep, that’s what I’m gonna do from now on. I need reminders too.

into the heart
Originally uploaded by silver.and.gold

Came from a conversation:

I have so much to share with you. First, understand that I grew up in a family that didn’t observe religion, faith, or anything other than strict discipline and hard work.

As a young boy of about 8, as my earliest recollection, a sense of wonder caused me to question, “where does it all come from? and is there a God? and what is God?” Of course, these were not answered in my home and a conversation with a school mate had me attend his church the following weekend where the “guy in fancy robes that preached” basically told me to buzz off. That was the end of that questioning period. Although throughout my life this had been a recurring theme.

In my early thirties, some serious searching and devastating life events saw me commit to the christian faith – more out of fear than faith or certainty.

What you describe with the church is very similar to my own. After four years, I was completely drained, and when I left the church I wanted nothing more to do with God, nor to do with any form of spirituality. I simply wanted to “get on with my life!” before it was too late, and I was too old.

But that recurring theme followed me, and as events would have it, God revealed presence through science. Suddenly, a thread of commonality, a key to a cryptic code, tied all religious and spiritual thought forms into a more cohesive whole. This is not to say that there are not some glaringly outdated, outmoded, or simply obsolete statements of belief in all systems. Every system evolves into a more refined system. Does organized religion?

Evolution is fact, as is a force of nature that is beyond comprehension. If we ever gain comprehension of this energy that sustains and creates all life, it will still beg the question if there is some other force acting upon or creating this force. The questions can continue. But suddenly, with this realization, my understanding of God, of Life, of Energy, of Creation, and our relationship to it – AND – in it, finally made sense.

This is the the summary version of what has become of my relationship with God.

Tama J. Kieves is a kindred spirit in the world of coaching. I often enjoy reading her email newsletters and this one received today is one of those rare beauties that I’m delighted to share with my readers.

Tama’s Musings reprinted with permission.

(Note: This was supposed to go out on Valentine’s Day, but we chose Divine Timing instead….)

A Love Letter from the Divine…

I want you to know that I love you very much. It doesn’t matter to me if you eat fudge ice cream in your vintage underwear in the middle of the night. And I think you’re precious, not following through on your Gratitude Journal yet, fourth year running. Beloved, I’m not the least bit concerned with those unsavoury thoughts about your ex. I am not limited to momentary facts. I know your shimmering nature. I know how AMAZING you are.

But if I’m honest, I am a little concerned about this. I wonder why you don’t trust the desires that have always been yours. You strive to ignore your wildest dreams because they feel so good, but I thought that surely you’d recognize their unrivalled power because they feel so good. Please know I supplied you with unstinting resources and a hunger strong enough to make any of your desires come true. And surely you’ve noticed a few of the lines I’ve written for you in some of the self-help books you’ve read. I keep putting those books out there and you even keep buying them. But, still, I find you sitting in the corner as though you are an orphan child, as though you’ve been abandoned without a key, a charm, a brand new GPS system and an entourage waiting just for you. I even hear you whisper, “I don’t know what to do.”

But I gave you a Free Pass. I gave you a Free Pass to the life that stirs your blood and strengthens your bones. Yes, of course there are challenges. But I thought you’d enjoy the thrill of the chase that way. I didn’t want to make it easy. I know your strength and capacity. I thought you’d find the deluxe wild ride entertaining. I didn’t think you’d ever believe that circumstances could stop you. You are unstoppable. You are branded with my love and with my infinite energy.  But here’s the thing. When you stop believing in your soul’s desires, you’ve stopped believing in me. When you give up on yourself, you don’t feel my Presence anymore. Now that just destroys me. I’ve sung to you from the radios and sent morning doves and dragon flies to mark your path. I’ve used your life coaches and therapists to tell you the truth. I whisper to you constantly. Sometimes I even press down on your heart or turn the flames up on your blood pressure. I’ll do anything dear one to reach you. I’ll never give up on you. I want you to know what you’re here for. I want you to stop denying what you know. Your doubt is poison. It is not protecting you.

Now I know that you think you will not be rewarded in the world for your singular expression, temperament, and abilities, but I tell you it is not true, dear one. You will know nothing but reward when you share your love. You will transform into another you, the real you, the one without limits, shame, fear or regrets. So dearest Beloved, I send you a thousand roses of Spirit and ten thousand dark chocolates of soul. I don’t want a tryst with you. I want the whole thing, the Grand Love Affair of watching you bloom and heal and let go of every false limitation you’ve ever believed about yourself or the rest of your shining world. These thoughts only make you tired. The truth would have you laughing and clapping and hugging every precious soul around you. I want you to burst through the density of this world with the power of your totality. I want you to know what it’s like to fully trust your love and not look over your shoulder. I want you to know I’ve got your back, your front, your sides, and your soul. I want you to honour your true desires because they are your arrows. And like Cupid, I’ve shot them through your heart. Cupid copied me by the way! Please know that whatever you choose–and whenever you choose it– you are loved and sustained in ways you can’t even fathom from your side of the veil. You are my Beloved and I’m always here for you.  Happy Valentine’s Day….everyday!

—Your Loving Universe

P.S. Stop watching the news so much. Your life is the news.

Tama

©Copyright 2008 Tama J. Kieves. All rights reserved.

Feel free to forward this copy to anyone you think might enjoy it.
Please keep the entire message intact, including contact, logo, and copyright information. Thank you.

Want to discuss this or any other aspect of living your dreams? Please visit our free discussion forum.

Tama J. Kieves
www.AwakeningArtistry.com
The Art of Living Your Dreams

“If you’re this successful doing work you don’t love,
what could you do with work you do love?”

THIS TIME I DANCE!
Creating the Work You Love/
How One Harvard Lawyer Left It All to Have It All!

A common human / spiritual / Life commonality, recognized in the spiritual/religious life, is to have respect for all life. Every day, the bad habits gained through life’s learning cause human beings to intentionally cross that line multiple times throughout a day. Someone who experiences this the violation of respect triggers anger, the negative manifestation of Love articulating boundaries.

There is more to this, as this view identifies functioning at higher levels of awareness, and only the one-point-of-view. It fails to explore what we consider the criminal-level, etc., where rage often overtakes anger. This would require lengthier discourse, and this piece assumes an audience that functions at higher levels. If rage is an issue, I will be happy to converse via email.