DAY 506

this week I am celebrating LOVE

Lately I´ve been thinking of persons who inhabit (or have inhabited) my world and how them have marked me some way. I have known some of them for a very long time; I met others only once or twice and even so I have never forgot them and I am getting to know some of them right now, but I already know that will be part of that group. Some are family or old friends, others just acquaintances. I have coincided with many of them along my personal life´s paths but there are also former students or persons that I bumped into due to my work activities and of course, on-line contacts.

Some of those persons have hurt me deeply or made me feel sad or angry, or triggered any kind of unease, although they were not meant to do it... I guess this happens to all of us. But many others have developed much more positive roles.

However, while revising my list I´ve realized that any and each of them have taught me important things some way or another. But what has amazed me more is how the hard impact of some of them on my life has tarnished the beautifully constructive influence of the rest.

Some times in life what some authors usually call tyrant teachers (those who don´t want to teach us anything but do it anyway, through the pain they cause and its subsequent processing) gobble up all the good things and persons around.

I have decided that it´s time to change that. I need to focus on what is good and nice and rewarding. I need to focus on those who help and embrace and applaud and support. I need to focus on what I have created, not on what I have been deprived of. I need to focus on the beautiful self I have been able to construct regardless of the obstacles.

So this week I am celebrating the LOVE I have received from those who has been generous enough to offer it to me, even when maybe I was too immersed in my own world.

Those who have lent a hand and open their hearts.

Those who have given me thanks, or have appreciated me some way maybe only once.

Those who have gone with me along the peaceful days. And also, through the uneven moments.

Those who have listened or given good feed-back.

Those who have laughed (and cried) with me.

Those who has believed in my success and defended that I have something good to offer.

Those who have seen my light when I only saw darkness and have shared their beautiful souls with me.

Those who has been with me day after day sharing their love and joy.

Those who has been patient enough to await my blooming.

Those who come here and read and are kind enough to take time to do it...

This week I am rejoicing in love signs and proclaiming that love is all around. This week I am sending love to you all and looking for ways to honor all the good persons in my life (including myself).

Would you join me in this celebration?. I would like to know more about how you are honoring and celebrating love in your life.

Much Love

Z.

DAY 505

ins and outs

As you may already know, I am living my year of celebration. It is a way to honor the place where I am right now (metaphorically speaking). I want to live this in process, this means that I am only determined to keep my celebration mood but I don´t want to plan anything ahead and I try to await what comes to meet me.

This has caused me some unease, because I was not sure how I would be able to set a practice without planning (what if inspiration never arrives?) or  how I would be able to keep a mood that is strange to me without an extra effort.

Being blissfully spontaneous is not my strongest point and proclaiming what makes me happy has never been my style. I have no problems with talking about many subjects or showing vulnerability (something that I have learnt that makes me stronger) or sadness and of course, anger, but expressing joy is challenging to me in certain contexts or moments.

Don´t get me wrong, I am not a bad-tempered person and I am not shy, either. I am an introvert that usually finds much easier to rejoice in things privately if necessary (a way to celebrate), than sharing them, or does any other thing to make my -positive- feelings evident. But how can one goes through a year of celebration -the kind of year I have in mind- without doing it?.

However, as the week progressed, a certain pace has begun to take form. This pace is made of little and specific daily actions and I am discovering that praising publicly what I find interesting, appealing, beautiful or comforting (you name it) about other persons, or even about myself, is not so difficult as I thought. Indeed, I am getting used to do it quickly, something inconceivable only a few months ago... is this a proof of the power of intention?.

When I am working with my students, or doing any other activity, at home or just walking in the city, I try to be more assertive in general terms, but in particular, regarding the good things. This is making a great difference: I feel more motivated and enthusiastic and mindful (and connected to others!) but what is more important, through the tiny, ordinary things, I am getting in touch with some big things that deserve celebration in my life. Things that –now I see- have gone unnoticed or I have given for granted, but won´t continue to be that way.

I´ll start a series of post about them next week... would you come to celebrate with me?.

Hope so. Much Love.

Z.

DAY 501

So now I am living a year of celebration!

After writing my last post, I went into panic mode along a few minutes... I started to ask to myself how I would manage to stay true to that idea, how I would be able to preserve my determination during such a long period of time. I was ready to start to plan the year whole, when suddenly I realized that it could be much easier than that: the only thing I had to do was cultivating a celebration mood and let it me lead throughout the days ahead.

Of course, cultivating that mood -I thought- will demand me tons of positive thinking, the ability to focus on what can I celebrate and to face up my everydayness (with its demands, problems and epiphanies) in a complete different way. But for a moment I saw clearly that what I had to do was keeping that mood as much as possible, nothing else.

It was a sort of revelation: I would live this in process, I would celebrate in process, I would plan my year of celebration in process. That means that I wouldn´t make decisions in advance, I wouldn´t opt for this or that content, I would live every unique moment honestly. And I would honor through celebration.

When I came to that conclusion I felt that an important truth had been unraveled: I had to honor by celebrating!. And I realized that this would have to be my strategy this year: honor my existence by celebrating it... honor my daily life by celebrating tiny moments; honor my inner work by celebrating my practice, honor my process, by celebrating my finds; honor my journey by celebrating my path… honor my destiny by celebrating my surrender

So I made a decision: My word could be celebrate (because I wanted it to rule my life). My motto: analyze less, celebrate more (as I felt that it would allow me to move forward ), but my strategy should be (would be) honor by celebrating.

I love this last paragraph, it makes me feel alive, empowered and confident. I feel that it is going to open an unknown door to a new and completely different place. And I am ready to go ahead.

I know that this is a great challenge and I know I´ll need a system not only to keep this in mind (I know I can get lost in my hectic schedule without noticing it), but also to be able to write about my experiences here. I´ve been thinking about it, and I have some ideas, I still want refine them a bit but I´ll keep you updated!

Wishing you a wonderful week!

Much Love,

Z.

DAY 365+135 = 500

in the prime of life

When I first started to think of this post which would be my first post of 2014 and where I wanted to talk about my New Year resolutions, I felt certain unease. In fact, the more I thought about it, the more uneasy I felt.

The first days of the New Year I usually outline what I intend to do as a way of manifesting it. I set goals and develop the guidelines of my inner work by choosing a word for the year. This, quite often,  gives rise to a working methodology which -frequently-nurtures this blog.

This has allowed me to move forward and heal (which is obviously, the aim that lies beneath this journey of mine), but when I thought about it this time, I realized that even when I wanted to keep this process (which is indeed a daily practice right now) and to continue to heal and to create more serenity, peace and joy in my life, I didn´t  want to do it the same way I´ve been doing it. 

Indeed, since December started, I knew that I didn´t feel like doing tasks related to New Year commitments (maybe because they were becoming a bit uninspiring). So instead of forcing myself to do it, I decided to abandon the pressure and the lists and try to find out the reason why I felt that way. 

While I was thinking of all these things, I had a request from Marcie of Vision and Verb because we were going to publish a post of communal intentions and suddenly I came up with this:

To regret less, enjoy more. Complain less, appreciate more. Expect less, love what is more. Reject less, embrace more. Judge less, respect more. Analyze less, celebrate more.

These words summarize what was going round in my head. In particular, the last paragraph. Once I wrote them without much reflection, they settled inside me -so to speak- and acquired new meanings. The more they stayed with me, the more I understood that they were meant to rule my life along the next twelve months, in particular -I have to say it again-  the last paragraph. Maybe because the first ones, some way sum up what I have been doing. In fact, they express a result and are a sort of reinforcement, but the last one is brand new.

Analyze less, celebrate more! I´ve been saying this to myself since I first wrote it. Sometimes exclaiming, often doubting myself. I´ve felt both hopeful and frightened. Could I be able to approach my life that way?, and finally, I have said, YES!. I know these words hold a deep truth to me, and I am sure they will lead me to a new level of consciousness.

When I think about celebrating, I am not only thinking about rejoicing in my accomplishments, I am thinking also, about performing new actions which can help me to support others and also about praise publicly who I am and how blessed I feel (now) being myself. I want to honor my journey, by celebrating any step of my path.

However, these are not resolutions, there are not goals, the only thing I want to do is invoking this energy of celebration. I don´t want to undertake any particular or predetermined task; I don´t want to plan anything, maybe for the first time in my life... I only want to see where this energy of celebration can lead me.

Of course, this can change it all. Indeed, this can change the style of my inner work, the essence of my practice, what I want to show to the world and what I want to share. It is already changing my mood!.

 I want this blog to reflect what I am talking about so keep an eye out for the next posts because I am going to offer new proposals that will meet all these characteristics.

I am so motivated by all this!!. Next December I´ll be 50 years old and I cannot imagine a better way to go over the months ahead. I also have found out that -by chance- this post which marks this turning point is my 500th post. Coincidence? I don´t think so.

Hope you will stay with me along this promising year.

Much Love to you all

Z.