Simply Living: Who looks inside, awakens.

September is National Suicide Prevention Month, but I want to talk about the other side of suicide: those that are left behind. This is also the first time I’ve written since, ironically, the passing of Robin Williams in August 2014. And also the first time I’ve posted publicly that my father took his own life. Nick Mason was the most important man in my life. I’ve written many times of how strongly connected we were, considering I am an only child and a chronic daddy’s girl. Naively, I believed I knew everything about him – we were open with each other about most everything. My parents and I had a very strong relationship comprised of trust, respect and compassion, even following their divorce. We laughed a lot – My father was insanely funny; never missed a beat. His smile flashes in my mind regularly, imprinted there forever. It really was contagious. A month after my 18 th birthday, I got the call. I remember exactly where I was standing, the time of day and the sting in my ...

O-o-h child things are gonna get easier O-o-h child things 'll get brighter O-o-h child things are gonna get easier O-o-h child things 'll get brighter Someday we'll get it together and we'll get it undone Someday when the world is much brighter Someday we'll walk in the rays of a beautiful sun Someday when the world is much lighter O-o-h child things are gonna get easier O-o-h child things 'll get brighter O-o-h child things are gonna get easier O-o-h child things 'll get brighter Someday we'll get it together and we'll get it undone Someday when the world is much brighter Someday we'll walk in the rays of a beautiful sun Someday when the world is much lighter O-o-h child things are gonna get easier O-o-h child things 'll get brighter O-o-h child things are gonna get easier O-o-h child things 'll get brighter Someday we'll get it together and we'll get it undone Someday when t...

As someone highly interested in both biology (more specifically, genetics) and spirituality, this excerpt from Elizabeth Lesser really grabbed my attention.   >>> My friend told me a story about her 3-year-old grandson who hit a toddler who was visiting their house. The parent of the visiting little girl yelled at my friend’s grandson, who dissolved into tears of confusion and self-recrimination. Later, my friend asked her grandson why he had hit the baby, and he said, “I didn’t hit her; my body did.” This led to a conversation about impulse control and other things you try to teach a human child about getting along with others in this world.   It's hard being a human with all of our impulses—purely physical ones, or hidden emotional ones, or the kind of impulses that spring from defensiveness, or fear, or old wounds. I have been so aware of this lately because I am doing an active experiment with my own impulse control. I started the experiment when I learned that...

[I ’ve been out of sorts – I’ve stretched myself too thin] Earlier this week, an older gentleman stopped into my office. After their meeting while waiting for his colleague to follow him out, he and I began a simple conversation to pass the time. He spoke of his wife of 30 years and his daughter who lives in Seattle. Both of his girls enjoy gardening; tomatoes, which he doesn’t much care for, but for them, acts as if he does.  I made a comment regarding advice I’d been given, “gardening is cheaper than therapy.” The latter part of that quote would be, “and you get tomatoes.” He boomed with laughter – the kind that touches your soul and splashes around in the river that flows through your body. Upon gathering himself he said, “Therapy! That’s understandable. My girls sure need it sometimes, but boy, even when they're crazy, what fun they are to be around." With each description his face would light up. The way he spoke and his verbal illustrations were hitting me with ...

1. Need more money? Add more value to the world. 2. Bored? Man, life’s too short to be bored—go do something fun 3. Too many commitments? Say “no” more often 4. Stressed out? Meditate, exercise, do that shit you’ve been putting off; don’t take yourself so seriously; stop trying to control things; change what you can and accept what you can’t, remember that most of your problems are actually a good thing and opportunities to learn and grow; and embrace the fact that today—this moment actually—is all there is; everything else is fiction 5. Don’t like the way you look? Accept yourself as you are—flaws and all—and change what you can change and want to change. Eat better, workout more, get some new clothes and a new haircut and pull your shoulders back so your posture is better. 6. Tired? Exercise more, eat better, get more sleep, take vacations and don’t work yourself into the fucking ground. 7. Agitated and tense? Go for a walk 8. Have some big fucking thing growing...

via thought catalog Know yourself. Watch for the things that most heavily lift or sink your heart. These are the markers of who you are. Look at your qualities objectively, especially when they are less than appealing, these are just as important as the great things about you are. Don’t work on accepting the person you project to other people. Be ready to be vulnerable and imperfect. You don’t have to like your imperfections, but you do have to be able to sit with them, acknowledge them and embrace that they are present in you for one reason or another. Dig and find the root of what cultivated them. Work on undoing what needs to be undone; work on being better. This self-acceptance business is not an excuse to be a terrible person. If being yourself means this, you will deal with the consequences of your actions in due time. Don’t think that because you are “being yourself” you are excused from anything that is derogatory toward or detrimental to someone else. Know that you ...

If you surrender to the universe, humble yourself in knowing that all things happen for a reason, and all things come to you in divine order, then you can flow through your life with ease and grace, and all these will come to you. Your debts canceled, your wounds healed, your apologies accepted, your generosity expanded, your love educated, your desires clarified, your untold stories heard, your insight heightened, your load lightened, your wildness rejuvenated, your leaks plugged, your courage stoked, your fears dissolved, your imagination fed. Isn't it time to live life totally alive with wonder, joy, peace, and happiness? --- Fr iedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche , a German philosopher, whose critiques of contemporary culture, religion, and philosophy centered on a basic question regarding the foundation of values and morality. (wiki)      

Sitting on the couch with my three month old, making funny faces, observing the light dance around in her eyes as she smiles at my fishy face, is easily my favorite thing in the world. Her scrunched nose, mouth agape smile has utterly changed my world. That face has raised so many questions as to who I want to be in life and how I’d like to see her grow into a little lady. Watching her as she mimics my expressions reiterates that she will continue to follow my lead as she gets older – and that’s a little terrifying. I’ve made mistakes and done things I’m not proud of. I’ve had my heart broken and I’ve been in some dark places. I’ve stayed out all night and missed work the next morning. I’ve raised my voice when I should have opened my mind.. I want to shield her from all that I’ve learned the hard way, but I wouldn’t be the person I am had I not gone down that road myself. There’s a saying, “No one can ever teach us anything, in school or in life, that we are not ready to learn ...

>>>via Buddhist Boot Camp "Relationships are often misunderstood to be a simple commitment between two people; a dedication to each other with a sense of belonging to one another. Unfortunately, that kind of limited perspective breeds expectations, possessiveness and disappointment, and it reeks of ownership, greed, ignorance, and selfish desire. A healthy relationship is an agreement between two people to support each other's spiritual practice. It is a vow to encourage each other's dedication, devotion and path, free from attachment or expectations (yet full of caring and compassion). A healthy relationship is based on unconditional love, not one where your need is to possess. Although you put plenty of "heart" into it, you lose nothing by giving it away. If each person is equally dedicated to inspire, create, awaken and enrich the lives of others, then there is no hidden agenda. It is far less important what one receives from the other as what one...

Each time I read something - a book, an article, even a sentence from a piece of paper, I try to read it out loud for my daughter to hear. Entering into the third trimester, I'd like to believe that she's becoming more acquainted with exterior sounds, so I read EVERYTHING. It's more of a habit than anything. While finding things to read this morning I came across " Dying To Be Me" via Positive Thoughts, on my Facebook feed and felt touched enough to share it: >>> Love yourself before all the rest. The most meaningful lesson I learned from being at death’s door is that unless I love myself, nothing else in my life can function at its best. The amount of depth, meaning, and joy I experience in my lif e is in direct proportion to how much love I have for myself. The amount of love, kindness, patience I have for others is also directly proportional to how much love, patience and kindness I have for myself, because we cannot give others what we ourselves ...

I can feel when I'm not living truthfully. When I'm not authentically living, I'm just floating through life relating my experiences to everyone else's. I find myself comparing levels of achievement and accomplishments to those outside of myself. But the thing is, we've all experienced entirely different realities; what one achievement is to one person, to another it's just a day in the life. A world full of complexities has somehow turned to a very minimalists society. To create categories is foolish. A person can't just be a doctor, therapist, decorator, banker, guru.. You're a creator, a thinker, a student in the University of life - among an unlimited amount of other qualities. You're so many things that are entirely different than someone other than yourself. So to compare your experience with another is unnatural and unauthentic. I've noticed personally that what I've gained in life that makes me feel fulfilled and accomplished, isn...

Since we first found out that we're having a baby, we both thought it was a boy - for sure. All wives tales indicated a boy, I had dreams of a boy; everything boy. I wanted only spicy foods, and put hot sauce in my purse for those "incase of emergency moments" when the restaurant didn't provide it. We had his name picked out and ready to go for the day we saw his little man part on the sonogram. Neither of us had decided on a girl name; we'd joked around about it, mentioning random names from t.v shows or making up our own two-part name like Twilight's Renesmee. I think that ended with Brandeah.  The night before we went for the gender ultrasound, we were laying in bed and Branden said her name. I just felt it. Every sense in my body knew that that was it and that we were going to see a girl on the screen the next day. It was such an abstract thought he had, but it felt like I'd known it all along. It's strong, elegant, and meaningful to both Bra...

It's been so refreshing to receive such positive feedback about the things I'm afraid to tell you . I honestly could have created a book, but my fears change so frequently I'd have to write them down daily. And with a massive amount of change recently entering my life, they are piling up! When I posted the blog, I had multiple emails pour in on others and their fears - I was surprised to see how similar we all are. One that stood out to me on a personal level was the list I received from my Mom. She's always been such a strong and courageous woman in my eyes, someone I could've put money down on the fact that she was fearless - here is a physically and internally beautiful  woman  (click for photo) who since a teenager, has fought for her life, stood independently solid on her own two feet, broke almost every bone in her body through all of her years of exciting careers and intense hobbies, who's dealt with unbearable heart breaks, looked death in the face and ...