MAGIC

Indulge...

...in the magic around you.  Within you.  Within all.

Let your light shine bright, and always let love be your guide.

Warmest and Brightest of Holiday Seasons!

~Marci Renee

CHILL

Lately...I haven't been feeling well...

Not the standard issue holiday cold most are suffering from, but moreso internal organ stuff my genes have plagued me with.  I was actually pretty bummed since it caused me to miss a day or two of life as I had planned it.  Holiday parties, teaching audition, dinner with friends, etc.  The truth is...my life is one big schedule right now.  I have to consider my full time job, and my full-time love/aspiration.  Along with those...friends, family, romance, and a little bit of fun.   I literally had to have a come to jeebus with myself, and remind myself that life and nature just have another plan.   We could all use a reality check, and a day away from our daily planners (or fancy iphone apps that do that for us).  Below are 8 tips on how to unplugg yourself, to tune into yourself.  To-Do lists, beware!

*  BACK AWAY FROM THE LIST! - Take a step back from all your prioritizing and potential productivity.  Are you feeling overwhelmed?  Chances are...yes, you are.  Imagine yourself  physically in the day you're planning.  Are you filling too much into your time?  What is the importance of some of your "things"?  What can you hold off until tomorrow?  What doesn't really need to be done at all?  Who can help you?  Chances are there's an item, or 2, or 4 in your que that can be eliminate or prioritized better once you ask yourself one or more of these questions.

*  NATURE'S WAY - the truth is...sometimes life has it's own plan for you.  Embrace it.  Nothing is going to crumble to pieces if you miss a day at the gym, don't get to that party, or need to put the dry cleaning off until tomorrow.  Quit taking your list so seriously and start taking living your life seriously!

*  FUN - don't forget that!  Often we do, all too often.  Remember the things that make you, you...and the activities you enjoy.  Remember to get some of that lovin' in.

Most importantly...remember to ALLOW yourself to be nurtured and loved!

*  IMAGINE THE POSSIBILITIES - of a "to-do" concept that works for you.  Rather than planning your week, let your week plan you.  Feel out how you're feeling that day, and figure out what works in that day, and what doesn't.  What doesn't work will have another place.  Lofty?...yes.  Ideal?...YES! 

*  CHALLENGE - yourself.  One day away from your planners and all things that read "schedule".  I triple dog dare ya.

*  IDENTIFY - what's ailing you.  It could be physical, mental...whatever.  Identify the reasons WHY you need to go about things in a different way.  Realize what's not working for you, and how YOU want to work it.

*  ACCEPTANCE - nothing catchy here.  Only with pure acceptance untouched by the infamous ego, can we truly...

*  CHILL, BABY - sit back, relax, and nurture your doing self.  For many of us, this includes a myriad of things.  Urban retreats, couch retreats, or tropical retreats.  Either way...make absolute sure you're easy on yourself.  Inside and out.

You're welcome!

And loved...

L.O.V.E

....this time of year it's everywhere!


Commercialized and wrapped up in a pretty little package.  It's even part of Bloomingdales print ad campaigns for the holidays.  One 4 letter word expected to generate bundles of...revenue... 

So, naturally I wonder....what does this 4 letter word mean to you? 

My example above turns it into something tangible...that you can literally hold in your hand.  Hopefully we're all aware that's not REALLY what love is.  Which then....makes me think of one of my favorite Bill Withers jam's...

"People try to create feelings just the same as love.
In the name of love, in the name of love."

The norm for our stereotypical love affair is boy meets girl, girl meets boy, boy meets boy, girl meets girl.   The couple gets carried away, intertwined in one another, becomes one...and then the story goes on.   It all either gets along famously, or is endlessly tragic. 

But when was the last time you had a love affair with yourself?

(c'mon...you knew that was coming, right?)

Really though, if you think about it..when was the last time you wined/dined yourself?  Got dressed up for yourself, and then paid yourself compliments?  Impressed yourself thoroughly with all the qualities within you that are almost cellular?  Not the on the surface variety of self-love...or even neccessarily the gratifying kind(you studs).  I'm talking the kind of love that rocks you to you core.

Think of an onion, and imagine yourself peeling the layers away.  As you get to that bare, dark core...what resides there?  When all of your layers can't hide what makes you you!  If you can't imagine anything residing there...think of what you'd LIKE at your core.   If you already know what's there...embrace it.  Lovingly acknowledge the good, not so good, and the indifferent.  Own that core...because it's who you really are.


That's love.  Knowing, accepting, and acknowleding who you are from the inside out...and DIGGING it!  Too many times we rely on a person, place, thing to supply us our love...when it's within us all along.


Leaving ya with Bills words rather than mine this time...


"And there really ain't no feeling quite the same as love.
In the name of love."

KINDNESS

The strangest thing happened the other day... 

While on the subway, feeling a bit drained myself from the trials of the day, another fellow human being got on the train.  As drained as I felt this person looked a bit more worse for the wear.  Swollen red eyes that had seen a tear or two, a frown that was no joke, and a general weakness and malaise that can only come from the overflow of emotion.  I saw it all, in just a second, and felt the utmost compassion for this person.

I thought to myself...what if, as a fellow human being, I recognize their pain and send them some well wishes.  Not so much an act of kindness, but a thought of kindness.  What if "energetically" I sent them what seemed to be missing? Compassion, support, the guarantee that no matter what they're not alone!  I did this...and when I looked up, this person looked right at me and cracked about an inch of a smile.

Could it be that she felt this energetic lift?  No...I'm sure not.  But maybe...she felt an energetic SHIFT.  Maybe...juuust maybe, she felt the support in her general area, rather than the doom of judgment.  Maybe...she felt the relief of some random kindness.

Kindness is human nature in one of it's rawest forms.  And these days, one of it's rarest.

Kindness is something intuitively passed along among us, when there isn't all that "stuff".  The conditioning that's so deep rooted in many of us that it comes out as....judgment.  Kindness is something we mostly have trouble passing along to ourselves, even.

CUT THE WORLD SOME SLACK!
I'm not even going to tell you why, or dive into this deeper because I'd be wasting precious time explaining something you already know.   You know how hard you are on yourselves and everything around you.  Perfectionists, I'm talking to you.  Human beings, I'm talking to you!

Love, plain and simple.  

Kindness, plain and...simple.

TRUST-GIVING

Trust, to me, is a fascinating concept.

The fact that an individual can expose themselves in such a raw, unconditional way...truly giving themselves to whatever it is they believe to be worthy.  Trust isn't usually something you see in any sort of visual way.  It's not on a poster, or any of the ads on a subway.  There's no real tutorial.  It's this magical thing that happens when....well, when you are in alignment. 

In this post...I'm not going to point out something magnificent.  Nor am I going to motivate you to move forward.  The honest to jeebus truth is, I personally suck at showing action on this whole trust thing.  So...preachy...not so much.  I will tell you what I know though, as a control junkie.  

Most importantly.  The times that I've given into, and given up a piece or pieces of myself (I can count them on my right hand, and have change)...are some of the only times I've felt truly free.  The purest sense of freedom is selflessly giving up, giving in, and giving yourself in that moment.  Trusting takes courage, yet, more times than not giving up those bits of yourself feel almost insignificant.  Almost as if the connection and the alignment to what's happening in your life is flowing most naturally when...you're not even trying.

So yea...how does that all work?  (right!?)

I claim to be no expert...but it appears to me that trust is as natural as you and I are as human beings.  Trust lives in each and every moment, and within each one of us.  Trust shouldn't be feared, it should be embraced.  Trust proves us control junkies wrong.  Wrong, wrong, wrong!  Because when we trust....and we put a certain courage/faith/love/belief out there, we radiate it.  And then...like attracts like.

The reason I'm sharing my experiences with you today is....this is the start, ladies and germs.  The start of this Holiday Season (there!  I said it! ) kicks off a whole lot of contraction, and self defense from things, people, circumstances which we PERCEIVE to be damaging to our well being.  Rather than retract and live in our warped little shells...come out and play.   Welcome what comes your way, and if you trust in nothing else...trust in yourself.  Trust in the love that you have for yourself to make the best possible decisions for you.

I leave you with one final thought:

How do you trust?

Happy and Healthy Thanksgiving Holiday to you all!

NOURISHING

Once again, I've found inspiration through one of my clients.

Nourishment.  What does it mean to you?

And how can you nourish mind, body, spirit?

I'm thinking....nourishment outside of food consumption, isn't something we think of often.  

Unknowingly that big, full breath of fresh fall air goes unnoticed.  That loud hearty laugh straight from the belly, dissipates quietly.  The warmth we feel from friends and family seems to fade all too quickly.  

Often we find our selves contracting, but not expanding.  By contracting I mean....escaping. Retracting.

It's easiest to find pleasure in one or many things...big or small, in order to escape realities that consume us.  The thing is, YOU GET TO AUTHOR EVERY SINGLE MOMENT OF YOUR LIFE.  You get to choose what's toxic to your well being, and what's nourishing.  If we were able to just quit escaping for a few minutes and observe the things we've let into our life, we also have the power to remove what isn't truly working. There's nothing "wrong" with letting the "wrong" things in.  Trial and error is absolutely allowed.  As are mistakes.  Perfection is way over-rated in the name of true awareness!

So...my pies, I challenge you with this in the coming days.

What's working? Or could work?

What is not working?

Are you able to accept your decisions, all decisions, with grace and responsibility?

Identify what it is you'd really like.  Dream BIG!

Think of a way, or two (or three!) you'd like to get there.

Stop and think...are you being hard on yourself?  

Graciously take that step forward, a step closer to your most authentic version of yourself.

Expand.

Love, love, LOVE.

...IT WASN'T ME...

If you're reading this....chances are you're working on various areas of yourself.

Duh.

I feel, and have always felt that lessons are everywhere.  All day, every day, there is something to be learned about yourself in relation to nature (and all it's crazy elements).

Something I learned this week was HONESTY.  Not just in it's simplest form....due to some sort of BIGNESS that came my way.  I mean, even the little stuff.  White lies, specifically to myself.   Inner work takes some getting used to, just like anything else.  As a society I believe most of us to be groomed with a wicked sense of pride.  Even if we're doing this kind of work or just browsing....you could probably find about 4 white lies you told yourself today before your first cup of coffee.

- "Oh, I didn't clean that room yet because my life is way too busy to care about it (I was way to lazy to do it the entire weekend that I didn't do a thing).  

-  "My pants are a little bit tighter, but it's definitely not because of the 5 cupcakes I ate last night.  And the night before."  (I really had 6 cupcakes)

-  "Not sure why my boss is ticked off the minute I walk in the door...I'm giving him my blood, sweat, and tears to get the job done in a shit economy" (it's a shit economy...we're not as busy as we used to be.  No one will miss me if I'm a few minutes late.  EVERYDAY.)

-  "Nope...I didn't see that homeless dude on the train."  (He was singing off key and didn't deserve the money I'm not working hard to earn)

...and so on.

So here's the thing....I think this pride, and these lies are nothing short of toxic.  Tell yourself the truth, the ENTIRE truth, for one full day.  Yep...I was just a complete dick to my best friend.  Nope...I didn't do anything productive the first 2 hours of my work day.   Yep...I just lied to my mother about not calling her.  JUST DO IT, and see what happens.  Chances are, you'll feel a little freedom.  And maybe....a little more connected to the reasoning behind doing (or not doing) the things your doing (or not doing).  It's called Self Sabotage, folks.  I was kidding myself before when I thought through all this work on myself, that I was behaving in a healthy way.   One of my clients outwardly admitted recently there was no way she was being honest with herself.  Not in her work, and not in other areas either.  She held herself fully responsible (a key word for her), and actually felt GIDDY at the opportunity to change it all around.

I figure, if you can't be honest with yourself....the truest form of your forgiving self...you're S.O.L.  You are your one constant, and your most forgiving/nurturing/understanding force.   Time to start calling yourself out!  And then....take it all in(ward).

Embrace honesty.

Love every imperfect inch of yourself.

BALANCE

When was the last time you felt the ground beneath you?

This is a cue I've received as a yoga student, given as a yoga instructor, and have heard overall in in my own personal work.  Now I challenge you.

Where is your ground? 

How sturdy is it? 

Can you find your balance on one leg while you utilize the rest of your body to support you, almost making you lighter?

It's the same with our inward balance.  Utilizing every inch of the ground supporting us while the core of our foundation helps this balance feel...lighter.  We either straighten up with a smile, or struggle to remain still. 

With Fall in full swing, we see the colors change.  Winds kick up while temperatures drop.  We can just feel the transitions in the air....most times knocking us off our balance.  We struggle to find routine, a sense of who we are as this change takes place.    Nature tells us to retreat indoors and comfort ourselves.  But I wonder what it would mean to reflect OUTWARDLY?  To maintain our sense of awareness and therein also maintaining our balance!  Possessing the belief that although circumstances around us change, we are a continuing constant.  A fierce foundation, and yet....lightness.  Lightness that has no choice but to outwardly reflect on every human being we come in contact with.  It's contagious!

Play with this thought.  Do it while standing on your head.

Actualize the powers that your own personal foundation provide.

Love.