Living Out Loud

Advice from my future (and wiser) self

I've been inspired by Daphne's post at Joyful Days (and she in turn was inspired by Giovanna) to  write myself a letter from my older, wiser self.  A letter that will help the me in this here and now to live more joyfully in each here and now as it presents itself.  Here is is:

Dear Hilda,

Be patient with yourself.  Yes, you are a work in progress, but that is a process that will never be completed (at least not in this lifetime), so it doesn’t matter how long it takes.  There is no race or competition in life, we all get to where we’re going according to our own personal schedules.  All your life you will be evolving, even now I am still a “work in progress”. 

 Detach from all your worldly desires.  Yes all of them.  Each morning when you say the words “Thy will be done” add the words “not mine”.  You are currently afraid to do that. You are afraid to truly hand over control in case the Divine will is not aligned with your desires.  Hand them over and mean it – everything will be fine and you will have no regrets.

 

You have no idea how little you will come to care about the many things you obsess over now.  You have always aspired to “go with the flow”, yet you struggle too with the desire to control.  Control is an illusion and so is the concept of security or certainty.  Let it go.  Embrace uncertainty.  Enter each new day with a sense of curiosity as to what might unfold.

 

Yes it is true that you appreciate that life is more about the journey than the destination.  BUT you’re still just a little bit picky about what the destintation might be.  It’s ok to have preferences, but you need to be truly open to all possibilities.  Maybe the destination will be nowhere as exotic as you currently hope for, but as soon as you truly open yourself up to all eventualities and accept whatever shows up for you, you will experience more joy in the journey than you can even anticipate right now.  Trust me.  I am you, I have been through it.

 

The best thing you can do for yourself, now and always, is to remember every day the advice you offer so freely to others:  Live joyfully in the here and now – that is the only place where true happiness exists.

Always watching over you,

Love Hilda xx

This was a really nice exercise.  Why not do it for youself?  You will find yourself tapping into your innate wisdom that already exists.  You don't have to wait till you've experienced more in life to feel and trust that wisdom - just step into an imaginary time capsule and let it come forth!

Consciously choose your response

A Thought for the Week

"You can't always choose your circumstances, but you can always choose your response."  ~  Many, many very wise people!

 

"We cannot change our past... we cannot change the fact that people will act in a certain way. We cannot change the inevitable. The only thing we can do is play on the one string we have, and that is our attitude. I am convinced that life is 10% what happens to me and 90% of how I react to it. And so it is with you... we are in charge of our Attitudes." ~ Charles R. Swindoll

Photo by baskyes

 

"The one thing you can't take away form me is the way I choose to respond to what you do to me.  The last of one's freedoms is to choose one's attitude in any given circumstance."  ~  Viktor Frankl

 

"The more you bring your choices into the level of your conscious awareness, the more you will make those choices that are spontaneously correct - both for you and those around you."  ~  Deepak Chopra

Leap and the net will appear

(a Thought for the Week)

"When you have come to the edge of all light that you know, and are about to drop off into the darkness of the unknown, Faith is knowing one of two things will happen: There will be something solid to stand on or you will be taught to fly." ~ Patrick Overton

"You block your dream when you allow your fear to grow bigger than your faith." ~ Mary Mannin Morrissey

"As your faith is strengthened you will find that there is no longer the need to have a sense of control, that things will flow as they will, and that you will flow with them, to your great delight and benefit." ~ Emmanuel Teney

Photo by Two Stout Monks

"Take the first step in faith. You don't have to see the whole staircase, just take the first step." ~ Martin Luther King

Looking for a hero? Look within . . .

 A Thought for the Week)

Every time you take the risk to be true to your own soul - whether or not you name your action as heroic - your example helps others to do likewise.  When you notice this pattern, it becomes easier to have absolute fidelity to your own path without fear that doing so is selfish.  We can do nothing better for others than model the authentic life."  ~ Carol Pearson 

"The biggest journey can begin with a small step. The biggest tree can grow from a small seed and manifest its own true expression from the power within."  ~  Plamen Lakov
 
"I've continued to recognize the power individuals have to change virtually anything and everything in their lives in an instant. I've learned that the resources we need to turn our dreams into reality are within us, merely waiting for the day when we decide to wake up and claim our birthright."  ~  Anthony Robbins

"Self-trust is the essence of heroism."  ~  Ralph Waldo Emerson

Life begins again

(A Thought for the Week)

  "The beautiful spring came; and when Nature resumes her loveliness, the human soul is apt to revive also."  ~  Harriet Ann Jacobs

"Sit quietly, doing nothing, spring comes, and the grass grows by itself."  ~  Zen saying

"April hath put a spirit of youth in everything." ~  William Shakespeare

"Expect to have hope rekindled. Expect your prayers to be answered in wondrous ways. The dry seasons in life do not last. The spring rains will come again."  ~  Sarah Ban Breathnach

Sow what you want to reap

(a Thought for the Week)

 

"Good thought and actions can never produce bad results; bad thoughts and actions can never produce good results. This is but saying that nothing can come from corn but corn, nothing from nettles but nettles."  ~  James Allen  

 

"Sooner or later everyone sits down to a banquet of consequences."  ~  Robert Louis Stevenson 

"Every action generates a force of energy that returns to us in like kind - what we sow is what we reap.  And when we choose actions that bring happiness and success to others, the fruit of our karma is happiness and success."  ~  Deepak Chopra
                                                    

Photo by Antti

 

The Power is Within You

(a Thought for the Week)

"The most common way people give up their power is by thinking they don't have any." ~ Alice Walker

 "Life's challenges are not supposed to paralyze you, they're supposed to help you discover who you are." ~ Bernice Johnson Reagon

"Stop thinking in terms of limitations and start thinking in terms of possibilities" ~ Terry Josephson

"Difficulty need not foreshadow despair or defeat. Rather achievement can be all the more satisfying because of obstacles surmounted." ~ William Hastie

Advice from Mother Teresa

(a Thought for the Week)

People are often unreasonable irrational, and self-centered.  Forgive them anyway.

If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives.  Be kind anyway.

If you are successful, you will win some unfaithful friends and some genuine enemies. Succeed anyway.

If you are honest and sincere people may deceive you.  Be honest and sincere anyway.

What you spend years creating others could destroy overnight.  Create anyway.

If you find serenity and happiness some may be jealous. Be happy anyway.

The good you do today will often be forgotten.  Do good anyway.

Give the best you have, and it may never be enough. Give your best anyway.

In the final analysis it is between you and God.  It was never between you and them anyway.

Be authentic

(a Thought for the Week)

"Unless your heart, your soul, and your whole being are behind every decision you make, the words from your mouth will be empty, and each action will be meaningless. Truth and confidence are the roots of happiness." ~ Unknown

"Integrity is not a conditional word. It doesn't blow in the wind or change with the weather. It is your inner image of yourself, and if you look in there and see a man who won't cheat, then you know he never will." ~ John McDonald

"Find the courage to hold onto your beliefs, even if the world around you chooses to believe differently. Have the courage to change those beliefs that no longer fit the person you have become. In doing so, you truly become yourself." ~ Daniel Levin

"You never find yourself until you face the truth." ~ Pearl Bailey

Learn from everything

(a Thought for the Week)

"Your joy is divine and so is your suffering. There's so much to be learned from both." ~ Wayne Dyer

 "Learn everything you can, anytime you can, from anyone you can - there will always come a time when you will be grateful you did." ~ Sarah Caldwell

"Learn to get in touch with the silence within yourself, and know that everything in life has purpose. There are no mistakes, no coincidences, all events are blessings given to us to learn from." ~ Elizabeth Kubler Ross

"You learn something every day if you pay attention." ~ Ray LeBlond