Angels in Paradise.
Happy New Stress 2011
Happy New Year!
We finally made it into 2011, so welcome to a new year full of stress! If this doesn’t sound so attractive to you – why?
Recently I had a fine conversation about stress, life and work. It seems like you are still an alien these days, if you are not stressed. People ask you: “How’s life?”, if you answer “Oh, it’s okay, you know, it’s just full of stress!”, then you are a normal being. If you answer something like: “Life is great!” and don’t mention any stress, you are suspicious.
For 2011 I personally wish you a very productive and relaxed life- and workflow. Let 2010 go and remember the two monks:
Two monks were on their way back to the monastery. It rained the whole day and the streets were full of puddles of water. A lovely, beautiful young woman tried to cross the street but with all the puddles of water – impossible for her. The older monk walked over to the lady, lifted her up in his arms and carried her to the other side of the road safely and continued his way to the monastery.
Later in the evening, the younger monk came to ask the elder monk: “We cannot touch a woman as monks, right?”
“Right.” answered the elder monk. The face of the young monk reflected his confusion: “But, why did you carry the woman over the street this afternoon?” The old monk smiled and said: “I left her on the other side of the road, you are still carrying her.”
Xmas Stress 2010
Christmas is near and again, it looks like the end of the road. Opening the door for the new year could be great, if there wasn’t your crazy monkey mind reminding you of all the gifts you did not buy yet, your missed goals of 2010, the quality of relations these days and suddenly – you are real down. Xmas, sounds like X-Men to me, you have to be a superhero to break through the stress window in December!
So what about the quality of sleep, your dreams, your hopes and fears? If you had a manual for your life, like the book of not knowing, would that change a thing? Can we learn, that happiness cannot be found (at least not with our regular approach…)?
In 2010, did you have enough energy for the good life? For me, forest bathing and the words of my perfect teacher were great tools to refill my battery. Next year, will you make (only) a sequel of the movie of your life or will you breathe to relax?
Stress and Sadness often go hand in hand and the relativity of time might teach you the value of emptiness. Try to enjoy a mini break here and there and remember that your blood type drives your stress type!
Let it sync, take a Power-Nap by ZEN-MEN, write more postcards, have a perfect tea time and stop waiting for a better offer. I have made 2512-Christmas to help you to relax in the Xmas harvest time – hopefully it is useful for you.
For the new year, I wish you all good health, much love and FUN to chop (the) wood! 🙂
The End of the Road
Here’s a tweet from Bar Refaeli:
Don’t torture yourself with memories of the past. Sometimes no matter how you wish things could be just like before, it won’t be anymore.
It looks like our brain is not really afraid of learning new things, it’s more scared to loose old and known patterns. Letting go sometimes simply is a no-go for us. Why?
Maybe you have seen the Pixar movie “Finding Nemo”. Being in the whales mouth, Nemo’s father isn’t really happy to let go and to slide down into the whales stomach. He is expecting the situation to get kinda unhealthy. In the end, what first looked worse to us, suddenly boosts us up directly into our bright future.
If you have difficulties to say goodbye completely to an old pattern, situation or friend in one go, free yourself everyday with another small step. Day by day.
Though you cannot return to the past to make a brand new start,
you can always make a brand new start now, and a brand new ending. -Unknown
Thanks for the inspiration, Bar!
Opening the Door
Opening the door of your heart:
Grant yourself a moment of peace,
and you will understand
how foolishly you have scurried about.Learn to be silent
and you will notice that
you have talked too much.Be kind,
and you will realize that
your judgment of others was too severe.
– Ancient Chinese proverb
Ajahn Brahm wrote a lovely book. In 108 short stories you will find practical wisdom for the ups and downs in our everyday life.
For me, this book is outstanding in various ways but most important: it makes you laugh! 🙂
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Crazy Monkey Mind
Meet your Crazy Monkey Mind!
Mingyur Rinpoche gave a great talk about how our mind exaggerates tiny problems, the stress of wisdom and the meditation of sound.
He explains in a very funny way, why our Monkey Mind is so happy to get a job! In addition he shares his knowledge about the importance of the balance between wisdom and experience.
Give the video at least 11 minutes of your time until you decide if you like it or not…Â Warning: Watching the video might hurt your belly and make you wanna say to yourself:Â “I am gooooood!” 😉
/edit: the video moved on the Rigpa website. The detailed title is: Mingyur Rinpoche, public talk in Lerab Ling, 11 September 2010: Calming the Mind: The Practice of Awareness Meditation
The Quality of Relations
This blog post is inspired by a tweet from Perez Hilton. Thank you, Perez!
I played matchmaker last night – quite successfully – and I love it! Hopefully, soon, I will meet a QUALITY man myself! I deserve it! #Amen
Have you noticed that some people treat relationships like a (tennis-) match? Even before the two opponents meet, we know already the final result: one winner ”“ one loser
Let”™s have a closer look at the tennis court. Balls are like arguments, the net reminds me of our (inner) censors, the court itself could be named the empathy area and the lines are your (self-set) borders. In the deluxe version you will also find a judge and an audience.
Maybe the following scene sounds familiar: you are happily at a party and suddenly out of nowhere, a couple starts to play. They did not even ask you if you would like to be their judge (or audience). In the not-so-lucky case, you can”™t leave this awkward scene and Scotty just doesn”™t beam you up”¦
What”™s the quality of a discussion victory with a loser and only one winner? It”™s 2010 and you are intelligent! Try a different approach:
Go for win-win, remove your fences, have a look at your own-built limitations (censors, lines ”¦) and have the balls to loose. You can only win, because Love is Louder!
Deutsche Ãœbersetzung
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Real Down
When you read Real Down, what concept does your brain present you? Maybe some not so comfortable feelings come up. In the ups and downs of life most of us try to avoid the way down. While sinking, we feel like the Titanic.
Naturally we invest a lot of energy to swim against the current. What a waste, you might miss some good lessons. Humans tend to learn quicker in “negative” situations and fake friends could be worth a fortune for you in the end.
When there’s nothing to do, let go — hit the bottom and ground your-self. Now it’s time to jump up!
P.S. … and Real Down by Barbour will keep you warm in wintertime 😉
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Stress and Shampoo
I have a new tool: liquid relaxation for my head and hairs. Instant South of France feeling!
The lavender mint shampoo by Paul Mitchell also reminds me of the French flavor of life: Savoir-vivre, enjoy life
Transform the simple act of washing your hair into a mini-meditation and start celebrating your day! Enjoy!
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ZEN-Sparring with Peter Ralston
“Sparring is a form of training common to many martial arts. Although the precise form varies, it is essentially relatively ‘free-form‘ fighting…” Wikipedia.
World champion Peter Ralston and author of the books Cheng Hsin, Zen Body-Being and The Book of Not Knowing agreed to do some ‘free-form thinking’ with me. I did sent him some questions and he was so friendly to give us some kind of training with his detailed answers. Thank you, Peter!
Let’s do a warm-up:
5. Feelings: Anything we experience only has the value we put into it. If you feel hurt, who did *really* hurt you?
You have to experience not just that you are creating your emotions, but feel yourself in the act of creating the emotions.
6. Work: It seems we struggle day in, day out. What is the highest level of fighting?
One of the most important dynamics I learned while attempting to master fighting is that whenever I had trouble with an opponent ”” when the relationship was characterized as a struggle for me ”” I always found that I was mentally resisting the opponent being exactly the way that he was.
8. Love: Love is being the first one to give. Why are we afraid to love?
When you are afraid to love, or afraid of anything else for that matter, you imagine future negative consequences. If you didn”™t imagine something bad might happen, then you would love freely, wouldn”™t you?
Are you ready for the full, detailed training?
Continue reading “ZEN-Sparring with Peter Ralston”